SYSTEM CLAIMS MY ID DOESN'T MATCH MY NAME, BUT IT DEFINITELY DOES. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO GET SUPPORT

[adamnaranjo]

THE ID VERIFICATION SYSTEM CLAIMS MY ID DOESN'T MATCH MY NAME, BUT IT DEFINITELY DOES. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO GET SUPPORT FOR THIS ISSUE. 

I don't see anywhere to file a support ticket on any upwork website, help center, etc. I obviously need a manual verifcation of my ID. 

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Adam,

Our team just reached out to you via ticket to assist you further with your verification. You can access your tickets on this Link, thank you.

[adamnaranjo]

unfortunately it was no help. No one is listneing to me. My problem remains unsolved and not even close to being addressed. 

[BojanS]

Hi Adam,

I apologize for the inconvenience this caused! It looks like you have an open ticket with our support team about this concern and they're looking into it. I’ll go ahead and follow up with the team handling your case and you can expect to receive an update on your ticket as soon as possible. 

Thank you for your patience.

[adamnaranjo]

I post a question and it gets deleted. Ridiculous. 

ID verification doesn't work. I follow all the rules, my ID image is PERFECT. Yet it stil says that the name on my ID doesn't match my name on Upwork. Which isn't true. And support hasn't been able to help me at all. 

[prestonhunter]

Adam:

I can see that Upwork Support is already assising you through a Support Desk ticket here.

Do you still have another question? Feel free to ask your question in this thread and I will try to answer it immediately.

If I see something within your next post that can explain why your posts are getting deleted, I should be able to explain why.

[adamnaranjo]

Yes, they finally replied, but they didn't help me at all. And now they're not responding. Only support can help me. I need a manual review of my ID because they're automated system doesn't work. It keeps telling me that my name doesn't match the name on my ID, but that's absurd. My name is Adam Naranjo in Upwork as well as on my ID. Clear as day. And my ID photo matches all of the technical requirements. It's a perfect image. Support just riterated the requirements to me, and failed to actually look to verify whether my image met the requirements - which it does. 

[adamnaranjo]

How come Upwork doesn't provide any real support?

[kbeth]

I've been searching everywhere for a way to ask them about a client that I'm unsure about.

[prestonhunter]

re: "I've been searching everywhere for a way to ask them about a client that I'm unsure about."

Korinne:
This Forum is the correct place for you to ask questions about that.

What is your question about a client?

Remember that in the Forum we don't want to specify the name of a client or company that is posting jobs on Upwork. But you can ask ALL KINDS of questions about clients and client behavior, in order to help you understand your situation better and make a decision about what to do next.

[adamnaranjo]

Preston says that this forum is the perfect place to ask about a client, and then he goes on to say "Remember that in the Forum we don't want to specify the name of a client or company." 

How in the world do you find out about the reputation of a client without naming the client. Hahaha. 

Unbelievable. 

[a_lipsey]

---

Adam N wrote:

Preston says that this forum is the perfect place to ask about a client, and then he goes on to say "Remember that in the Forum we don't want to specify the name of a client or company." 

How in the world do you find out about the reputation of a client without naming the client. Hahaha. 

Unbelievable. 

---

We actually can tell you quite a bit about a client without knowing their name. We can advise you how to assess the client's profile by their stats, feedback left to other freelancers, and what the job post says, which is most of what you'll get initially anyhow. You don't get a name with a client until you've begun the interview process. 

[prestonhunter]

re: "How come Upwork doesn't provide any real support?"

Upwork provides many avenues for support.

Centered here:

https://support.upwork.com/

In addition to support tickets, live chat and phone support is available to some users.

An the Cummunity Forum provides an excellent place to get most questions answered.

But you are correct that certain things require help from actual Support staff.

If you requested help a couple days ago, then you did so as the Easter weekend was starting. If you still need help, then let's hope with the new work week starting you will get the help you need soon.

[8b08b154]

Preston

The link you provided simply goes to the generic information page. If upwork hides the support ticket option in the bottom right as a small button with a question mark on it, with no indication what it is, then clients will simply leave the platform for a competitor because they don't want to publicise their complaints or deal with a community forum. That is modern off-shoring. 

My advice is to make the support ticket a prominant feature. You have 15 boxes there - make the 16th clearly marked "Open support ticket with Upwork Staff" and this will save a lot of lost clients.

[adamnaranjo]

Jerome,

The irony is that the "small button" with a question mark on it does NOT proivde support ticket functionality. It's just a bot that does not provide any way to send a support ticket. At the most the bot provides a link back to this community forum. Which is useless when you have a legitmiate reason to contact support. 

The only way I was able to finally get a support ticket was to fill out the "feedback" form by clicking on the "feedback button on the right-hand side of the page. It says NOTHING (NOT A WORD) about a support ticket. It's jsut a feedback form. And apparently when you fill out the feedback form and state that you're very disatstifed and received no help then the support team gets ahold of you. This is literally the stupidest mechansim for providing support I've ever seen.

[BojanS]

Hi Jerome,

To request help, you can click the question mark icon (see screenshot) located at the bottom right corner of this page and provide information about your account type as well as the issue you need help with. *Note: you must be logged in to see this option.

If you don't receive the information you're looking for, you can click the "thumbs down" button and you'll see more support options.

But we’re also here to help. Could you please share which process or feature you’re having issues with and we’ll assist here or have the appropriate team reach out and assist? 

Thank you!

[8b08b154]

Thank you Bojan

I continued through the bot process to the point where it was possible to send a message to support. So I have, it seems, activated a ticket.

My advice still stands though: my suspicion is most people are detered as soon as they see a bot, as they won't think it will help their issue, and many client-based issues are not for the public/community space. Using a clearer support activation, such as my suggestion above, will go some way to addressing this worrisome issue, as until now I have not had much to complain about your platform. 

[a_lipsey]

---

Jerome G wrote:

Thank you Bojan

I continued through the bot process to the point where it was possible to send a message to support. So I have, it seems, activated a ticket.

My advice still stands though: my suspicion is most people are detered as soon as they see a bot, as they won't think it will help their issue, and many client-based issues are not for the public/community space. Using a clearer support activation, such as my suggestion above, will go some way to addressing this worrisome issue, as until now I have not had much to complain about your platform. 

---

I agree with this. Even experienced users forget that the bot gets us to live support. Just the other day I reminded a fellow long-time user how to get to support chat through the bot. Requesting support does not need to be nested under the bot. I think most people would be okay that they have to open a ticket and not get live support, but the fact they can't find it seems to cause a lot of ire and frustration (and all CAPS messages). 

[adamnaranjo]

"In addition to support tickets, live chat and phone support is available to some users."

There is not a single place on the Upwork website which sates "support ticket," or "file a support request," or "support request form." 

I know, because I've been all over the website all day looking for one. The only way I could get ahold of support was by sending Feedback via the Feedback form. But I had no idea this would trigger a support ticket because no where on the feedback form does it say anything about it triggering a support request ticket. Again, nowhere on the website is there a form which states that it is a support ticket form. 

I've never seen a website that literally has NO mention of a support request form anywhere. 

[a_lipsey]

While this may be incredibly frustrating or annoying, it is part of Upwork's business model by design. Customer support costs money. Most freelancers who sign up will never earn a dime. Which means they are only an expense to Upwork if they provide open customer support, with no revenue ever seen. The revenue that covers all those support requests comes out of the fees of earning Upwork freelancers, like myself and Preston. We don't want our fees to go up, and that's what Upwork would have to do to cover nonpaying "customers". When you reach a certain amount of earnings you gain access to live chat as a freelancer. That is why Upwork relies on its community forum, and one of many reasons why many of us earning freelancers volunteer our time to answer questions. 

There is simply no way for Upwork to provide customer support to the millions of freelancers who will never earn a dime and turn a profit, much less break even. 

They are not the only company to not provide certain types of support to certain customer groups. QuickBooks only provides phone support to certain products, for example. 

While this may be frustrating, it is actually to your benefit if you ever begin to earn money on Upwork, because it means you aren't paying for another non-earning freelancer's customer support.