For Upwork management (please read): 1 feature request, 1 complaint about boosting

[lysis10]

Hi Upwork.

Feature request: I go over the $2500 payment protection limit in week two a lot these days. I need a way to see that clients failed payment on Monday. You don't have to tell me anything else other than the payment failed so that I can stop work and tell them to fix the problem. Waiting until Thursday night is too long. I can't hold off work that long, and I have to risk not getting paid. If you can give me a heads up on the contract, I can also no longer rely on payment protection until they pay, which saves you guys money on payment protection payouts too.

Please consider this feature.

Boosting complaint: You give 50 free connects to new profiles. Scammers are flooding the marketplace with fake new accounts and bidding 50 connects with multiple accounts. You know it's botted too because the 50 connect boosts come all within the same minute. It's all 50 connects too. 

Please fix this and stop giving new accounts free connects. I boost everything, and lots of other freelancers do too. You're forcing us to bid 51 connects (and addiitonal money) to overcome a loophole in your system exploited by scammers. Please fix the loophole for your real accounts.

Thank you.

[mwiggenhorn]

What she said.  Perfectly sensible.

[NikolaS]

Hi Jennifer and Mary, 

Thank you for sharing your feedback. I will be sure to share it with our team for further review and consideration. 

[the-right-writer]

Unfortunately, we all know what that means.

[lysis10]

thank you, Nikola.

[spectralua]

No $2500 protection here, dont worry. I often post my example here. You unprotected with $10 and $10K as well.

About bots users claimed many times, from boosting started. Noone will stop it.

[lysis10]

I know I'll get some people letting me know they don't boost. idc what other people do. This request is for people who boost. This is not the typical complaint whining about boosting. I'm talking about a recent loophole when they started giving out free connects. I make lots of money on boosted proposals, so you guys have plenty of threads to whine about boosting. That's not my complaint.

I know people keep throwing around that payment protection doesn't happen, but I've had it happen more times than I can count .

[williamtcooper]

Jennifer,

When the payment protection didn't happen, you basically ended up doing the work for free or did Upwork pay?

[lysis10]

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William T C wrote:

Jennifer,

When the payment protection didn't happen, you basically ended up doing the work for free or did Upwork pay?

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So far, I have always been paid. But I can easily go over $2500 before the first payment registers on Thursday. Easy. I've done it plenty of times and had to revoke access to a document a few months ago when his payment failed for $3500. The only reason I got my money in that instance is because he did not copy the document when I shared it. Payment failed, I revoked access and told him he can have access when he pays. But I got lucky that he wasn't clever enough to copy the doc.

I'm bringing this up because it happened again. Right now, I'm owed about $3200 on a contract. If I get money tonight, then I have nothing to worry about. But The first payout is about $1400. 7.5 hours last week and 10 this week.

[tlsanders]

Have you had to use it in the past 6-8 weeks? I think that's the timeline where I've seen an increasing number of freelancers saying they were told they weren't qualified. 

[lysis10]

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Tiffany S wrote:

Have you had to use it in the past 6-8 weeks? I think that's the timeline where I've seen an increasing number of freelancers saying they were told they weren't qualified. 

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I got paid out for a tiny contract (3 hours) a month ago. Interestingly, her payment method was verified when I started. As she and I are arguing, it went unverified. She must have somehow been able to remove her card or invalidated it. Very intersting because I'd never seen that before. She had other hires too, so I sure do hope the other freelancers used Tracker! Payment failed and never heard from her again. Payment protection paid out. I was second guessing myself on this one because I haven't ever seen payment methods go unverified like that unless there was a weekly payment failure.

[williamtcooper]

Jennifer,

Consider only bidding the minimum bid for very exacting jobs in relationship to your profile. Frequently your profile will become the Best Match and stand out above the high bidders. 

I read today in another post that Upwork has an API which in theory could cause these types of automation bot issues. Probably time to consider closing down the API except by approval.

[tlsanders]

Why would she change what is obviously working very well for her?

[lysis10]

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William T C wrote:

Jennifer,

Consider only bidding the minimum bid for very exacting jobs in relationship to your profile. Frequently your profile will become the Best Match and stand out above the high bidders. 

I read today in another post that Upwork has an API which in theory could cause these types of automation bot issues. Probably time to consider closing down the API except by approval.

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Yes, I have API keys. It's always possible it's not the API but I just brought it up so maybe they will check it out and revoke the keys.

Not sure what you mean by min bid. I don't have problems getting seen and I don't want to bait and switch with price. I upfront tell people they need to add zeros to their budget. This isn't even for their sanity. It's for mine when I start getting responses.