Hi everyone! I’d like to ask for your help regarding the Upwork/Odesk account of my friend and fellow freelancer.

It all started when he received this email from the customer support from Upwork.. a policy violation that is not CLEARLY specified which resulted in the suspension of my friend’s account.

Screenshot #1

Then though how many times my friend asked about the specific violation he violated, Upwork’s support won’t answer him correctly and clearly. —

See the following screenshots for their entire conversation (until now ongoing)..

Note: no alterations had been made, no statements had been deleted.

002 Screenshot

Then here’s the reply of my fellow freelancer:

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Reply of Upwork support after several emails from my friend:

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Last conversation they had so far =;(

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Long story short, in the end my friend’s account was PERMANENTLY TERMINATED. Sad thing is there had been NO CLEAR indication what the policy violated is =;(

I’d like to seek for your help if anyone knows someone from Upwork who could shed a light on this case. I know my friend had been honest and I believed in him. We had been working together in Upwork for quite some time now and I know how hardworking he is and how he delivers quality results.

I just find it too unfair for him to go through this.. That’s why I’m trying to help.

PS. I had been in Upwork for almost 4 years now and have never encountered something like this.

—

Update:

It turns out several other Upwork freelancers also had a similar experience, of having their accounts getting suspended for no CLEAR reason at all.

As to the possibility of my friend’s client filing a complaint against him, that might have caused his account suspension. I could attest that this COULD NOT be the case. As you know, my friend’s main client is my client also. I’m managing him as the team leader (with other Upwork freelancers also). I’m the one in direct contact with the client and the client didn’t file any complaint.

As a matter of fact here’s what my client said about my friend:

I had no issues whatsoever with his work. I even gave him 2 good reviews for both jobs.

My friend eventually asked our client to temporarily close his contract since that’s what Upwork’s support told him to. Client agreed with a guarantee that he’ll just offer a new contract once the issue’s fixed.

But from what you see, that didn’t happen. Upwork instead suspended my friend’s account for good. He can’t event withdraw all his funds!

My client had already started asking Upwork/Odesk about my friend’s contract. But Upwork’s support’s taking too long to respond. The client already wants to offer a job to my friend again because we need him in our team.

But how could he do so without an account at Upwork? You might say why not open a new account instead? Believe me. He tried doing that but how could he? Eventually Upwork will still find out about it, and your duplicate account will just be terminated.

Is this fair? In my 4 years of working at Upwork I’ve never encountered an issue like this. For a freelancer whose mainly relying at Upwork for his hard earned funds (not to mention the 10% they are providing to Upwork for a job they earned the hard way), this is just NOT FAIR.

What do you think?