Worth chasing this one?

raofdesigns · ‎05-26-2020

So I'm in the process of closing up old contracts as I read this harms your JSS to keep them open. I found one back from December, in which a $250 milestone hadn't been funded. Here's the thing, it was a really unpleasant experience working for this client. When I googled him, I found he had scammed holidaymakers with fake Airbnb's too. So, to be honest I'm not keen on dealing with him. So, my question is... do I ask him to sort it, or let it go seen as it's been a while? Bad Upwork reviews especially during the current climate are a really terrifying prospect. I'm actually afraid to even end the contract with him in case I get a bad one. I've never had a client who doesn't fund their milestones before either. Most people are thankfully great to work with. **Edited for Community Guidelines**

mwiggenhorn · ‎05-26-2020

The bottom line is to never work on unfunded milestones. I don't see you getting paid for it.

raofdesigns · ‎05-26-2020

Yeah, I never normally do. I was trying to get everything completed because after he funded the first milestone it turned into a nightmare. Thanks for your advice.

gilbert-phyllis · ‎05-26-2020

Rachael, are you closing multiple contracts yourself, at one time or in quick succession? Best to avoid doing that. They are very unlikely to harm your JSS sitting idle, as long as something was ever paid. If the clients fail to come back and leave feedback, however, then a cluster of no-feedback contracts is more likely to have a negative effect. Personally, I leave them alone because it doesn't bother me to have them sitting there. If you want to close them (which is reasonable, many people do), do it one at a time, making sure you have newly closed contracts with feedback in between. That way, if clients fail to leave fb, it won't matter.

raofdesigns · ‎05-26-2020

Oh really? I didn't know that, thanks Phyllis. I just closed one but I have 10-15 from the end of last year. My JSS score randomly fell and I read that this can be due to old contracts sitting there.

gilbert-phyllis · ‎05-26-2020

Rachael O wrote:
Oh really? I didn't know that, thanks Phyllis. I just closed one but I have 10-15 from the end of last year. My JSS score randomly fell and I read that this can be due to old contracts sitting there.

I've had old contracts sit open until they fell out of the 24-month window, with no effect. If contracts with great fb fall out of your calculation window and you don't have an equal number of new ones with great fb coming in, your JSS can drop. Important to remember clients can give you five stars in public along with lower private fb. Also, it was my understanding when they changed the JSS calculation formula to weight contracts by dollar value, it was possible for one's JSS to drop. That was a few months ago, though. But if that re-calculation coincided with some great jobs falling out of the window, then you could have a drop.

How long ago did it drop? If you are TR and your JSS drops below 90, you have two weeks to use the feedback removal perk. In that scenario, if you can figure out which feedback caused the drop, you can get back up immediately.

raofdesigns · ‎05-26-2020

It dropped a couple of days ago. I haven't had any bad feedback since about September. I'd really like to get my top rated status back, but everytime I get well above 90% it drops again.