What the Heck is Going on with Invitations to Interview?

[iaabraham]

I’m encountering several problems when someone invites me to interview for a job:

- For 1 single invitation, 3 messages show up in my Upwork inbox and I get 2 separate emails (all saying the same thing).

- Initially, whenever I try to decline a job, it says, “The two given tokens do not match,” and I have to refresh and decline once or twice again before it declines properly.

- After I’ve declined the job, it's still showing up on my home page / Find Jobs page under “Interviews” and well as under “Invitations to Interview” on my Proposals page. (Even after refreshing these pages several times.)

Anyone else experiencing the same thing?

[lanwanman]

Hi Isabelle! I am experiencing the same thing i.e., each invitation with multiple emails tied to the Upwork messaging system, occasional token miss-matches (caused primarily by the Web browser), etc.

It is a poor way for Upwork to handle invitations especially because we are supposed to reply to clients within 24 hours, and we are rated accordingly. Personally, I ignore the messaging system and just handle the invitations themselves.

If I were to accept a hire here on Upwork, one of my terms would involve using personal email and not the Upwork messaging system due to its cumbersome, problematic implementation. Of course, as anyone can see that is one of the reasons I have so much work here on Upwork...lol....

[colettelewis]

I get this every time. It is particularly irritating when invitations (not yet answered) clutter up one'smessage box with ongoing conversations or with existing clients.

This tripling up of invitations stopped for a while, but is now back with a vengeance!

[vladag]

Hi all,

To clarify, two of the emails are correct as the first one is for the invitation from Upwork and the second one for the message notification. We are working on resolving an issue that is duplicating the message notification.

If you're still experiencing the problem with declining invites after clearing cache and cookies, please check in with Support so we take a look.

[lanwanman]

Thanks for the info Vladimir. Also, there are related posts at "Issues with submitting proposals" https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Issues-with-submitting-proposals/td-p/167763/page/3

[oquintela]

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@Vladimir G wrote:

Hi all,

To clarify, two of the emails are correct as the first one is for the invitation from Upwork and the second one for the message notification. We are working on resolving an issue that is duplicating the message notification. […]

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 I don't understand, Vladimir. Two emails being sent is something that started around mid-December - Please check this thread

Double invites

Valeria told us that "the fix for this problem will only be released early new year." - and it was: on Jan 26. But last Saturday I started receiving two emails again... I thought that the "fix" didn't work that well, but now you are saying that's normal, and so I come to realise that I should probably feel happy because I'm not getting 3 messages for the same invitation????

[colettelewis]

I sometimes get five notifications for one invitation (as per the last one). Two in my private email and three on my message page. And it has nothing to do with cache and cookies, which I am constantly clearing and which automatically get cleared every time I log off.

[oquintela]

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@Nichola L wrote:

I sometimes get five notifications for one invitation (as per the last one). Two in my private email and three on my message page. And it has nothing to do with cache and cookies, which I am constantly clearing and which automatically get cleared every time I log off.

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Wow! 5???? Please, is this going to stop or should we prepare ourselves to see an ever increasing number of messages????

PS. A couple of minutes ago I was honored with my first batch of 3 messages

[david_gregory]

I get three messages per invite as well. I think I'm back on top of the search list because I'm getting a lot of invites again, unfortunately, most of them don't fit.

The other thing is that these invite messages are still showing up in my message page even though I've declined them. This means I have to search through all these messages from clients that I have no intention of working with to find the messages for the clients that I am working with.

I really miss the old system. It worked so well. I never had problems finding messages or the message thread. Now, it's all a big mess. I hate to harp on the good ole days but can we have the old message system back. If we can't, can you at least clean the messages up a bit.

[tgstudio]

I get 3 everytime. My phone lights up like a pinball machine.

[yitwail]

I also get them in threes. This morning, there were 3 sets of three, and they all start this way:

"I'd like to personally invite you to apply to my job. Please review the job post and apply if you're available."

Unless these 3 clients were separated at birth, I don't think they were "personally" inviting me. This Upwork generated invitation template should instead say,

"I'm sending this boilerplate invitation to every freelancer Upwork recommended for my job. Please review the job post and apply if you're available AND a good fit."

And I do have to go read these and decline them just in case it's something I could work on, because these boilerplate invites contain no details. 

[oquintela]

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@John K wrote:

[…] And I do have to go read these and decline them just in case it's something I could work on, because these boilerplate invites contain no details. 

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 And there's the "proposal", John  

[lisawerk]

I agree, the multiple emails/messages are annoying, but it's especially frustrating when the different messages appear like they come from different people. For example, one email will show from 'Client X' while the next message or two will show from 'Company X.' So I'm left wondering exactly how many invites I've actually received.

None of that is as frustrating as the system once I sign into Upwork. Sometimes I have 2 invites and 7 messages, sometimes 3 invites and only 3 messages. Sometimes I click on an invite and it neatly takes me through each invitation so I can decline. Other times I decline and it resets me back to the Find Work page and I have to go in and select each invite.

At the end of the day it's not a big deal. There are other issues that I would rather have fixed first. It would just be really nice to know which elements are 'features' and which are 'glitches.' Then I would know what to report and what to just deal with.

[david_gregory]

Well I just got one message from a client but the message counter said I had five messages waiting. As soon as I read the one message, all the others seemed to magically disappear.

[oquintela]

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@Lisa W wrote:

I agree, the multiple emails/messages are annoying, but it's especially frustrating when the different messages appear like they come from different people. For example, one email will show from 'Client X' while the next message or two will show from 'Company X.' So I'm left wondering exactly how many invites I've actually received.

None of that is as frustrating as the system once I sign into Upwork. Sometimes I have 2 invites and 7 messages, sometimes 3 invites and only 3 messages. Sometimes I click on an invite and it neatly takes me through each invitation so I can decline. Other times I decline and it resets me back to the Find Work page and I have to go in and select each invite.

At the end of the day it's not a big deal. There are other issues that I would rather have fixed first. It would just be really nice to know which elements are 'features' and which are 'glitches.' Then I would know what to report and what to just deal with.

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 Lisa, you're the epitome of patience! 

[lisawerk]

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@Olga Q wrote:

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 Lisa, you're the epitome of patience! 

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 Haha, only if you ignore my posts about the proposal system! I think it's clear that there are multiple problems on this platform. I save my impatience for the ones I really dislike. 🙂

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi All,

The issue that caused notifications for invites to be sent 3 times has been resolved. Please, let us know if you are still experiencing the issue.

[stephenbrightman]

. It would just be really nice to know which elements are 'features' and which are 'glitches.'

A feature is a glitch that they've given up on fixing.

[oquintela]

I got an invitation today, with one single message being sent - let's hope it's not temporary...

[katrinabeaver]

Me too!!! Looks like they got it fixed.

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@Olga Q wrote:

I got an invitation today, with one single message being sent - let's hope it's not temporary...

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[iaabraham]

Hi Valeria,

Thanks for the update. I will wait for another invitation to see if the 3-message error is indeed fixed.

I don't understand, though, why we need 2 emails for one invitation? Vlad says one's an invitation from Upwork and the other one's a message notification - but can't they be combined, especially since they say the same thing?

[vladag]

Hi Isabelle Anne,

Valeria responded correctly and I see how my explanation created a bit of confusion. That was the process we corrected and only one email notification should be sent per invite.

Thanks.

[lenaellis]

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for your feedback on email notifications. We spoke with the Messages Team and would like your input regarding email notifications for job invitations. 

Here's how it's supposed to work today (Note: we did have a bug earlier this week that was causing  extra emails to get sent). 

1. As a freelancer, you are invited to a job. 

2. You'll see this in Upwork Messages and this is the only notification you see unless you have set up an email notification for unread messages. If you do have email notifications activated, and you didn't read the message in Messages, we send you an email about that unread message.

Here's where we'd like your input:

Do you expect to receive a separate email about the invitation as well? That is, are you expecting an email notification in your inbox, regardless of whether or not you’ve already read the message on Upwork Messages and have the email notifications set up? 

This means for those who do not have email notifications for unread messages set up, you will only receive one email. For those who do, if you haven’t read the message, you will receive an additional email from Messages notifying you of the unread message.

You can answer w/ a simple "Yes" or "No" as described below or give us more info on your preference.

• Yes, I expect to get a separate email about the notification in addition to the message in Messages.

• No, just the message in my Messages is enough.

[iaabraham]

Thanks Lena for getting back to us.

If I understood your question correctly, my answer is NO, just the message in my Messages is enough.

However, I'm wondering why a job invitation has to appear in my Messages at all? Especially when the "message" is just a copy-paste invite?

Can't we just have a notifcation about the invite (one email and a yellow notification under that little bell icon in the top bar of the site)? Maybe I'm one of the few who would prefer it that way, but isn't that how it used to be in the past?

[oquintela]

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@Isabelle Anne A wrote:

[…]

Can't we just have a notifcation about the invite (one email and a yellow notification under that little bell icon in the top bar of the site)? Maybe I'm one of the few who would prefer it that way, but isn't that how it used to be in the past?

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 I agree with Isabelle.

[researchediting]

Lena,

Thanks for asking. I'd have to say yes.

Partly that's an application of Stephen B's belt-and braces-approach, since delivery of both email and messages is repeatedly reported as unreliable.

Also, while it's true that most clients choose Upwork's faux-personalized cover letter, a few write their own and give substantive information. I'd rather read that in my email inbox, if that's where I see it first, before deciding whether to shlep to messages.

Best,

Michael

[lisawerk]

I'm with Isabelle on this. I only need one notification per invite. I'm not sure I understand why I even have a message thread for a client before I've accepted an invitation.

I would like ONE email notification when I get a message. If, for some reason it's deemed necessary to open up a new message room when a client sends an invitation, then I only need ONE message telling me there's something to look at, not one for the invite and another for the message alert.

Ideally, a message room would only be activated once I've accepted an invite. In that case, I would receive ONE email to notify me that an invte has been offered, with a link to accept or decline, and zero notifications of a message since there would be no message room until I take action on the invite.

[xahntra]

With the daily problems I have with the messaging system I'd rather get an email when I get an invitation.

[svenimp]

You guys are getting  invitations???? Wasn't sure if I somehow made up a memeory of those existing or not...

[iaabraham]

Not sure what's going on now. After accepting an invitation to interview (with a message), a new room was created in the messaging center with a message notification, but it consisted of only the invitation and the message that I sent.

Is this normal?

[iaabraham]

Another issue: when a client approves a milestone / releases funds, I get TWO email notifications about it:

1. "The last submission of milestone --- of contract --- has been approved." (Because of a message that pops up in my inbox.)

2. "Contract Action Taken By ---": Last submission has been approved, blah blah blah.

[kochubei_valeria]

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@Isabelle Anne A wrote:
Another issue: when a client approves a milestone / releases funds, I get TWO email notifications about it:

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Hi Isabelle Anne,

It is currently working as designed and similar to the way you are notified for invites. You receive one email for the notification about a released milestone and one email about the message (unless you set your preferences not to receive notifications for unread messages).

[iaabraham]

@Valeria, sorry to revive this again. I came here to complain about receiving 2 emails when a client approves a milestone, but I see you've already explained why.

What I don't understand is why must a milestone approval go into our messages/inbox as a notification? It's not actually a message anyway - it's more appropriate as a "contract action taken by" notification.

It's very annoying to receive 2 emails for each milestone approval, and I don't want to change my notification preferences because I need to know when I have (real) unread messages.

Could you suggest this to the team? (Assuming no one disagrees with me.)

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Isabelle Anne,

The team is planning on turning off the duplicate notifications later this year once they make some improvements to the Message system. For now both notifications will be sent, unless specified differently in Settings, to make sure the user is informed about an event.

I am sorry about the inconvenience this causes.