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fawazchughtai
Community Member

Loosing clients when they asked to work outside UW

Hi community!
I am an average level freelancer. Use to work on single project at a time. Upwork is my permanent working platform. From last couple of months i am facing the issue that after having contracts/projects/milestones done on upwork, client started to ask moving outside upwork for further work and payments. Which i really hate because this way i am loosing them as i refuse. Reason is they dont want to pay their share of UW percentage to UW. My suggestion is to please consider to charge no or less fee to clients if possible. Or let me know any suggestions how to cop up such situations. Like i said for me client is very valuable as mostly i dont have lots of clients
20 REPLIES 20
tlsanders
Community Member

Clients don't have a "share of Upwork percentage." That's the fee that you, as a freelancer, pay to Upwork for its services such as marketing and escrow. There is no reason the client should ever have reason to think about your fees 

 

I charge Upwork clients the same rate I charge offsite clients. Some freelancers mark up their rates to cover Upwork's fees (something I don't find necessary because working through Upwork saves me time and money). Either way, there is no reason ever to be discussing those fees with the client, and no reason the client should expect that you would charge less if you moved off the site. 

Tiffany thanks for the reply, i think you misunderstood the "share" part. I meant their fee to upwork. Anyways thanks!


Fawaz A wrote:
Tiffany thanks for the reply, i think you misunderstood the "share" part. I meant their fee to upwork. Anyways thanks!

I see. I was confused because clients don't actually pay a fee to Upwork at all. The only thing they pay is the payment processing fee (which is the same as any credit card processor, PayPal, etc. charges for the transaction).

 

Usually if a client uses fees as an excuse to go off platform, it's because the freelancer has told the client that he/she is charging higher rates to cover the Upwork fees.


Tiffany S wrote:

Fawaz A wrote:
Tiffany thanks for the reply, i think you misunderstood the "share" part. I meant their fee to upwork. Anyways thanks!

I see. I was confused because clients don't actually pay a fee to Upwork at all. The only thing they pay is the payment processing fee (which is the same as any credit card processor, PayPal, etc. charges for the transaction).

 

Usually if a client uses fees as an excuse to go off platform, it's because the freelancer has told the client that he/she is charging higher rates to cover the Upwork fees.


That is not why the client I ran into wanted to go off of Upwork.  

"Usually if a client uses fees as an excuse to go off platform, it's because the freelancer has told the client that he/she is charging higher rates to cover the Upwork fees."

Now thats something really unprofessional for someone to say or charge to client. Not in my case.

"clients don't actually pay a fee to Upwork at all. The only thing they pay is the payment processing fee”

This is another great piece of knowledge base. Thanks alot for your replies! Really helped
prestonhunter
Community Member

The fee clients pay is extremely small.

 

I don't trust a client who wants me to work off platform just so he can avoid paying a few bucks to Upwork in client fees.

 

I would love it if there were no client fees, but there are. If a client decided to not work with me because I insist on getting paid through the platform, then that is too bad for him. My services are valuable and such a client would lose access to them.

tlbp
Community Member


Fawaz A wrote:
Hi community!
I am an average level freelancer. Use to work on single project at a time. Upwork is my permanent working platform. From last couple of months i am facing the issue that after having contracts/projects/milestones done on upwork, client started to ask moving outside upwork for further work and payments. Which i really hate because this way i am loosing them as i refuse. Reason is they dont want to pay their share of UW percentage to UW. My suggestion is to please consider to charge no or less fee to clients if possible. Or let me know any suggestions how to cop up such situations. Like i said for me client is very valuable as mostly i dont have lots of clients

How do you know the client isn't lying and wants you to work off-platform so that they can avoid paying you altogether? You may be avoiding scammers, not losing clients. Besides, if the 3% is too much for them and you don't want to lose them, you could just offer to discount your fee. I wouldn't offer a discount because I don't think a 3% transaction fee is unreasonable or unexpected, but you could offer them a break if the clients are valuable to you.  

3%? Wow and they told me they need to pay 10%!.
Agree it helps me avoiding scammers. Thank you so much for guidance and such supporting reply.


Fawaz A wrote:
3%? Wow and they told me they need to pay 10%!.
Agree it helps me avoiding scammers. Thank you so much for guidance and such supporting reply.

I also lost a client due to this, one I thought would provide long-term work. But I discovered she wanted to go off platform so she could take advantage of me.  So even though the initial contract had been a reasonable fee - even getting her to abide by Upwork's rules was difficult, and I couldn't imagine trying to get her to be accountable off platform (if she paid the fee to go off, I mean, even though she intended to just go off platform against TOS).  Clients who want to violate TOS of Upwork, even when Upwork TOS might be deemed strict, are also clients who will violate your own TOS.  If they will stick it to Upwork for a few dollars, they will certainly  stick it to you. 

Agree
lptc
Community Member

Hi Fawaz,

 

From my experience as a Freelancer ( I was freelancing long before I joined Upwork), clients who suggest to "skip the intermediar" are usually not serious and their only purpose is to scam you.

 

As far as I know clients do not have fees to pay, and even if they have a 3% fee this is a very low cost to have a wide database of accessible freelancers and payment protection (if they dont get the job done, they get their money back). Trust me on this, I ran a company for more than 10 years and I would have loved to know Upwork back then!

 

The only "valid" reason I can imagine for a customer to be interested in working directly with you is if he wants to have a subordination relation with you (like imposing a schedule for instance) but then we are talking of a work contract, not a freelance position.

 

Have a great day!

fawazchughtai
Community Member

Hey Upwork Community!
Here I am again with same problem
My Client approached me via upwork,
We had lots or disscussion about project, days of discussions.
He decided to have it hourly based.
Once the plan is finalized, now he is hesitating to start contract on upwork. as per him, he think he might need to pay alot on upwork.
According to previous discussons, i learnt that client needs to pay 3% of the project as a setup fee.
What will be the charges if the project is hourly based?
Please guide as I told client that i will assure he doesn't needs to pay anything.

Thanks & Regards

re: "i learnt that client needs to pay 3% of the project as a setup fee."

 

There is no set-up fee.

 

It is a processing fee.

 

If freelancer bills $10, client is billed 30 cents.

Hi Preston,
Thanks for the reply,
Does that mean for each per hour rate, client meeds to pay 3%?
Or is it on the whole bill?


Fawaz A wrote:
Hi Preston,
Thanks for the reply,
Does that mean for each per hour rate, client meeds to pay 3%?
Or is it on the whole bill?

3% per hour and 3% on the whole bill would come out to be the same, friend.

Yup agree, i am out of my mind, dont wanna lose the client.
Thank you so much!


Fawaz A wrote:
Yup agree, i am out of my mind, dont wanna lose the client.
Thank you so much!

A client you have to beg to stay over 3% is not a client you want. They are probably going to get you to do a lot of work promising to pay off-platform then leave you without paying a dime. You think someone who would cheat Upwork isn't going to cheat you? 

Agree, off upwork? no way...
Will try my best, otherwise will let him go

Or is it on whole bill?

If you accept working with this client outside Upwork you will be violating Upwork's terms of service related to circumvention, which will open a can of worms far worse than your present worries about client's fees.

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