Financial transactions have been limited

[Yelyzaveta Z]

Saturday I work with this client all day (he had an urgent task), and then the next day Sunday) I wake up to the "Financial transactions for Yelyzaveta have been limited. Please, check your email or contact support" and the contract is closed.  

So, I go on to check my mail, and they indeed sent me an email that I cannot work with that client but yet remain the ability to work with others and get paid etc. However, they limited my transactions due to this issue that they cannot name due to security reasons. 

Then I contacted live chat support. And they told me that they have no info on the issue, as they have no access to it, as this problem is to be solved by another department (trust&safety team). So live chat agent asked me to go to my ticket and get support in there, which I've done since then.

And at the moment I see the following problems:

1) Except for that one contract, I'll have up to $500+ pending on my account without the ability to withdraw that money. And I believe you guys know that we all do this for a living and actually need that money to survive, you know.

2) I've no idea how long this investigation thingy will take. I've asked multiple times on the ticket as well as on the live chat. No one knows how long it will take. Or the longest it can take. All they keep saying is "We're gathering information, as soon as we're done we'll give you back the ability to withdraw money. You are still able to work on your contracts for other clients". But guess what? I'm not sure it is safe to do so. Cause when I was talking to live chat support today the following occurred:

**Edited for Community Guidelines**
So, guys, there is a possibility that I'll never get my money!!! 

Let alone that poor contact, but I have other contract money pending plus they suggest I work on other contracts while this issue is being solved.

3) There is no ability to talk to trust&safety team on live chat, and it takes them forever to reply to the ticket, so we have like 2-3 messages a day which of course isn't helping to solve the issue asap. And what is  worse, today they asked me to reach the client for them and ask them to hurry up with the answer to the support. As if this is my job to do so.

4) I've made a little research on this topic and I haven't seen any positive resolutions. The facts are that as a rule all the support does is apologises for inconvenience and frustration and thanks for understanding, but in the end either close the problem after weeks of "investigation" and total refund to the client or never solve it at all. 

So, guys, my question is to the community(not exactly for moderators who work for Upwork), has anyone seen this problem solved before? How long can it take? 

P.S. I've seen quite an amount of negative feedback towards Upwork but never got it why people don't like the system. However, now I'm starting to understand the situation.

[Taisiya Y]

Hello, Yelyzaveta. I had similar problem just few days ago. Investigation took 2 and a half days and I am now able to withdraw my money again

[Yelyzaveta Z]

Thanks for replying 

Do you have the contract closed and paid?

[Ashish S]

Financial transactions for  have been limited.

I have above issue 

Please guide me

[Vladimir G]

Hi Ashish, 

Please refer to the notifications our team sent you about a month ago and follow their instructions in order to verify your profile and resume using your account.

[Catrina Y]

Hi! I'm having the same issue and my account was just got accepted and haven't applied to any job post yet because of this issue. I'm wondering why I got on hold since I haven't recieve any email for further information regarding this issue. I really don't have any idea why this is happening on my account. Does this means I need to pay something? I really need help.

[Goran V]

Hi Catrina,

Our team will assist you further as soon as possible directly on your new ticket, thank you.

[Ruck S]

How did you solve the problem please help me?

I had the same issue

[Taisiya Y]

But I'm not getting a refund because I was involved in a 'fraud' and Upwork doesn't cover that

[Yelyzaveta Z]

I'm reading through your story and it just stuns me what a great place Upwork has in this "food chain".