Upwork not refunding connects when a job is cancelled or expired

[leo_rj]

So, what the hell??

The policy of upwork now for freelancer is that we have to pay to work. This become way worse when jobs that i submit proposal( normally 4 or 6 connect to do this and i pay for it) is canceled or expired and upwork don´t have the good sense, or respect, and dont even refund the connects!! This is wrong people! Totally wrong! This is ofensive, respect for freelancers is zero. I dont care about be top rated. I want to have my connects back when a job got  are canceled or expired! I dont want to give money for free! Upwork already take 20% of payments. I use this website for almost five years. I am top rated. I have some clients. But i am thinking about the begginers. They probably are working only to pay the connects they buying.

[a_lipsey]

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Leonardo G wrote:

So, what the hell??

The policy of upwork now for freelancer is that we have to pay to work. This become way worse when jobs that i submit proposal( normally 4 or 6 connect to do this and i pay for it) is canceled or expired and upwork don´t have the good sense, or respect, and dont even refund the connects!! This is wrong people! Totally wrong! This is ofensive, respect for freelancers is zero. I dont care about be top rated. I want to have my connects back when a job got  are canceled or expired! I dont want to give money for free! Upwork already take 20% of payments. I use this website for almost five years. I am top rated. I have some clients. But i am thinking about the begginers. They probably are working only to pay the connects they buying.

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It's been this way for over a year and you're just now getting into a huff about it? 

You don't have to "pay to work."  You pay to be connected to clients who are posting jobs. You pay to market yourself through  Upwork's platform. You are free to look for work elsewhere and not pay. There are many other routes you can take;  however, most marketing costs money. You are running a business. There will be marketing costs and client acquisition costs. It should be figured into your hourly rate that you need to charge so you can be profitable.   Frankly, the costs of using Upwork to acquire clients are far less than any other marketing/client acquisition strategies. 

You are "thinking about the beginners."  We all are running businesses here. And the beginners have startup costs just like the rest of us did.  If you don't want to deal with runnin a business then the best route for you may be to seek employment as a W2 employee so you will simply be assigned work and not have any of the cost or responsibility of running a business.  

[leo_rj]

You know why they doing this? Because people that defend this absurd.

Pay for connects is wrong, Don´t get the connect refunded when a job for some reason got canceled its just worse. Upwork making money for free and we just give to them. They getting millions when you just get some dollars...without 20%. Not that i dont think take 20% its unfair. The website must run its business as you said. Then, for no reason, they start to charge for connects. You don´t even have the freedom to choose how many connects. you choose a pack. In the past was 2 connects per job. Now its 2 -6. Freelancer may buy a pack of connects, spend it and dont get a single job in the month. The most of clients don´t even give an answer.  "Pay to be connected with clients" ... For my experience a lot of clients don´t want to be that connected with the freelancer. But i will not blame clients. I have excellent clients. But other day i submit to a job with $1000 budget. 6 connects. The clients talked to me, everything was apparently right to start to work and suddenly, he never talked to me again. He hired another freelancer. Thats ok, but what about my "connect with client" stuff? Upwork got the money from my 6 connects and i got nothing. 
I am pretty sure, upwork are profitable with the 20% fee.  The responsability of running a business its in the 20% fee and my cost with my tools to work, bills to pay and so on. The charge for connects its not cost or responsability.  Its just upwork making money over the necessity of the freelancer to make money.

[martina_plaschka]

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Leonardo G wrote:

You know why they doing this? Because people that defend this absurd.

Pay for connects is wrong, Don´t get the connect refunded when a job for some reason got canceled its just worse. Upwork making money for free and we just give to them. They getting millions when you just get some dollars...without 20%. Not that i dont think take 20% its unfair. The website must run its business as you said. Then, for no reason, they start to charge for connects. You don´t even have the freedom to choose how many connects. you choose a pack. In the past was 2 connects per job. Now its 2 -6. Freelancer may buy a pack of connects, spend it and dont get a single job in the month. The most of clients don´t even give an answer.  "Pay to be connected with clients" ... For my experience a lot of clients don´t want to be that connected with the freelancer. But i will not blame clients. I have excellent clients. But other day i submit to a job with $1000 budget. 6 connects. The clients talked to me, everything was apparently right to start to work and suddenly, he never talked to me again. He hired another freelancer. Thats ok, but what about my "connect with client" stuff? Upwork got the money from my 6 connects and i got nothing. 
I am pretty sure, upwork are profitable with the 20% fee.  The responsability of running a business its in the 20% fee and my cost with my tools to work, bills to pay and so on. The charge for connects its not cost or responsability.  Its just upwork making money over the necessity of the freelancer to make money.

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Upwork has never been profitable since they were founded (merged). They lose millions every year. They really really need the money that you pay for connects, you know, every little bit counts.  

[a_lipsey]

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Leonardo G wrote:

You know why they doing this? Because people that defend this absurd.

Pay for connects is wrong, Don´t get the connect refunded when a job for some reason got canceled its just worse. Upwork making money for free and we just give to them. They getting millions when you just get some dollars...without 20%. Not that i dont think take 20% its unfair. The website must run its business as you said. Then, for no reason, they start to charge for connects. You don´t even have the freedom to choose how many connects. you choose a pack. In the past was 2 connects per job. Now its 2 -6. Freelancer may buy a pack of connects, spend it and dont get a single job in the month. The most of clients don´t even give an answer.  "Pay to be connected with clients" ... For my experience a lot of clients don´t want to be that connected with the freelancer. But i will not blame clients. I have excellent clients. But other day i submit to a job with $1000 budget. 6 connects. The clients talked to me, everything was apparently right to start to work and suddenly, he never talked to me again. He hired another freelancer. Thats ok, but what about my "connect with client" stuff? Upwork got the money from my 6 connects and i got nothing. 
I am pretty sure, upwork are profitable with the 20% fee.  The responsability of running a business its in the 20% fee and my cost with my tools to work, bills to pay and so on. The charge for connects its not cost or responsability.  Its just upwork making money over the necessity of the freelancer to make money.

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If it bothers you that much then you simply need to choose another platform. You do not get to decide how Upwork runs their business anymore than my clients get to choose how I run mine or how your run yours. If it is an unreasonable expense to you, then you absolutely can stop paying for connects and stop applying for jobs here. That's really how simple it is.