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guyerphotography
Community Member

Now that the new connects system is in place...

...can ANYONE explain the rhyme or reason behind its actual, everyday application?!?  It was "explained" to us in multiple places-- webinars, community forum posts, Twitter, FB, etc-- that certain criteria would be examined (almost like a checklist of sorts) and applied to each client's job in order to determine the number of connects that would be required in order to submit a proposal. We were told that these factors would include things like initial budget, expected project duration, client's Upwork history, required turnaround time, etc. Ostensibly, a lower budget would require fewer connects and a higher budget would require more.

 

And yet, now that the system is in place, I see absolutely zero consistency whatsoever. For example, over the past 48 hours I have compared job postings where a $50.00 budget on a job that should only take an hour or two required four connects, whereas a job with a proposed $500 budget that would take at least two full days required only two. And yet just ten minutes ago there was another $50.00 project with almost identical details to the previously mentioned one that only required two-- not four.   There are literally countless examples of these inconsistencies that I could list, but you get the idea. The only one I found that actually made a modicum of sense was the listing with a proposed budget of over $1,000.00 that required six connects. I've been on Upwork for over four years, have completed over 75 projects, and never needed more than two per proposal until the new system came into being. I get it-- those days are over. I'm not happy about it, but I accept it. What infuriates me, however, is the inconsistency.

 

I'm not interested in rehashing the thousands of angry posts that erupted on this forum when the announcement was made. Suffice it to say that I believed then and firmly believe now that this new system was/is nothing more than a money-grab. Every single policy here is geared squarely in favor of the clients. Again, I'm not happy about it, but I accept it.  A "system," however requires consistency. If it is not applied consistently and fairly, then it is not a system at all.

 

Insights appreciated.

 

--J.

13 REPLIES 13
lysis10
Community Member

Budget and "popularity." I think you can reasonably extrapolate from "popularity" to mean "number of bids already on the project."

 

And I'll save myself some electrons and say to the person who is about to respond with "OMG IT SAID ZERO AND THEN 50 AFTER I BID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111!!!!" that number is not real-time.

That would mean that it can change after the job has been posted. I don't think that's the case.


Jeffrey G wrote:

That would mean that it can change after the job has been posted. I don't think that's the case.


They've told us that it is.

 

Though no one has said this and i doubt that anyone will confirm it if it's true, it appears to me that there's also a bit of "do we want you to bid on this job?" going into the equation. 

Interesting.  It just gets more and more ridiculous.

versailles
Community Member

I love the fact that connects cost money and my understanding is that Upwork wants to get rid of low-earning freelancers. I also think that it's poorly designed and I consider it to be totally random. I see no logic in the number of connects and at this point I don't even care. It's a random cost that I agree to pay because it's not that much.

 

Seeking logic with Upwork could lead to insanity. Like trying to understand the Cthulhu mythos. It's dangerous.

 

 

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
yitwail
Community Member


Jeffrey G wrote:

Every single policy here is geared squarely in favor of the clients.

 


Not so. The top rated feedback removal perk doesn't sit well with some clients. Also, requiring $30 to invite more than 3 freelancers, or $50 to get full weekly reports, was not universally acclaimed by clients. There's even been clients who disagreed with removing profile test scores, even though thousands of freelancers loved it. Cat Tongue

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

Five-day waiting period to get paid AFTER client has already approved the final work, just in case they decide to change their mind?

 

Client only pays a 3.00% processing fee, while the lions share (20% pound of flesh) comes out of our end?

 

The list goes on.

 

And most of those tests really are useless.  As a photographer, I can tell you that the photography test was WOEFULLY years behind the technology. 


Jeffrey G wrote:

Five-day waiting period to get paid AFTER client has already approved the final work, just in case they decide to change their mind?

 

The five-day waiting period has nothing to do with the client changing their mind. There are two ways a client can dispute a fixed price contract--by requesting a refund of an unpaid milestone and proceeding from there, or by opening a dispute any time within 30 days after the last payment on the contract. Five days after release of the milestone in no way relates to either of those options.

 

Client only pays a 3.00% processing fee, while the lions share (20% pound of flesh) comes out of our end?

 

Upwork provides services to freelancers. We are its customers. Clients are the fish it stocks for us. Of course we pay. In any outside process (receiving credit card payments directly, using PayPal, etc.) we'd be paying the payment processing fee, too.

 

 


Jeffrey G wrote:

Five-day waiting period to get paid AFTER client has already approved the final work, just in case they decide to change their mind?


You would be surprised by the kind of fraud they are facing. We only see the tip of the iceberg, but sometimes when you read between the lines of some posts here (and elsewhere), you can get a glimpse about what some people are ready to do.

 

 

 

 

 

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

I'm just assuming any job I'd want to bid on is going to cost 6. So far I haven't used any, but I'm at the top of the algorithm pile this month.

 

The feedback removal is the least they can do when they refuse to give us the useful information which would be... if a client would NOT recommend us, why not? What can we do to improve? I'm not sure I'd ever use it though because I think "This feedback has been removed" looks atrocious.


Kelly B wrote:

I'm not sure I'd ever use it though because I think "This feedback has been removed" looks atrocious.


Though there are freelancers who fly into a tizzy and remove 4.7 feedback because JSS has plummeted to 97%, it's really intended for whackadoodle clients who leave ratings entirely outside of reality or rationality. "feedback removed" looks quite a bit less atrocious than a one-star rating with a multi-paragraph rant (perhaps entirely false) about how the freelancer robbed the client blind, planted viruses in his database, etc., etc., etc.


Tiffany S wrote:

Kelly B wrote:

I'm not sure I'd ever use it though because I think "This feedback has been removed" looks atrocious.


Though there are freelancers who fly into a tizzy and remove 4.7 feedback because JSS has plummeted to 97%, it's really intended for whackadoodle clients who leave ratings entirely outside of reality or rationality. "feedback removed" looks quite a bit less atrocious than a one-star rating with a multi-paragraph rant (perhaps entirely false) about how the freelancer robbed the client blind, planted viruses in his database, etc., etc., etc.


lol I totally get that... the one client I had in that realm was removed from the site entirely, so any bad things he had to say went with him. I am much more careful now ::knocks wood::

lysis10
Community Member


Kelly B wrote:

 

The feedback removal is the least they can do when they refuse to give us the useful information which would be... if a client would NOT recommend us, why not? What can we do to improve? I'm not sure I'd ever use it though because I think "This feedback has been removed" looks atrocious.


lol no it doesn't. Nobody cares.

 

eta: well, freelancers do but who cares what they think

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