Poor JSS. New to Upwork

[ayeshasheharyar]

My most recent client said that he wanted 4 100 word articles( total $35) to be written on interview questions. Once I accepted the contracted he said that each of the 4 articles should contain 20+ questions and answers. Which made it 1000 words for each article instead of 100 words. As a new freelancer I decided to start anyway but found this to be very unfair. I completed the first article, and submitted it to him. I asked him to give $10 payment for this piece of writing and requested him to end the contract. Even though he gave a good public feedback, I think his private feedback was not good and I ended up with 64% JSS. Can you please resolve this issue? Many thanks.

I have worked very hard on Upwork. I am a subject matter expert in finance and have tried my level best to satisfy my clients and have received all 5/5 public feedback.

Apart from the first client, there was only one other pesky client. I submitted the work to him on time each of the two times I worked for him( long-term contract and work came through additional milestones). He wouldn't approve the payment and kept telling me that he'll check once he has time. Eventually I got fed up and asked him to end the contract. Perhaps this too has effected my JSS badly
😞

I really need assistance on how to improve my JSS, otherwise I wont be able to get contracts that meet my expertise.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[martina_plaschka]

The only way to improve your JSS is more contracts with better feedback. You should always clarify everything before you accept an offer. 

There is a lot of improvement to be done on your profile. You only talk about yourself. Don't do that. You might attract better clients if you put your focus on them, and not yourself. 

[ashrafkhan81]

There is nothing to be resolved here and no one can fix the JSS, even if your client wanted to change his private rating Upwork does not allow that. 

For the 4 articles client, if you were not happy with the change in scope of work you should not have continued with the contract. If you decided to continue you should have completed the contract. Obviously, the client did not like it as you requested the contract to be stopped midway. 

For the second client, there is actually no need to pester the client to release the funds, as long as escrow is funded and active you should just submit the work using submit work button, inform the client and wait. If the client does not release funds, Upwork will automatically release the funds after 14 days. 

There is nothing much you can do now, just take a lesson and move on continue sending proposals, and take care not to stop contact in between. How will you feel if the client agrees to a 4 milestone project and cancels the project after 1st milestone? 

[ayeshasheharyar]

The one thing I understood was that client came in with the intention to scam. Even if I'd ended the contract at start, he'd still have left a bad feedback unless I completed the entire task without raising an argument.

It has been 5 days since the poor JSS and I have been unable to get jobs that meet my skill set.

[ashrafkhan81]

From what you have shared, I think the client certainly did not come to "scam" you, but yet there are clients who try to get more done for a lower price, especially from new freelancers. As new freelancers are eager to get work in order to build their profiles. 

What freelancers need to do is, either deliver what they promised and signed up for or stand up and renegotiate the price if the scope has changed significantly, as was in your case. 

The same job was later awarded to Rashmi, she delivered it for $50, got a 5* rating and her JSS is at 100% 

The client clearly has a good review of 5* from 10 freelancers, has an 84% hire rate which is a good hiring rate! 

The first rule here is, do not get into a contract where you cannot deliver top-notch results! 

[ayeshasheharyar]

Is there any hope for me now? As a newbie I might have made these mistakes. Eventhough I did learn from them, but will this really help me? My existing client was kind enough to give me more work on terms we'd decided earlier, but how to convince future clients with a 64% score?
I really want to continue on Upwork

[ashrafkhan81 · Accepted solution]

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Ayesha S wrote:
Is there any hope for me now? As a newbie I might have made these mistakes. Eventhough I did learn from them, but will this really help me? My existing client was kind enough to give me more work on terms we'd decided earlier, but how to convince future clients with a 64% score?
I really want to continue on Upwork

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Of course, there is hope! But it is not going to be as easy! You need to work much harder and ensure the existing two clients are satisfied 100% so when the contract ends they leave positive feedback!

JSS is recalculated every 2 weeks, so when those two contracts end you will get a boost on your JSS. 

Wining new jobs will be difficult, but you still need to keep sending well-written proposals. Or if you can wait, wait till you see a raise in your JSS after closing the open contracts! 

[tlbp]

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Ayesha S wrote:
Is there any hope for me now? As a newbie I might have made these mistakes. Eventhough I did learn from them, but will this really help me? My existing client was kind enough to give me more work on terms we'd decided earlier, but how to convince future clients with a 64% score?
I really want to continue on Upwork

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Keep working for the clients who know and like your work. Eventually, the impact of these poor reviews will begin to have less impact on your JSS. This is especially true if you can land some other contracts and perform them well. Aim to get 4 positive reviews in the next 6 months.

Also, the first two lines of your profile summary are really not helpful. Start by telling people what you can do for them. Move your credentials to the end of your profile summary so that those who are interested can view your accomplishments.  

It has been my experience that clients care most about how well you write what they need you to write; not what you've accomplished in the past. 

[tlbp]

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Ashraf K wrote:

From what you have shared, I think the client certainly did not come to "scam" you, but yet there are clients who try to get more done for a lower price, especially from new freelancers. As new freelancers are eager to get work in order to build their profiles. 

What freelancers need to do is, either deliver what they promised and signed up for or stand up and renegotiate the price if the scope has changed significantly, as was in your case. 

The same job was later awarded to Rashmi, she delivered it for $50, got a 5* rating and her JSS is at 100% 

The client clearly has a good review of 5* from 10 freelancers, has an 84% hire rate which is a good hiring rate! 

The first rule here is, do not get into a contract where you cannot deliver top-notch results! 

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Agree. Unfortunately, there are many clients who offer incredibly low rates for article writing. If the original gig post said "100 words" it was a typo. The client always meant 1000 words. A 100-word article isn't really an article, so you probably should have detected the mistake. 

And, even if it is entirely reasonable to expect to be paid more for a piece, asking for more money after you've started a contract is a huge mistake. The client likely thinks you are the scammer for trying to renegotiate and refusing to finish the work. 

Don't misunderstand, whether it was 400 or 4000 words, $35 is a woefully inadequate fee. But, if you choose to deal with clients who pay at these rates, you can expect them to treat you with little care or respect. A respectful client would never ask someone to provide work for such low pay.

[ayeshasheharyar]

Thankyou for saying this Tonya. I don't think as a freelancer I have a say in what clients choose to pay. I hope to reach a point where I will be able to negotiate better pay rates but with a poor JSS before a rising talent, my hope has really taken a tumble.

[petra_r]

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Ayesha S wrote:
 I don't think as a freelancer I have a say in what clients choose to pay. 

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You have a say in what you will accept...

Unfortunately it is a viscious circle. Those cheap and nasty clients are the ones who wreck your JSS and with a wrecked JSS you will think that you can't reach better clients and that you are stuck with those bad clients and so it goes on.

You need to break that cycle because even though you may think that you can't afford to turn down such clients, in reality you actually can't afford not to.

[roberty1y]

If you think a client might leave bad feedback, you should close the contract yourself. A lot of the time, the client won't bother leaving any feedback when the freelancer closes the contract. But whoever closes the contract has to leave feedback.