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egor-n
Community Member

Communication outside of Upwork

Hello,

One client is requiring whatsapp communication to let his developers have a discussion with me.

 

He says following:

"We need a voice interview, and the ther team members are not on upwork. I am located in Bat Area, and my team is in Texas, and Arizona. They have no idea what upwork even is."

 

We didn't start contract yet because his developers didin't check me.

 

I would like to know whether it is violation of Upwork policy or not.

 

Thanks.

Egor

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
feed_my_eyes
Community Member

Yes, it's a violation of Upwork policy to discuss the project on Whats App before the contract is awarded. Your client can add his other team members to the message board and start a call from there; it's very easy. They don't need to have Upwork accounts.

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31 REPLIES 31
feed_my_eyes
Community Member

Yes, it's a violation of Upwork policy to discuss the project on Whats App before the contract is awarded. Your client can add his other team members to the message board and start a call from there; it's very easy. They don't need to have Upwork accounts.

Thank you for your answer Christine.

Can you let me know how to add his members to Upwork without upwork account ?

 

Thanks

Hi Christine.

 

I have a question regarding Upwork communication also. So, we started the contract, I did the job, we finished the contract and gave each other feedback. It was something basic and short. Then he asked me for a Whatsapp number so he can text me if something needs him urgently in the future. When I said I would prefer communication via Upwork, he said that Whatsapp is only for communicating - but I asked myself how can Upwork know that it was only for communication purposes. 

I know that I would not do anything without a contract, but Upwork doesn't know that. So, yes or still no? 

P.S. He has a lot of experience here, a lot of good reviews, and has spent a lot of money on Upwork - so I was thinking "he knows what he is doing and what he is asking"... And I don't want to get banned. 

 

Thanks in advance.

Kristina

petra_r
Community Member


Kristina S wrote:

Then he asked me for a Whatsapp number so he can text me if something needs him urgently in the future. When I said I would prefer communication via Upwork, he said that Whatsapp is only for communicating - but I asked myself how can Upwork know that it was only for communication purposes. 


Once you have or had a contract with a client, you no longer need to worry about it. You are free to communicate with that client any way you like, as long as future payments are done on Upwork.

23015623
Community Member

Thank you a lot, Petra!


Kristina S wrote:

Thank you a lot, Petra!


You might want to consider to get a separate number for your work, though. Make sure to keep your private life away from the business so you can switch off from work but are still available for friends and family.

If I get more clients and more work on Upwork, then yes - definitely. But for now, there is no need for that. I hope I would need that extra number, tho. Thank you 🙂

604e2a18
Community Member

Help please!

a client just refered me to discuss his project with the developpers on Telegram, when I clicked the link and texted, he immediatly asked me for my personal info, like full name, email adress/ gender , I replied that we should carry on our conversation on Upwork. I would like to let you know that this was my pretty first offer I get to receive , I havn't received any job offers for days , please tell me what do you think about the client's suggestion and what should I do to get more work offer, it's very frustrating to have my very first job offer ended up like that.

ps: After texting with the project manager, he told me that I can work through Telegram no need to go to upwork, then I asked him about the paiment method, to which he replied: (you will get your payment here, immediatly you finish the project...

Hello! I am curious. How did it go? Did you do the job and did you get paid? Thanks!

Hello,

I have just got an invitation and the client ask me to contact her via Whatsapp / email. We haven’t even talk about contract yet. Should i redirect her to communicate via Upwork only until i got the contract? Because as per my understanding that it is a violation to communicate outside Upwork. But as she is Upwork plus client, i would like to double confirm on this as i don’t want to lose the opportunity for sure.

Please advise

Hi Fanny,

 

You're correct, communication outside of Upwork is not allowed until an official contract is formed even with clients on our Plus plan. 
You can remind your client to keep your communication on Upwork and even use our video/voice message to discuss the project in more detail. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

Hello, just would like to ask if there is a particular provision in the Terms of Service that allows the communication outside of Upwork after the contract is in place?

a client just refered me to discuss his project with the developpers on Telegram, when I clicked the link and texted, he immediatly asked me for my personal info, like full name, email adress/ gender , I replied that we should carry on our conversation on Upwork.  I would like to let you know that this was my pretty first offer I get to receive , I havn't received any job offers for days , please tell me what do you think about the client's suggestion and what should I do to get more work offers

Help please!

a client just refered me to discuss his project with the developpers on Telegram, when I clicked the link and texted, he immediatly asked me for my personal info, like full name, email adress/ gender , I replied that we should carry on our conversation on Upwork. I would like to let you know that this was my pretty first offer I get to receive , I havn't received any job offers for days , please tell me what do you think about the client's suggestion and what should I do to get more work offer, it's very frustrating to have my very first job offer ended up like that.

ps: After texting with the project manager, he told me that I can work through Telegram no need to go to upwork, then I asked him about the paiment method, to which he replied: (you will get your payment here, immediatly you finish the project.

prestonhunter
Community Member

Upwork allows you to use ANY COMMUNICATION TOOL you want to use after a contract is in place.

 

You said a contract hasn't been started yet?
Then you may communicate using Upwork's Messages tool.

This even has a built-in way to set up and conduct Zoom sessions.

 

You indicated that the client has a team that does not use Upwork at all.

This is fine!

 

As Christine pointed out, they can still communicate with you using Upwork's tools.

 

If they don't want to do that:

 

Just have the client START a contract with you.

Then you can use Whatsapp or anything else.

 

Starting a contract doesn't mean he has to pay you a ton of money.

Starting a contract doesn't mean that you need to work on the project for a long time.

 

What if you end up just having a 30-minute Whatsapp video conferencing session with his team?
If your hourly rate is $15, and if you logged time for that whole time, the client would only pay $7.50.

That is not a big deal.

And if you don't want to, you don't even need to log time for the video-conferencing session.

re: "Can you let me know how to add his members to Upwork without upwork account?"

 

Go to the Upwork Messages tool.

 

Click on the "phone" icon:

Screen Shot 2020-12-07 at 10.19.28 AM.png

 

Choose "Zoom meeting"

Screen Shot 2020-12-07 at 10.20.04 AM.png

 

Click on "Join Zoom Meeting"

Screen Shot 2020-12-07 at 10.20.37 AM.png

 

Go all the way into the Zoom meeting. You are the moderator of the Zoom meeting.

Screen Shot 2020-12-07 at 10.21.04 AM.png

 

At the bottom of the screen, click on "Participants"

 

Screen Shot 2020-12-07 at 10.22.18 AM.png

 

Click on the "Invite" button at the bottom of the Participants panel.

Screen Shot 2020-12-07 at 10.23.00 AM.png

 

Click on "Email"

Send inviations to the people (non-Upwork users that you want to invite to the Zoom session.Screen Shot 2020-12-07 at 10.23.49 AM.png

 

Screen Shot 2020-12-07 at 10.24.51 AM.png

Thanks Preston.

Hello! I would like to know whether it is a violation against the upwork rules for other people from my team to make calls from my freelancer account while I am absent?

michael_mnai
Community Member

Hello, i am new to Upwork, i submitted some few proposals, i do not know what is the next step to reach up the contract if the client reply my proposal, because one client replied my proposal and gave me his whatsapp number to communicate while the other just gave me his telegram link to communicate. Are those the right ways to take me to contract and start the work? If not, what are the ways to take me there? Please help.    

WhatApp = scam

 

Telegram = scam

 

These people are trying to steal your money.

 

It is a violation of Upwork TOS to communicate outside of the Upwork platform before being officially hired. You could be suspended if you do that.

Thank you Mr Preston for the alert. And please let me know what are the ways the real  client will use to contact me in order have a contract with?

On upwork. Never outside of upwork. 

Hi Michael,

 

Thank you for reaching out to us. I would like to clarify that sharing contact information before the contract is not allowed and all communications prior to the contract starting must take place on Upwork. We encourage the users to approach this carefully to avoid frauds and scams. You may check out Wes's thread to see a comprehensive list of top red flags for scams. Additionally, you may check the following articles regarding how you can keep yourself safe on Upwork:

 

Staying Safe on Upwork
The new starter's guide to being safe and successful on Upwork

 

Additionally, I shared your report with our team for further review.


~ AJ
Upwork

Hi Annie, 

 

How does one start a contract with someone once you (freelancer) have sent a proposal to client and they have responded to that proposal with a message? This message details a little about the job and setting up a meeting on an external platform such as google meet. I am trying to find a step by step to this process. 

Hi Isabelle,

 

Thank you for your message. Here's the step-by-step guide on how to send an offer to Freelancers.

 

Thank you,

Pradeep

Upwork
sunnykingisup
Community Member

Hello,
I searched about this question on this forum but the posts which I did read, had been posted years ago.

So, my question is, according to current rules and policies, is this allowed to communicate with the client outside the Upwork? If the answer is "No", then this is all that I wanted to know. But if the answer is "Yes", then my other question is, on which conditions we can communicate outside the Upwork? because sometimes, in the interview client ask for contact information and says that they want to share the details of the projects on some screen sharing, etc but I always prefer to keep communication on the Upwork.

Also, if it is allowed to communicate outside with some conditions, even then if a seller wants to keep all the communications on the Upwork, then can that seller directly deny to the client from communicating outside?

I would be very thankful to all of the persons who will comment and answer and guide me and clear my confusion about this topic.

It is allowed but only after you have accepted a contract from the client, not during the interview phase. There's a long thread about the rule changes here.

Hi,is there any limitation on medium of contacting outside upwork after accepting contract, for example,Can I contact through any medium of contact I like or should stick with email only?
In my sense,it should be allowed to use any media like whatsapp,phone,email.but,I am just making it sure that I am not breaking upwork TOS. Thanks

Hi Md Abu Jobayer,

 

Yes, once a contract is in place you may use any communication methods you choose. However, we find that when users communicate outside of Upwork there is an increased risk of fraud, scam, and other harmful behaviors. When communications (and work) stay on our platform we can better track, verify, and help address any issues that emerge, and as a result the potential for these harmful behaviors decreases dramatically. For example, the vast majority of scammers that successfully take advantage of talent on Upwork do so by going off the platform. To learn more about staying safe on Upwork, click here.

~ Joanne
Upwork

Hi Muhammad E,

 

Yes, I think it is allowed as I remember but make sure you have made a contract first & payment is funded in the escrow. I don't think there could be an issue of being contacted outside after that. 🙂

mdream17
Community Member

Yes, it's a violation of Upwork policy

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