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bookcoverdesign
Community Member

PLEASE! Let Freelancer's Contact Clients for Clarification Prior to Using Connect Points!!!!

PLEASE! In the name of all that's good and holy! And in the name of just doing the right thing!

PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE give freelancers the ability to communicate with clients, PRIOR to using our connects, so we can obtain necessary information about the project when clients have neglected to provide all the information we need in order to determine if the project is something we can even do with any degree of confidence or, indeed, if it's something we can even do at all! Or if it's something we even WANT to do! Without the ability to get this information we risk wasting our precious connects. And this situation will be even worse for freelancers when we have to actually PAY for the connects!  

 

The number of job postings that are incredibly vague or that are missing pertinent information is rampant on this site! Job post after job post after job post! It has become intolerable

 

And PLEASE don't respond with your tired old line: "We are exploring ways to solve this issue." You have been spouting that line forever and a day. It's meaningless. It's like the old story about the boy who cried wolf. We no longer believe you. PLEASE! JUST DO IT BECAUSE IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO! 

 

 

 

 

45 REPLIES 45
kat303
Community Member

If freelancers are allowed to ask questions, then you can bet on it that instead of submitting a proposal through the use of connects, they will submit their proposal in the "questions" area and wouldn't have to pay anything to do that. And if freelancers don't have to pay, instead of having 20, 30 or more freelancers submitting proposals, the clients will be receiving 100's of proposals. And that would be especially true now that freelancers have to pay for connects.

 

Besides that, the client will be spammed, with responses such as, hire me, why didn't you hire me, and probably harassed. Upwork wouldn't be able to contain the numbers of freelancers responding that way. It would drive clients to other freelancing sites. 

 

As others, I remember Elancie having that function. (as well as $50 minimums for fixed rate jobs) and 90% of the time, (if not more) the clients never answered or responded to any questions, even legitimate ones. 

martina_plaschka
Community Member

There are job posts with good descriptions, and there are job posts with vague descriptions, no descriptions, typos, some can't even spell their city right. Those are people that don't respect their project. I always skip those and save myself a lot of headaches that way, and connects too.


Martina P wrote:

There are job posts with good descriptions, and there are job posts with vague descriptions, no descriptions, typos, some can't even spell their city right. Those are people that don't respect their project. I always skip those and save myself a lot of headaches that way, and connects too.


I do, too. But, in some fields, inadequate information is the norm. 

muhmasood
Community Member

Then What is the purpose of selling the connects 😄 hahah  Do you really think they thinks about Me and You ???

"One thing I know, that I know nothing. This is the source of my wisdom"
gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

Worst idea ever. As a FL, I share your frustration with clients who can't pull up their socks and write halfway decent job descriptions. As a client, I assure you that if FLs could contact me without submitting a proposal, I would never post another job here, ever. Ain't nobody got time for that.

 

Letting FLs contact clients with questions would, indeed, be helpful for professional FLs trying to scope out opportunties among less experienced/less adept clients. But it would open up professional clients to virtual mauling-by-message on the part of less experienced/clueless FLs.

 

Having to put real money on the line, even 15 cents, is going to make FLs be more selective about the job posts they respond to. That, in turn, will have some effect toward starving out the worst clients/projects. The environment will be less welcoming for bottom-feeding clients and bottom-feeding FLs. That's a good thing for everybody else.

 

If spending 15-90 cents to vet a potential opportunity is beyond a FL's means, then they need to look hard at their business model and figure out how to make it work better here, or go somewhere else. FLs who find the expense unacceptable on principle should, likewise, vote with their feet. There's absolutely no reason to use a platform that either doesn't make sense financially or violates one's principles.

Having seen many job posts such as "I need some help", maybe a required minimum word count would help?

 

Then they could post "I need some help xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" 🤣

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