Unable to Accept Offer Due to Temporary Hold on Client's Account - Offer Suddenly Withdrawn

[lizlavender]

I received my first offer (finally, yay!). However, when I attempted to accept the offer, I received an error message that the client's hold was on a temporary hold, and thus I was not able to accept the offer. After seeking advice in the Upwork forums, I was advised to reach out to the client regarding the issue, which I did, in addition to putting in a ticket with Upwork customer support. I continued to try and accept the offers several more times throughout a 24 hour period, and I never heard back from either the client or customer support about how to proceed. I just logged in and attempted another time to accept, and now I've received the message that the job has been offered to another freelancer. 

As I understand it, once I accept the offer, the client can no longer withdraw it, so the only reason they were able to was because I had not accepted; however, this was not an issue I had control over. I just feel so frustrated, not to mention cheated out of a job (and my first one at that, so naturally I'm disappointed). 

It's not making me feel optimistic about this platform. Is this something that happens frequently? What is being done by Upwork to rectify the situation? 

I appreciate any feedback.