Connects and ghost clients- refunding connects

[55dae3ac]

I like the concept of connects in their normal usage but I do have a problem with the way these work when you don't even get seen.

We don't pay money and invest time in proposing to clients to never get seen, thats a basic premise of business. Nobody pays money to get nothing in return, thats a particularly suspect business process.

We should pay money (connects) only for views. If our proposal hasnt been viewed within a month, the connects should be refunded. 

Many of us are here for serious work, not to send upwork money for nothing.

[15728526]

Hello Mark!

I've been a member for a month. This may be a short time do judge things, but I've been seeing some problems with this platform. I have a subscription and spent all my connects in proposals, and I could not get one job, not even even entry level with low rates. Also my project catalog is still under review since May 6th.

In maybe 10 proposals maybe 2 were viewed. The ratio is too low.

And I'm not even talking about the scams.

And I agree 100% with you, I feel that I just wasted my money in the subscription.

Here in Brazil we have a freelancer platform that just refunds you if the clients spent some time not logging into their account.

I don't know why Upwork does not do this.

[55dae3ac]

Yes I don't think its ethical to charge people for absolutely nothing with zero chance of success for getting something for their money.

Upwork needs to be ensuring clients read each proposal and if they dont then we get refunded.

If that doesnt work for upwork then they need to rethink about who can apply for certain jobs in order to make it worth a client reading.

On the flip side, I don't mind paying a bit more if I know I'll get my money back if it doesn't get read.

[atlinguist]

I propose a two-tier system:

1) Freelancers use 1-2 connects to express an interest only. Freelancers do not get to write a proposal (with a cover letter, amount, etc.). The client sees only the profile link; and

2) Higher amounts of connects (as determined by the algorithm) allow freelancers to send a full proposal. 

Connects to the amount of those needed for (1) do not get refunded, whereas the additional connects required for (2) are refunded if this particular job is not filled by the client. My theory is that it might make the initial filtering easier for the client.   

[spectralua]

I thik that your proposal will be applied soon. But with minor changes: 32 unrefundable for interest then 64 for viewed proposal. 😺

[55dae3ac]

Clients would have to have some very useful way of filtering through these (winks), because they will get a lot of them and will only read superficially the profile. They may as well search for themselves for freelancers. The only difference between this and searching for freelancers is that the freelancers have sent them a (wink).