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phsaurav
Community Member

Client casually asking if I wanted to work outside upwork

 I am quite new on Upwork and want to clarify this topic. If a client casually asks me if I wanted to work outside Upwork in a skype session and I said no and they agreed and continue as usual to work inside Upwork. Do I need to report it to Upwork or talk to the help centre about this? 

And If I do so what will happen as I think the client may don't know the seriousness of the issue and also no harm is done. He just asked me once on skype session and when I said no he agreed with me.

It will be really helpful if someone let me know the best approach in this situation.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Parvez: you did the right thing.

 

It is COMMON for clients to ask to pay outside of Upwork.

 

They are not Upwork experts, as freelancers should be.

 

So when a client asks, it is no different than when a customer at store asks to use a Discover Card, and the cashier says no we don't accept Discover but you can use Visa or MasterCard.

 

As freelancers, we politely say no and that's the end of it.

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9 REPLIES 9
g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Parvez,

 

Could you please reach out to me via PM (click on my name) with more information about this so that I can advise you further? Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

Please check I've sent you a private message

petra_r
Community Member


Parvez Hossain S wrote:

 I am quite new on Upwork and want to clarify this topic. If a client casually asks me if I wanted to work outside Upwork in a skype session and I said no and they agreed and continue as usual to work inside Upwork. 


Are you actually hired by that client?

 

If you are hired by that client, you are free to communicate and work via anything you both agree to, s long as all payments go through Upwork. In such a case it would be entirely inappropriate to report the client, because the client has done absolutely nothing wronga tall.

phsaurav
Community Member

Yes, I am hired and I am continuing to work with the client inside Upwork and all the payments are going through Upwork.
Thank you for your reply. Yes, I also thought so as he just asked me casually just once and agreed when I say no. 

petra_r
Community Member


Parvez Hossain S wrote:

Yes, I am hired and I am continuing to work with the client inside Upwork and all the payments are going through Upwork.
Thank you for your reply. Yes, I also thought so as he just asked me casually just once and agreed when I say no. 


There was no need to say "No" - it's entirely your choice. You are ABSOLUTELY allowed to talk to the client (once you are hired) via any medium that suits you both.

 

Personally, I work with my clients via whatever media or platform (Slack, Asana, email, skype, whatever) works for them and makes their life easier. 

phsaurav
Community Member

Sorry, Maybe you misunderstood me we were talking on skype as the client is more active on skype. There he asked me if I want to work with him directly outside upwork and there I replied No to his offer and he agreed and we didn't have any conversation related to this topic after that. We are on a contract in Upwork and we are continuing to work on Upwork. 

Parvez: you did the right thing.

 

It is COMMON for clients to ask to pay outside of Upwork.

 

They are not Upwork experts, as freelancers should be.

 

So when a client asks, it is no different than when a customer at store asks to use a Discover Card, and the cashier says no we don't accept Discover but you can use Visa or MasterCard.

 

As freelancers, we politely say no and that's the end of it.

But if a client persists in asking to pay off platform, or if a prospective client offers to hire a freelancer and then won't set up an Upwork contract because the client ONLY wants to pay off-platform... then freelancers should definitely report the client using the "Flag as inappropriate" link button on the job posting screen.

No, you don't have to report this client. If he had insisted on paying you outside of Upwork, and hadn't hired you because you refused, THEN you should have reported him.

 

However, according to Upwork's new rule, you're not supposed to be using outside contact methods like Skype before being hired. Just tell clients that you'll contact them on the Upwork system instead.

 

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