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7bc94137
Community Member

Connects

I submitted a proposal and it was deleted in about 2 hours, I didn’t get my connects back and in support there are only bots, who can’t solve my problem. I’m really disappointed in this website because some of the jobs are fake and only done to make you use connects. I’m not likely to use it, because I don’t feel like upwork can help my career.
ACCEPTED SOLUTION

No, the situation is quite different. I hope that newcomers would also have opportunity to be part of this community, but it seems to be so hard, I’m using it only for a few days, so thank you for care and your advise of making my profile wider and better. Still I would definitely recommend Upwork to give more support to those who just started using their app. We all start as beginners and your words sound so sad to me. I would also want to ask you to try to be more open to people and just give an advice in a nice way. You made my day worse 😞

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32 REPLIES 32
tlsanders
Community Member

If you honestly believe that Upwork is creating fake jobs in order to steal your connects, then of course you should not even consider using the platform. How could you possibly trust them with anything else if they were creating fraudulent postings in order to steal from you? 

 

Do you really believe that?

 

Re the return of connects, it happens only when either Upwork kills the job for violating TOS or the client closes the job without hiring anyone. It sounds like you may be saying that Upwork zapped the job, in which case you will get your connects back. It happens automatically.

I heard lots of good reviews about this platform and that’s why I started using it, and I expected them to help with issues that I have, if they are known for such a good reputation, they should probably do it. I wouldn’t want to believe in that, but what can I think if I was checking this persons profile all the time and then suddenly he closes it with 2 hires, without any invites or interviews sent. I wouldn’t react so strong at least if they could explain the situation to me, but I can’t get any kind of support from a real human and their bots and websites only tell about when are they cancelled but not what if error happens. And now I’m even try to get help here, but you just build an opinion about me as a person, not about my problem which I came here with. Do you think that every person who is using platform deserves being treated in a good way and at least get some help from a real human being?

Is your complaint that you submitted a proposal and it was not responded to, and that the job was either taken down or removed? 

 

You can check your connects history to see if the connects were refunded. But as to what the client decided to do with the job, Upwork will not give you any information in that regard. Why would they? Client information remains confidential until they make contact with a freelancer. 

 

If you did not get a response, and that is your complaint, I would suggest you look to improving your profile, which is very sparse and does not stand out at all. If your proposals are like your cover letter, then they will need work too, which would be why you aren't getting a response. 

 

Upwork would spend enormous amounts of money to provide customer support to every question, which is why there is this community forum. I'd rather they allow people to ask questions here than have my fees be higher so that freelancers without earnings can tie up customer support over simple questions. 

No, the situation is quite different. I hope that newcomers would also have opportunity to be part of this community, but it seems to be so hard, I’m using it only for a few days, so thank you for care and your advise of making my profile wider and better. Still I would definitely recommend Upwork to give more support to those who just started using their app. We all start as beginners and your words sound so sad to me. I would also want to ask you to try to be more open to people and just give an advice in a nice way. You made my day worse 😞


Lera M wrote:
 You made my day worse 😞

You're in for a rough ride if you take everything personally. Upwork is probably the most competitive freelancing platform. A minority of providers actually do earn money. Success is possible, but not guaranteed.

 

 

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

Just telling you that everyone should care more about each other. Thanks for many replies

If you think we weren't being nice in giving of our free time to you to answer some questions then you are going to have a really tough time being a freelancer. I think you might fair better to find a regular job.
yitwail
Community Member


Lera M wrote:
but what can I think if I was checking this persons profile all the time and then suddenly he closes it with 2 hires, without any invites or interviews sent. ?

If they hired 2 people, it obviously wasn't a fake job. If it's a fake job created by Upwork to sell connects, why would they close it suddenly? Instead, they shouldn't hire anyone and interview as many freelancers as possible so more freelancers would apply and spend connects.

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce
7bc94137
Community Member

First of all this job is only for one person, also it was really urgent request, that’s why it seems quite suspicious. I don’t claim for hundred percent that upwork did it on purpose but I think there can be error and I don’t want to take customers data, but I do want to have an opportunity to ask a human and check if something went wrong.


Lera M wrote:
First of all this job is only for one person, also it was really urgent request, that’s why it seems quite suspicious. I don’t claim for hundred percent that upwork did it on purpose but I think there can be error and I don’t want to take customers data, but I do want to have an opportunity to ask a human and check if something went wrong.

I recently posted a job looking for one person, but found two good prospects and knew I would have more similar work in the future, so hired both of them to try them out. I'm not saying that's what happened with the job you're talking about, just that it's an example of why things may not look like you're expecting as it plays out.

 

If it was "urgent," the client may have decided to hedge his bets by hiring an extra person for back-up, or may have decided to split up the work. 

lysis10
Community Member


Lera M wrote:
First of all this job is only for one person, also it was really urgent request, that’s why it seems quite suspicious. I don’t claim for hundred percent that upwork did it on purpose but I think there can be error and I don’t want to take customers data, but I do want to have an opportunity to ask a human and check if something went wrong.

Bid and move on. Most freelancers lose a lot more than they win jobs. It's just part of the game. I lose to other bidders all the time. Sometimes, people respond to me and I don't even remember what I bid on. It's best to separate your emotions from these things and just bid and forget about it unless they contact you. There will be plenty of disappointment on Upwork for you, but you have to just remember it's not personal.


Lera M wrote:
I was checking this persons profile all the time and then suddenly he closes it with 2 hires, without any invites or interviews sent. 

You don't know, and don't care, if the client invited or interviewed anyone. They hired someone and closed the job? Okay, move on. Connects are not refunded, this is how this platform works. There are other platforms that work differently, but this is how Upwork operates.

 

 

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

I actually care, I want to know my rights and how this works. Prefer not to be blind. After writing to this community I definitely learnt some new things which is good. So I guess I will think now about using Upwork or not. Still thanks everyone that you are so active, although no answer on how to contact real human yet, I’m gonna close this conversation and consider other options too .

This conversation is as close as you are going to get to contacting a real human about your issue.

yitwail
Community Member

Lera M wrote:
I’m gonna close this conversation and consider other options too .

Someone starting out at Upwork should most definitely consider other options. But back to this job you mentioned, only the client knows for sure, but there can be an innocent explanation for 2 freelancers being hired. If the job actually was urgent, then the client might have wanted a backup, in case the client's first choice didn't work out for some reason. One of the Community's most active participants routinely hires more than one freelancer at a time, and pays all of them, but only uses the work he likes best.

ETA: I somehow overlooked Tiffany’s reply, and thus reiterated her main points. But at least it confirms her explanation.
__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

re: "although no answer on how to contact real human yet"

 

?
Every Forum participant is a real human.

Except for those of us who are aliens or bots.
t_um
Community Member

😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆

@tiffany,
Is it guaranteed that the connect will be returned if a job is closes without any hire? Does it happen automatically or should I raise a ticket? I have lost around 50 connects in the past few months on (closed) jobs where the client never hired anyone...

petra_r
Community Member


Vijayvithal J wrote:


Is it guaranteed that the connect will be returned if a job is closes without any hire? Does it happen automatically or should I raise a ticket? I have lost around 50 connects in the past few months on (closed) jobs where the client never hired anyone...


You don't get the connects back if the job post times out through 30 day inactivity, only if the client proactively closes it without hiring anyone, and no, you do not need to contact Support, its automatic and contacting support over stuff like that is a monumental waste of support's and your time.

 

bebacf25
Community Member

That is bad.

I bid for several projects and 20% of them show "Connects will be returned if you are not hired". But what if the employer hired another person and does not update the job post?

Or does not hire anyone and do not close the project, and it also does not violate to TOS.

And then, we lost many connects for it.

petra_r
Community Member


Binh L wrote:

That is bad.

I bid for several projects and 20% of them show "Connects will be returned if you are not hired".


Nope. It does not say "If YOU are not hired"

On those jobs, connects are returned if the client doesn't hire anyone. Not if the client does not hire you in particular.

 

And Chat support is only available to top rated and RT freelancers.

 

Hi Tiffany,

 

I hope you can help me, I submitted a proposal beginning of April that says the connects will be returned if not hired. The job was closed and I did not get hired but the connects were not yet returned.

Could you please check my account.

Thank you in advance,

Evangeline

Hi Evangeline, 

I would like to clarify that Connects will only be returned if the client closed the job, and there were not freelancers hired for the project, or the job was closed for a TOS violation. You can check the job post to see if the job was closed, and a freelancer was hired for the client's job. If this is the case, the Connects you used for this job will not be returned to your account.


~ Avery
Upwork

it happens only when either Upwork kills the job for violating TOS or the client closes the job without hiring anyone
Can't count how many times I had a message "job that you submitted a proposal for has been closed, your proposal has been archived" without refunding any connects. 

6 connects is not a big deal, it's only 90 cents. But when it happens constantly it can become 90 dollars. I have never seen such jobs were re-set up, I have been refunded with connects only once, when the job posting was violating some upwork rules. 

So tell me please, what the logic behind the "archiving proposal"? Why if a client doesn't hire anyone for some period of time Upwork doesn't just close the job and refund freelancers with connects? 

 


Ilia T wrote:

it happens only when either Upwork kills the job for violating TOS or the client closes the job without hiring anyone
Can't count how many times I had a message "job that you submitted a proposal for has been closed, your proposal has been archived" without refunding any connects. 

 


I believe that message is sent when a job post expires,  and not just when the client chooses to close it. (I unsubscribed from those messages a long time ago,  so can't be sure that hasn't changed.) You don't get connects refunded when a job post expires. 

Hi Ilia,

 

Thank you for reaching out. Submitting a proposal has a financial cost, just like the other expenses you incur as a freelancer running your own business. If a client never hires but doesn’t close the job, your Connects are not returned. In this situation, we continue to encourage the client to hire or close the job, but ask that you consider the cost of Connects as part of your business expenses.

 

~ Nikola
Upwork
bizwriterjohn
Community Member

Only chat bots are available.  Incorrect.   There is a live chat facility available 24-hours-per-day.   The usual wait time is <1 minute.  Upwork's chat support team is the finest I have experienced across any chat facilities I have ever experienced.  Go back into the system, look more closely, and you will find the live chat function.

Whose responsibility was it, your proposal was deleted in two hours?  Is that Upwork's responsibility?  Or is the responsibility of the person who has built their profile, the person who has built their portfolio, and the person who wrote the proposal.


You lost a business deal.  I recommend you look inward, not outward, when evaluating outcomes of proposals. 


Add together the total billable amounts of the four of the most common respondents in this system: the figure totals more than a million dollars in revenue billed.  They have it figured out.  Perhaps you are next.

 

 

esther_villavice
Community Member

I don't know much about upwork, but I don't want to purchase connects cause I don't have money and it's been a long time already. I haven't received any replies from any clients, then upwork bots even said that connects from withdrawn proposals cannot be recovered, is there anyway I can get my connects back? 


Esther V wrote:

I don't know much about upwork, but I don't want to purchase connects cause I don't have money and it's been a long time already. I haven't received any replies from any clients, then upwork bots even said that connects from withdrawn proposals cannot be recovered, is there anyway I can get my connects back? 


You will rarely get your connects back (and definitely not if you withdraw your proposal), so if you want to bid on more projects, you will need to buy some more. 

Hi Esther,

 

We return Connects when a client closes their job without hiring or we find a job post has violated our Terms of Service. You can find more information here.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork
saifulhoq007
Community Member

Yes i am also face this problem
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