Client Activated Contract & Went Dark

lizrivera · ‎02-19-2021

HUGE UPWORK ENTERPRISE CLIENT RESPONSIBLE FOR GENERATING MORE THAN $8 MILLION FOR UPWORK THROUGH ITS FREELANCERS ACTIVATES CONTRACT, GOES DARK, LEFT NO INSTRUCTIONS. NON-RESPONSIVE. (THOUGH ITS A **bleep** $15 TASK)

MY LETTER TO ONE OF THE CLIENTS MANY PAWNS. (RECEIVED INVITE TO WORK ON THEIR MASSIVE AI/VOICE RECOG PROJECT)

I am now rather concerned **Edited for Community Guidelines**. You invited me to take part in your project. I have done my due diligence. I realize this project is a huge undertaking for **Edited for Community Guidelines** and that organization is the key to its success. I can surely understand and respect that. But, **Edited for Community Guidelines**, I have done my part. I have completed the personal information form which **Edited for Community Guidelines** requires of all new hires. I have provided you with everything which you and **Edited for Community Guidelines** requested including my full legal name, age, where I live, my UpWork freelancer URL, my UpWork Freelancer ID, and the make & model of my phone which I am to use to complete your project.. In addition, I have repeatedly messaged you seeking the pertinent instruction I need (im assuming website/platform address) in order to begin work on this large-scale AI/Voice recognition project. You started the contract, **Edited for Community Guidelines**, yet I cannot work because I've not received any instruction from you or **Edited for Community Guidelines**. . This creates an obvious problem for me. I signed a contract with you. You activated the contract but failed to provide me with any instruction whasoever so that I can complete the project for which I was hired. While this is not likely to have an effect on a huge UpWork Enterprise Corporation like **Edited for Community Guidelines**, which is responsible for generating more than $8 million in income for UpWork via Freelancers like myself. I am now at your mercy. I do not know what to do. In these types of situations, the large corporation always wins. We freelancers are mere pawns through which UpWork makes millions of dollars year after year and you can be certain that **Edited for Community Guidelines** will not feel a thing by this gross error in follow up by one of their employees but that I, the menial Freelancer, who pads UpWork's mighty pockets with a mere $2 here, $20 there. Whats even more sad is that had you provided me with instruction when you activated the contract, the rather simple task (i have done many) would have been done within 1 hour of receipt of your instructions. Both of us would have moved onto other things, and both would have given the other positive feedback, which, lets face it, is what matters most around here. . **Edited for Community Guidelines**, all of this is unfair to me. It is unprofessional of you. And even though you dropped the ball by preventing me from working on a contract which you activated, yet failed to tell me where to go or what to do, I will somehow be made to pay the price.

I dont know why but i will now contact UpWork, share my letter to you with them and also with the UpWork community,so that my misfortune might help another freelancer avoid same. I will ask UpWork to negate this contract and request that they not let it have any influence on my Top-Rated Freelancer status.

Why does it seem like we Freelancers always take the fall and that clients are always right? Has UpWork ever pondered the idea that without us **Edited for Community Guidelines**, they wouldnt exist. Mark my word, UpWork WILL NEVER take a freelancers side over the almighty paying client.

Even more disheartening is that this was a $15 (30) minute task for which I would have netted $12. I have done many of these AI/Voice Recognition projects lately. Although one of the clients doing the same thing pays $100 for theirs.

Does anyone have experience with other talent platforms ... any that youd recommend or are they all about the same and the freelancer is basically a pawn by which they make millions?

df602768 · ‎02-19-2021

Hello Elizabeth,

I'm sorry this happened to you.

But I will be frank.

I stopped reading at: "I am now rather concerned **Edited for Community Guidelines**. You invited me to take part in your project. I have done my due diligence."

I mean, did you seriously send this wall of text to some client?

I don't want to sound mean, and I totally understand your position, but spamming clients with such long messages is kind of unprofessional.

If you feel the client is suspicious, you could raise a flag.

Or do what I would: Stop caring whether the client replies or not and focus on some other project!

By the way, they invited me too but I flagged the job ad as spam.

lizrivera · ‎02-19-2021

Perhaps Im naive but I did not know that fake (spam?) clients existed on UpWork. Surely, they would need to sign up, provide business details, have their bank account verified, etc.

Remember this is an UpWork Enterprise Client who, according to their UpWork profile, has spent more than $8 million on the platform. With that in mind, why on Earth would you flag an Enterprise client as SPAM?

For future reference, what things can i look for that might be a red flag that im not dealing with a legit UpWork client?

Thank you so much!!

tlsanders · ‎02-19-2021

Elizabeth Ann R wrote:
Perhaps Im naive but I did not know that fake (spam?) clients existed on UpWork. Surely, they would need to sign up, provide business details, have their bank account verified, etc.

No, thankfully, they do not. Anyone can post a job on Upwork, as on most sites. There's no reason for a client to invest the time in verifying or disclose private financial information before knowing whether they will hire anyone on the site.

For future reference, what things can i look for that might be a red flag that im not dealing with a legit UpWork client?

There's a long thread on scams and red flags in the New to Upwork forum.

df602768 · ‎02-19-2021

You aren't naive! Don't say that

Next time when a client invites you for an interview, whoever that may be, take a moment and look clearly at the job post. If you see they have sent 15+ invites, they most likely spam, and you wouldn't want to work with them.

Why?

Because good clients carry out their own due diligence first. Then, they invite just a few freelancers for an interview.

They pick the freelancers that would be more appropriate for their job type.

Come to think of it. Say you are a client. Wouldn't you value your own money and time and want to have your job completed as successfully as possible?

I assume your answer is positive.

Otherwise, they randomly spam and are in some form of panic.

And you don't want to work with clients who don't value you and your work skills.

tlsanders · ‎02-20-2021

Konstantinos A wrote:
You aren't naive! Don't say that

Next time when a client invites you for an interview, whoever that may be, take a moment and look clearly at the job post. If you see they have sent 15+ invites, they most likely spam, and you wouldn't want to work with them.

Why?

Because good clients carry out their own due diligence first. Then, they invite just a few freelancers for an interview.

They pick the freelancers that would be more appropriate for their job type.

Come to think of it. Say you are a client. Wouldn't you value your own money and time and want to have your job completed as successfully as possible?

I assume your answer is positive.

Otherwise, they randomly spam and are in some form of panic.

And you don't want to work with clients who don't value you and your work skills.

Since this particular client was looking to hire 2,500 freelancers for this project, I don't think your method would have been very effective. No reason to assume that a large client that has spent millions of dollars through Upwork is in "some form of panic" because they are looking to hire a large number of freelancers for a large project.

gilbert-phyllis · ‎02-19-2021

Well, yeah, an Enterprise client that's spent $8mm on the platform is an "almighty client" and it's not clear why you think the project manager involved in hiring you for a 30-minute/$15 task, who hasn't had time to provide instructions yet, would ever in a million years read the wall of text you shared here. Personally, in their shoes I'd stop reading after the first few sentences and cancel the contract. If they did that without leaving any feedback, it would have no effect on your JSS. If they took a moment to comment about why they cancelled, it would be a negative ding. I don't understand why you would invite such an outcome.

How long has it been since you heard from them? Days? Weeks? Months? Maybe the person got sick or someone in their family got sick. Maybe this project is not the most pressing thing on their desk right now. There are lots of circumstances that could account for a delay. It's likely they'll surface again, eventually. When they do, you can accept the instructions, carve out 30 minutes in your schedule and do the work and collect your $12. Meanwhile, you'll have an Enterprise client under your belt which can be a good thing. It's not as though you blocked out days on your calendar and then they stood you up. I don't understand all the drama.

tlsanders · ‎02-19-2021

So, you invested this huge amount of time in providing information up front and messaging this client and all that in order to make $12, and when that didn't pan out you invested a lot more than $12 worth of time writing them a manifesto on the flaws in the way they do business and then also sharing it publicly...and all without in any way educating yourself about how Upwork works and when and how they can legally and contractually get involved in a dispute between client and freelancer?

petra_r · ‎02-20-2021

I am absolutely horrified by that wall of text over a $15 contract and the tone is outrageous.

If you don't want to wait anymore, simply close the contract. Unless the client leaves poor private feedback, which would be completely understandable considering how rude and entitled that message was, the contract wouldn't have any impact on your JSS anyway.

What an incredible fuss over an absolute non-issue.

richard_wein · ‎02-20-2021

Petra R wrote:
I am absolutely horrified by that wall of text over a $15 contract and the tone is outrageous.

If you don't want to wait anymore, simply close the contract. Unless the client leaves poor private feedback, which would be completely understandable considering how rude and entitled that message was, the contract wouldn't have any impact on your JSS anyway.

What an incredible fuss over an absolute non-issue.

To be fair, Elizabeth may have been unaware of the change Upwork made, only a few months ago, such that the contract would have no negative effect on her JSS if she closed it herself.

Even so, I would agree that her message (if she actually sent it to the client) is over-the-top and unprofessional.

feed_my_eyes · ‎02-20-2021

Exactly how many days has it been since the client "went dark"?

jr-translation · ‎02-20-2021

Christine A wrote:
Exactly how many days has it been since the client "went dark"?

I received the invite on the 14th and it said deadline is the 1st of March 2021 for 30-45 minutes work.

lizrivera · ‎02-20-2021

Freelancers will almost always be made to pay the price for any
disagreement or misunderstanding. I've not had an invite where the client
starts the contract and seemingly vanishes knowing I cannot complete the
task since he provided no instructions.

In my experience, when the client starts the contract, the freelancer gets
to work. Not the day after tmro, not next week but right away. The more
quickly you wrap it up the better. Clients appreciate tasks that are
completed in a timely manner. As I said, often the sooner the better. I
don't like the idea that an open contract is sitting there awaiting
completion when I have no way of working on it. It's frustrating as Hell.
The contract has started. The days are coming and going but I'm unable to
keep my end of the bargain. What if the client doesn't return for another
week and I haven't even started working through no fault of my own, but
because I've never been provided with the instructions needed to complete
the task? And the clock continues to tick. And the contract continues to
sit there wide open. It simply makes no sense.

petra_r · ‎02-20-2021

Elizabeth Ann R wrote:
Freelancers will almost always be made to pay the price for any
disagreement or misunderstanding.

Untrue.

Elizabeth Ann R wrote:
I don't like the idea that an open contract is sitting there awaiting
completion when I have no way of working on it. It's frustrating as Hell.

What harm does it do? (Hint: None. Certainly none that could possibly justify such an unbelievably rude wall of text to be sent to any client, let alone the jawdropping lack of professionalism to name them on the world wide web on a public forum)

Elizabeth Ann R wrote:
What if the client doesn't return for another week.

Then nothing. So what? They know where you are. When they are ready to get in touch, they will. You're one of 2500, imagine if all 2500 flew into an indignant rage and shot off aggressive and rude missiles? Just get on with the rest of your work and calm down. That contract isn't hurting you.

feed_my_eyes · ‎02-21-2021

Elizabeth Ann R wrote:

In my experience, when the client starts the contract, the freelancer gets
to work. Not the day after tmro, not next week but right away. The more
quickly you wrap it up the better.

I can see how it would be better for you. The problem is, it's not your project, it's the client's project, so they get to decide what the timeline is. If they set a deadline of 1 March for a project that'll only take an hour, then perhaps it's because they knew that they'd be busy and wouldn't be able to get back to everyone immediately. As you've already been told, this would not have harmed your JSS or profile in any way (at least not until you sent that long rant to the client - you're lucky that they didn't end your contract and leave a bad review at that point).

One of the reasons that people hire freelancers in the first place is due to the ability to work with them in a flexible way. I've done many projects that I could have wrapped up in a day or two, but they ended up taking months (one took nearly two years!) because it wasn't a priority for the client. I just get on with other work and occasionally send a message to keep them up to date if it looks like my schedule is about to get especially busy. This is the nature of freelancing, so if you can't learn to live with it, then you're going to be getting frustrated on a regular basis.

researchediting · ‎02-21-2021

Elizabeth Ann R wrote:
...In my experience, when the client starts the contract, the freelancer gets
to work. Not the day after tmro, not next week but right away. The more
quickly you wrap it up the better. Clients appreciate tasks that are
completed in a timely manner. As I said, often the sooner the better. I
don't like the idea that an open contract is sitting there awaiting
completion when I have no way of working on it. It's frustrating as Hell.
The contract has started. The days are coming and going but I'm unable to
keep my end of the bargain. What if the client doesn't return for another
week and I haven't even started working through no fault of my own, but
because I've never been provided with the instructions needed to complete
the task? And the clock continues to tick. And the contract continues to
sit there wide open. It simply makes no sense.

In my experience, a prospective client and I discuss their deadlines and my availability, and either we work something out or not. It's not unusual to have a contract open while we wait for our respective schedules to align. I get that you don't work like that. I don't generalize from my situation to yours or anyone else's.

I can surmise that when a multimillion-dollar buyer on the platform does a massive hire for a task they say will take under an hour, and give you a couple weeks lead time, they're not particularly concerned about your schedule, but have a reasonable expectation that you'll be around when your turn comes up on their production schedule.

gina-herrera · ‎02-21-2021

Elizabeth Ann R wrote:
In my experience, when the client starts the contract, the freelancer gets
to work. Not the day after tmro, not next week but right away. The more
quickly you wrap it up the better.

1. Doesn't sound like you have very much experience
2. "The more quickly you wrap it up the better" - that's the attitude of a freelancer who just wants their clients in and out the door as quickly as possible, and probably provides lackluster client services. Not everyone is in a giant rush to get work done, believe it or not.

If you can't figure out how to squeeze in a 30 to 45 minute project at any given time, regardless of how many clients you have on your plate, your time management needs a lot of work. I have at least 6 paused contracts right now. Does it bother me? A little. Do I care enough to make a fuss? Not really, because I just move on with my life and find other clients that want me to start now. Lots of personal growth to be done here.

martina_plaschka · ‎02-20-2021

I am at a complete loss what offense this client alledgedly has committed against OP and even more so whatever it might have been that resulted in this over-the-top response.

bevcam · ‎02-21-2021

Elizabeth Ann R wrote:

"I am now at your mercy."

"Why does it seem like we Freelancers always take the fall and that clients are always right?"

That's the core of your problem. You see yourself as a victim rather than a professional with valuable skills to offer.

Don't be so hard on yourself - it's not personal. Let it go!