How to recognize Business users?

[aleksandra-r]

Hello fellow freelancers,

I hope someone can help me with this. Is there a way we can recognize Business users? I know that Enterprise users are marked with a blue icon, but what about Business users (or they are basically the same). I am asking this because one of my prospects claims that he has a Business user account and wants me to send him my email address but I don't see any icon on his profile, so I am not sure if he really is a Business user. I didn't send him anything yet, I am insisting to take a conversation on UpWork but he said he had interviewed multiple candidates outside UpWork and didn't have any issues. I hope you can help me with this.

[BojanS · Accepted solution]

Hi Aleksandra,

Client on a Business and Enterprise plan are permitted to request and share contact information and conduct interviews or pre-contract communications outside of Upwork’s platform. You can identify whether a client is Upwork Business or Enterprise by looking for the following symbol on the right column of the job post or in the search tile:

You can let them know that sharing contact information before a contract has started is against Upwork’s Terms of Service and that all communications prior to the contract starting must take place on Upwork. We also encourage you to let us know if a TOS violation has happened by using the “Flag as Inappropriate” option throughout the platform. You can learn more about user reporting here.

Thank you!

[aleksandra-r]

Thank you for your help Bojan. This client's profile doesn't contain a blue building icon so he is not a Business user as he told me. Anyway, he messaged me again and provided me with a link to this article https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051749534-Contact-Information-Sharing claiming that he is an exception from the rule about contact sharing under bullet 3: "Contact information may be shared for systems access.  An email address can be shared pre-contract under Upwork’s Terms of Service if it is needed to gain access to a system for the purposes of scoping a project. Pre-contract communications must still take place via Upwork."

However, if I understood this rule well, we still must keep communication on UpWork and it is allowed to exchange information to access specific software or files only, right? He said that his company's firewall blocks third party communication software and that we can have a conversation via Google Meet only. Anyway, we both agreed not to move forward, as I didn't want to share my email with him, but I am just curious to know if he is right and if he is really an exception from the rule about contact sharing. He doesn't seem like a scammer because he has hired freelancers via UpWork for over 4 years, he has good ratings and a long-term contract so I don't want to flag him without reason. Sorry for such a long post, I hope it was clear enough.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Aleksandra,

We realize that some tools and services require the sharing of an email address to gain access. If you require access to a system before a contract starts, you may share your email address for the sole purpose of gaining access to a system. All communications, however, must still take place on the Upwork platform. Thank you.

[aleksandra-r]

Thank you for the answer Goran, but I think in this particular case it is not allowed to provide my email as he wanted to use it to give me access to other communication tools outside of UpWork, not to give me access to a specific software necessary for the project.

Anyway, I decided not to move forward with him, but I decided to open this thread to make sure I completely understand the communication rules for future prospects (and maybe other freelancers have similar doubts as well).

I have another question that doesn't refer to this particular case. I should have a final interview with one of my prospects. We did the first interview via the UpWork Zoom feature. His business partner wants to join the next interview, but he doesn't have an UpWork account. Is he allowed to join the Zoom meeting via UpWork? 

[NikolaS]

Hi Aleksandra,

I would like to confirm that you are allowed to add someone to your Zoom call even if they do not have Upwork account. Once the call has started you can share the meeting link with anyone involved in the project so they can join. 

[VladimirG]

Hi Aleksandra,

Thank you for sharing the client's message and your experience in the Community. I took a closer look and while I won't be able to advise on the specific request you received, I can confirm you've made the right call not accepting the offer to communicate off-Upwork.

While we do strive to explain in detail the TOS section related to sharing contact information and cover scenarios users might encounter, unfortunately, we can't provide an answer for every possible scenario. If you have a situation that is not covered in the Help article, TOS or here in the Community, please do contact Customer Support and ask for confirmation.

[aleksandra-r]

Thank you both Nikola and Vladimir, your answers were really helpful. I'll make sure to contact customer support in case I have any doubts about sharing contact info in the future.