Promotional connects expiry

[thinkimaging]

I got an email today saying my connects are expiring in one month, with no details as to which connects.

I have 114 connects in my connects balance.

I purchased 80 connects September 16, and received 40 promotional connects 27 November. 

The connects history doesn't specify which ones are expiring, but my guess would be the promotional ones, since the purchased ones are supposed to expire after one year.

So my question is, do promotional connects expire after one month?

[NikolaS]

Hi Kalleheikki,

We will look into this further and will get back to you once we have more information. Thank you.

[VladimirG]

Hi Kalleheikki,

We apologize for the confusion the notification regarding your Connects expiring soon created. Please note that Connects you recently purchased won't expire by design. If that would happen, we'd refund them back to you.

I checked and it appears you may have a couple of Connects available that you might have received almost a year ago. I asked our team to confirm but presume the notification you received is referring to those Connects specifically, since paid Connects are always used before free Connects for any proposal. We are here to support you so feel free to follow up with us in the meantime while we're working to determine why you received the mentioned notification. We appreciate your patience.

[thinkimaging]

Hi Vladimir,

Thank you for the answer. So it appears it might just be the two connects I had remaining when I purchased the set of 80 connects, then. Considering I would have to use up all other 112 connects first before those two would even be available, the email alert certainly seems rather unnecessary. But it would also be good if the alert specified which connects (and how many) are about to expire.

Best regards, Kalle

[VladimirG]

Hi Kalleheikki,

Thanks for the follow-up. I agree with your point of view and our team is already looking into improving our communication to avoid any confusion in scenarios like the one you shared. We appreciate your valuable insight!

[VladimirG · Accepted solution]

Hi Kalleheikki,

As an update, I can confirm the email notification is related to the two Connects I mentioned in my previous message, which you received almost a year ago. I again apologize for the confusion the email has created.

As mentioned previously, I've shared your experience with our team and we are looking into ways to streamline these notifications to ensure our communication is clear and specific. Thanks again for posting in the Community forums.

[gilbert-phyllis]

So if I'm down to two remaining free connects and I want to bid on a job that costs six, and I purchase a batch of ten, then those two free ones still won't get used? That'll happen over and over until they expire (unless I happen to bid on jobs that add up to the exact number of connects remaining in my account)? That seems wrong.

[thinkimaging]

Yeah, it would make more sense if any expiring connects would be used first in that situation, i.e. when they were less than a month away from expiring. I didn't find any information on that aspect, so it seems it isn't that way currently, but someone from UpWork end should confirm.

Personally I don't understand why they even need to expire at any point.

[VladimirG]

Hi Phyllis,

Yes, that is correct. You can find that information in this help article. Our team is looking into revising this process.

[richard_wein]

I've just received one of those emails too: "Use your expiring Connects soon". It's not a big deal, as I have more connects than I need. But I'm curious about it.

I have 3 types of connect:

1. A handful of free connects left from the ones I started the new system with, about 18 months ago.

2. One batch of 80 connects that I bought about 3 months ago. (I've probably used a few of those, given that paid connects are used up before free ones.)

3. 20 free "Reward credits" that I received last week.

I guess the ones that are about to expire are from group #1, but if so, why didn't they expire sooner, given that they are about 18 months old. Have the powers that be only just decided to make those connects expire?

Also, the message heading "Use your expiring Connects soon" seems misleading, given that apparently I would have to use up about 70 paid connects (#2) before I could use my expiring connects (#1).

P.S. Does it make sense to encourage freelancers to make proposals that they wouldn't otherwise have made, just for the sake of using up their connects?

[gilbert-phyllis]

---

Richard W wrote:

P.S. Does it make sense to encourage freelancers to make proposals that they wouldn't otherwise have made, just for the sake of using up their connects?

---

This is the part that makes so sense whatsoever. The whole point of throttling connects was to encourage FLs to be more selective in bidding. 

I understand why connects eventually expire. But setting it up so that it's virtually impossible to use certain types of connects before they expire just creates live ammo for those who continually seek to prove that UW is trying to rip us off. I don't think for a second this represents intentional sharp dealing -- simply a lack of forethought. In other words, the usual stoopid. Unnecessarily messy and inconsistent.

[VladimirG]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the question and feedback. I checked and the notification you received is related to two Connects you received on January 7. 2020. As a heads-up, you'll receive in a week or so another notification related to the six Connects received on January 15.

We understand the confusion these emails can cause. Our team is working on updating the communication and reviewing the current process in order to streamline the experience. We'll provide an update once we have more information. Thank you.

[richard_wein]

---

Vladimir G wrote:

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the question and feedback. I checked and the notification you received is related to two Connects you received on January 7. 2020. As a heads-up, you'll receive in a week or so another notification related to the six Connects received on January 15.

---

Thanks very much for going to the trouble of looking that up for me, Vladimir. Those must have been refunded connects. I didn't think about those.

[m_terrazas]

---

Vladimir G wrote:

Hi Phyllis,

Yes, that is correct. You can find that information in this help article. Our team is looking into revising this process.

---

Yes, it is something that Upwork should review quickly.
Now we have a mess of connetcs; the ones you already had, the ones you buy, the 10 each month and the ones we get if we get an interview.
By design, the subtraction from connects when submitting a proposal should be "use the oldest ones or those that are about to expire".
I would be very unhappy if connects disappear, just because Upwork hasn't bothered to rationalize how they subtract.

Edited to add:
Or it is its defect, that it is clearly identified what kind of connects each one is and its expiration date. So let the freelancer choose which connects to use.

[katbenjamin]

Hi everyone, thank you for bringing up this issue. I am a Product leader at Upwork who recently took responsibility for Connects and I am actively working on this issue. I agree with the comments made on this thread and your articulation of them and sharing your experiences is extremely helpful as I work on a better system. I will have an update by the end of January on what we are doing.

Thanks again!

Katrina