Hello to everyone, I would like to share one of my very bad experiences I recently had with UpWork.
Two or two and a half weeks ago, I got a job, the working hours were excellent, the client changed his mind a lot, but we finally agreed and the deal started. The day I was supposed to get started UpWork temporarily suspended my profile. It was in the morning, before I had a meeting with the developer. The content of the mail sent by UpWork was that they noticed some irregular activities on my profile and that they would put me 'on hold.' They also quit the contract with the client. The client immediately became very anxious, since they have very good references and their whole business is based on UpWork. On the other hand, I'm absolutely sure that I did not break any of the rules, as for months I did not have any job on UpWork, and also I did not suggest any payment that would skip UpWork or anything similar. Basically, in my opinion nothing was wrong, so I tried to explained to the client I had no idea what was going on and I believed everything would be fine.
The client eventually received an e-mail from UpWork, where they had been told our agreement had to be terminated for security reasons, that my profile was suspended and I no longer work on the platform, of course offering to help them in one way or another so that their job would not suffer (this mail was forwarded to me by my potential clients).
I contacted the support and Facebook right after, and they only required to send them documents (ID card and some account number) for verification and that they would return my profile. Yes, the profile was recovered, but the client did not want to cooperate with me anymore.
Okay, this has ended well for my profile, but the lack of professionalism is inadmissible. Namely, I did not get any explanation why it had happened. Okay, they could have put my profile on hold, but they also did not have to send such a mail to the clients without discussing it with me first. I pretty much understand the client: I would not like to cooperate if something was really shady, as well. But it wasn't, and I lost a client.
What are my rights in all this? I do not know. Can I, in some way, be able to get a certain refund or repay of the approximately same amount that job was supposed to bring me? It's very hard to find a good client, and the question is when will I be in that situation again? Thank you UpWork for this experience.
