UpworkReviews 2,128

Please do not use this website, is the worse nightmare. Bad customer service, over a week with a issue. This people would tell you pay me by hour so they spend incredible amount of hours working in something would take less that 1 hour, i paid for 50 hours, the person told me that they were going to make my website, I stopped the work because after billing me for 50 hours the only thing they did is send me a template and change 5 picture in the template, and that was their work, after 2 weeks, my website got not changes and they are refusing to issue a refund.

I have been working on upwork since 2011 and was one of the top frelancers on upwork, i got hired by a client for a very small amount of $50 and i completed the job in time, and got the money in my account,

Later i got an email that my financial transaction has been limited, i contacted the support and followed their instruction and my case was handeled by "Nel" he asked for the emails comunication screenshot and the work done by me.

I submitted all the screenshots and they asked me to wait and continue working, i continued working and in the meantime other 2 clients also paid me $50 each and days passed by no one replyed I patiantly waited for their asnwer and one day i got a message that the case has been resolved, i replyed asking how and why my account not resumed no one answered, the few days after i got a message from someone else by the name of"eric" that my account was suspended permanently.

They confiscated all the money not only by that client but from other clients too who are working with me for years.

Please help.

Thanks
Sumit

Upwork claims "clients don't pay until they receive the work and are satisfied with it.". But not at any juncture did they support this claim - I didn't even receive the work from the freelancer much less get an opportunity to determine satisfaction. And yet at no time after I placed my funds into the escrow account was I able to retrieve them nor would Upwork return them to me. The freelancer breached contract, did not deliver any of the work, burned 3 months of my time, still demanded payment and Upwork SUPPORTED THEIR DEMAND. The freelancer's admission of failure to complete AND refusal to continue were captured via instant message within the Upwork site. And still Upwork would not return my funds. I am the only person in the equation who adhered to their user agreement. The only way I got my money back was via a dispute through PayPal as that was my original form of payment, and even that took 45 days. Thank you PayPal. Upwork is clearly just a tech startup looking to build up an illusion of a viable company boasting a large user base so they can sell and disband. Investors beware: do not fall for it. Upwork is a fancy front end with zero substance to back anything up.

I've only gotten a couple of jobs--in three years time.

The thing is, sites like Upwork are a race to the bottom. The latest rejection was for a higher-end photographer who wanted to pay $3/image for fairly advanced Photoshop editing, and that's one of the highest rates I've ever seen (when I get feedback, it's from people looking to pay $0.50-$1.00USD/photo.) I won't say who it was or what kind of images it was, but it's the sort of thing that people typically charge a lot more for, and for a session that runs in the thousands of dollars.

Well, that's it. I give up. I could make more money on Fiverr, and that's just sad.

We spent almost 2 hours trying to use Upwork to get a project started. Upwork first of all DOES NOT HAVE phone support. THE 24/7 855 phone support is 100% fake and deceitful. You will start as number 7 or 8 and when you get to 1, they will tell you there are no Representatives to support you and to email them instead. If you use the chat function, the reps will provide you with cookie cutter answers to any issues, most being useless.
Upwork charged our CC for the amount $2000, then required us to call the bank and get the amounts they charged to our account to verify ownership. After verification, the programmer started working but then UPWork decided to hold his payment and are stating they will release it after several days.
Furthermore they did not have any knowledge of the distribution of our private details placed within search engines to raise their search placement (complaints written below). If you read about the complaints on Odesk and Elance you will see that this company is run no differently. The fake 855 number is one tell tale sign of how this company runs their operation. I suggest everyone file a complaint with the BBB, post your experience in forums and online reviews sites.

Beware, Upwork publishes everything you put in your profile, because they don't properly block it from search engines, even if you set your account to private. If you complain they either don't know how, or don't care enough to fix it. And if you close your account it doesn't delete your profile, it just deletes your login information, basically just blocking your own access to your own content, but still allowing it to be found in search engines.

I have spent thousands of dollars on eLance over the last 6 years hiring everything from web developers to graphic designers. ELance worked well.

Upwork is an abomination. The site crashes Firefox every time I use it, I don't get emailed messages my freelancers send me, I can't invite the freelancers I want to use, etc. etc. Nor can I post a job that I'm not sure how much it will cost and have freelancers tell me what they will charge. Instead, I have to say what I'm willing to pay in order for the job to be posted.

I'm still using Upwork to post jobs and escrow funds for the freelancers I've been working with over an extended period, but we are forced to do all the communications outside of Upwork.

There is a tremendous need for a better platform. If eLance can't be brought back, I beg someone to create a better platform!

I am having 4 years of exp in freelancing.
First upwork suspended my account. For profile picture. Then I uploaded my picture.
Second I tried and spend huge time and got 2 scammers and earned 15$ after huge ammount of time.
Thired upwork supended my account again and they said verify your account.
I uploaded the NIC card scan and they again asked me to upload...

Thank god its not my primary place of work. Wasted enough time. Unhappy

I was interviewed on Skype by a person who got my contact from Upwork. He said he was from a company whose logo is HIPP- Hallmark IELTS Prep Program. He claimed he would give me a job with his website. Subsequently he asked if I knew someone who "make hjim happy for a week for $500 and then sent a msg from*******304 with a picture of a BJ and it said $500.
Does Upwork review job offers? Why does it not have a way to let the company(upwork) know that there are aholes out there who are doing this kind of thing.
This was very insulting and has completely turned me off of the website and made me question all online jobs.
I would give zero stars if I could.

I'm an employer. I have been an Elance customer for more than a year and spent in excess of $20k, I was forced onto the Upwork platform this week. After noticing Upwork deducting funds from my paypal account without my consent or knowledge I tried to get answers, their listed phone number is an answering machine saying 'this number is no longer in use'.

I tried their online chat and got told, they deduct funds every Monday... and that was that! I removed permission for them to access my paypal account, and cancelled all hourly contracts. I had two fixed price contracts that were already paid in advance, Upwork had all the funds in escrow.

Upwork wrote to both freelancers that they had funds in escrow and told them to stop work or they would not be paid. I again asked Upwork to fix this, considering they already had the funds in escrow, their response was, re authorize access to your paypal account and the stop will be lifted.? I had already paid the entire contract in advance and they had the funds.

They refused to refund the money in escrow, I have had to revert to Paypal to get a refund. NEVER AGAIN will I hire through Upwork.

UPwork is a total rip-off. Two weeks and $160 hours later, I find out that the project my programmer said he can do, is still not fixed and there is no hope that he can fix it. If you value your blood pressure and your wallet, do not use this system... there is a reason they are so cheap... to scam you into using them.

Add Upwork to the latest scams on the Internet along with diet fads, and get rich quick schemes...(except for them... they are probably laughing all the way to the bank.)

Don't use this website if you are smart! I shouldve read the reviews before I signed up with this company! They are a joke. Majority of people on this site posting ads are scam artist and or identity thieves! Upwork help and support team is a joke and they don't uphold anything they say in any way shape or form. This site is EXTREMELY UNETHICAL AND THEY ENABLE PEOPLE TO SCREW YOU OVER AND THEY ARE RIGHT ALONG SIDE OF THE SCAMMERS! DON'T SAY i DIDN'T WARN YOU... GUARANTEED YOU'LL BE HERE WRITING A REVIEW LIKE THIS.

They just started (less than a few months) and they already have 50 negative reviews-says everything. They are even worse than Elance which when I think now about it was not that bad. This one is complete bottom.

I am SO glad I did not begin any work at all through Upwork. I was told in the past of their unreputable practices, but I took a chance and created a profile anyway. In the midst of a contract discussion, I informed the client that I was going to contact my bank to confirm the claims Upwork had made regarding payment options and bank policy vs their policy. I decided after a day or two that I really wasn't interested in the contract offered, so returned to the website to decline and found they had suspended my account for "policy violations" of attempting to work out offers with clients off the site. That did not happen whatsoever, and I kept all of my emails exchanged with the client - and also informed the client of the accusation and they said they knew nothing about it. It was the only contract on the table, so they are definitely up to something weird. Every freelancer worth their salt knows how to secure their own gigs anyway. Don't bother with this one. You'll likely waste your time!

I've built an excellent reputation on Elance in the Writing and Translation category since early 2009, and used to close about 10% of my bids at decent pay. Generally I was competing against 15-20 others. Now that I've been forced onto the UpWork site, I'm competing against 50-70 others. My hit rate is nowhere, and the few clients I've had advertise for "Expert" and then want to pay $2.50/hour. It's a race to the bottom! Technically, the site is beyond bad. Sometimes I receive an invitation to bid. When I respond, the system tells me that I've already applied to that job. Conveniently, there is a link that says "View Proposal". It has NEVER worked. So, I do not know what my previous bid was - how embarrassing! My open ticket to a "high-value" tech support has brought no solution - just excuses. Now that I've read all these other reviews, I'm ready to throw in the towel with this site.