Frustrated with unengaged clients on Upwork

[72ee8d29]

Freelancers,

I've sent out numerous proposals, but many clients leave their job postings untouched for days or even weeks. This isn't only frustrating, but it also depletes my limited Connects. Withdrawing proposals after waiting for unresponsive clients is necessary, but feels like a waste.

Are there any time limits for receiving Connect refunds when clients are inactive? It's concerning that some postings might be intentionally misleading just to consume Connects.

Frankly, I'm almost out of Connects and feeling discouraged by Upwork's current system. I'm hesitant to buy more and considering abandoning the platform altogether.

I'd love to hear other freelancers' experiences and suggestions to navigate this issue.

Thanks

[spectralua]

No limits. Be ready to waste your money when applying.

This issue won't be resolved because Upwork happy with that.

[grimesr]

I am not sure what you are expecting to happen.

If you are buisness owner and hire a snail mail marketing company to send out an advertisement for your buisness. You pay them $100 and they mail out 1000 letters you have created. You wait, and wait, and wait and  you get no response. Do you expect the mail marketing company to give you your $100 back? I know I wouldn't. I would think more about why did I not get any response, how could I have done a better job. Better letter, different media? 

Upwork is the mail marketing company and they are just faciltating getting your message out.

[tjmisny]

Hi Robert - The better analogy would be... you are a business owner and hire a snail mail marketing company.  The marketing company claims to have 1000 leads.  Sounds great, right?  However, many of the leads turn out to be scams, or people who are not serious about their business.  Do you expect the mail marketing company to give you your money back?  To me, the answer is... why is this marketing company soliciting money from freelancers for absolute garbage leads who are spam-bots, scammers and flakes?  And why isn't this marketing company making an effort to solidify their leads to be more apt to hire?

Upwork is the mail marketing company and they are failing at their promise.   

[yofazza]

Many of the leads also don't know that the mail exists.

They don't even see the envelopes, because a ghost sorts the mail for its own interest and throws some of them directly into the trash bin as well.

[ag112238]

That's partly a way because some clients simply ignore the job altogether after it's posted so it doesn't matter how much proposals are optimized. Optimizing job proposals to ignored open jobs is incorrect optimization that is not needed.

[celgins · Accepted solution]

You won't receive a Connects refund just because a client is inactive.

If a job is canceled by the client before a contract is made, Connects you used on that proposal will be returned. But this does not apply to expired jobs. Also, if Upwork removes a job because they believe it violates their Terms of Service, the Connects you used on that proposal will be returned. Outside of these two conditions, freelancers should not expect to receive Connects refunds when sending proposals to jobs.

I know it's a pain (and expensive for many freelancers) to spend, spend, spend and not get proposal views or hired for the job, but it's how the system works right now. The system is broken in a lot of ways, but I don't see Upwork abandoning or changing the Connects framework any time soon. If they do, it probably won't be for the benefit of freelancers.

[tjmisny]

The system is broken and it has to change.  The status quo is simply not working for anybody except the Upwork shareholders.  

[tjmisny]

Muhammad, I have also been very frustrated with this. 

I made a post earlier in the week where I counted how many inactive/ignored posts I paid to apply to in the past 30 days.  (Meaning - posts where ZERO paying applicants where interviewed).  The number was 77 out of 142 total posts.  The majority of posts we pay to apply to and pay to boost are totally ignored by the client.

Upwork has to address this problem because they are knowingly wasting our money by soliciting funds for garbage job postings by clients who use carelessly use AI to write a post and aren't serious enough to interview a single candidate.  

[4e41e158]

I agree with Mykola,
Upwork is deliberately not addressing this issue. There are many easy solutions to this. Like:

1.) The time limit of the job posting can be set so that if the client does not hire anyone within this time or remains inactive, the job should be canceled and the connection will be refunded.

2.) In the 'Flag as inappropriate', they can provide the option to flag a Job if it expires without an interview/hire. After that Upwork can cancel and refund.

They are not doing so because it greatly affects their earnings.

[tjmisny]

You are 100% correct, Gurpreet.  I endorse these ideas.  

[ag112238]

Exactly what I had in mind, is there is way we can collectively demand this from Upwork? 

[72ee8d29]

You are 100% correct

[ag112238]

I believe Upwork could listen to us, we just have to collectively voice our opinion and our need to automatically cancel unresponsive jobs so we can have our connects back. 

[4e41e158]

We can give it a try. Someone should write a Post, adress the problem and provide suggestion for solution.

In the end something like this could be written, "If you are agree to this Idea, and want Upwork should do it, then write *Yes, I aggre* in the reply"
It would be like voating or signatures.  

[tjmisny]

I have tried several times...

[72ee8d29]

Exactly