I got the first job almost two years ago. I’ve been working with one client exclusively for the last 14 months. Basically, I used Upwork only to track time and withdraw earnings.

For obvious reasons I’ve omitted names and hi/thanks stuff in the quoted messages.

Btw, that’s me.

Timeline

June, 3rd

I tracked some time and went out to have a meal. Upon returning I couldn’t use the time tracker anymore. I went to my profile and..

Awkward. Two things happened:

My contract was closed. Just like that, without a warning

All pending earnings were wired back to the client’s account

That must be a joke. I contacted my employer and he called Upwork. He was told the information was private and a freelancer should call himself. So I did. Long story short, a support guy replied

Sorry. I can’t tell you a thing.

All right. Meanwhile my client received 2 emails

.. My team has recently found compelling evidence linking this freelancer to fraudulent activity on Upwork. To protect you and the rest of the Upwork community, we have shut down this freelancer’s account and closed your contract with them. You will not be able to continue working with them on Upwork, and any pending payments to them will be reversed to you.

and way more interesting

This freelancer was identified as a serious threat for non-delivery fraud. We normally advise our clients to revoke all access and discontinue working with these freelancers. We only take this action to protect our clients and community. Are you 100% confident Greg has been providing you the work he is assigned? I want to make sure you are getting proof of completion before we take a secondary look into his account.

I am a serious non-delivery threat. That’s what you say after my client called you and asked to unban me?

Well, you know better, Upwork.

June, 4th

A support ticket was created.

I’m contacting you today because I noticed some irregular activity on your account. In order to ensure your security on Upwork, I have placed some features of your account on hold until we can verify your identity. We want you back up and running as quickly as possible… This link will take you to our verification portal: ***

All features of my account were shut down.

They wanted two pics: my passport and a bill with my name on it. The latter is an issue. So I sent the photos plus a comment to the ticket.

Unfortunately I can’t provide any other statement at the moment, because I’m traveling. Upwork encourages traveling, right? Digital nomads and stuff?

From this point things go slowpoke.

Jun, 5th — Jun-7th

I heard Twitter works ok in situations similar to mine.

My daily routine for 3 days was to ping the Support and the Upwork Support twitter account.

On Tuesday (Jun, 7th) I received a copy paste message saying that my docs weren’t ok. No surprise here. So I messaged the support one more time:

“In order to maintain a trusted workplace for all, your identity must be verified before you can submit proposals. Please try again.” I’m not able to provide any billing statement atm because I’m on the road. I have tons of digital stuff though — tickets, airnbnb cheques etc. I’m not really in the mood of leaving the platform though it’s possible. Is there a way to fasten things up? Can I actually talk to a living person instead of emails of different sorts?

Jun, 8th

After almost 24 hours I got a reply. They requested a time to have a video skype call with me. It was a 3-hour-window on Thursday. In my timezone it’s midnight. Well, okay.

Jun, 9th

I was so excited by an opportunity to talk to a human.

I showed my passport, I said my name on a web camera and then..

Sorry. I can’t tell you a thing.

Well, I know, they just do as they told — make a verification call, lead a freelancer through a standard unban procedure etc etc. Still, why can’t I talk to someone in charge of this madness?

I asked about it and the support officer said: “I’ll ask the verification team to contact you”. That’s something!

In 1.5 hours after a call my account was up and running. No relief though. I wasn’t reached out by anyone. Just a standard notification.

Thoughts

Shit happens, I’m almost sure the ban was automatic due to my often ip changes and VPN usage. Though

I believe the platform flaws must be compensated by human resources

So far I’ve rarely felt it coming from Upwork.

Note: I asked Upwork the same questions 24 hours ago and didn’t get a satisfactory response.

Questions:

Why I was banned without you [the support] contacting me first? What is the exact reason of the ban? Why did my client receive an email, citing “This freelancer was identified as a serious threat for non-delivery fraud. We normally advise our clients to revoke all access and discontinue working with these freelancers.”?

Things I want Upwork to do:

Apologise to my client; Issue a compensation for my mental pain and suffering.

I payed ~$6k of fees throughout my work and I do expect Upwork to take some action. Maybe even change the process and not to torture another freelancers.

What will you say, Upwork Trust and Safety Team?