I want to talk to a human if I'm going to pay a fee. | My ears are burning I'm so angry at Upwork.

[Tracy M]

Hi, all,

My initial request was to make a proposal's text-entry fields "sticky," so if, say, a PDF accidentally opens within the web browser, your hour's worth of labor isn't lost.

However, in searching for a way to contact Customer Service, I realized the site had much worse problems, in that, there is no way to contact Customer Service. What makes it worse is the fee Upwork charges for you not to be able to get help when you need it.

So if anyone reads this, can you let me know if there's a hack for a close-encounter of the first kind with Upwork Customer Service? I called them using this page: https://www.upwork.com/about/contact/

You'll never guess what happened: No answer.

[Nina K]

Hi Tracy,

Due to the volume of users all support options aren't available to all users at all times, however, there are always means to contact Upwork team. I'll be happy to share your feedback about the proposal page with the team and if you have any other questions, feel free to post them here in the Community. We'll be happy to help and if we're unable to help directly we can always escalate a request to the appropriate team. Thanks!

[Jess C]

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@Tracy M wrote:

Hi, all,

My initial request was to make a proposal's text-entry fields "sticky," so if, say, a PDF accidentally opens within the web browser, your hour's worth of labor isn't lost.

However, in searching for a way to contact Customer Service, I realized the site had much worse problems, in that, there is no way to contact Customer Service. What makes it worse is the fee Upwork charges for you not to be able to get help when you need it.

So if anyone reads this, can you let me know if there's a hack for a close-encounter of the first kind with Upwork Customer Service? I called them using this page: https://www.upwork.com/about/contact/

You'll never guess what happened: No answer.

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The support site is https://support.upwork.com - there are different options available for different levels of users.

And I completely agree about the proposal page - I make sure I put my attachments on first, and if it's an involved cover letter, I type it in a text editor rather than on that page, then copy and paste. I've had too many accidents dragging and dropping attachments. And then there are the times when it just doesn't go through, and comes back with a blank page instead of submitting the proposal. So many bugs.

The same goes for adding items to the portfolio section of the profile page - make sure you never hit the ESC button by accident! There's no way to retrieve your work, even if you've already uploaded files. It's just a giant pain!

[Tiffany S]

Tracy, the extra step or two to get human assistance can be frustrating on occasion, but most of us who use the site regularly much prefer that minor inconvenience to the dramatic increase in fees that would be required to provide immediate direct customer support to more than one million freelancers.

Imagine that 1% of the site's freelancers reached out for customer support each week, and their issues took an average of 10 minutes each. That would be 1666 hours of customer service per week, or more than 40 full-time employees.

And, of course, the lowest-earning freelancers are often the most labor intensive, meaning that Upwork might often be earning $2 per week from a freelancer and expending $10, $20 or more to service that freelancer. That's a quick recipe for going out of business, unless we're all willing to pay 40% fees.

[John M]

Amen Tracey,

I just spent an hour writing a proposal and was almost ready to send it. Then when I dragged my example files to the proposal and aparently didn't EXACTLY hit the box my whole proposal was erased. 

That is really stupid, buggy behavior. I mean, if Upwork is not going to fix that bug why don't they at least put a disclaimer, or warning, on the proposal page that freelancers are likely to lose all their work?

I have never seen another site that behaves this way and it's inexcusable. If I am going to pay multiple fees to submit proposals I think it's fair that Upwork pay me for my time when their site screws the process up and costs me my time and money.

Thank you Tracey C. for outlining a process that apparently works. 

It's obvious that other freelancers are experiencing the same problem, but any suggestions and complaints about this issue have (as usual) fallen on deaf ears over there at UW.

[Tonya P]

So, if you weren't paying multiple fees, would it be okay for the proposal window not to save your content? 

[Jonathan H]

I think he is meerly pointing out that if a company charges a fee for something then it should accept some accountability for said services.

If i am using a free service then i would not be suprised to find bugs - still annoying, but id accept it as one of those things - howver if im paying for something i expect it to work.

[Mark F]

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John M wrote:

Amen Tracey,

I just spent an hour writing a proposal and was almost ready to send it. Then when I dragged my example files to the proposal and aparently didn't EXACTLY hit the box my whole proposal was erased. 

John, I think you should consider why are you spending an hour writing proposals and if it is a good use of your time.  You should consider trying to give the client something to think about quickly and succinctly.  Don't spend time introducing yourself and touting your experience, instead show them your experience by introducing a problem they might encounter or something they might be overlooking.  Writers express this as show don't tell and I think it fits.

Chances are that the proposal you crafted in an hour won't be read all they way through so it is critical that your first two lines hook the client in wanting to know more about you. what you can do for them.

[Petra R]

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Mark F wrote:

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John M wrote:

Amen Tracey,

I just spent an hour writing a proposal

John, I think you should consider why are you spending an hour writing proposals and if it is a good use of your time. 

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Considering that the majority of proposals are probably never read or even opened, spending an hour on any initial proposal seems at best "unwise."

That does not mean this idiosyncrasy of the proposal screen should not be looked at.

[Valeria K]

Hi John,

Sorry to hear you had a frustrating experience. I was following up on the original issue Tracy (and others on this thread) was referring to and it looks like it was fixed. That was an issue with the slider window where a freelancer would write a proposal when replying to an invitation from a client. When clicking outside of that slider window, the content of the cover letter box would disappear before. Now it's saved and you'll see it once you click "Accept Invitation" button again.

Could you please let me know if you were accepting an invitation when you lost your cover letter or you were on some other page?