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isidora7
Community Member

Is client going against Upwork policy if asking me to do work without official contract?

Greetings!
I have a client send me a proposal for the job which includes analyzing literary works.

They have offered to hire me and pay when they check my work and sent me 2 poems to analyze.
Now I understand I shouldn't have done it, but I have sent them analyses in one day. They have published those on their website but did not hire me nor did they pay as promised.


I just don't want this client to fool more people. Is there anything that can be done?
(I have the screenshots of our messages and their updated website)

Best regards,
Isidora

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
prestonhunter
Community Member

Of course the client was violating Upwork TOS.

 

It is a serious violation of Upwork ToS for a client to ask a freelancer to work for free.

 

And the freelancer was making a big mistake as well. A freelancer should not work without a contract. There is no way to get paid if there is no contract. A contract must be in place before a freelancer does the work.

 

The freelancer should report the client, and the freelancer should never do anything like that again. Freelancers who work for free drag the platform down for everyone.

 

As for the work that the freelancer did, it belongs to the freelancer, and the client does not have a right to use it. The freelancer could post the work in her portfolio or sell it or do whatever she wants with it.

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12 REPLIES 12
prestonhunter
Community Member

Of course the client was violating Upwork TOS.

 

It is a serious violation of Upwork ToS for a client to ask a freelancer to work for free.

 

And the freelancer was making a big mistake as well. A freelancer should not work without a contract. There is no way to get paid if there is no contract. A contract must be in place before a freelancer does the work.

 

The freelancer should report the client, and the freelancer should never do anything like that again. Freelancers who work for free drag the platform down for everyone.

 

As for the work that the freelancer did, it belongs to the freelancer, and the client does not have a right to use it. The freelancer could post the work in her portfolio or sell it or do whatever she wants with it.

colettelewis
Community Member

Isidora, 

 

Adding to what Preston said; report the client and you can also tell him or her that unless they remove your work from their website you will ask Google for a DMCA (takedown). 

 

Don't make that sort of  mistake again though. Always insist on a formal Upwork contract before agreeing to any work and don't do free tests either.  

 

 

Thank you very much,
I will not do such thing again. As the client is verified and has other finished jobs, I trusted what they said. I admit and understand I am also at the fault here.

Kind regards

g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Isidora,

 

I`m sorry to hear about the bad experience you had. Could you please reach out to me via PM (click on my name) with more details about the client?

I would also recommend checking out the Safety first section on this Thread. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork
petra_r
Community Member


Isidora K wrote:

They have published those on their website but did not hire me nor did they pay as promised.


I just don't want this client to fool more people. Is there anything that can be done?
(I have the screenshots of our messages and their updated website)


Give the client 3 business days to remove the work from their website. Tell them that you were not paid and therefor the work belongs to you as has been pointed out by the others. You should also politely inform the client that if they do not take it down, you will issue an official DMCA takedown notice.

 

At this point, do NOT accept an offer or payment. Just get them to take it down.

isidora7
Community Member

After I have informed them that I am willing to report their profile, they sent me an official proposal for the contract and offered to pay. 

As a reason for not answering my messages for almost a week after publishing my work, they have answered they were busy...

Hmmm... this is a somewhat fascinating turn of events.

 

If they are willing to create an Upwork contract and use it to pay for the work... then you would get paid as expected, and they would receive the work they clearly value...

 

That would seem to be a win-win situation.

 

I am inclined to say that that it makes sense to accept.

 

But Petra said not to. Petra: Given the client's offer... and considering the craziness of the week... do you still think the freelancer should not accept a payment through an official Upwork contract? If not, can you explain why?

petra_r
Community Member


Isidora K wrote:

After I have informed them that I am willing to report their profile, they sent me an official proposal for the contract and offered to pay. 

DO NOT ACCEPT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Preston H wrote:

 

But Petra said not to. Petra: Given the client's offer... and considering the craziness of the week... do you still think the freelancer should not accept a payment through an official Upwork contract? If not, can you explain why?


Feedback. She's got no contracts closed yet. No feedback. No JSS yet. This is not the time to play with fire and get a nice long rant as feedback from the client advising others about not working with her because she threatens her clients...

 

ESPECIALLY "this week" - Upwork will be flooded with freelancers trying to get work. Clients will be scaling things down. The only leverage freelacers have is their profile and hopefully stellar history.


Also, I don't threaten to report clients and then accept money from them. Personal moral compass. If I report someone, they've shown themselves to be the kind of clients I do not work with. Simples.

 

isidora7
Community Member

I didn't really threaten her, I just informed her that working without a contract is violating Upwork rules and can get us both in trouble. EDIT: I did mention it is possible for us to report each other under those circumstances.

 

I have stable work here for about a year and am not actively looking for a new one, my main reason for posting this question was to stop this person from using others.

petra_r
Community Member


Isidora K wrote:

I didn't really threaten her, I just informed her that working without a contract is violating Upwork rules.


Working without a contract is not a violation. Asking freelancers to do free work is.

 


Isidora K wrote:

EDIT: I did mention it is possible for us to report each other under those circumstances.


You said "After I have informed them that I am willing to report their profile"

 

Ultimately, if you want to accept the contract, that is your choice. I personally wouldn't.

 

isidora7
Community Member

Thank you for your feedback,
I haven't realized I typed my message in such a manner, as I had been very nervous about the whole situation.
Also, I didn't realize the problem was with the client asking me to do work for free, I thought any work here without an official contract was violating rules. 

re: "I thought any work here without an official contract was violating rules. "

 

It is a violation of Upwork TOS for a client to ask a freelancer to work for free.

 

It is not a violation of Upwork TOS for a freelancer to work for free. But this is generally regarded as foolish - because the point of this platform is for freelancers to earn money.

 

And Forum participants regularly point out that if freelancers work for free, it drags the platform down for all of its users.

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