Fraudulent client & unpaid contract = reduced JSS for the freelancer

[gypsyjungle]

Hello, 

I have joined upwork within the last few months.  I take great pride in my work and look forward to using this platform to boost my freelancing career.  However, since joining, I have already run into a few situations that I find are quite difficult/unfair to a freelancer.  

I had a client that I did work for: They were super responsive, andtold me they were needing a design done for a school tshirt soccer department "spirit shirts".  However, at the very end, they asked me to remove the school logo & lettering, and send only the design. I thought that was wierd. I sent the final file over, and then they completely stopped responding to me, and did not pay for the job.  Although I have only received 5 star reviews, and 100% client recommendations, my JSS automatically dropped from 100% to 85%.  

I was super upset, as I have been working very hard to build up my reputation on this site, and have only had great experiences from all of my other clients, have already earned over $1k in a short period of time, but having my JSS drop like that over something that is completely out of my control, only hurts me as a freelancer to be able to get any future opportunities.  

I took it upon myself to contact the school that this person said they were working for, and the school confirmed to me that they have never heard of this person and that he has never been part of their Athletic department.  

So now, not only was I scammed to do work that someone did not pay me for, as a result I not only suffered by not receiving that income, but they also affected my job score greatly and my ability to get future work. 

I just wanted to let someone from the Upwork site know, to help prevent things like this from happening again in the future.  Also, to maybe consider how the JSS is calculated and how things like this that are completely out of a freelancers hand, should not affect their score.  

Thank you! 

Marisa 

[tlsanders]

How did it happen that they were able to not pay you? Did you work on a fixed price job without a funded milestone, or hourly without using the time tracker?

[gypsyjungle]

Hi, yes it was a fixed milestone but the payment method was not verified. I knew that was a bit of a risk, but as I took on this client when I was just getting started, I decided it was worth taking the risk to get some work experience & feedback on the site.  Unfortunately I did not think that with me being the one that did not get paid or reviewed, that I would be the one penalised .  

[hardorff]

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Marisa R wrote:

I decided it was worth taking the risk...

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You took the risk and lost. The client was smarter than you.
Move on from this with a lesson learned and do everything you can to protect yourself from situations like this in the future, by only working for clients with verified payment methods, only working on a funded contract (if it's a fixed job), etc. Some people will try to take advantage of the situations where you "decide to take the risk".

[gypsyjungle]

I understand, but I don't think clients should be able to post work on the site without verifying their payment and funding the job first.  I felt I had no other option as a new person to the site to accept any potential work that came my way, despite I have been working in my industry for more than 10 years.  

[mwiggenhorn]

I have often accepted jobs from clients with unverified payments.  I do, however, notify them that I will not/ can not work for them until their payment is verified.  It has never been an issue in my case as they quickly verify their payment method.

[gypsyjungle]

Thanks Mary for the response, yes I have since learned to do the same! I just dont understand how an unpaying customer creates a negative impact for the freelancer's job score. It seems backwards, especially when the person is using a fraudulent account 😞

[BojanS]

Hi Marisa,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience with this Client. When working on Upwork, please ensure that they have a verified billing method so that the work you do can be covered by Upwork Payment Protection. Job Success Score calculation includes multiple factors including private feedback on contracts, contracts that were closed with no payment, an excessive number of contracts with no feedback left, etc. Since this contract is still open it is not yet included in your Job Success Score. 
I'll be sure to escalate your report to our team for their review for any possible violations of Upwork ToS.

Thank you!

[versailles]

Contracts with non funded milestone should be JSS neutral if closed.

Heck, contracts with non funded milestones shouldn't even start. There is no possible reason why such a contract should start.

[mato0618]

I agree. Why are jobs where payment hasn’t been verified valid? You should only be able to accept an offer once the client has done all their due diligence, including the ability to pay the freelancer.

[gypsyjungle]

Yes I agree!  A client should not be able to post a job if they have have not done their part by verifiying their payment method

[gilbert-phyllis]

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Marisa R wrote:

Yes I agree!  A client should not be able to post a job if they have have not done their part by verifiying their payment method

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You chose to work and submit the deliverable when the client's payment method had not been verified, which you acknowledge was risky. When you walk into a shoe store, are you required to verify your credit card or show them your cash, before you are allowed to browse the merchandise? Creating obstacles to clients using this site will only drive them to other platforms, which benefits nobody here. A much more efficient solution is for FLs to take responsibility for their own businesses, including refusing to perform work until the client has verified their payment method.

[gypsyjungle]

Hi Phyllis, 
Thank you yes I appreciate the feedback.  I understand how that could potentially turn clients away initially, by having to go through too many hoops to post a listing.  Yet, they should also be ready to pay when its complete.  I now know better and have definitely learned from this experience.  

[mtngigi]

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Marisa R wrote:

Hi Phyllis, 
Thank you yes I appreciate the feedback.  I understand how that could potentially turn clients away initially, by having to go through too many hoops to post a listing.  Yet, they should also be ready to pay when its complete.  I now know better and have definitely learned from this experience.  

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Clients are ready to pay when a job is complete. These are clients who respond to a freelancer's request that work will not start until payment methods are verified. The great majority of jobs I bid on are with new, unverified clients, and I have never not been paid.

Phyllis echos what most of us want - for clients to easily post jobs and nothing else, unless and until they're interested in hiring. Throwing up roadblocks before someone can post a job is not a good idea.

[gypsyjungle]

Thank you for the response!  Yes I understand, and agree that it should be easy to post!  I understand that it was in my error of supplying the final document before having them fund the proposal, but this happened a few months ago when I was still getting to know the site.  I now know the process better and have not done that again since, and have since not had an issue.  But this discussion went a bit off topic as I was originally asking about a client who was verified as fraudulent, their lack of payment/review was affecting my JSS.   Thank you!

[gypsyjungle]

Yes agreed!  I also thought it should be neutral, but when I spoke with Upwork customer service previously when this proposal when suspended due to non payment, they told me they see that as a negative towards the freelancer that someone either 1. does not want to pay for their work, or 2. they were not 100% satisfied and therefore do not take the time to leave a review. 

They do NOT take into consideration, times such as mine, where this person has proved to be a complete phony.  Also, I have already had a few clients (3-4) who have hired me for repeat work, but do not always take the time to leave reviews for every single contract.  Again I am the one that takes a hit against my JSS score for "not getting reviewed" instead of seeing that I have repeat work.  

Anyways I am just finding it frustrating that I have had a very positive record so far but my JSS does not reflect that.  

[petra_r]

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Rene K wrote:

Contracts with non funded milestone should be JSS neutral if closed.

Heck, contracts with non funded milestones shouldn't even start. There is no possible reason why such a contract should start.

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There is no such thing as a (fixed) price contract without at least one funded milestone.

It is a physical impossibility to create a fixed rate contract without funding the first milestone.

What happened here is that the milestone WAS funded, but the payment method never verified.

However, clients' accounts are suspended when they fail to verify their payment method (eventually), and contracts with clients who are suspended for ToS violations are (supposed to be) excluded from the JSS calculation.

I don't think the few "no feedback" contracts have any impact on the JSS, I'd take a guess that there was not-so-great private feedback.

I would also expect the JSS to fall again at the next update, when the contract where the client left 3 stars for quality and skills is included.

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Marisa R wrote:

 Although I have only received 5 star reviews, and 100% client recommendations, my JSS automatically dropped from 100% to 85%.  

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You haven't had only 5 star reviews, your "clients who would recommend you" percentage is most unlikely to be 100% (check on your my stats page) and your JSS is 82%, not 85%.

[jr-translation]

You did not get paid so you own the work. Add it to your portfolio and inform the client he cannot use the design since he has not paid for it.

[kfarnell]

Only if the design is 100% original. If it was based on a previous design or logo, as may be the case here as it's associated with a school, the work could still breach someone else's copyright.