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calvo_juan
Community Member

UpWork attracting ** clients

After a succesful streak of fine jobs, suddenly everything stopped and I'm receiveing a series of invitations to interviews from the bottom of the barrel people. I'm talking about the exploitative, the ones with some really bad reviews in their profile from freelancers. Some of them even have a nasty reputation outside this site.

 

I don't know if the cause for it is bad algorithms, a mistake in advertising or what.  It happened all of the sudden so please don't tell me that there is a comma missing in my profile or my happy face needs a more fancy light. I'm not waiting until this site becomes useless, so please Upwork check it out and fix it. Thank you.

31 REPLIES 31
prestonhunter
Community Member

Not every client is a good match for every freelancer.

 

You should certainly avoid working for clients who aren't a good match for you as a freelancer.

 

Upwork does its best to make the suggested jobs in a freelancer's job feed be jobs that a freelancer really would benefit from. It is not perfect, but it is always trying to improve.

 

Having said all that, I don't think we need to refer to any clients (or any Upwork users) as "scummy."

 

If you see clients with bad reviews, then that means Upwork's system is working. It is far better for you to be able to see that a particular client is NOT a person that you would want to work with... rather than not being able to see that and be surprised.

These are not jobs in my feed, these are people sending me invitations to interview, as I explained. I never said anything about the suggested jobs, Preston.

 

As for the Upwork system working, there was a sudden change for the worse and that is what I'm complaining about.  I don't want people with terrible reviews contacting me for entry level jobs, especially several of them in a short period of time. I also don't want to realize that they are even worse outside this site.

 

"Not every client is a good match for every freelancer." Exactly. Then please Upwork, don't send them my way. 

 

What I need here is someone from Upwork actually reading what I wrote and maybe fixing things, not a contributor distorting my words for the "benefit" of the company.  

 

 

Well, Juan, how is Upwork supposed to fix things for you? The people who are contacting you are not being sent to you by Upwork. If someone does contact you, and you don't like them, you don't even have to respond.

Joan, I think you've misunderstood what Juan was saying. I think he meant someone from Upwork reading what he wrote here.

Ivan - I read what Juan wrote and I don't think I misunderstood what he wrote. My question remains. What is Upwork supposed to do just because he doesn't like some of the invitations he gets?

Ok, so we disagree on whether you misunderstood. No problem. 🙂

 

I don't think it's a case of Juan "not liking" some of the invitations he gets. I think it's more of a case the invitations being inappropriate or irrelevant because the buyer hadn't bothered to take into account Juan's skills, experience and previous contracts.

 

As for what is Upwork supposed to do to prevent buyers sending out invites which might be inappropriate or irrelevant, I'm not sure if there's a single answer to that. Right now, the system obviously does nothing because there's no business logic there. One thing I can think of which might be useful is for the freelancers skill level to be a forced factor. This will prevent someone sending out invites to "expert" freelancers for "entry" level jobs. Of course, this should be a setting in the freelancers profile as not all freelancers would want this restriction.


Joan S wrote:

Ivan - I read what Juan wrote and I don't think I misunderstood what he wrote. My question remains. What is Upwork supposed to do just because he doesn't like some of the invitations he gets?


Upwork could enable us to apply the same filters to invitations as to our job feed.


Richard W wrote:

Joan S wrote:

Ivan - I read what Juan wrote and I don't think I misunderstood what he wrote. My question remains. What is Upwork supposed to do just because he doesn't like some of the invitations he gets?


Upwork could enable us to apply the same filters to invitations as to our job feed.


This is actually a good idea.  I could see the messages already:

-Your average hourly rate is $8.00.  This freelancers hourly rate is $35.00.  Are you sure you wish to proceed?

-You requested a skill level of expert.  This freelancer is listed as entry level.  Are you sure you wish to proceed?

-You requested a skill of graphic designer.  This freelancer does not list graphic designer as a skill.  Are you sure you wish to proceed?

 

This could certainly dissuade clients from proceeding and probably wasting their invites.

 

 


Anna T wrote:

Richard W wrote:

Joan S wrote:

Ivan - I read what Juan wrote and I don't think I misunderstood what he wrote. My question remains. What is Upwork supposed to do just because he doesn't like some of the invitations he gets?


Upwork could enable us to apply the same filters to invitations as to our job feed.


This is actually a good idea.  I could see the messages already:

-Your average hourly rate is $8.00.  This freelancers hourly rate is $35.00.  Are you sure you wish to proceed?


- Yes.

 

- Well, too bad. This freelancer has auto-declined invitations under $30 per hour. You now have 2 invitations remaining. Would you like to try again?


Anna T wrote:


 

-Your average hourly rate is $8.00.  This freelancers hourly rate is $35.00.  Are you sure you wish to proceed?

 

Another upside to this is that it might force freelancers to stop wildly misrepresenting their rates on their profiles.

> I don't want people with terrible reviews contacting me for entry level jobs, especially several of them in a short period of time.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean there as I too have often endured the initial pleasantness of getting an email message telling me a buyer has invited me to an interview, only to be disappointed to discover on Upwork that they want entry level skills and their history shows them to be a 2 star buyer who's paying $2/hour. It's a shame Upwork can't do anything about that.

Just decline the invites. It takes one click. 

 


Jamie F wrote:

Just decline the invites. It takes one click. 


Mate, as you very well know, it takes more than one click. In fact, it takes many clicks. Plus time. It takes time too.


Ivan L wrote:

 


Jamie F wrote:

Just decline the invites. It takes one click. 


Mate, as you very well know, it takes more than one click. In fact, it takes many clicks. Plus time. It takes time too.


Well I don't know how you're doing it Ivan because it definitely takes just one click for me. 

I often get invitations from people that need Thais (I live in Thailand but I'm not Thai). One click and they disappear. 'Problem' solved. 

*Edit* - That's not exactly correct. It takes 2 clicks. One to open the invitation, and another to say 'no thanks'.

Yes, under some circumstances it can be done with 2 clicks. But often the email from Upwork which has the invitation summary doesn't have enough information. The email has links to "submit proposal", "decline" or "view full job description" but I often find that I have to click "view full job description" just so I can make a decision. So at least 4 clicks, often more. And it's not something that can be done in 10 seconds.

 

Yet, Ivan, you have the time to make comments here in the community site. Oh my.


Joan S wrote:

Yet, Ivan, you have the time to make comments here in the community site. Oh my.


Oh your what? I don't understand your point. Nevermind.

My point, Ivan, was that you think it takes so much time to delete an invitation but you have so much time to spend on this community site.


Joan S wrote:

My point, Ivan, was that you think it takes so much time to delete an invitation but you have so much time to spend on this community site.


No, that's not the case. I don't think "it takes so much time to delete an invitation". I think it takes a little bit of time, plus a number of clicks. All of which could be eliminated if Upwork used better software. I think Juan makes a valid point and perhaps you don't? In any case, let's stick to the point of the discussion instead of judging other people. That's not helpful.


Ivan L wrote:

In any case, let's stick to the point of the discussion instead of judging other people. That's not helpful.

Agreed. Your odd need to lecture Joan on how she chooses to interact in the forum is not helpful at all.


Tiffany S wrote:

Ivan L wrote:

In any case, let's stick to the point of the discussion instead of judging other people. That's not helpful.

Agreed. Your odd need to lecture Joan on how she chooses to interact in the forum is not helpful at all.


That's your opinion. I was just standing up for myself against someone who preferred to be judgemental instead of helpful.


Joan S wrote:

Yet, Ivan, you have the time to make comments here in the community site. Oh my.


Sticking to the topic of this thread, I'll post my answer to your question once again:

 

As for what is Upwork supposed to do to prevent buyers sending out invites which might be inappropriate or irrelevant, I'm not sure if there's a single answer to that. Right now, the system obviously does nothing because there's no business logic there. One thing I can think of which might be useful is for the freelancers skill level to be a forced factor. This will prevent someone sending out invites to "expert" freelancers for "entry" level jobs. Of course, this should be a setting in the freelancers profile as not all freelancers would want this restriction.

wlyonsatl
Community Member

Juan,

 

I have been on Elance/Upwork for a few years. The past month or so has been the slowest I have ever experienced in terms of invitations from clients or successful proposals. I have seen random slowdowns before, but this is the longest I remember.

 

Luckily, I have work remaining from existing clients, but I'd prefer to see a steady flow of new projects.

I second this. I've been on UW for about 4 years now. This is the longest period with **edited for Community Guidelines** invites. I still believe it goes back to the June update -- ever since, I've been getting more spam/**edited for Community Guidelines** invites.


Will L wrote:

Juan,

 

I have been on Elance/Upwork for a few years. The past month or so has been the slowest I have ever experienced in terms of invitations from clients or successful proposals. I have seen random slowdowns before, but this is the longest I remember.

 

Luckily, I have work remaining from existing clients, but I'd prefer to see a steady flow of new projects.


Bill, that's so weird because business is great for me. Thank goodness and counting my blessings. 

rs99cool
Community Member

I have exactly the same problem. All of a sudden it seems, I'm sending out really good, well-thought-out applications, and ... getting nothing back. For 6 years I've fine-tuned and personalized my client applications to the point that I was getting a response back from every 2 or 3 clients I applied with. Now, sometime about 2-3 months ago, the well started to go dry. Is anybody else having the same problem, or are we in the minority? Please Upwork, what's going on??? 

10 years here using the platform and I feel you guys - this is not your "regular" ebb and flow...

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Juan and others,

 

Thanks for your feedback and suggestions. While I'm not aware of any immediate plans to add filters for invites that freelancers could set, I'll be happy to forward the ideas shared on this thread to our product team. 

 

I would also like to remind everybody of the Community Guidelines and ask you to refrain from making personal attacks when replying to other Community members. 

 

~ Valeria
Upwork


Valeria K wrote:

Juan and others,

 

Thanks for your feedback and suggestions. While I'm not aware of any immediate plans to add filters for invites that freelancers could set, I'll be happy to forward the ideas shared on this thread to our product team. 

 

I would also like to remind everybody of the community guidelines and ask you to refrain from making personal attacks when replying to other Community members. 

 


As long as we're making wish lists, it drives me bonkers that I can't see all the information in an invitation that is included in a job posting. If you're going to invite me, give me all the information right there. Don't make me click on the job posting to see the additional questions it's going to ask, the time, or the price.

a_lipsey
Community Member

I dunno...I'm getting plenty of invitations, and consistent responses to my proposals. My work calendar is full through April. I'm getting more requests than I can take on. So I would say it's not across the board. 

Wow.. interesting to see how someone posted a comment about a feature and over a dozens replies in the thread are from others attacking each other. Guys, I agree everyone should just try to focus on the person asking the question and offer advice and not lose focus.

 

As for the invites, let's not forget that these are all free invites where the user is not spending any of his connects to view the posts.  And yes, he can easily decline them and check the box to block the client from inviting him again but apart from that, there's not much else that can be done.

 

Have a great week everyone!

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