Is communicating outside of Upwork a TOS violation?

[#1]

Hi everyone, I hope you're all doing well. I recently won an interview, and the client wanted to have a chat on Zoom before starting the contract. We scheduled our meeting, but the plan fell through as the client said that he doesn't want to work on the project for personal reasons. We didn't communicate on Zoom or share any personal details on Upwork.

I opened our messages tab and there's an Upwork notification saying "Hi there. Remember to keep communications on Upwork until your contract starts". Will it affect my account in any way? I'll definitely be careful with such clients moving forward. 

[#2]

re: "Is communicating outside of Upwork a TOS violation?"

No.

Upwork freelancers and clients are allowed to use ANY method of communication after the freelancer has been officially hired with an Upwork contract.

re: "I recently won an interview, and the client wanted to have a chat on Zoom before starting the contract."

That's fine.

The Upwork Messages tool has built-in Zoom capability. You can use that.

re: "I opened our messages tab and there's an Upwork notification saying 'Hi there. Remember to keep communications on Upwork until your contract starts'."

Yeah, don't worry about it.

It's an automatically-generated note.
There is no human being at Upwork who suspects you of wrongdoing.

re: "Will it affect my account in any way?"

No.

re: "I'll definitely be careful with such clients moving forward."

You don't need to be careful about this. You didn't do anything wrong.

The client didn't do anything wrong.

[#3]

Awesome, thank you so much.

[#4]

Yeshel,

Upwork's rules are that you should not communicate with a potential client other than via an Upwork communication channel before an Upwork contract is in place. After the contract is in place you can use any means you wish for your client communication.

If you shared any personal information pre-contract with the potential client outside Upwork, that is a violation of Upwork's rules.

Get to know each other before a contract – Upwork Customer Service & Support | Upwork Help

If you had talked to the client via non-Upwork Zoom before having a contract in place, that is a violation of Upwork's rules.

(There are exceptions to these pre-contract rules. You can read them here under "Other Exceptions":

Sharing Information on Upwork – Upwork Customer Service & Support | Upwork Help

[#5]

Thank you. Luckily, I didn't share any info or did a non-Upwork Zoom interview and the job was canceled. 

[#6]

Yeshel,

Use the Upwork Zoom link and never go off site to use another Zoom or meeting link. Remind the client of Upwork's Terms of Service if they don't know any better. Have a great day!

[#7]

The problem with that is that Upwork's Zoom Version is VERY LIMITED and a customer that uses Zoom on a regular basis and needs the tools like recording, chat etc gets frustrated when those tools are there and want to use their Zoom Room.