Freelancer Keeps Removing My Feedback

0933008c · ‎07-10-2020

So, I had a freelancer who, essentially scammed me. She didn't give me all of the art that I wanted, told me that she wouldn't continue the work if I didn't leave her a 5 star review, and when I did, quadrupled the price on me, after I told her, in the beginning that I would be able to pay her more as time went on. When we tried to do the contract, she told me that it would be my fault if I had to hire someone else, leaving me out of my money, without what I needed, and having to hire another freelancer. Then when I changed my review and left her a 1 star, she threatened me. I have reported ALL of this to Upwork, and they have done absolutely nothing about it, regardless of the evidence that has been sent to them. I'm not asking for a refund, but I think it's stupid that she can continue to remove my negative feedback just because she doesn't like it and even when she was confronted about it, she said nothing because she knew that I was in the right. I have to, contionously leave her negative feedback, because she continues to get it removed. Why does the Upwork team not care? If I cannot even leave negative feedback, I would like to bring a lawyer in because I was completely scammed. I'm not one to leave grudges, but I don't believe that anyone should allow for this type of system, and I'd like to be rightly compensated or to make sure that others aren't also put in this place. I need an answer. I either need to get a full refund, or my negative review needs to be able to stay. If not then, I am involving legal services.

mtngigi · ‎07-10-2020

I have flagged your post to get a mod's attention. Hopefully one will be along soon to help you.

Top-rated freelancers can remove unfair feedback, but only once every 3 months or 10 jobs (I think that's what it is). So I'm not sure how your freelancer can keep removing feedback.

Feedback manipulation is against TOS - so she should be reported for that. Good luck.

0933008c · ‎07-10-2020

Thank you. I have made two threads, but at this point, have not been offered much help. She is not even a top rated freelancer, yet she continues to remove my negative feedback, and I don't know how. But, I am definitely getting sick of it, and if an escalation occus, then I'm fine with that.

petra_r · ‎07-10-2020

Lexi L wrote:
Then when I changed my review and left her a 1 star,

How did you "change your feedback?"

0933008c · ‎07-10-2020

I went through Upwork.

petra_r · ‎07-10-2020

Lexi L wrote:
I went through Upwork.

Upwork are not supposed to let you change your feedback (only remove it) and a non-top-rated freelancer can't remove your feedback, unless your feedback contains obszenities etc and then they would only remove the words, not the rating.

0933008c · ‎07-10-2020

Hi, please don't take this the wrong way, but if you're not going to help me, please don't respond. My feedback was able to be changed, and it did not contain any obszenities, in the slightest, it just wasn't what she wanted to see. So, obviously, somehow, she is able to remove it because it has been done twice now.

petra_r · ‎07-10-2020

Lexi L wrote:
I have to, contionously leave her negative feedback, because she continues to get it removed.

How can you "continuously leave her negative feedback?"

Lexi L wrote:
I either need to get a full refund, or my negative review needs to be able to stay. If not then, I am involving legal services.

Over feedback? That'll becoome rather expensive. Is she in the same jurisdiction as you are?

0933008c · ‎07-10-2020

Because she continues to get the negative feedback removed, but it still offers me the choice to leave feedback, so I have to continue to leave her negative feedback. I do not want to contiously watch her, in an attempt to make sure that others are aware of her behaviour and can be ware. As a child of a police offer, I am 100% making sure that others know what they are paying for. She scammed me, and I am not a fan of that and will not let that be a thing.

I don't care whether it's expensive or not. She has broken TOS and threatened me. She really should no longer be allowed on the site, as I have screenshots and evidence of everything.

richardrader · ‎07-10-2020

"She didn't give me all of the art that I wanted, told me that she wouldn't continue the work if I didn't leave her a 5 star review"

It is againat UpWork's terms of service for her to do this. And I am not sure why you agreed to it (this is a major red flag) and would advise to give any freelancer with this behavior with a negative review.

I also don't understand how you can change the review after giving a review. UpWork does not allow you to do this unless the freelancer clicks on the "allow client to change feedback" button. Judging based on what you said about her I doubt she decided to click on this button. If the freelancer does not click on this button, there is no way you can change your review at all.

0933008c · ‎07-10-2020

As I was new to the site, I was unaware of this. I didn't think that it would play out in this fashion and am now making sure to fix it. Upwork removed my review, and I was, simply able to leave another one. I don't know apart from that.

richardrader · ‎07-10-2020

OK if UpWork let you put a new one, how long ago did you do so? It can take some time for that to show up on a profile (I've had to wait a few days to a week to see reviews on my profile).

As long as you reported it to UpWork the freelancer will receive consequeces for breaking the terms of service (which are a lot worse than some review), including holds on the account or even being expelled from the platform.

0933008c · ‎07-10-2020

I talked to Upwork 2 days ago. They completely removed my 5 star review, and when I went back to the contract, it told me to leave feedback again so I left a 1 star review, I want to say the same day. The new review appeared within a few hours. Upwork didn't change it, per say, but they removed it, and the contract enabled for you to leave another review. And good, I need to hear a moderator say this, I have posted evidence yet nobody has helped me. Is this the kind of work that Upwork promotes?

AleksandarD · ‎07-10-2020

Hi Lexi,

I'm sorry to hear about all this. One of our team members will reach out to you directly to assist you further.

Thank you.

~ Aleksandar

tlsanders · ‎07-10-2020

Lexi L wrote:
I talked to Upwork 2 days ago. They completely removed my 5 star review, and when I went back to the contract, it told me to leave feedback again so I left a 1 star review, I want to say the same day. The new review appeared within a few hours. Upwork didn't change it, per say, but they removed it, and the contract enabled for you to leave another review. And good, I need to hear a moderator say this, I have posted evidence yet nobody has helped me. Is this the kind of work that Upwork promotes?

This is not supposed to be able to happen. You can request that Upwork remove feedback, but that does not allow you to leave new, different feedback. It sounds like either the person who assisted you in deleting your original feedback did something wrong or there is a glitch going on. The later feedback should never have existed, and thus may be being removed automatically or by Upwork staff. You only get one chance to leave feedback unless the freelancer enables you to change it.

tlbp · ‎07-10-2020

I think the OP is just using the language that best expresses what she is seeing from her POV. If you are not a regular Upwork user, the various inner workings are a mystery. (Many are a mystery even if you are a regular user.) By whatever means, the feedback is not appearing and OP is not happy with that outcome. In the end, none of us will probably ever find out how or why this is happening because it will fall into the "communicate through the ticket/we can't discuss on the forum" category.

feed_my_eyes · ‎07-10-2020

Tonya P wrote:
I think the OP is just using the language that best expresses what she is seeing from her POV. If you are not a regular Upwork user, the various inner workings are a mystery. (Many are a mystery even if you are a regular user.) By whatever means, the feedback is not appearing and OP is not happy with that outcome. In the end, none of us will probably ever find out how or why this is happening because it will fall into the "communicate through the ticket/we can't discuss on the forum" category.

I find it hard to understand how the OP could be mistaken about whether they've left feedback more than once; something weird is going on here. And this isn't the first time that I've read something about clients being able to change their feedback (without the freelancer enabling it), so it would be nice to get a clarification from Upwork as to whether or not this is possible.

richardrader · ‎07-10-2020

I assume if a review is left and was done so that was against terms of service (left because they were threatened by a freelancer) the review becomes invalid and the client can set up a new one? This is all speculation so I agree some clarification from UpWork would be nice.

moonraker · ‎07-10-2020

There might be an argument for clients to be allowed to change feedback in some cases.

But more than once on the same contract?

Nah!

I think either the OP has misunderstood something, or Upwork is up to weird stuff again.

feed_my_eyes · ‎07-10-2020

Jamie F wrote:
There might be an argument for clients to be allowed to change feedback in some cases.

Well - no, there isn't, because Upwork would then be expected to get involved and serve as judge and jury whenever a client or freelancer thinks that feedback is unfair (which probably happens hundreds - if not thousands - of times a week). Also, it would enable clients to leave "revenge" feedback. I can't imagine Upwork wanting to open that can of worms.

jaybopp82 · ‎07-10-2020

Sounds like the client is mistaken, or being dishonest to emphasize a point they are trying to make. But, that's just what I feel after reading both threads 🙂

petra_r · ‎07-11-2020

Here is what I think happened: (working theory, obviously)

Basic premise: Clients (as well as freelancers) have the right to remove a feedback they LEFT, but are not allowed to change it.

So based on that, it seems the sequence of events here was as follows:

The client leaves 5 star feedback
The client then changes her mind, and asks for the feedback to be removed.
a software "feature / misfunction / unintended behaviour" then triggers something that lets the client leave feedback again, which she does.
Because clients are not allowed to change their feedback unless the freelancer enabled it, Upwork remove the "new" feedback which should never have happened in the first place.
Client notices and leaves feedback yet again.
Upwork remove the "new" feedback which should never have happened in the first place.
Client notices and leaves feedback yet again.
Upwork remove the "new" feedback which should never have happened in the first place.
Client notices and leaves feedback yet again.
Upwork remove the "new" feedback which should never have happened in the first place.
Client notices and leaves feedback yet again

and so on and so on until 14 days are up...

I believe this is the issue Upwork tried to address with the changes in the top rated perk. Only it doesn't happen when the perk is used, only when users ask to remove the feedback they, themselves, have left.

Surely a couple of lines of code could fix this?