Location requirement was not mentioned on a Job and I submitted proposal

[#1]

Hi! I'm a registered freelancer on Upwork. I was going thru a job and I liked all the details mentioned over there that suits my expertise. I carefully looked whether a 'Location requirement' has been mentioned on that job page. I did not see any such requirement there. I submitted my proposal. Today I got a message from hiring manager that "this job will be based in xxx xxx city, USA. Where are you located?"

What am I supposed to do with such incidences? I'm loosing my paid connects in applying jobs like this. I'm sure if this happens for one job it will happen again for more jobs. According to the Upwork Help Center there is a clear instruction about "Location requirement for a job" which says "When you review job posts you’ll be able to quickly scan and see which ones have location requirements."

However I cannot see and find out location requirement for that job. What to do for this?

[#2]

This is not your mistake, this is a client mistake that he/she did not mention that he/she needs a specific freelancer's location for a specific project. We can't avoid this matter, even upwork already provided all the necessary options.

[#3]

Can I raise this incidence to Upwork support and get my coonects refunded
that were utilized for applying that job? Does Upwork refund coonects in
such cases?

[#4]

Hi Prakash,

Thanks for reaching out to us. We return Connects when a client closes their job without hiring or we find a job post has violated our Terms of Service.

Thank you.

[#5]

Is 'Location requirement' covered in Terms of Service?

[#6]

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Prakash S wrote:
Is 'Location requirement' covered in Terms of Service?

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No.

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Prakash S wrote:
Can I raise this incidence to Upwork support

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No - well, you "can" - but you'd be wasting your time.

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Prakash S wrote:
and get my coonects refunded

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No

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Prakash S wrote:
 Does Upwork refund coonects in such cases?

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No.

[#7]

Prakash,

Upowork will have no interest in fixing your problem. 

They can't force clients to say whether there is a location requirement for their project and they won't refund your connects if the client eventually tells you you don't meet a criteria they require.

[#8]

This is against the instructions. Please read
https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015703308-Jobs-with-Location-Requirements

You replied "Upowork will have no interest in fixing your problem". I feel
this is rude because - This is not my problem. This is a problem from
client's side which does not meet the condition. He should have specified
if there is a location requirement for his job.

Your next sentence(" They can't force clients to say whether there is a
location requirement for their project and they won't refund your connects
if the client eventually tells you you don't meet a criteria they require ") is
just an argument.

[#9]

Prakash,

I am on your side here, but if you didn't think this created a problem for you then you wouldn't have posted about it. 

Stating the facts is not an argument. It's reality.

Good luck avoiding this problem in the future.

[#10]

You are referencing an article where the first sentence reads "Clients can specify location preferences when posting a job and in some cases make their job post available only to freelancers in certain locations."

Note it reads "can", not "must." The clients may specify location or may not. It will not be against ToS if they don't. So you will not receive your connects back even if you are right about the whole situation. I know it doesn't sound nice but it's a risk everybody takes when applying, because clients are free to require something that is not specified in the job post.

[#11]

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Prakash S wrote:


You replied "Upowork will have no interest in fixing your problem". I feel
this is rude

---

You have the nerve to call people who take the time to give you factual information in answer to your question "rude"?

Surely you will not also have the nerve to waste expensive support time (we pay for that) and your own time arguing with support over a few Cents worth of Connects every time you feel the client did not state their requirements clearly enough for your liking?

Connects are "cost of doing business."

I really don't see what difference it makes. You've been on Upwork for over 3 years and haven't won a single contract, so statistically it's probably irrelevant where the job was based...