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ยป Forums ยป Freelancers ยป Re: Is it legal to ask client to update the r...
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muraza1011
Community Member

Is it legal to ask client to update the review? The Client Gave me 4 stars with a very good comment.

The client Gave me 4 stars with very good comments. We had a good working relation and at the end client gave me a 4-star rating, can I ask him to update the rating. 

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
JoanneP
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Muhammad Umair,

 

Your client gave you a good review. If in case they need to update the feedback they left for you, you can enable it from your end. Once you enable your client to change their feedback, they will have 14 days to make any changes. The window for making changes stays open the full 14 days and your client can make multiple changes during this period. Here's the help article for more information. 

~ Joanne
Upwork

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12 REPLIES 12
awaissharif5
Community Member

Hey Muhammad Umair,

 

Yes, you can go to the:

 

My Jobs > All Contracts > *The contract on which you want to change a Review/Rating* > Click on the Feeback tab > Allow the client to edit the review

 

Now you gave permission to the client about changing the feedback, you can let the client know that I allow you to change the feedback, and then it's on them if they are willing to change the Review/Rating. ๐Ÿ™‚

 

Thanks,

Awais S.

JoanneP
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Muhammad Umair,

 

Your client gave you a good review. If in case they need to update the feedback they left for you, you can enable it from your end. Once you enable your client to change their feedback, they will have 14 days to make any changes. The window for making changes stays open the full 14 days and your client can make multiple changes during this period. Here's the help article for more information. 

~ Joanne
Upwork

Joanne Marie,

 

Are you saying the client can change his/her original private rating when allowed/requested by the freelancer?

 

Thanks.

Hi Will,

 

Changes can only be made to public feedback. Private feedback remains on file, and cannot be edited.

 

Thank you.

~ Aleksandar
Upwork

Thanks for the confirmation, Aleksandar.

 

We've been told many times on this board that the private element of a client's feedback is of primary importance in calculating the JSS.

 

A freelancer asking/allowing a client to "change" their original feedback on a project will have no effect on the private part of the client's original feedback. The client making revisions of the relatively unimportant public elements of their original feedback is more of an exercise in feeling good rather than doing any good if the purpose of "changing" the client's original feedback is to significantly improve its effect on the freelancer's JSS).

 

 

prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "The client Gave me 4 stars with very good comments. We had a good working relation and at the end client gave me a 4-star rating, can I ask him to update the rating."

 

What you are suggesting is very inappropriate and unprofessional.

 

A 4-star average is a good score. It was never Upwork's intention that most scores be fives.

 

The good comments are impressive. You should be pleased and grateful.

 

If I hired you and gave you good comments and a good score, and then you asked me to change my score??

Are you ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN you want to ask me to CHANGE the score I gave you?

 

Think about this for a minute. Keep in mind that I can CHANGE the number score to go up... OR down. Keep in mind that I can CHANGE what I wrote...

 

Are you sure that you want to click that button and let me change your score?

Another note on this topic, because I think it is important to have some perspective.


I don't think the original poster is a bad person. I think he is probably an excellent freelancer. But like MANY people, he thinks that scores should be all fives, and that's simply not the case.

 

If you look at his profile you will see a score of 4 (which he mentioned in the original post) and you will see MANY MANY five-score reviews. Maybe all the other reviews are 5 stars.


So I'm sure he is a great freelancer.


But what people should understand - and this is true for myself as a freelancer as well as the original poster and everybody else - is that the review with a 4 is probably a more sincere, thoughtful, meaningful show of appreciation than all of the 5-star scores.

Think carefully about what the star average means:
A client was asked to put down star scores in SIX different areas:

 

Screen Shot 2020-11-06 at 7.13.52 PM.png

 

Now, I understand that not EVERYBODY thinks the same way about scoring, but many people DO think this way: That a perfect "5" means that the freelancer was "perfect" in that specific category.

But nobody is perfect in everything.

I'm not.
The original poster, if we asked him, he would probably admit that he isn't perfect.

Does that mean you don't deserve a "five", if you aren't "perfect"?
The way many people see scoring, the answer is: Yes.
Other people are not so firm on that.

 

Other people might feel that if they - as a freelancer - didn't make any clear mistakes in a given category - they should get a 5.

 

That's cool. I get it that there are people who look at scoring differently.

But that doesn't change the fact that the INTENT of Upwork's scoring system is to provide some "spread" between different freelancers to help clients have a better idea of differences.

 

Think about some of your favorite sports or scored TV shows or websites... Wouldn't you be disappointed if there wasn't some "spread" between good, better and best?

What about RottenTomatoes.com? What if MOST movies had a score of "100%", and the site basically gave every movie 100%, and then gave SOME movies a 90% score? That would be a lot less interesting.

The overwhelming majority of times if you see all 5's, it doesn't mean that a client thoughtfully considered each and every category and decided that the freelancer was "perfect" in every single category.


So one could argue that all 5-star scores are somewhat "dishonest" and "meaningless." Maybe they just mean a client was being polite or trying to get through the "close contract" process without making waves.

petra_r
Community Member


Muhammad Umair R wrote:

Is it legal to ask client to update the review? 


Is it "legal`" - Yes. There are obviously no "laws" about it.

Is it appropriate behavious? - Absolutely not!

martina_plaschka
Community Member


Muhammad Umair R wrote:

The client Gave me 4 stars with very good comments. We had a good working relation and at the end client gave me a 4-star rating, can I ask him to update the rating. 


Sure. Nobody ever went to jail for it, all's I know. He might be annoyed by it, though, and express that in your new rating, but that's the risk you are willing to take, right? Aside from that, private feedback is what counts toward JSS, so....

Never, ever, ever would I ask a client to change feedback.  Really.  Never. Ever.

You could ask the Supreme Court to change the result. ๐Ÿ˜‰


Richard W wrote:

You could ask the Supreme Court to change the result. ๐Ÿ˜‰


He could say he found some absentee ballots.

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