Unfair job success score

vivienka · ‎09-04-2020

I'm quite desperate here and considering switching the platform to some other one.

I have successfully finished all my jobs with a consistent 5 star reviews and my success score right now is 79%. Because some of the clients just don't leave any review at all, they can't be bothered to do it not just for me, they don't do it at all. There is nothing I can do about it so why does it influence my results so much?

Has anyone encountered this problem and resolved it successfully because I don't see the point staying if I won't get hired here despite my great performance.

petra_r · ‎09-04-2020

Kateryna M wrote:

I have successfully finished all my jobs with a consistent 5 star reviews and my success score right now is 79%. Because some of the clients just don't leave any review at all, they can't be bothered to do it not just for me, they don't do it at all.

Don't close contracts, encourage clients to close them. Then you are guaranteed feedback. In general, unless you have a really large percentage of such contracts, the JSS isn't affected by a few "No feedback" contracts. What really affects the contract is private feedback and contracts that have $ 0 earnings.

vivienka · ‎09-04-2020

It's a bit of a harsh way to find out that I should have been doing it all along and Upwork never bothered to mention that I'm hurting my score by closing them. Those were successfull jobs all of them, the clients just have no insentive to close them so they don't bother.

What really affects the contract is private feedback and contracts that have $ 0 earnings.

Well I have none of those and still my rating is pretty bad. So it seems to be influencing it pretty badly.

moonraker · ‎09-04-2020

Kateryna M wrote:
It's a bit of a harsh way to find out that I should have been doing it all along and Upwork never bothered to mention that I'm hurting my score by closing them.

Those were successfull jobs all of them, the clients just have no insentive to close them so they don't bother.

I've been there myself. I closed down a load of contracts on the new format after it changed, oblivious to what it was going to do to my JSS. I'd been absent from UW for a couple of years or so and was cleaning up my profile upon returning.

I'm afraid that that's just the way it is and there's nothing you can do other than put it down to experience. It's not too difficult to recover. Finding a few 'easy' quick fix jobs will help give your JSS a boost. Also, JSS is not the only thing a lot of clients look at. You will still likely be considered if your proposal is strong enough.

wescowley · ‎09-04-2020

What is your "clients who would recommend me" score on your stats page? If that's low, then some of your clients left poor private feedback even though the stars look good. That's common, and the private feedback is what counts.

Do you have any contracts that have closed without any money being paid on them at all? That's another common cause.

vivienka · ‎09-04-2020

It's 100% and I don't have any zero earnings contracts at all.

wescowley · ‎09-04-2020

OK - that recommendation score doesn't update after every contract, so if it was one of your most recent ones it might be reflected in your JSS but not your recommendation score yet.

I don't really have any advice for you other than to keep delivering good work and keeping clients happy. Closing the contracts yourself and not getting feedback shouldn't hurt your score, but the problem is, it won't help your score either, so ask your clients (once with maybe one followup) to close the contracts. That way their feedback will help lift your score.

vivienka · ‎09-04-2020

I had just one client (recently) who requested money back for the job done and Upwork mediation decided to pay us both, for reasons not clear to me at all, even though the client actually decided that I was in the right and said they would cancel the whole thing if they could.

Maybe this whole debacle was a reason why my score plummeted. Though again, why is that if that was a problematic client and I have all the proof inside the system.

I can't really keep delivering good results if I won't get hired, can I? This is beyond unfair to me.

petra_r · ‎09-04-2020

Kateryna M wrote:
I had just one client (recently) who requested money back for the job done

That client won't have left good private feedback.....

Kateryna M wrote:
Upwork mediation decided to pay us both, for reasons not clear to me at all.

Presumably the money in question made it not worth it Upwork's while to spend money on the dispute and possibly more on possible arbitration.

tlbp · ‎10-30-2020

Kateryna M wrote:
I had just one client (recently) who requested money back for the job done and Upwork mediation decided to pay us both, for reasons not clear to me at all, even though the client actually decided that I was in the right and said they would cancel the whole thing if they could.
Maybe this whole debacle was a reason why my score plummeted. Though again, why is that if that was a problematic client and I have all the proof inside the system.

I can't really keep delivering good results if I won't get hired, can I? This is beyond unfair to me.

A client who wanted all their money back? Yes. They probably didn't give you a good score. And, I could be wrong, but I doubt it counts as a paid (and positive) contract if it is Upwork who is paying the money to resolve the issues. Clients can say whatever they want, what gets recorded is the data they is entered into the system.

feed_my_eyes · ‎09-04-2020

You have 5 out of 12 contracts with no feedback, so perhaps Upwork does consider that to be a high proportion. Apart from that, do you have any contracts that have been open for more than two months but no payments have been made yet? Have any clients cancelled contracts without having paid you anything (or you cancelled them yourself)?

vivienka · ‎09-04-2020

No, to all those questions. Also two of those no feedback projects were for the same client I have worked before and he was VERY happy with the results and I assume just didn't want to write the same comment three times. That's the problem though, Upwork doesn't explain the clients how the system works and why they should do anything at all. So they don't.

feed_my_eyes · ‎09-04-2020

Kateryna M wrote:
No, to all those questions. Also two of those no feedback projects were for the same client I have worked before and he was VERY happy with the results and I assume just didn't want to write the same comment three times. That's the problem though, Upwork doesn't explain the clients how the system works and why they should do anything at all. So they don't.

Actually, it's "yes" to one of those questions, since you say above that you got into a dispute and Upwork gave you a courtesy credit - the client didn't pay you. So that was technically a "nothing paid" contract, and those hurt your JSS.

vivienka · ‎09-04-2020

Well I didn't know it's considered that since I did get paid. But you actually just made up my mind here. I'm finishing the contracts I have and leaving the platform. This is ridiculous.

eileendooley · ‎10-30-2020

petra_r · ‎10-30-2020

Eileen D wrote:

On top of that, I pay for premium - complete waste of money when Upwork are virtually advising clients not to hire me. I have flagged this up with Upword - no reply yet.

There is nothing to flag. You don't have a job success score yet because you don't have enough contracts to calculate one yet.

jackmcgoldrick · ‎05-16-2022

Same here. 5-star ratings across the board and a low JSS. The fact that the clients get to give private ratings allows them to be completely unaccountable and it gives the workers absolutely no recourse. And closing a job lowers your score? What the...? That makes no sense at all. I do great work, my clients tell me they are happy, yet I have a low score.

martina_plaschka · ‎07-11-2022

You are misinformed, closing your contracts does not have a negative impact at all. You just have a no-feedback contract, that does nothing.

Would you prefer to have public bad feedback? I don't. We know the stars are pretty meaningless in the JSS calculation, they are just window-dressing to make your profile look nice, that's it.

Your 3-star client wasn't too happy, and some others also didn't leave 10/10 private feedback.