Notifications missing

[tmonca]

Hi All,

Over the last week I have repeatedly had issues where I am not notified of new messages from clients (particularly one client). This is now causing fricton with my clients as it makes me appear to be unresponsive to them. Before this I always saw a new message notification in both the desktop app and on the website. I also (usually) received an email notification. Now I see none of these at all!

UpWork push us hard to use their messaging service but with that client we have now had to agree to move to using (and paying for) Slack...

Has anyone else had an issue like this? And if so is there a solution? This is soon going to start costing me both in terms of my reputation and future jobs.

Thanks,

Toby

[bstojadinovic]

Hi Toby,

I'm sorry about your experience! I checked this for you and on our end and was not able to replicate the issue you are experiencing. Could you please go to your Settings > Notification Settings and check the email address that shows on top there? Make sure that's the one you are checking and Upwork notifications don't go to your spam folder.

Could you, please, refer to this help article for troubleshooting tips and let us know if you still experience issues after applying them. 

If the issue shows on your end after this please let us know and our team will assist you further. Thank you!

[mtngigi]

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@Bojan S wrote:

Hi Toby,

I'm sorry about your experience! I checked this for you and on our end and was not able to replicate the issue you are experiencing. Could you please go to your Settings > Notification Settings and check the email address that shows on top there? Make sure that's the one you are checking and Upwork notifications don't go to your spam folder.

Could you, please, refer to this help article for troubleshooting tips and let us know if you still experience issues after applying them. 

If the issue shows on your end after this please let us know and our team will assist you further. Thank you!

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All due respect Bojan, but this issue has been going on for a long time. Sometimes it works as it should, and sometimes it doesn't. Upwork is of no assistance. It's more efficient to set up alternate messaging options with clients, as I suggested to the OP.

[tmonca]

This is more than simply not receiving email notifications. I am also not getting the notifications in either the desktop app or on the website! It's clear that something changed recently because until 10 days ago I was getting all notifications.

Given the sizeable fees that UpWork charge it would be nice if they could spend some of that money on making their messaging app more robust! 

Toby

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Toby,

Our engineers will investigate this further and reach out to you directly via ticket with more details. You can access your tickets on this Link, thank you.

[mtngigi]

Toby,

My solution to this ongoing issue with Upwork's messaging foibles is to share an alternate email address with clients once I've been hired. I explain that it can be quicker and more efficient if we swap email addresses with each other. They're usually fine with that, and grateful not to have to deal with the clunky message room.

Of course I keep/copy pretty much all messages to our message room so there's a record.

ETA: This has also save my you know what on days when I've had to get files to clients, and the site is "down for maintainance" ... a common occurance.

[tmonca]

Hi Virginia,

I do of course also use email with clients. However, there are some clients who are keen to have all communications kept within UpWork (presumably as they feel that will help matters if things ever come to dispute). Also during the process of contract notifications many clients use the UpWork messaging service and I would hate to lose out on a contract due to issues with notifications!

The fundamental problem here though is that UpWork are failing to provide robust tools for us, despite the many millions of dollars income we are creating for them. 

Toby

[mtngigi]

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@Toby M wrote:

Hi Virginia,

I do of course also use email with clients. However, there are some clients who are keen to have all communications kept within UpWork (presumably as they feel that will help matters if things ever come to dispute). Also during the process of contract notifications many clients use the UpWork messaging service and I would hate to lose out on a contract due to issues with notifications!

The fundamental problem here though is that UpWork are failing to provide robust tools for us, despite the many millions of dollars income we are creating for them. 

Toby

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Agreed. But it does get tiring complaining about the same thing over and over again, so I don't anymore.

[tmonca]

I quite understand! It does sometimes feel like bashing your head against a brick wall with UpWork.