Upwork. The beginning

I registered on Upwork in 2015 to find out how it works. At that time I successfully completed one order and received positive feedback. This experience left me with an absolutely positive impression. The Upwork Service Fee was twice as low back then. Job descriptions were always most accurate, budgets were adequate, there were few fake accounts.

Upwork today

Every month Upwork gives you 60 connects to apply for jobs, 1 application costs you around 2 connects. After quitting my office job I took a trip. After the trip at the beginning of April I went on Upwork and being full of enthusiasm spent all available connects for two weeks. During these two weeks I kept on getting horrified by the platform. Currently the freelancer service fee can be up to 20%. There are a lot of job postings without any descriptions, for instance, “Need Android Developer, write to Skype xxx” or “$10 Facebook clone is needed, the one who offers the lowest rate gets the job”. Why job postings aren’t being moderated at all? I also noticed a significant increase in the number of bots and fake freelancer accounts. A good job order gets more than 10 applications after the very first minute it is placed. You don’t even have the time to write a decent cover letter. Due to this high amount of applications it is very difficult to get the job when you don’t have a lot of completed orders.

Upwork Pro Mobile Developer Program

As I stated above, after I spent all the available connects for two weeks I received around 6 job offers that ended up in two contracts. Having successfully completed these 2 orders with good feedback I wasn’t submitting any proposals for more than a month as I was busy with other matters including taking Upwork skills tests. I successfully got in top 20% and top 30%, and even got a couple of 5 out of 5s (2nd place):

After that Upwork offered me to take an Upwork Premium Program interview, to be precise, Upwork Pro Mobile Developer one. The interview consisted of a test task and a Skype call with an Upwork employee. The test task was to create an app prototype in a limited amount of time. I agreed and having spent a couple of days I successfully accomplished the assignments and received access to Dev Team Builder Group and Upwork Pro Mobile Developer.

My profile suspension

After a month of inactivity I received an email on the 31st of May:

From: Upwork Help Center: Your Upwork account has been suspended. We are contacting you to let you know we have suspended your access to Upwork indefinitely.



Our decision is based on a careful review and the fact that you have submitted a high number of proposals for jobs on our site without many contracts or earnings. Unfortunately, this means the jobs posted by clients are not a good match for your skills.

Upwork has skills tests to tell a professional from a cabbagehead, they also invite professional developers to take Upwork Premium Program interviews that only a professional has the power to pass and after that they ban your profile on an absolutely absurd basis?

It goes without saying I immediately contacted the tech support at marketplace-appeals@upwork.com with the request to clarify the situation and received an email in response asking to send a photo of my degree certificate and facts confirming my qualifications. I sent the photo, my CV and a link to my LinkedIn profile with skills confirmed by my colleagues. I got an answer in an hour saying:

Hello Vladislav, I am writing to let you know that we have carefully reviewed your appeal and determined that your Upwork account will remain suspended. We know this is not the news you wanted to receive, however at this point the appeal process is exhausted and our decision is final. If you have any open contracts you will be able to complete that work and receive payment through our site. You will not be able to submit proposals for new contracts, however. We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. Please note that it is unlikely that we will respond to any future correspondence regarding this matter. Regards, Edward

Upwork Trust & Safety

The answer was absolutely boilerplate. I even doubt if anyone read my explanations and opened the attached files. By the way, nobody visited my LinkedIn profile. Of course, I replied to that email but I never received an answer which was expected as it was written in the letter.

Questions about working on Upwork

How to start making money if you don’t have a lot of good reviews and the Top Rated badge yet? Why does Upwork ask developers to take Upwork Premium Program interviews? Developers spend their personal time, prove their professionalism without getting any benefits from this program and eventually get banned. For what purpose are these 60 connects given every month? If you spend them all during a month, you are definitely getting banned. Why do you have such a terrible attitude to freelancers? They pay an enormous service fee up to 20% and for that they receive an absolutely unmoderated list of orders without any descriptions and $5–10 rates? Why does a tech support request to clarify the situation is being answered with a template message by an answering machine? Why doesn’t the tech support want to help freelancers who pay them up to 20% of their income at all? Who makes the decision to block profiles? Apparently, a badly written script.

Update Jun, 10th

After posting this article on medium, twitter and reddit, I received a message from UpworkHelp. They wanted to look into my situation but in three days I got an answer:

HI Vlad, Unfortunately, our Marketplace Quality team has decided their previous decision remains and your account will remain suspended. I know this isn’t the news you wanted to hear. We wish you success in your other endeavors.

Upwork, thank you for the awful service. Now I know what an awful service means. According to the comments on the article you have a very bad reputation among freelancers and your platform is rapidly losing credibility and popularity!

Update Jun, 11th

After the previous UpworkHelp answer I asked them to provide me with a specific reason for my ban as I still don’t understand why it happened. They replied:

Hi Vlad, accounts are suspended for many different reasons. Take a look at this help article for details on what is considered inappropriate behavior: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211067618-Freelancer-Violations-and-Account-Holds/?utm_campaign=replies&utm_source=social&utm_medium=social . We are sorry about the situation and we wish you all the best. Thank you!

Upwork, seriously, you have the WORST tech support ever.

Update Jun, 12th

After another attempt to find out the real reason for my ban, I received the reply:

Vladislav, a freelancer’s account will be suspended if we notice they have submitted proposals for many jobs on our site, but have won very few contracts or had very few earnings. We do not like taking this step, but we must do so in the interest of the rest of the Upwork community. The freelancer can still appeal that decision and it’s reviewed once again. In your case, the team confirmed that the decision to suspend your account is final after they reviewed it again. Unfortunately, your account will not be reinstated.

In which paragraph of the rules is written about this? Upwork, no comments…

I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported me!

Conclusion

Professional developers register on Upwork. They are ready to pay the platform 20% of their income and prove their professionalism by taking various skills tests. Upwork invites developers for Upwork Premium Program interviews, a developer spends his personal time, passes the interview, and as a result a badly written script bans him alongside 1000 non-professionals and bots. Where is the justice? Is this how the largest freelance platform must treat professional developers?

Contacts:

Upwork profile: https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~0145882deaa95186d5

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vlad161

Twitter: https://twitter.com/vlad161

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vlad161/