I've had the same problem. After about 2-3 months of inactivity, I received a 'warning' from Customer Support that they had determined my performance to be what they said was "below average", and that I would need to pick up work and complete it successfully within the next 3 months or risk a suspension. oDesk is not my primary platform for finding clients so I've only done about 6-8 contracts here in my lifetime; all of my public feedback has been in the 4.5-5-star range except for one job that went poorly for both me and the client. Overall, my average was within spitting range of 4-stars.
The only contracts I have canceled are a single one where the client wentinactive for a very long period of time (6+ months) and cannot be contacted and did not end the contract themselves, and one where oDesk suspended a client I had just met with no explanation and no Customer Service representatives willing to tell either of us what had happened.
I have had zero disputes on any contracts.
In handling the issue, oDesk's customer support team has been very disrespectful and seems to seldom read the actual messages I send them. They have done everything from attempt to read scripts to me to outright misinform and misdirect me, often referring me to other tickets that were marked as closed by the support team itself and telling me to resolve the dispute there. One representative made the (false) claim that all accounts undergo a probationary suspension review and that "I should not worry."
No one on the Support team has been willing to tell me precisely what criteria they have deemed insufficient and would like to see improve.
Multiple representatives ordered me to work on oDesk within the next 3 months to "improve the quality of my work" despite being informed that I had multiple ongoing contracts with clients who were not met through, and do not work through oDesk. I told them I would be willing to cooperate and listen to their concerns but that ordering me to take work with oDesk is unreasonable when clients from other resources need me on jobs for them. The same line was fed to me over and over again: "Accept contracts on oDesk or you will be suspended and placed under review."
Three months passed while I was working with these clients, and viola, I was placed "under review". Customer service told me to finish or close all existing contracts and contact their review team through e-mail; I closed two existing contracts and did just this. The "review team" member? Another customer support agent who did not read, and told me to go back to the existing ticket, despite the fact that the other customer support agent had told me to send an e-mail to their department.
This experience has been severely disappointing, and makes me regret ever having decided to try and work with oDesk in the past. Some of my most honest, small-business, and kindest clients have been hurt by poor administrative processes and poor customer support like this, and now I've been hurt by them too. Meanwhile, big-money clients who tried to demand free work through "Trial periods" and an entire job feed of mobile app plagarism fill my front page whenever I log in to check messages from Support. Is this really where your priorities lie?
Member Since: Mar 6, 2014
