How to get a Dormant Contract closed - Unresponsive Client

[Iftikhar I]

@Setu

I have done what you have said i send polite messages to my 5 to 6 clients which were sleeping from more than a year to request them to close the contract they did not response but i have response from the robot it decreases my JS from 97% to 94% in the main time nothing happend i have ended to contract and my JS went up from 92% to 97%.

Can you explain what went wrong now even nothing happend after.

I think I shake up the robot to let it think that i had some inactive contracts which it was not aware of.

As I said in many threads i dont trust this mad robot.

[Setu M]

You have to explain a bit more, it is hard to understand the text. Your JS went from 97% to 94% after sending the messages? Then from 92% to 97% by closing two? contracts? What was the order this was done in? Time frame etc?

I am interested.

[Iftikhar I]

@ Setu

Let me try to explain again.

From the beginnng I was at 94% when the JS get introduced after couple of days it went to 92% without anything happen may be the robot rondom last 12months and set it to 92%

With 92% i was not really happy but i have nothing to do with it and it stays sevral weeks. last week i have finished two contracts and got a feedback of 5 star rating and my JS jump to 97%  from 92% I was happy with it.

Yesterday i have sent messages to my old clients to request them to close the contracts they didi not reply me yet but today when i checked My Stats my JS is at 94% from 97% in the main time i did not do anything no contract ended which is frustration for me.

So I would like to ask where i did wrong i just send messages to some old clients to close the contracts and i think the robot dont like it and drop my JS

May be i just remind it that i have some inactive contracts.what do you think?

[Setu M]

@ Iftikhar

As your profile is private I cannot comment much. But I assume that probably one of your good scores (from 2 years ago) fell off the range of the calculation. That is if you have been with Upwork that long.

That would be my guess.

[Valeria K]

Hi Iftikhar,

Your sending messages to your clients would not affect your Job Success score. I agree with Setu's comment above. Please, note that changes in your Job Success score are not caused only by the most recent actions on your account but reflect your overall performance during the last two years.

[Iftikhar I]

Thanks Valeria for the confirmation  hope some days it jumps to 100% on the bassis of my last two years.

[Ronald T]

In order to obtain work on Upwork, I made a mistake by lowering my criteria that I typically had applied when selecting the best jobs and quality clients. That resulted in the last four clients and the last six jobs (two repeat clients) turning into jobs far less rewarding than in the past.

For instance, four problematic clients, one scope creep attempt, one attempted to hold me hostage for feedback and ratings, one threat to initiate unfounded disputes to get refunds via the Money-back Guarantee program, two absentee clients (little if any contact) -- just too much BS -- the time and effort was not commensurate with returns.

Beginning mid to late-2013 working here has been like competing in a computer game with goals, obstacles, hurdles, and other game-like challenges -- 24-hour reply time for invitations, Job Success scores, untimely and ineffective support, an apparent lack of required disclosures, continuous [questionable] changes, inadequate testing, debugging, and fixes before roll-out, baseline changes apparently without thought to outcomes, unqualified non-vetted clients and freelancers....

[Upul K]

I do it most of the time. But i don't contact support center to request to end the contracts from clients side. I do normally,

Request from client.

Wait for one week, Again request.

Wait for one week, if no response, I close it from my side.

But I think while doing this, I'm loosing 5 star feedback.

I believe UpWork need to do something for the sake of the contractor since most of the hard works is doing by him, not the client. Client can ask their work to do and can go home with the results of freelancer's hard work. But then freelancers have to request from client for the payments, feedbacks for few time. 

Yes, payment will recieve after two weeks if no response from client. But WHY contrator needs to wait for two weeks after succefully completion the work. That's why I always beleave UpWork's responsibity to protect contractor mosly.

[Setu M]

Gaining more statistics on this matter is important. In your case Upul, only 1 out of 35 contracts in the last 2 years has a "no feedback." So surely your profile is not being affected by non closure of contracts. Hence why you are enjoying a 94% JS score.

[Upul K]

Last month I did close one contract my self, Now I have two contracts to be done within next week. Still i'm sending emails to my clients but no reply from them.

In my history of last two years, I'm still remember, how much i waited my time contacting clients asking to close the contract. Luckily they did after one-two months some how. So recently, I understood not to wait until there closing, if i get paid. But still I believe, any of the contractor should not keep unpaid for more than one week after submitting the completed work, if there is no response from clients side. There should be some protection from Upwork. 

Funding for milestone is very good, so that contractor knows even after two weeks time, he will be paid.