Why do so many clients post a job and then disappear?

[374b5efb]

Job title like: XXX - Urgent Request Or Need help XXX.

They post a job but never check proposals.

[arsalan-m]

Let me know too when you find the answer.

[374b5efb]

9 proposals without responding, even if all clients are payment verified and have completed jobs. I still can't understand why they do that if they are real humans. If I'm a client, I'll post a job, view all proposals, and discuss technique details with one freelancer. They all behave just like bots.

[hoyle_editing]

Firstly, ignore the whole payment verified thing - it tells you nothing of any relevance. Think about it, many new clients will not register a card until they need to pay something. I have had many unverified clients (obviously work doesnt start until everything is verified and setup).

I think clients dissapear for a number of reasons...

• Found a freelancer on anotehr site or through another source before checking back here.
• Things changed and they decided not to do the work.
• Read a bunch of terrible proposals and decded not to waste anymore time.

Ultimately it could be anything, and yes it would be nice if they actually closed the job when this happens. I personally think the biggest cause is Upwork opening the floodgates to anyone that wants to attempt being a freelancer. its since then that there has been such a change IMO.

Clients used to come here to find a professional to fulfill a role/job. Unfortunately whilst there are still many professionals working on the platform that are more than capable of completing the same tasks clients wanted doing a few years ago, there are now an over-ubundance of non-professional freelancers that a client is going to have to sift through to find the odd gem.

If I was a client wanting a job done, I would likely come to a platform like Upwork to fulfil my needs in a quick easy and straightforward manner.

However, these days I would arrive, be met by a whole host of weird and wonderful badges and programs supposedly designed to make my life easy. I would post my job and quickly see that upwork value a freelancers wallet (boosted posts) more than their skill set or JSS score. Id then start to look through the proposals and whilst i cant comment on exactly what id find, i suspect from the comments i see here there would be a lot of ChatGPT written proposals, proposals people that almost beg me to let them do the job, proposals that clearly didnt read what the actual job is or from people that advertise a completely different skillset to what im asking for. IF after all this i decide to look at more, maybe i will find the professionals, but in all honesty I probably already went to fiver!

[debi-f · Accepted solution]

Because Upwork allows them to do it, clients are not rated as we are. Upwork wants to show that there are a lot of clients, no matter if they are scammers, if they hire or not. The issue is that the freelancers apply, pay for buying connects, or pay a membership, etc. There are freelancers that buy connects and boost their bids with 50 connects, sometimes for a scam job. Upwork earns money anyway, no matter what happens after that.

So, check the client's profile before applying (if he hired before or not, if he has his payment verified, the feedbacks he received, since when is member at Upwork, etc).

Don't apply if it doesn't fit well your skills, don't buy connects and don't boost your bids.