financial account suspended - On End of Month - Come on Folks, Very Saddened

[#1]

Folks

I usually time my withdrawals to end of the week/month. On top of that, I have a couple of clients  ready to pay and  approve payments. Also, end of month.

Then, boom, I find out by accident  that 'financial account suspended'. No email notification of any kind. No notification at all of any sorts. Then, I realize, I am Top Rated. I have priority support.  Raised a Ticket.  So far nothing. I knew there is no such thing as priority support. Today, those doubts were cleared. Always going that extra mile to maintain high satisfaction scores, to remain Top Rated. 

Less excited about being Top Rated now. 

I make sure, all payments go through Upwork. I have even brought outside clients, inside Upwork multiple times. Reporting clients if they push to take payments outside or ask me to contact them outside. 

I understand, Upwork owes me nothing. I am just a small termite. Like a tiny dust rock. I am just a random, insignificant and easily replaceable, ant. I expect Upwork not to care. But, today, this really saddened me. I could not sleep. I postponed my meetings with clients, and one client might cancel on me, as she believes I may have done something wrong. 

I totally understand, you, as a company, owe us nothing.

But, perhaps, at least send us an email when you suspend things. Give us a reason. And, please, at least money related things, give us a person to chat with. I understand, cost cutting, efficiencies and all that.

Lack of mutual trust does not happen overnight. It boils over slowly, with incidents like this. It erodes over time, like dry leaves on a dead tree. 

Jay.

[#2]

Hi Bachahally,

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear about the action taken on your Upwork account. I see that you have already initiated a support ticket for the same inquiry and the last response from our team was yesterday. Our support team has already informed you in the last response that they will need to forward your request to the relevant team to assist you in a better way. While I understand how important this matter must be for you, please note that all responses via a support ticket are handled in the order in which they are received in the queue. It may take up to 24-48 for the team to review and respond to your support ticket. I do appreciate your patience while waiting for the team to respond to your ticket.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[#3]

Pradeep,

I am absolutely in no rush. It's the cliens who keep messaging again and again, asking me why I told them I have stopped all work. 

Told my clients the same thing. Put all work on hold while upwork is figuring things out. Some of them are upset. They might end up ending the conract 😞 leave bad reviews. I told them, its not my fault. support takes 24 to 48 hours for each message and its out of my hand.  

Hope they will wait. I will also wait patiently. 

But, yes, if the communication is made more clear, as to why and how these things happen instead of having to raise a ticket every time, it will make the situation more easy to manage. Also easy to explain to clients why suddenly work has been stopped. 

Thank you. 

Jay

[#4]

Hi Bachahally,

Thank you for the follow-up message. I would like to clarify that your contracts are still active and you have an option to continue working on the contract until the financial account is restored.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[#5]

I am currently under depression because, I had earnings that I had planned to withdraw today. It's the end of the month. I have expenses and bills to pay. 

I was supposed to a raise a big bill today, which I now cannot. 

Told my clients the same. Told them I cannot work while I am depressed. Told them to wait whilst I recover emotionally from this disastrous turn of events.

Sadness is a real thing I am going through for the last 24 hours. 

[#6]

I don't know what the issue is with your account, but assuming that you haven't done anything wrong and the suspension is only temporary, you're not helping yourself by creating all this drama with your clients (who may indeed leave you bad reviews for your lack of professionalism, which will affect your future on Upwork). 

[#7]

I agree whole heartedly with what you said. 

Fortunately, my client(s) got back to me and said, take a break or work at reduced capacity until the issue is sorted or I feel better, whichever happens first 🙂 

I do my job properly, diligently and without fail. I have never missed a deadline, and never failed to deliver the promised service. My professionalism, is, unquestioned. I take pride in that and have spent decades perfecting myself. 

They said, I have earned the right to take a break. 

I am lucky that way. I got good, understanding clients.

[#8]

Today, finally, support reached out to me. It looks like there is a lot of paper work that needs to be done in order to use Direct Payments. 

I have provided them with the neccessary details but they are threatening to suspend my account entirely. All because I used Direct Payments. 

If I had known using 'Direct Payments' could cause my transactions to be suspended, and now I am being threatened with an account suspension, I would have never used it. This was a client I met in the real world. Once she has gotten used to me, I was going to ask her to create an Upwork account, and then, Upwork would have gained a new client.  

I  have introduced multiple clients into the upwork network over the last two years. Bringing customers from real life into the Upwork system. 

I have alternative payment methods that I could have used.

But, I am a big fan of Upwork. I mean, after this week, I am not sure if I am still a big fan of upwork. I thought, it would be easy for my book keeping to keep all my financial transactions in one place.

I wish I was told that there are all these paper work I have to go through. I would have never used Direct Contracts. This entire experience has been emotionally draining. I could not sleep for the last 2 days. I got into depression.

Upwork talks about taking care of freelances, mental health and being the best place for small time freelancers such as myself. I really believed that for the last 2 years. Many times, I meet new clients in my life who dont even know about Upwork. I tell them, I bring them into the Upwork network. Teaching them how to create account and encouraging them to use it.

I meet youngsters in India, and encourage them to join Upwork.

This week, my heart has been broken. On top of that, you folks don't even email me that my financial transactions are suspended. No notification, nothing. You dont give a reason. Each ticket response takes 24 hours.

Why am I being treated like this? I have been a loyal Upwork user for the last 2 years. I work hard to maintain my Top Rated rating. Always being nice and polite to my clients.

Why did you do this to me? Do you not care about my mental health? Why are you punishing me like this, just for using the convenience of Direct Contracts?

[#9 · Accepted solution]

An advice, don't depend too much on 3rd parties. Here's a big example.

I also experienced a (much) smaller example, where my entire profitable online store goes down because I only sell in a well-known online marketplace in my country. 100+ packages daily, reduced to 1 or none, because of an algorithm change. They didn't mean to harm me, but of course they won't change it back just because of me.

Similar thing happenned here with many Russian freelancers. Their entire online top rated credibility become useless all of a sudden.

That's my advice. Back to your problem, I believe it's not the end yet. You can still play by their rules, and you'll get everything back. You're not in my shoes or the Russians yet, imagine what will happen to your mental health if that's the case. 😁

[#10]

I am in complete agreement with you.

My revenue stream is divided between multiple freelance platforms (and Upwork is only one of them). Half of my revenue stream is offline and not linked to any online channels at all. Word of Mouth, social media (and not one single social media), personal network I have built over the last 20 years. 

I have always believed that I am playing by the Upwork rules. Even now, I am not angry or lashing out. Just saddened. and I have submitted all relevant documents, proving that I did nothing wrong. So, hopefully that everything is sorted soon.

Fingers crossed. 

and, I am also beginning to see, this whole Top Rated thing, is not as fancy as it sounds. I dont know a single client who hired me, because I am 'Top Rated'. 

I dont see support experience any better or faster since becoming Top Rated. 

The badge looks cool and all, but, yet to understand what is the real benefit to me, as a freelancer. Upwork sends these cool marketing emails, and all that support article stuff. I got carried away. I am so dumb 😞 

and it's true. Things could be worse. It could be a lot worse. I am thankful and grateful. 

And after today, I will never use Direct Payments. Which appears to be the source of the problem. God. and, I am going to stop bringing my real life clients into Upwork. 

Upwork has such a nice invoicing system. It was easy for me.

Now, I am going to use a local provider in India. It's less cool looking but at least, the local provider has an actual person who will pick up the phone when I call them. 

[#11]

Anyway, folks, this will be my final post. 

I used Direct Contracts for an offline client. For some reason, this requires submitting a ton of paperwork and proof, and I stand to lose my entire Upwork account. I am not providing any illegal services (which seems to be the motive for suspension). Upwork already has my PassPort details, my bank account details, my Tax Number, home address, phone number and email address. 

Yet, they beleived I need to resubmit them to verify my identity. I have now submitted. Perhaps, they believed, my account is hijacked. Security and stuff. 

I understand. It's money flowing from another country to my country.  Perhaps, its a government, cross border regulation. Some security protocols they have to follow. I understand. I really do. 

My only complaint was the lack of reason. No anger. just sadness. I remain grateful to Upwork for helpng me earn a living. It's my own fault. I should have kept my offline business, offline. I made the dumb mistake of trying to use the Direct Contracts system, because, I felt it was easier. 

Lesson Learnt. Wont use Direct Contracts again. 

Still, wish there was a support article or a error code or some explanation that, 'hey, you are using direct contract, so, we need to double check your credentials man'.  Or faster, customer support. Problem solved. No drama. I hope Upwork will consider my feedback. 

Thank you to the community, which kept me calm. That's what a community is for, he he 😛

[#12]

Hi BACHAHALLY, 

I want to confirm that we have several verification processes. This helps us to confirm that a user's identity is legitimate, and that they are who they say they are, which keeps the marketplace safe from fraudulent users. 

On Upwork, users may be asked to verify their identities from time to time. In this case, you were asked to verify your account a few days ago for the Know Your Customer (KYC) Identity Verification. Although it may seem that the processes are the same, they are for different purposes. You may read more about it in Section 1.6, Identity and Location Verification of the Upwork User Agreement.

Since your ticket was only updated today, please expect the team to get back to you within 24 to 48 hours. If they need further information, they will reach out to you through your support ticket. If you need additional help, please don't hesitate to update the same ticket thread so that you can be assisted further.

[#13]

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BACHAHALLY RADHAKR V wrote:

I understand, Upwork owes me nothing. 

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This is where you are wrong. UpWork owes you everything they promise to provide in the terms. They get paid by you (and the clients) to provide these services.