Upwork

I have an account as a freelancer with Upwork and they asked me to verify my identification. Yesterday, I followed their instructions to do so (many times). However, no matter what I tried with my ID card, driving license, but nothing worked. There is also no physical help support. I had to chat with the robot which is useless. It's not the same as in Fiverr, at least I can explain the issues in details to a support team. Additionally, Upwork's system of bidding to get the jobs does not really work in my opinion. You have to put the price of your service down or as low as possible to get the jobs which sounds like abusive system for freelancers.

I recently had a terrible experience with Upwork’s dispute process, which left me feeling unprotected as a freelancer. Despite providing hours of work, my client disputed the payment after I ended the contract, and Upwork failed to support me. They reversed nearly 10 hours of my work without any substantial investigation or a chance for me to submit evidence, allowing a dishonest client to avoid payment.

Upwork advertises “Hourly Payment Protection,” but in reality, this offers minimal protection if a client decides to dispute hours. Upwork’s customer support told me they rely on the Work Diary entries alone and dismissed my concerns about communication, emails, and evidence showing that I delivered the work as agreed. This approach left me with no way to secure payment for the work I completed.

Freelancers trust Upwork to provide a fair and transparent platform, but my experience shows otherwise. Be cautious if you’re considering this platform—it may not protect your rights when you need it most.

Upwork is awful. I used it a few years ago and it was great but it's gone downhill since then.
They want you to verify but the verification system doesn't work, then you try to get help but it sends you to the worst AI assistant ever and never puts you through to a human. If you want a refund it's the same process. You've been warned.

they don't have support at all, If you want to end your account on upwork, you must provide a reason, otherwise the system doesn't allow you. But your reason is not there (what a surprise!) and you try to contact support, but you find out that the contact is only provided by a bot, which doesn't shine of smartness, it says, choose the reason that is closest to you. Ok, and what if I don't, is it my reason or yours? it is my reason right? so if you can't provide all the reasons, you have 2 choices.
Give the customer the option to add their own, or
Don't make giving the reason obligatory.

Respectless

p.s. I would review -1 if it was available

I posted a job and my company immediately got spammed - phone, email, everything.

I’ve no details visible on either my account or job description but somehow was fielding calls from Pakistan and India immediately. Have my AUTH details been sold?

Support is incredibly slow and arduous - I’d look at more secure alternatives if you value privacy.

No customer service. A freelancer that has blackmailed me into paying her has made a false claim to steal my money, Upwork, didn't notified me of this claim and then sided the freelancer due to my lack of response. They are clearly not fit for purpose, I will have to take my business elsewhere.

I’m incredibly frustrated with my experience on Upwork. I paid $26 for credits and, despite several days of trying, I’ve been unable to use the service at all. What’s worse, their so-called customer support is non-existent. It’s been over three days, and I haven’t received a single response. The chat feature they have is completely useless—it keeps repeating the same automated message over and over, with no option to actually speak to a real person. It feels like I’m being intentionally ignored.

For a platform that claims to be professional, this level of incompetence is beyond unacceptable. I’ve been left with no service, no support, and now, I’m forced to ask for a full refund, which I highly doubt will even be addressed given the lack of communication. Upwork has been nothing but a waste of time and money, and I would strongly advise against using this platform. The service is unreliable, and their customer support is a joke.

Absolutely useless, waste of money to buy credits for jobs that are ridiculously priced and non responsive. Never got a refund for unused credits when I closed my account. I wouldn’t bother.

Totally bad freelance website they just wasting your time

Did a job, was never paid for it and when requesting pay the person I did the job for seemed annoyed.

Scammy people on there and a scammy site, don’t use.

Terrible website, truly disgusting. I have to spend ‘connects’ (their so-called currency to apply for jobs) on job offers that have been neglected, even though they were posted only a couple of days ago. There are no time limits to get my connects back if a client does not respond or hire. After a month, the job offers you have applied for disappear from “Submitted proposals” and you get zero refund for the connects you wasted on applying and bidding. There’s no way to get refunded if you withdraw your offer due to the client’s inactivity. An utter waste of time and money.

It's so bad. The fees are insane and to top it off, you wait 10 days minimum to get paid. That's 10 business days, not including weekends or holidays. Don't use it, advertise your services on other platforms, even Facebook!

I had a very disappointing experience using Upwork to hire a freelancer. I contracted a freelancer named Kumar for a project, agreeing to a 30-day contract. Unfortunately, the work was not completed properly, and to make matters worse, Upwork terminated the contract before the agreed 30 days had even passed. I was left in a frustrating situation where the project was incomplete, and Upwork’s platform failed to honor the agreed terms.

I received a message from Upwork suggesting that I renew the contract, which was frustrating as the initial agreement was not upheld. Instead of helping me resolve the issue with the freelancer, the platform added to my inconvenience. Based on this experience, I will not be using Upwork again. This entire situation highlighted the lack of support and accountability, and I would advise others to be cautious when using this platform.

Gambling Platform for freelancers.
The site is literally just a casino for entry level freelancers. You pay for connects and use these connects to try to get a job. If your job isnt accepted, you lose your connects. This is only profitable if you are doing jobs for few hundreds or more. I have spent more on connects than i have actually making money on this site. I get that im still newer and entry level, but how am i supposed to get anywhere when the little profit I am making goes straight into buying more connects. Its an endless cycle of spending money to make just enough money to spend more. Its literally just a casino. The professionalism of this site does not exist anymore. Please just go anywhere else if you are providing services and youre not the #1 in your service. Edit: Forgot to mention they take 10% of every job, milestone, and withdrawal.

Tengan cuidado , es una plataforma que al parecer ofrecen demasiadas oportunidades, recibes mensajes donde dicen contratarte y son estafas, mensajes de telegrama donde quieren que trabajes primero y después te pagan pero no es así, en una ocasión recibí una oferta me contrataron pidieron el correo y enviaron información para dañar el equipo , es una plataforma insegura nada de lo que envían es real , la plataforma no da seguridad y no evalúan que sean realmente empresas y nos engañan,

qualche anno fa non era male, adesso è pieno di scam e delinquenti, difficili da sgamare subito perché comunque su upwork hanno recensioni positive, sembrano clienti verificati e con pagamento garantito. Peccato che su due ingaggi, entrambi erano scam, e il sito non fa nulla per tutelare noi freelancer, anzi pare che sono in combutta quasi. Anche se segnali gli indesiderati fraudolenti, non serve a nulla, rimangono lì, state attenti

Terrible Customer support, they don't give you a last chance to unsuspend your account. TERRIBLE

Upwork is the most scam and worst service ever. It has all spam jobs. it is time and money-killing machines now. It is the worst place to find a job. Never recommend it anyways.

It's a shame what this company became. It's clear it's not working anymore, many job posts are just fake or scam and support is not provided, even if you pay for the plus membership.

The fact that you have to pay to apply for a job offer is totally crazy! I understand that there is a big problem of circumventing the regulation that leads to lost income but making freelancers pay even when the offer is not accepted certainly cannot be the solution.

Please, fix the company ASAP.

Account under review/suspended after creation, filling Appeal Forms and no answer, no costumer support, this website is becoming a joke for freelancers.