Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why you should never use Upwork

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 274 posts

Re: Why you should never use Upwork

#261

Post by chmike »

ptero wrote: post #223
traviswingo wrote: post #50

I think the worst part about this is that I wasn't even surprised throughout the entire story. Anyone who has been a freelancer has dealt with the random, uncalled for threats from clients to give you a bad review or try to suspend your account. It's the reason I gave up on working on platforms like Upwork and Freelancer almost immediately. Building a personal network is way easier to find contract work and you'll ma…

I am pretty sure that the client sharing salesforce login information was against salesforce agreements. That should be made clear to upwork and hopefully they investigate. Whether developer works with upwork anymore or not IMO it is very important to set the record straight even if this takes a while. On the blog post, my 2c (not as a criticism, but as an opinion with 20/20 hindsight). 1. Shadi should have moved awa…

I suspect that upwork received threats of legal action if they didn't terminate the account. They took the easiest path. Well the path they assumed, was easiest.

Anyway, this shows poor crisis and damage control management.

Re: Why you should never use Upwork

#262

Post by holtalanm »

peterholcomb wrote: post #235
rikkipitt wrote: post #54

Here's the link to close your account if anyone is interested: https://www.upwork.com/UserSettings/profile/close-account

Done. Thanks for posting. Can't believe this guy's experience. I used UpWork for a few gigs earlier this year but stopped browsing for gigs when the new fee structure was implemented. This is enough for me to say no thanks to ever using it again.

even funnier is that link doesn't take me to anything resembling a page where I can close my account. Almost like they don't want me to or something.

Literally no button or link anywhere within the profile settings that I can see obviously leads to closing my account.

Re: Why you should never use Upwork

#263

Post by esalman »

I had a similar experience; used to have 4.8+ rating on Upwork, then accepted a job which went bad largely due to poor and inaccurate spec provided by the client. He actually went to my company website, found out the team members' emails and sent a message to everybody castigating me. I basically begged to him to stop doing any further damage. Upwork always give their clients the benefit of doubt because they know they'll always have a cheap source of freelancers from countries where living cost is low.

Re: Why you should never use Upwork

#264

Post by esalman »

babaganoosh223 wrote: post #192
delegate wrote: post #87

I once interviewed for Upwork pro. They sent me an Xcode project and I had to make some changes to it. However, the required changes referenced features and files which weren't in the project and made absolutely no sense. Even worse, the project they sent me was the "Photomania" project from Stanford's CS193p class: http://web.stanford.edu/class/cs193p/cgi-bin/drupal/node/289 But the copyright information (Copyright…

Sounds like what'd you expect from Upwork clients

It is not Upwork clients he is talking about, it is Upwork themselves ;)

Re: Why you should never use Upwork

#265

Post by esalman »

iagooar wrote: post #239
asoskm wrote: post #16

Totally agree with the article, and I am more than certain that such acts and extortionate behaviour are widespread on the platform. It seems it is part of their business model to allow clients in developed countries to find people in developing countries (all with weak legal systems and corruption) to commit illegal acts (both violations of public and private law). Just look at how many jobs involve rewriting, scrap…

Christmas gifts in October? Have I missed something?

It is always possible to save a lot by planning ahead.

Re: Why you should never use Upwork

#266

Post by gspetr »

marcamillion wrote: post #227

What's interesting about the timing of this story is that I have recently been playing around with Upwork for some freelance work and the issue I am having is actually a different one. I have come to realize that there is a fundamental problem with the marketplace itself. I don't think it matches clients to freelancers properly. I did two exercises. I posted a few positions as a 'buyer', and I got a lot of spam (i.e.…

How many jobs completed total do you have? Does not matter if it's $5 or $10 jobs.

Re: Why you should never use Upwork

#267

Post by dexterdog »

chmike wrote: post #260
dexterdog wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, maybe I'm just jaded by a recent experience with a former business partner who was an attorney himself. They guy had provably stolen over $100K from the company and our attorney basically charged us $20K to let him go. It was a valuable lesson to me to never go into business with an attorney again.

Not all attorneys are crooks. My daughter is attorney for business (Droit commercial, France) and she is definitely not a crook. In fact they spend a significant amount of work time trying to get the due money from clients. Please don't generalize. The real problem is that there is no efficient system to weed out the crooks. There are no efficient pressure against them. Psychopats are king.

I know they are not all crooks. The problem is that you assume that somebody is not when you enter a partnership with them. If that partnership has to go to court you are at a significant disadvantage if your partner can represent himself against you, aside from the fact that he probably knows the law better than you do.

Re: Why you should never use Upwork

#268

Post by marcamillion »

gspetr wrote: post #266
marcamillion wrote: post #227

What's interesting about the timing of this story is that I have recently been playing around with Upwork for some freelance work and the issue I am having is actually a different one. I have come to realize that there is a fundamental problem with the marketplace itself. I don't think it matches clients to freelancers properly. I did two exercises. I posted a few positions as a 'buyer', and I got a lot of spam (i.e.…

How many jobs completed total do you have? Does not matter if it's $5 or $10 jobs.

None...which is the same number as the number of interviews I have gotten.

Re: Why you should never use Upwork

#270

Post by dang »

jeffmould wrote: post #43
[deleted] wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

I wonder if that is the same "Kevin" who left a Yelp review for the company?

We edited a small bit of identifying info out of this comment. Not that you meant any harm by including it, but we want to strike a balance that protects individuals from mass internet effects while also protecting substantive discussion.
Post reply on HN