"Everythings great! Here, let me trash your score"

[numbsain]

WHy would a client tell me everything is going great, they love the work, they give me minor changes and i do them and they say they are happy. Everything's fine, I meet their deadline, I'm even awake when they are and always available even though we are on oppoeite hemispheres!

WHy would they give me a 4 on all counts? If they tell me everything is perfect how can I make it right?

has this happened to anyone else? And the solution is to have a big blemish on your list of reviews "This feedback has been removed" Lovely Upwork! That looks worse than bad feedback! It also alerts the next scammer that comes along that they can blackmail you with bad feedback. for 3 months. So discouraging.

[petryliak-victor]

4 stars is not bad. no need to delete it, I think. 
also, I bet mostly clients understand that 4 is a good. although, it could hurt your jss. 

[boshoffirene]

Some people don't give 5 stars - no matter what you do. They WILL think up something you coulda done better. Don't sweat it. Besides, it is the private feedback that counts in the end.

[numbsain]

exactly! That's the kind of people i'm talking about in my last diatribe. The ones who see their success as a finite pool that must be guarded jealously and the best way to do that is to kick anyone who looks like they might be climbing the ladder off. Same people who think their happiness can be obtained at the expense of someone elses. That's what they are taught from early on so they really know not what they do. God bless them. 

[colettelewis · Accepted solution]

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@Ray C wrote:

WHy would a client tell me everything is going great, they love the work, they give me minor changes and i do them and they say they are happy. Everything's fine, I meet their deadline, I'm even awake when they are and always available even though we are on oppoeite hemispheres!

WHy would they give me a 4 on all counts? If they tell me everything is perfect how can I make it right?

has this happened to anyone else? And the solution is to have a big blemish on your list of reviews "This feedback has been removed" Lovely Upwork! That looks worse than bad feedback! It also alerts the next scammer that comes along that they can blackmail you with bad feedback. for 3 months. So discouraging.

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 ______________________________________

Not that this is any comfort, but the other day I was browsing a profile and a client gave a freelancer 4/5, praised her to the skies, said he'd recommend her to anyone, and that on principle never gave a 5/5. One wonders what  sort of principles these might be. 

All the same, the problem with the JSS does not lie (generally) in the client's assessment, but the algorithm's.

That said, there do seem to be more and more inexperienced clients who have unrealistic ideas about perfection. 

[luce-neidert]

I have customers that seem to like what I do but don't seem to understand that we poor Upwork freelancers need that 5 star feedback (just for that stupid JSS, really). When I ask them about their feedback, they are surprised because they thought it was excellent. So I've decided not to worry too much about it, as long as my JSS stays above 90, it's not worth making a fuss.

[numbsain]

I disagree once you get below 90 you have to work twice as hard. its not a fair system. anyway i explaineed to my client what the 4 would do to my JSS and how it would affect me and she simply didn't realize and changed it to all 5s and gave me a rave review! it was the right thing to do because i had done a good job for her. i did everything she asked and more. so it ended well. I won't take a client if they seem hostile or cold. I treat clients like friends but professional and once i take the job, even if the money is low, I am their trusted business partner for the duration of the job and beyond. I will tell a client they are wasting their money even if it costs me the job. And i expect them to appreciate that. Though i have the most trouble with the cheapest clients. Thanks you guys for the perspectives.

[petra_r]

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@Ray C wrote:

 anyway i explaineed to my client what the 4 would do to my JSS and how it would affect me and she simply didn't realize and changed it to all 5s and gave me a rave review! .

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 Remember that the private feedback is a huge part of the equation and can NOT be changed.

I guess you'll see on Sunday...

[luce-neidert]

Petra, this is a cruel reminder!

[numbsain]

True but i trust this client. That's why it was so shocking to me.  I knew it had to be a misunderstanding. Yeah that private feedback is weird too because only the algorithm knows your fate. What it is is the whole system is predicated on the assumption that freelancers are loose cannons, sleazy fly-by-nights who are here to get away with as much as they can because that's what desperados do.  So all the failsafes are designed to protect the client. They talk about how freelancing is the wave of the future. But their vision of the future has freelancers taking on all the overhead, all the liabiliity, all the risk but still making minimum wage and at the mercy of the "boss" which is the middle management position their vision assigns to the client. Slaves and kings is an unsustainable model for a functional society with a strong economy and they all know it but they just wanna grab a few more bucks before they decide to play fair. And they'll do that forever 

[numbsain]

That's what i have thought all along, Nicola, you can get eight 5 star reviews in a row and your score doesn't budge. but one novice client can't explain what he wants and gives you a bad score to save face and your jss drops 3 points. I've been doing my job for 20 years and some kid rejects the job because I made it blue and he forgot to tell me he wanted red and that reflects on me??? ! it would take 2 seconds to change the color but he's already asked for a refund and is nowhere to be found. it's utterly preposterous. 

And there is zero oversight so clients can do whatever they please and the only way we can stop them is by paying $300 for an arbitration which you lose even if you win. And i did a near freebee job for one client because he promised to put me in a talent cloud and said i'd get a lot of work from him. Why did i believe him? Because Upwork recommended him and referred him to me. I rushed the job, overdelivered, he loved it, never saw him again. we are literally chopped liver haha!

[boshoffirene]

I literally take any promises made to me by clients with a pinch of salt. If they come through and deliver I am pleasantly surprised. If not...hey, didn't expect them to in the first place.

[mthornton-cpc]

This gets back to what Nichola and Irene mentioned - there are always those clients who will never give 5/5 to anyone no matter what. I remember teachers like that in school. Got 95-100% on all my work, but one in particular would never round up.