Solved: How many slip-ups before your upwork account ...

srhzaidi · ‎01-07-2018

I made a colossal mistake. I kept on pestering this client to continue to keep on working with me after they had ended the contract and asked for a refund. I gave them a refund but the client ended up blocking me.

Now reading through the community guidelines I realize that I did something that is completely unacceptable according to them.

Now I am very much afraid that my account might get suspended soon. I already don't win that many bids and this was my first ever client on this website but it ended up really badly.

I don't want my account to get suspended. What should I do?

kat303 · ‎01-07-2018

In another post by you, you state that you are not highly qualified at the moment, you’re hoping to pick up any sort of a job to gain some experience and improve your skills. And you are bidding as low as possible to get any type of job And now, you state that the first job you were able to get, for a measly $5 didn’t turn out good, and not only resulted in you refunding the money back, BUT resulted in you harassing the client to the point where they had to block you.

IMO, and not to be rude, but you need to learn how to manage your emotions and improve your customer skills. And IMO I do not think you are cut out to be a freelancer at this point in time. There are thousands of freelancers like yourself, some with skills and experience and some without. They are a dime a dozen on this site. There is nothing that is going to make you stand out. And you will, if you do happen to get lucky will either get scammed, or you will get hired by a “cheap” client and that combination will only cause problems and result in bad feedback or a job going horrible wrong.

I would suggest that you take a break, get some skills and experience so you’ll stand out from all the other low bidding no skills/experience freelancers and then come back here in a few years.

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petra_r · ‎01-07-2018

@Raza Z wrote:
I made a colossal mistake. I kept on pestering this client to continue to keep on working with me after they had ended the contract and asked for a refund. I gave them a refund but the client ended up blocking me.
What should I do?

Hope the cient didn't report you and try to behave in a professional manner in the future.

holymell · ‎01-07-2018

Maybe don't harass clients for any reason ever? Like, how did you think that would turn out? I can't imagine doing that.

You might get suspended, you might not. But your success score will be very low when/if you get one, so be prepared for that.

Though I have to say, if you can't handle client communications, you might want to think about if you're cut out for freelancing, and I'm not trying to be rude. Just totally baffled that you didn't care that you mistreated a client until you read that it was wrong to do so. If you do get suspended you probably should accept it, take responsibility and move on to greener pastures.

petra_r · ‎01-07-2018

And all this rubbish over a $ 5 job... It probably cost the client much more than that in valuable time to desperately try and find a way to stop being tortured by the OP...

srhzaidi · ‎01-07-2018

He was expecting far too much for far too little money.

If I was the expert he was looking for, I probably wouldn't have bid $5 on his $20 budget job.

petra_r · ‎01-08-2018

@Raza Z wrote:
He was expecting far too much for far too little money.

Well, no. You bid that price. Did you think that by bidding a quarter of the budget you could deliver a quarter of the quality? If you bid less than the work warrants that is your problem.

srhzaidi · ‎01-08-2018

I do understand and I do understand it was my fault.

I aim to not make the same mistake again.

Thanks and Best Regards.

kat303 · ‎01-07-2018

In another post by you, you state that you are not highly qualified at the moment, you’re hoping to pick up any sort of a job to gain some experience and improve your skills. And you are bidding as low as possible to get any type of job And now, you state that the first job you were able to get, for a measly $5 didn’t turn out good, and not only resulted in you refunding the money back, BUT resulted in you harassing the client to the point where they had to block you.

IMO, and not to be rude, but you need to learn how to manage your emotions and improve your customer skills. And IMO I do not think you are cut out to be a freelancer at this point in time. There are thousands of freelancers like yourself, some with skills and experience and some without. They are a dime a dozen on this site. There is nothing that is going to make you stand out. And you will, if you do happen to get lucky will either get scammed, or you will get hired by a “cheap” client and that combination will only cause problems and result in bad feedback or a job going horrible wrong.

I would suggest that you take a break, get some skills and experience so you’ll stand out from all the other low bidding no skills/experience freelancers and then come back here in a few years.

srhzaidi · ‎01-07-2018

Yes, Kathy I do understand and that is what I plan on doing.

I checked my stats, and currently I am getting profile views but not jobs, so I obviously have to improve my portfolio in order to get some.

I have begun work on it and it could be a few months before I get any better. That is when I actually plan on starting to bid again. If I don't get good enough till then I probably won't. I just don't want to get my account suspended along the way and I learned it the hard way to be really on time or keep communicating with the client regarding the job you are getting done. In this scenario I did not communicate with the client in over two weeks but was working very hard to get his job done. Unfortunately it amounted to nothing and has probably put my account at risk also.

Thanks all for your help and assistance.

Best Regards.

jmlaidlaw · ‎01-08-2018

@ Raza -- Do I correctly understand that you worked two weeks on a job that paid $5?

srhzaidi · ‎01-08-2018

😄 Yes, and I was willing to work on it even longer. Unfortunately this was only due to the reason of time wasting on my part than anything else. I could have gotten this done inside 2 days.

jmlaidlaw · ‎01-09-2018

Quote: @ Raza -- Do I correctly understand that you worked two weeks on a job that paid $5?

Quote: Jan 8, 2018 by Raza Z

Yes, and I was willing to work on it even longer. Unfortunately this was only due to the reason of time wasting on my part than anything else. I could have gotten this done inside 2 days.

Just a thought, here: You might want to reconsider the whole idea of freelancing. After UpWork's 20%, you made $4 on that two-week job. Let's leave aside taxes for the moment. That means you were working for 40 cents a day. I'm not sure that you really understand the whole concept of earnings and profit.

srhzaidi · ‎01-09-2018

That's not what it is and that is not what I was looking for.

I was just looking for an experience and I got it.

Thanks for all your assistance.

Best Regards.

How many slip-ups before your upwork account gets suspended?