Unhired contracts

oscaralende · ‎08-19-2019

Okay so, after applying to 98 jobs within 90 days or less, having landed maybe 4 and other 4 in the ¨active proposals¨ folder I still have 61 active ¨submitted proposals¨ and most of the ones that I've been able to check seem to have been completely inactive, by the way, there's a bug where if you click on a random page in the list instead of doing it one by one, you can't see any older active proposal, for some odd reason it remains stuck at page 1.

My point is, now that Upwork charges for connects could we get a different policy regarding inactive proposals as well? I've read how this works a while back and to my understanding an unhired job can stay active indefinitely which seems terrible, no way to get your connects back...

AveryO · ‎08-19-2019

Hi Jerónimo,

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.

~ Avery

root_graphics · ‎08-19-2019

I feel a little bit better now. Thanks Avery, thanks Jerónimo. That answered my question too.

-Brian

richard_wein · ‎08-20-2019

Avery O wrote:
Hi Jerónimo,

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.

Excuse me, Avery, but this policy doesn't make any sense. If Upwork wants connects to be refunded when there's no hire, it could just make this happen automatically, instead of pestering clients to close their job posts and making the refund of connects conditional on whether this pestering is successful.

I've always understood that "connects" were a price to connect with a client by making a proposal. As such, I can't see a good reason to refund connects when there's no hire, let alone to do so in just an arbitrary set of circumstances. Wouldn't it be simpler to just make connects nonrefundable in all circumstances, and put an end to the never-ending questions about the circumstances in which connections are refunded and the demands for these circumstances to be extended?

mahmad01261997 · ‎08-20-2019

Avery you are absolutely wrong. I made similar post months ago and suggested a method but no one took it seriously. You are taking money out of freelancers even if they do not earn anything. I suggested it's very very simple make a policy that if a client do not hires any one for 30 days his job should be automatically closed and connects should be returned to freelancers. Those clients who find any other way in less money do don't even bother to open that job posting again and what happens is that freelancer lose thier so called paid connects. I know my words are bit harsh but its reality and we freelancers are suffering. Their should be have to have a policy for it.

feed_my_eyes · ‎08-20-2019

Muhammad A wrote:
Avery you are absolutely wrong. I made similar post months ago and suggested a method but no one took it seriously. You are taking money out of freelancers even if they do not earn anything. I suggested it's very very simple make a policy that if a client do not hires any one for 30 days his job should be automatically closed and connects should be returned to freelancers.

Your suggestion is far from unique; somebody makes this exact same suggestion at least three or four times a day. What you're failing to understand is that Upwork WANTS you to lose your connects. The whole idea of the new policy is that you should not bid on a project unless you're sure that it's worth your while and that you have the skills and qualifications to have a good chance at being hired. If you feel that you're wasting your connects, then STOP wasting them and start being more selective. It's very very simple.

oscaralende · ‎08-20-2019

Christine A wrote:
Muhammad A wrote:
Avery you are absolutely wrong. I made similar post months ago and suggested a method but no one took it seriously. You are taking money out of freelancers even if they do not earn anything. I suggested it's very very simple make a policy that if a client do not hires any one for 30 days his job should be automatically closed and connects should be returned to freelancers.
Your suggestion is far from unique; somebody makes this exact same suggestion at least three or four times a day. What you're failing to understand is that Upwork WANTS you to lose your connects. The whole idea of the new policy is that you should not bid on a project unless you're sure that it's worth your while and that you have the skills and qualifications to have a good chance at being hired. If you feel that you're wasting your connects, then STOP wasting them and start being more selective. It's very very simple.

I agree on the Upwork wanting to lose your connects part and what the new connects policy is intended for but to be realistic how does any freelancer know when a job will stay stranded forever? There's no real way to know this aside from checking previous stats from the client itself, as Muhammad and those three or four others a day said, there should be a limit for inactive open job proposals.

hoyle_editing · ‎08-20-2019

Christine A is right, the whole point is to make freelancers more selective over jobs and only apply for ones that are genuinely a good match.

Having said that, i actually think it has the opposite effect, freelancers can now buy as many connects as they wish and apply to far more than they did before - This may not be true of long standing freelancers with plently of history (that ultimately may not struggle to find work), but i think it is the case with newer freelancers for sure - and this also spurs the constant requests for connect refunds here!

Point is though, if you cant afford to loose them, dont use them. Unless you are certain you have a good likelyhood of landing the job.