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varshil_shah
Community Member

Return the connect to all, if the project is not allocated to anyone in the defined time

Shouldn't upwork return the connect to all freelancers,  if the project is not allocated to anyone in the defined time .

I think many clients are just posting there requirements to get the estimates from multiple websites. And now that the connects are getting charged, i think if the project remain unallocated after the stipulated time, then upwork should return the connects back to all the freelancers.

 

What do you guys think ??

16 REPLIES 16
hermanng
Community Member

Hi,

I have just spend considerable time to check 30 applications I had send out for jobs posted about 4 weeks ago all within minutes of them appearing. I got non of those and was wondering what caused this, that's why I checked. I would not write this if the majority had been given to other freelancers, but when checking, all of them had similar statistis - last viewed by client 14 days ago up to 1 month ago - non was given to any other freelancer. They all had 20-50+ applications though.

 

I now withdrew my proposals and wonder if I will get my connects back. Probably not I guess 

 

The best ones I just checked are the invitations I got (no connects used but time wasted) and there is one that stands out in particular. This company/person send out 70 invitations and in his job description it says that you'd have to give at least one  suggestion of how to improve his SEO 

 

This is a kind of scam I have seen here before - get 70 or more suggestions and than pick the ones that you think are good and do it yourself. I send a complaint about this company to UpWorks but probably nothing is going to happen.

 

However, I'm wondering, based on the above, what is going on with UpWorks??


Hermann M wrote:

Hi,

I have just spend considerable time to check 30 applications I had send out for jobs posted about 4 weeks ago all within minutes of them appearing. I got non of those and was wondering what caused this, that's why I checked. I would not write this if the majority had been given to other freelancers, but when checking, all of them had similar statistis - last viewed by client 14 days ago up to 1 month ago - non was given to any other freelancer. They all had 20-50+ applications though.

 

I now withdrew my proposals and wonder if I will get my connects back. Probably not I guess 

 

The best ones I just checked are the invitations I got (no connects used but time wasted) and there is one that stands out in particular. This company/person send out 70 invitations and in his job description it says that you'd have to give at least one  suggestion of how to improve his SEO 

 

This is a kind of scam I have seen here before - get 70 or more suggestions and than pick the ones that you think are good and do it yourself. I send a complaint about this company to UpWorks but probably nothing is going to happen.

 

However, I'm wondering, based on the above, what is going on with UpWorks??


It is true that some clients never hire, for whatever reason. They might hire on a different platform, not need the taks any longer, just wanted to get a feel of how much it would cost, who knows.

If all of your applications end up that way, there must be something you are doing wrong. (It happens to me too, as it does probably to everybody, but I'd say my ratio is 1 or 2 out of 30 jobs that never get a hire.) What is your selection criteria to apply for a job? 

I only apply for Expert wanted jobs with $$$ and mostly hourly work SEO SEM
are my fields - AdWords campaigns etc.. Digital Marketing is my background
I charge on average $35.00/hour - I have not changed my procedure at all and also used to get 1-2 out of 30 job offers up to about 2 months ago, before clents started to get swamped with 50+ applications

petra_r
Community Member

Do you pay attention to the clients' hire rate?

 

Clearly clients with a low hire rate are less likely statistically to hire anyone than clients with a high hire-rate.

 

If this is important to you, avoid clients with a low hire rate.

hermanng
Community Member

First thing I look at before I apply is their average hourly rate history and I only apply if that is near what I charge 

 

What I can't figure out is why I get innvitations frrom companies and when I check their hourly rate average it's $3.20 or something rediculos like that

talking about client quality going down hill, what also worries me is a posting I just came accross and that UpWork lets this kind of rubbish in - $ 5.00 for SEO on a webpage 

 

i need h1 tag and internal seo and keywords for my weebly pages

  • $5Fixed-price
  • $$Intermediate levelI am looking for a mix of experience and value
 

 

 

k_jesse
Community Member

They should. Actually buying connects is boring


Hillary K wrote:
They should. Actually buying connects is boring

If you're buying connects often enough for it to be boring, you're doing something very, very wrong.

pudingstudio
Community Member


Varshil S wrote:

Shouldn't upwork return the connect to all freelancers,  if the project is not allocated to anyone in the defined time .

I think many clients are just posting there requirements to get the estimates from multiple websites. And now that the connects are getting charged, i think if the project remain unallocated after the stipulated time, then upwork should return the connects back to all the freelancers.

 

What do you guys think ??


It's up to us (freelancers) to differentiate between 'fake' and good' job posts.

Having 'lots' of connects doesn't really benefit us (freelansers). Towards the end of the month, we used to love spending them on 'whatever', just because we knew more is coming.

With this setup, we're more careful. We do not apply to a job just because reasons, we think it through.


Clients will pick up on it.
We (freelancers) are NOT here to showcase our skills, we are here to be fairly compensated for our work.
Clients will pick up on it.
There should not be free work, either by a client asking for a sample or an advice. We will not offer that anymore, as we would lose money by doing so.
Clients will pick up on it.

tlsanders
Community Member

No matter how many times this is proposed (this is at least the tenth in the past few weeks and about the millionth in the couple of years I've been on Upwork), Upwork will still not want freelancers to have all those extra connects to play with. The goal is to get freelancers to bid less often and more carefully. Returning connects is counterproductive.

JoanneP
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Varshil,

 

If a client doesn’t hire and closes their job post, any Connects used to submit a proposal will be returned to you. However, if they do not close the job, no Connects will be returned. We understand this isn’t ideal, and we regularly reach out to clients who have open job posts to encourage them to close them if they don’t intend to hire. Because we know the move to paid Connects has made this issue more important, we have already ramped up our outreach to clients who post jobs and don’t hire, and are looking into other ways to better ensure these jobs get closed so your Connects are returned in these cases.

~ Joanne
Upwork

JMP,

 

Thanks for your message but I'm afraid I'll have to strongly disagree with a couple of your Upwork support claims.

1. "We regularly reach out to clients who have open job posts to encourage them to close them if they don’t intend to hire."

I have seen absolutely no evidence of this whatsoever and I've requested "support" from the "Help" center reps regarding posts abandoned for anywhere from 30 - 50 days or more (with zero activity) many, MANY times without even minimum effort to even bother contacting these fraudulent clients by our "Help" reps. In fact, the maximum "support" effort seems to be a tardy cut & paste response that "We've contacted the proper dept. and they have not noticed any violation..."- EVERY TIME.

2.  "We have already ramped up our outreach to clients who post jobs and don’t hire, and are looking into other ways to better ensure these jobs get closed so your Connects are returned in these cases."

Please see above!

 

I understand Upwork's shift to charging freelancers but If they make no effort to weed out the waves of time wasting fraud job posters (clearly 30 days shoud be the reasonable limit- then clients must close their inactive jobs). then we're all wasting our time.

 

Of course as a freelancer, I look forward to the "Help" Center living up to the Upwork Support commitments you've promised here, in the immediate future!

 

Thanks!

wb

 


william b wrote:

JMP,

 

Thanks for your message but I'm afraid I'll have to strongly disagree with a couple of your Upwork support claims.

1. "We regularly reach out to clients who have open job posts to encourage them to close them if they don’t intend to hire."

I have seen absolutely no evidence of this whatsoever and I've requested "support" from the "Help" center reps regarding posts abandoned for anywhere from 30 - 50 days or more (with zero activity) many, MANY times without even minimum effort to even bother contacting these fraudulent clients by our "Help" reps. In fact, the maximum "support" effort seems to be a tardy cut & paste response that "We've contacted the proper dept. and they have not noticed any violation..."- EVERY TIME.

2.  "We have already ramped up our outreach to clients who post jobs and don’t hire, and are looking into other ways to better ensure these jobs get closed so your Connects are returned in these cases."

Please see above!

 

I understand Upwork's shift to charging freelancers but If they make no effort to weed out the waves of time wasting fraud job posters (clearly 30 days shoud be the reasonable limit- then clients must close their inactive jobs). then we're all wasting our time.

 

Of course as a freelancer, I look forward to the "Help" Center living up to the Upwork Support commitments you've promised here, in the immediate future!

 

Thanks!

wb

 


They do email you if you have open jobs. They did to me on my client account. Like once or twice I think.

lysis10
Community Member

Return connects. yeah we haven't seen that suggestion in a hot minute on here.

 

Give it up, people, and move on with your lives. There are so many other better things to obsess over.

Well yes, of course you're correct Jennifer.

Apathy and surrender are always legitimate professional options for everyone, everywhere.

 

Thanks for the Guru advice!


william b wrote:

Well yes, of course you're correct Jennifer.

Apathy and surrender are always legitimate professional options for everyone, everywhere.

 

Thanks for the Guru advice!


Who's defeated? I'm winning tbPh

 

But you said you've never seen evidence that they work to get the client to close jobs. And I'm telling you that you do get an email that you have a dead job open. I think it's more than once too. So like, yeah, there you go, sweaty.

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