Very bad experience concerning: Payment, Customer Support, and Freelancing in general

[#1]

I have 4 issues lately and I am beginning to get frustrated. I have been freelancing on Upwork since 2021 only, it was good at the time but lately a lot of things are going wrong.

1- Payment: I have a PayPal as a primary payment method, I have tried withdrawing my funds 3 times, but the payment gets rejected, and the payment method gets disabled. I re-enable it again, same thing happens. They say it's rejected but don't even specify to me the exact reason for it. My PayPal seems to be working just fine, and I'd used it so many times to withdraw Upwork funds in the past. I tried contacting Customer Support since yesterday but no response, which takes me to the next point.

2- Customer Support: Horrible experience with this point particularly. I cannot open a customized issue ticket using this link because there is no box to type in ! Nothing appears, just a title that says:

     "We will pass your question on to one of our agents who will personally reply to you as soon as possible."

So instead, I have to talk to the bot for a couple of times until he posts a ticket on my behalf, with a title as vague and bland as 'Freelance - Upwork Help'. But anyway, I did it, customer support are still taking ages to reply although I already waited for the money for so long. 

3- Bidding system to make appliance for jobs even worse: Just why ? why this scheme exactly ? Who does it benefit other than freelancers who already make a lot of money to buy their own connects ? This is killing the transparency and equality among freelancers and it's putting some ahead of others.

4- Job Success Score: Has Upwork ever disclosed about how JSS is calculated ? Never. I've had several contracts since 2021 and all of them ended in a good way. Some clients go unresponsive and not leave a review, but those who don't, always leave a 5-star review. However, my JSS was 76% even after a myriad of 5-star reviews. I am a perfectionist so I never apply to jobs that I can't perfect or do, however, Upwork seems to have another opinion. I don't know what's going on but it seems like Upwork forgot they're cutting 20% off of Freelancers' money and not really doing charity.

[#2]

4 - no, your clients have a different opinion and didn't give you good private feedback. 

[#3]

That's what I suspected too. I have 15 jobs overall, with either no feedback at all or 5 star reviews. But one of them ended in a dispute due to a huge misunderstanding with a client, his review is what probably threw my JSS back to 73% from 100%. Upwork ended up believing his statements, but to me, he was just a lunatic, no idea why this platform gives priority to clients first.

It's been months, and to this moment, I am still trying to recover from that one hiccup, my JSS is gradually increasing but I am still unable to apply for premium jobs.

[#4]

Agree

[#5 · Accepted solution]

Hi Sidena,

I'm sorry to hear about your recent experience with your payment method. As you mentioned, I can see that you've already raised a support ticket regarding your concern. You can access your support tickets here. Note that support requests are responded to in the order they are received. Kindly allow 24-48 hours for the team to follow up with you and assist you further.

Regarding the Boosted Proposals feature, our team recently launched a test to increase transparency around bidding in Boosted Proposals to help you make a more informed decision around spending Connects. You can check out the product update about this test here, and this thread if you wish to share your feedback about the update. 

Lastly, please know that your JSS can change because:

• You receive poor public or private feedback from one or more clients.
• You receive very positive public or private feedback from one or more clients.
• A higher-value job is added to your score and outweighs lower-value jobs.
• Jobs you completed in the past are no longer considered because they are outside the score's time frame.

You can find more information under the "Why did my JSS change?" section in this help article. To ensure fairness and avoid manipulation, we don’t share the specifics about how we calculate the Job Success Score. Thanks for your understanding.

[#6]

Poor service.