Jan 10, 2023 12:42:31 PM by Matthew C
A lot has been said about Calendly, but I'm not sure this exact scenario has been addressed. Let me lay it out in bullets.
- Many busy clients want us freelancers to book a meeting slot (pre-contract) on their Calendly, as it's most convenient for them.
- Calendly requires the freelancer to enter their email address, thus is generally thought to fall foul of the ToS.
- But Calendly doesn't require email verification - you can enter a dummy email if you like (as long as it fits the format)
So, if I book a meeting on a client's Calendly and enter something like johndoe (at) gmail in the email field, then in the message field something like "due to the UW ToS I can't provide my actual email, however I will be live on UW Messenger at this time for us to launch an UW Zoom call - please log in and contact me there"
...then as far as I can see no ToS violation happens. I don't get their email address, they don't get mine - but crucially, the meeting time/date is in their calendar with a reminder to go to Upwork to meet me.
Of course, I have to manually add the meeting to my own calendar, but that's an easy workaround.
I'd appreciate it if a mod could give a yes/no on whether the above constitutes a ToS violation and is therefore sanctionable.
I found this mod reply in another thread, and to me, seems like the above is fine: "I would like to clarify that you and your clients are free to use a scheduling tool that does not require the sharing of contact information in order to protect yourself."