UpworkReviews 2,128

I've been using upwork for almost a year now, and got a pretty big project as my first freelance job, I finished the job and the client was happy. And as I am in the process of getting 2 more possible work, they suspended my account stating that I sent too many proposals without enough winning results. Luckily I still managed to withdraw my earnings and arrived at my bank account.

It is like saying that, "you suck, so die and give up trying", to be honest I only submit proposals to offers that I know I can do only, and upwork basically say "your fault that you didn't get chosen so piss off". And the rejected my appeal.

Post a complaint on their FB page, and was removed withing few hours. Someone else's post also got removed for similar complaint. And now they set their FB page so nobody can post anything.

Terribly disappointed.

No notice of where the money will go after closing the account.
This kind of fraud should be told before closing the account.
Normally websites asks 2-3 times before they close the account, they even send email. But these guys knows how to steal money from accounts using IRS scam emails.

Hello, I am a newbee in upwork, so here's my story. Actually I've got an interview on skype today with suspicious person named jessica smith and I think the company name is silverline. They just invited me for an interview on UPWORK. They interviewed me without showing herself and without speaking, just on chat. And I am the one that is showing myself. I became suspicious in her identity. After the interview she ask me to picture on a whole body so I do it. But after that she said for me to wait because she got a call, so I got even more suspicious on her. PLEASE HELP ME ABOUT THIS.
Here is her skype id: jessica. Smith. 9955

My husband and I decided to try this Upwork to look for a freelance job. My husband was lucky enough to get few projects however his account was suspended due to high volume of sending of proposal. He also have a high rating review from a client so we did find it unreasonable for them to suspend the account for this reason.

My husband could not even withdraw the money that he has earned because of the minimum withdrawal fee.

So I suggest for other freelancer (specially for newbies) who are still thinking of using this website to look for another one. This maybe their way of scamming hard working freelancers by suspending their account with unreasonable reason for you not to be able to get your earned money.

The customer support at UPWORK is terrible. The departments are seperated and the only way you can talk to a real person on upwork with no automated and generic replies, is with the customer support phone line. However, they can only solve problems to a certain extent because the department that handles the REAL problems can only be reached through e-mail.

My account was suspended because my client asked if I accepted payment outside of upwork--to which I said no. Who knew that just by ANSWERING that question, it was considered "discussing" payments outside of upwork which followed with my account being suspended. When I asked to resolve this, I only got automated and generic replies from upwork. When I tried to talk to customer support on the phone, they told me that they have no way to deal with this since it is not their department and that I can only reach that department through e-mail. I constantly tried to get through to the department so I can have a REAL conversation to try and resolve this matter, but NOPE. Generic copy and pasted replies, instead of someone who genuinely is there to listen and work things out.

This little mistep caused my permant suspension and ban from upwork. I would definitely advise people not to use Upwork in general. There are so many "little" misteps that are hidden underneath Upwork's agreement. I certaintly did not know that just by replying to a quesiton, it was considered as discussion, which left me with my account being permantly banned and with no one wiling to openly help resolve my case with care.

After letting me post a job, award it, get the guy working on it, they froze the whole account asking for a government issues color id with a picture, birthdate, full address and other identity information, PLUS the full credit card information, all emailed to some unknown person at zendesk that won't even tell me what country they are in or what their last name is.

I close the account immediate and am fighting to get the funds which they are not paying to the freelancer either.

Real scammers - be careful and do not use them! Be Warned.

I was using eLance and was very happy with their service. However, when I was forcefully "upgraded" to UpWork, everything went wrong. First, they have no rights for their useless "freelancer protection service". This is actually managing escrow and for that financial service license is necessary at least in Europe. And then they must release payments within 48h and not in 6 days. And why should customer make payment before hiring? Normally customer makes payment, when happy with the result, if not agreed differently. And monitoring private conversations under NDA is criminal activity. I have reported it to FBI, but seems, that US authorities are so used to monitor any telecom usage, that they do not even bother to arrest for such kind of crimes. I wrote a longer article to my blog: http://www.veikoherne.com/2016/07/upwork-illegal-services-are-paradise-for-scammers/

Anyone reading these reviews will understand that you will be very disappointed using upwork.com.
Since I wrote my original review, things have gotten even worse so I can't imagine how bad it is now.
I only gave 1 star because I had to!

Good luck Upwork... look forward to seeing this disgusting website going down.

I have been working via upwork and one day they suspended my account without any tiny reason. And when I asked WHY? They said "Our decision is final" thats it.
What a brainless company, they even dont release that 1 suspended account equals a disappointed freelancer, and 1 disappointed freelancer equals a bad review, and a bad review equals many lost potential clients.

You can find work such as "I have this 1500 page pdf and I need all the data manually typed into Excel." Generally that's a $ entry level job for which they think you should receive $10 total for your work, then Upwork will take 20%, you'll put in endless hours--and the client realllly wants it by tomorrow morning (after not responding to any proposals/awarding the job for hours the night before their deadline). And as a bonus, you get to compete against 20-50 people putting in bids in an hour for this 'privilege.' Unless you value really wanting to be slave labor, don't bid on anything except something that seems legit, verified, where the client has awarded previous work and paid on it, and where it will be worth your while.

I used to be one of their top designers, in 2016 i made more than $22,000 through their system, a solid $4,400 went into their pockets (they take 20%). I ended up being suspended for offering a client the option to pay me via Paypal, a $70 project that ended up costing me 6 years of outstanding reviews with over 250 testimonials from clients. I had a JSS of 95 and a rating of 4.99/5

I was top rated and job success score was 95%. Suddenly I got email that there are some irregular activities in my account and there after they simply suspended my account for ever. That time I had around 900$ balance all they ate. Such a greedy people I have never seen before.

So many times I send email to know the actual cause of policy violation but every time they reply with a nonsense statement " The decision is final and they cannot tell the actual cause"

People are so arrogant, rude and unprofessional.