Shame on you, Upwork!
By: Marin Bargan
Tags: Fiverr, Upwork, Gig Economy, Freelancers, Freelance

I have been on Upwork for slightly over a year now. Registered out curiosity initially, I quickly got a client where they paid me $50-$100 for the gig and then slowly the amount of work with the same client increased a lot hence that has been my only client so far with them, especially as I never apply for any jobs.

It is a bit strange to ask me how I met the client, especially since they can clearly see within their system that my first contract with the client started on their own platform.

Following their link, I submit my ID for verification (third time in less than a year) but surprise, they get back to me and ask me to submit papers from Mainland China (I live in China), including bank statements where they can see the exact same address I recorded under my Upwork account. Two hours later and one trip to the bank, I submit the bank statement from my local bank. It turns out, Chinese banks do not showcase the customer’s address not the bank statement, however, they did provide me with other documents which I could use to provide to Upwork. You can see here that they blindly ask for papers where this does not even apply for China (bank statement with your own address on it), which clearly shows they don’t know the countries they are active in.

Back home in a hurry, I submit the new documents as well as a copy of my tenancy agreement, because you never know what else they get back with. I am too annoyed to even do anything else so I message their customer service. And of course, you can not speak to the team in charge of verifying your ID and there is no way to schedule a call or call them directly.

I insist and ask the person to speed up the process. Steven informs me that he is getting in touch with them. Half an hour later, my ID is verified, however, the latest payment is still frozen and I don’t have access to the funds (and the notice Financial transactions have been limited. Please check your email for additional information or contact customer support. still shows under my account).

Once this was sorted, I then ask Steven to get in touch with the financial team. He says they are busy but he will get back to me by email shortly. I know what that means — it means a maybe and also means that most probably it will be done by someone else and they will not even know what your case is about. So I insist and I tell him that I will be waiting on the chat for as long as needed. A few minutes pass, suddenly I get “disconnected” from the chat. Not only that, but even after trying to connect to a customer representative on the chat, it just puts me in the queue and then disconnects me immediately after that. Coincidence? I don’t think so!

I felt treated miserably and I hated dealing with bots for more than half a day today so this may push me to just abandon their platform and if it did teach me one lesson — it is to not count too much on them because they can shut your account without any excuse at any times. Shame on such companies that will always charge you their share whenever they can and yet, they do not even bother to offer good service in return.

Have you been in a similar situation with Upwork?