Is Upwork Giving Some Freelancers Unfair Advantage?

[frederick_steve]

I'm a freelancer who decided to hire a freelancer myself for a project, and was very disturbed by how Upwork handled it. I'm wondering if this is standard practice.

After posting my ad, I received an email from Upwork with the names of nine freelancers. It started by saying, "We think this is the best freelancer for you," and gave me one name. Below were three other names, and then it said, "Click here to see more names."

Now, I've been on Upwork for several months. I've sent out tons of proposals, and usually get no response at all--even for jobs that are right in my sweet spot. I thought that we were all competing on an equal footing for jobs. But, at least in this case, Upwork RIGGED the bidding process by saying one freelancer was the best. Further, in order to see the remaining five names, I had to go through an extra step of clicking. 

I have to say that I'm more than a little upset if this is standard procedure. It would certainly explain (at least partly) why almost no one responds to my proposals.  

[versailles]

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Steve F wrote:

Ah yes.  There's that.  Got all 4s and 5s on my jobs, 

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Steve, click there: My Stats and tell us what Clients who would recommend you says. This weights a lot into your JSS and is probably the reason why your JSS is so so. Which is the reason you're struggling.

[rafsun_ug]

Well...I appreciate your opinion as many people are supporting you but I am confused! You think yourself a product in the Upwork world!?! I mean truly!!! Or you find anywhere where Upwork is treating you or us as a product! As far as I knew and believe, we are a human being who is giving service and earnings, we are not a product or even we don't sell a product here! I am totally confused and I don't want to learn or see "2+2=5"!

[andreag22]

Of course I'm not saying we are not human beings!

It's a concept, that is where we best fit the category in a standard business model. As simple as possible, what does a company do? It sells a product or service (service is actually more accurate for this) to clients in order to make money. So the company (Upwork) sells to clients (the ones we think of as our clients) a service (finding quality freelancers). We are what the client is looking for, so therefore we can't be the client. Think about this, who pays the 100% that the 20% Upwork takes comes from?

Upwork does have to treat us well and keep us happy to an extent, the thing is, it is not because we are the clients, it is because they have to provide a good service for the clients, and for that, they need quality freelancers using their platform.

The truth is our relationship with Upwork and the clients is more complex than this, for me this is just a simplified way to understand it. And I think it is important to understand our position (regardless of our opinion about it) in order to know how to act accordingly and make sure we succeed.

[wlyonsatl]

Rafsun,

You are being too literal.

Upwork sells to companies worldwide the idea that they (the companies) can use Upwork to find and hire on an hourly, fixed price or salaried basis somewhat vetted people with useful skills to augment those companies' in-house personnel resources.

In that sense, we freelancers are the "product" with the finding and payment part of the process being Upwork's "service."