How to report a client after he deleted his rude message?

[nathannathan]

I spent half a day trying to find a solution for a client, this client not only didn't appreciate it at all but also was being rude. 

I wasn't hired, he never sent me the offer.  He said he would go with me so I didn't think this was a problem. Although I doubted that the client didn't know what he was doing because there were too many questions and the client didn't know how to answer them.

This was a small software project. He was told what he wants was not possible but I managed to find a working solution. A detailed explanation of how to prepare the system environment was given to him, then he hired someone to config his AWS server and asked me to test my script on it myself. Instead of giving me the ssh credentials, he gave me an AWS account, and it's not even the AWS server they are using. It took me half an hour trying to convince him and he finally found me the right server address. After I found that the system environment was still not ready, I send him the test script and tell him to ask the guy who deployed his server system to verify the problem. He asked several simple questions that I answered before and still can't understand the problem. I explained again, then he asked me to stop talking to him and start talking to the guy he hired.

He lost his mind after I explained again and told me my instructions were "the stupidest **bleep** ever". He deleted this rude message after I told him to find someone else to do the job.

Is there a way to report this deleted message? Or is there a way to report this client's inappropriate behavior?

[martina_plaschka]

What do you want to report him for? You were not hired, so there will be no negative effect on your JSS.

You had an unpleasant experience, and your ego was hurt, forget it and move on. 

[nathannathan]

To report his inappropriate language, this is not how you talk to someone who was trying to help and there should be consequences for this kind of inappropriate behavior.
I know there is a report button beside each message, but the rude messages were deleted.

[dreamseller]

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@Rui C wrote:
 

I wasn't hired, he never sent me the offer.  He said he would go with me so I didn't think this was a problem. 

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This is exactly where is the problem is. You weren't hired, what to report about? 

[nathannathan]

As I said in my question, to report his inappropriate behavior.  Besides ignoring it, there won't be any consequences if someone talks to you like this on Upwork?

[martina_plaschka]

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@Rui C wrote:

As I said in my question, to report his inappropriate behavior.  Besides ignoring it, there won't be any consequences if someone talks to you like this on Upwork?

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 Not unless there was a violation of upwork ToS.

What consequences would you like to see to heal your bruised ego?

[nathannathan]

My ego wasn't hurt at all and I'm not seeking revenge, it's not worthy of my time and energy. 

I'm just asking if there is a way to report a deleted message as inappropriate.  

[martina_plaschka]

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@Rui C wrote:

My ego wasn't hurt at all and I'm not seeking revenge, it's not worthy of my time and energy. 

I'm just asking if there is a way to report a deleted message as inappropriate.  

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 I don't see a way to report something that you can't prove. 

[nathannathan]

If you just tell me there's no such function then it's fine, no big deal.

But your answer implied that if I delete a message then it will be gone permanently and no record will be left on Upwork's chat server?  And this message will be deleted from Upwork's chat history database permanently? Even Upwork's backend engineers can't recover it?

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Rui,

I`m sorry to hear about the bad experience you had.
Please send me a PM with your client name and our team will investigate it further, if any violations are found proper actions will be taken. Thank you.

[nathannathan]

Hi Goran,

This is the only helpful reply I've received so far. I've PMed you the information you asked.

Thank you for your reply.

[martina_plaschka]

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@Rui C wrote:

Hi Goran,

This is the only helpful reply I've received so far. I've PMed you the information you asked.

Thank you for your reply.

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 The reason for this is that Goran is the only upwork employee that has answered you. The other posts were from freelancers like yourself, and are opinions. 

[nathannathan]

You said, "I don't see a way to report something that you can't prove." this answer made me curious. You mean if he deleted the messages then the proof is gone and I can't prove what he said, right?  What makes you think so? Is this something you know or it's just your guess? 

If it's true that a message will be gone permanently after you delete it, don't you think it's important to warn everybody and tell them to save their chat history as proof in case of future disagreements?

[martina_plaschka]

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@Rui C wrote:

You said, "I don't see a way to report something that you can't prove." this answer made me curious. You mean if he deleted the messages then the proof is gone and I can't prove what he said, right?  What makes you think so? Is this something you know or it's just your guess? 

If it's true that a message will be gone permanently after you delete it, don't you think it's important to warn everybody and tell them to save their chat history as proof in case of future disagreements?

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 I have based this statement on my prior life experiences, within upwork, as well as outside of upwork. 

Warning labels are a matter of contention. Would a warning label, before you had the reported experience, have caused you to behave differently? Would you have saved your conversation, at that point, not knowing if said saving would benefit you in the future, at that point in time not having had a negative experience? Or would said negative experience make you lament the fact that you never saved the conversation, but only in hindsight? 

I cannot answer this question for you. I think it touches on a more philosophical discussion - what do you expect in life? Do you expect good things in store for you (maybe by fate, or some other belief system), or bad things? It is a very personal question, maybe for some other time, and not for the forum. 

[purplepony]

Rui, unfortunately there are unappreciative ad/or rude people all over.  We can't control the actions of others; only of ourselves.  

If someone doesn't appreciate your efforts, stop trying to please them (as it appears you finally did.)  If they don't appreciate you, they don't deserve you.  Furthermore that which does not kill us (or significantly harm us emotionally/physically) makes us stronger.

It appears that he never really was an actual Client of yours.  If that's the case, be grateful that you dodged a much larger caliber bullet than you were actually hit with.

[nathannathan]

Thank you for sharing your wisdom with me! Pat.  I'm not mad at this client or this thing, I'm beyond that. I just want to know if it's possible to report a client's inappropriate message after he deleted it. 

[nathannathan]

I appreciate your effort. But again, you didn't answer my simple question, do you know for sure if a client deletes his messages then there is no way to prove what he said?  This is important to me. I'll ask someone else if you are not sure about this.

If you really think a warning label doesn't matter and won't change anything, that's fine, but for anyone who is reading this, always remember to preserve evidence.

BTW, I did save the conversation.

[emiguelina]

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@Rui C wrote:

I appreciate your effort. But again, you didn't answer my simple question, do you know for sure if a client deletes his messages then there is no way to prove what he said?  This is important to me. I'll ask someone else if you are not sure about this.

If you really think a warning label doesn't matter and won't change anything, that's fine, but for anyone who is reading this, always remember to preserve evidence.

BTW, I did save the conversation.

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Rui, I receive an email for every single message, unless I have that specific room open while texting with the client.

So, if a client, deletes or changes any message, I got the original. Not sure if this applies to your specific case.

[nathannathan]

Thank you, Elba. This is very helpful information.

[purplepony]

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@Rui C wrote:

I appreciate your effort. But again, you didn't answer my simple question, do you know for sure if a client deletes his messages then there is no way to prove what he said?  This is important to me. I'll ask someone else if you are not sure about this.

If you really think a warning label doesn't matter and won't change anything, that's fine, but for anyone who is reading this, always remember to preserve evidence.

BTW, I did save the conversation.

_______________________________________________________________________

Rui, I believe you may have posted this in response to my post but am not certain.  As another Freelancer stated we're all FL's on your thread except for Goran who is an UW employee.  Employees have this symbol to the right of their names: 

As FL's we try to be of assistance but are not in the Community 24/7 as we have UW projects, etc. to work on as well as having other life.  It appears that Elba was helpful to you which is super.  

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[nathannathan]

All right, I guess you don't know if it's true, or you would have given me
a direct answer. Thanks anyway, Martina, I appreciate your effort.