Financial transactions limited after introducing an outside client to the platform

[mcinteerdata]

Hi Upwork community!

I have an outside client that was hesitant regarding upfront payment so I made the suggestion we use this cool site called upwork because it has an escrow functionality that allows him to only pay when services are delivered within scope of work. He signed up for upwork, deposited $7,500, and we began work. Now both our accounts are financially limited, I'm assuming because most brand new clients don't spend this much on their first project so the transaction was marked high risk of fraud. Initially they made a statement that they needed to conduct an "internal review". He has sent upwork multiple emails since then and there is still no response from them. I tried the same with similar result. I contacted support and was directed to the inactive email chain with upwork.

At this point a few questions:
1. can upwork please let me know what I should tell the client as this is reasonably causing alot of frustration.

2. why can't i bid on jobs? this is seriously impacting by deal pipeline to not be able to bid for several weeks.
3. is there a direct phone number I can reach upwork support at?

Thanks!

Best, Alex.

[AleksandarD]

Hi Alejandro,

I'm sorry to hear about this. I followed up with the team handling your case and you can expect an update on your open ticket very soon.

Thank you.