| People are commenting here with 0 idea of how Upwork actually works. You have no client on Upwork. It doesn't matter how long you've spoken to them, you have no client on Upwork. Upwork is the client, and Upwork has a million and one contractors, so Upwork does not care if it messes with you. And I say "messes with you" because the ways Upwork is willing to short a contractor are truly an open ended collection of actions. Revise hours because of a vague complaint, erase deliverable payments, randomly withhold money. Upwork does not care. - You also have 0 recourse against someone who hired you through Upwork. None. Upwork will almost always side against you, and Upwork will not expose someone to liabilty for hiring with it. You could have a signed notarized statement from the client saying "Haha I sure scammed you good on Upwork!" and Upwork would close your account for disparaging a client. (Ok some light hyperbole... but that's the mentality to take when reading OP's article) - Now you might be thinking "well that sounds so comically terrible there's no way these people would be in business, who exactly is keeping them alive?"... the clients are. Treating contractors horribly is their raison dêtre: it allows people to hire from a pool of freelancers with absolutely 0 stress about if they'll ever be cheated. You cannot be cheated by a freelancer on Upwork. By becoming the way to casually hire freelancers (since you never get cheated) they stay alive, but at a great cost to the freelancers who market there. It's similar to what eBay was (?) like when it came to seller rights. And remember Upwork is extremely accessible from countries where wages are very low, lower than minimum wage in the US for example: so you have a steady stream of freelancers who will replace anyone who leaves after being mistreated, since even the worst jobs on the site are comparable to solid work in their home countries. |