I have been in a back-and-forth email chain with Upwork support after being wrongfully accused of using auto-click software. My time was logged in the Upwork time-tracking app and they pulled it up after my client's payment method got declined. They then refunded my client for a set of hours I worked.
I checked the hours they refunded and I saw the keyboard strokes were abnormally high. I then came to the conclusion that either the Upwork tracker had bug and is wrongfully registering multiple keystrokes (for example perhaps on a key hold it is registering it as multiple clicks), but also I have a faulty keyboard that works fine 99% of the time but sometimes it will just spam a key until I stop it.
I was mostly working on Figma at the time, and a bit of coding, but I don't know how so many keystrokes could have been registered. If either my keyboard or the Upwork app was bugging out, it wouldn't have been noticeable to me on Figma. Also on Figma, you often hold keys done (e.g. shift + scroll to horizontal scroll) - is it possible the Upwork app was detecting key holds as multiple keystrokes?
I have tried submitting as much evidence as possible to Upwork such as version history logs of my Figma file at the hours in question, and Chrome browser history at the hours in question. It didn't seem adequate enough to them.
I haven't really had much understanding from Upwork at all which is a shame. I put so much effort into this platform and doing the best job for clients, but my past track record of 100% satisfaction isn't evidence enough to Upwork that I don't cheat on jobs, they continue to accuse me and have given me zero benefit of the doubt.
I really enjoy the Upwork platform. I also rely on it, and on having a good reputation on it, for some of my income to pay my rent and bills. I pride myself on my work and it's pretty demoralising to be accused and punished for doing nothing wrong... So I would love to know from others:
- Has anyone else experienced something like this, and if so what was the resolution?
- Can Upwork be convinced away from their initial opinion? As at the moment I keep spending time trying to fight my corner but they just continue to reiterate the same info to me
- Will this damage my reputation on Upwork going forward? I have already been threatened with future violations leading to account suspension, which would be fair enough, if I had actually done something wrong this time
Thank you for any info or support!
