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cobeste
Community Member

Certain client allowed to ask for free work?

Are certain clients allowed to ask for free work without being notified/suspended?
It looks like that, as nothing has happened to a certain client after I reported it. Is this "feature" allowed for Pro client, because the job is still active intervieng another dozens of freelancers anyway. It seem to be the case they can. But freelancer like me who pays thousands on fees, do my job of sorting through all these scammer has to pay even for a fraud like this. What a shame, what an insult this connects policy. It is like charging a 10 bucks a business class passanger for a water (like low cost airlines does) after he has already paid 10 000. It is even worse, as I actually charged for a work that you benefit from repeatedly. What a shame, what a scam!
7 REPLIES 7
BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Stefan,

 

I'm sorry to hear that you feel that way. Please note that any requesting for free work is not allowed on Upwork, and it is ToS violation. You already have a support ticket about this report and our team is looking into it and will take action as per our internal processes.

 

Since we won't be able to go into details about our internal processes, please consider following up on your open ticket and kindly communicate with our team through that ticket if you have any questions, in order to keep all the information in one place.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork
cobeste
Community Member

So will I be able to know when and what measures will be taken against this client? Or, since you cannot share your internal processes, how can I know? What I know for sure is 1) that this client asked me for a free trial work 8 hours ago, 2) that the job is still active and 3) the client is obviously conducting many other interviews. No action has been taken, what shed a shadow of suspicion on Upwork that you treat your clients differently violating your own rules. The evidence is clear, so I suspect no action is taken because this is a Pro client with some money, so you better let it go. Maybe I am wrong. Thanks for your feedback...

Regarding your question:

 

I'm not sure how much it matters to me personally.

I'm not sure how much it actually matters to you, either.

 

Because as freelancers we make our own decisions.

 

What if Upwork passed a new rule: Any client born on a Tuesday is allowed to ask for free work.

 

That doesn't change anything for me. I would continue to do what I do now if a client asks for free work: I would tell them that I will be happy to work on his project after he starts an official Upwork contract so he can pay for the work.

 

 

Preston, it matters to me as an issue of principle and decency. Of course, their rules, their game. I do not believe that Upwork value higher-income freelancers, there is no evidence for that. They are to maximize profit, with new fees every year, but at least I could know that the rules are applied consistently. Why should I waste my time on scammers and even pay for that? At least I can write it here, so they care or at least pretend to...

 

Also, there are other services like fiverr or something like that that sells free work, destroying the market, as there will always be people willing to sell their dignity....Should not be supported.

I commend you for discussing the topic here in the Forum.

 

My only point is that regardless of what you learn, and regardless of what Upwork ends up doing, you and I can still make our own decisions about whether or not to work for free.

Correct, and that is what I am doing while giving some feedback...

You clearly observed what I would consider bad client behavior.

 

You tried reporting some things, and maybe it seems like your reports yielded no results.

 

I like to keep in mind that there may be a difference between policies/rules, and the execution of those policies/rules.

 

It is alway possible for Upwork (or anybody) to have a good rule or policy in place. But the exection of that rule or policy is imperfect. That may be either because there are problems with the system. Or it may be simply that it is impossible to enforce that rule 100%.

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