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3b9df6d9
Community Member

Advice on a client

Hello everyone,

I am very new to the freelancing world and wanted you advice on a matter. I received my first gig on here within a few hours of signing up and sending out proposals. The gig involves writing articles about video games. They didn’t specify the length or volume, and so I applied within their budget.

Afterwards, they sent me a message linking me to move communications to email, saying that for $25 they expect five articles, each within three days. In exchange, they will give me a five star review as well.

They asked me to sign an NDA agreement form before 10pm my time, yet sent it via email at 10:15pm. I’ve signed up to become an article blogger on their website now but just wanted to confirm as a complete newcomer if this sounds off to any of you and if so, what advice you’d offer from here?

Thanks in advance.
ACCEPTED SOLUTION


Hana I wrote:

Hi Preston, 

 

Thank you for your reply. 

 

Having read through your message, it seems like I have not been 'hired' yet either. The job is still under the active proposals section and is not yet in My Jobs. Should I contact the client regarding this? 

 

 


No, don't do that. Thank your lucky stars that spared you from a very bad experience. Don't do any work, never contact them again. 

View solution in original post

11 REPLIES 11
prestonhunter
Community Member

Hana:

You have already been hired.

You know this because when you look here:

Upwork -> My Jobs -> My Jobs

 

...You can see the job listing.

 

When you click on the job listing, you are able to see that $25 is funded in escrow.

$25 appears in the "Work in progress" box when you go here:

Upwork -> Reports -> Overview

 

re: "...what advice you’d offer from here?"

 

It looks like everything is fine for you to proceed.

Write the articles. Submit them to the client using the client's prescribed method. And click the green "Submit work for payment" button while also attaching a zip archive containing the article files.

Hi Preston, 

 

Thank you for your reply. 

 

Having read through your message, it seems like I have not been 'hired' yet either. The job is still under the active proposals section and is not yet in My Jobs. Should I contact the client regarding this? 

 

 


Hana I wrote:

Hi Preston, 

 

Thank you for your reply. 

 

Having read through your message, it seems like I have not been 'hired' yet either. The job is still under the active proposals section and is not yet in My Jobs. Should I contact the client regarding this? 

 

 


No, don't do that. Thank your lucky stars that spared you from a very bad experience. Don't do any work, never contact them again. 

Thank you very much for your advice Martina, I’m very grateful!
feed_my_eyes
Community Member

Hana, you live in London and you want to write articles for $5 each? This is about £3.50 after deducting Upwork's fees. You could get a job in the fast food industry that pays more than that. The client is underpaying you in return for the promise of a good review (and there's no way to hold them to this agreement either). And if this is fixed price, do you know yet how long the articles are, or how many revisions they might expect? Will you need to purchase any games or equipment in order to do the writing?

If a client doesn't provide any details in their job description, it's a huge mistake for you to assume that they've posted a fair budget. Never accept a contract without finding out exactly what's involved. You can place a bid and specify that it's just a placeholder or an estimate.

Adding to what Christine has said, the client is also violating Upwork's terms of service by offering to give a five-star review in lieu of payment. 

 

If you are now locked into this job, then write your articles, make sure you get paid for them, and then close the contract. I think you may be in for a bumpy ride on this one, so come back here if you have a problem with it. 

Hi Christine, 

 

Thank you for your reply. I've since seen that the proposal has remained in active proposals but is not yet listed under My Jobs. Do you think it's best for me to leave this job altogether until they officially 'hire' me so to speak? 

 

I do apologise for the naivety of my questions; as I've said, I'm very new to this. 

 

I appreciate you taking out the time to advise me on this mattter. 


Hana I wrote:

Hi Christine, 

 

Thank you for your reply. I've since seen that the proposal has remained in active proposals but is not yet listed under My Jobs. Do you think it's best for me to leave this job altogether until they officially 'hire' me so to speak? 

 

I do apologise for the naivety of my questions; as I've said, I'm very new to this. 

 

I appreciate you taking out the time to advise me on this mattter. 


If you haven't been hired via Upwork - signing up on somebody's website doesn't count - then no, you can't work for them. It's also against the terms of service for you and a client to exchange contact information prior to having an official contract in place, and if you agreed to be paid off of Upwork, you could have had your account permanently banned (not to mention that the client wouldn't have been able to leave you any review, so all of your underpaid work would have been in vain). I'd walk away from this one if I were you; there'll be other projects and other clients.

 

No, I wouldn’t agree to any payment outside of UpWork - thanks for your advice.
martina_plaschka
Community Member

There is nothing off about this except you got yourself a dirt cheap client, and that often leads to a bad experience. No serious client will promise good feedback up front, because they can't evaluate the work yet. It's a sign of somebody who only cares about getting cheap work, and not much else. Do your best, write the articles, and bow out gracefully as soon as you possibly can. Don't accept more work from this client after the first batch. If you believe the client is unhappy about this, don't end the contract right away.

Edit: also consider your future career in medicine. Your upwork work history will be there forever, and public. Only accept jobs that look good to a potential future employer.

roberty1y
Community Member

Luckiest escape I've ever seen. If the client had hired you, you could have been facing weeks or months of drudgery, under constant threat of a bad review if you didn't do more work. And there's a good chance you'd never have been paid - that's the most likely reason the client contacted you off Upwork and made no contract on the site. Upwork's main function is providing protection against that kind of thing. 

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