Upwork 

I have been a loyal Upwork client for over 10 years, with a verified business account (Seven Consult ApS, CVR 39368218), 5.0 ★ rating, verified payment methods, and a track record of successful hires.

My account was suspended more than 10 days ago due to a supposed “pending KYC review.” I immediately confirmed my acceptance of the Terms of Service and provided verification documents. The contact-info issue flagged in my job post was already acknowledged as resolved by Trust & Safety.

Despite this, my account remains blocked. I cannot post jobs or hire, and I am losing business daily. Support replies are copy-pasted “24–48h wait” messages, while my tickets (#52722447, #52722438, #52657972) keep being shuffled between departments without progress.

As a paying client, this lack of accountability and endless delay is unacceptable. A platform of Upwork’s size should have a clear escalation path and respect the urgency of clients who rely on it to keep projects moving.

I am posting this here in the hope that someone senior at Upwork will finally address this situation. All I want is my account reinstated so I can continue to hire and spend money on the platform.

Received a phonecall from +31613111385. When I picked up I heard a computervoice stating that i should add the number on whatsapp because upward company wants to discuss a job with me. Scammers

Used to be a great platform until a few years ago when it became "enshittified". Now freelancers get stiffed for $100's on connects to bid on jobs and run pay-per-click profile ads. There's zero transparency about how it all works.

I understand that the platform needs to make a profit, but why not just add an extra 5% to their 10% fee or something like that? At least it would be more transparent and fair.

To Fake Freelancers and to Upwork:
Freelancing used to mean freedom, skill, and trust. Now, thanks to a wave of fake freelancers and Upwork’s failure to act, it's becoming a scam farm.

Fake freelancers flood the platform with stolen portfolios, AI-generated garbage, and lies about their location or experience. They take real jobs from honest workers and destroy client trust. The result? Dead projects, wasted money, and a broken system.

And what does Upwork do?
Nothing meaningful.

No proper verification
No penalties for copy-paste applications
No action against obvious fraud until it’s too late
Meanwhile, real freelancers get hit with pointless connects fees, unresponsive support, and a platform that favors quantity over quality.
To Upwork: You built your brand on the backs of real professionals. Start protecting them—or watch them leave.

To fake freelancers: You might win a few jobs now, but your lies will catch up to you. Your reputation is a ticking time bomb.

To clients: Be smart. Vet your hires. Don’t fall for perfect ratings and fake profiles. Look for real communication and real proof of skill.

Enough is enough.

After months of maintaining a perfect track record and delivering high-quality work, my account was suspended due to multiple 1-star reviews left by a client long after the projects had already been completed and approved.

This feedback was clearly retaliatory, yet the system accepted it without question, ignoring all evidence from our communications showing the client’s initial satisfaction.

The platform’s unwillingness to protect freelancers from such delayed and malicious actions has caused me to lose an account I built with months of dedication. This experience shows how vulnerable freelancers are when there are no safeguards against unfair feedback.

They were unable to resolve payment methods, their website is broken. They do not have support through email or phone, just a chatbot on their website, so when you inevitably have a dispute with them there's nobody to talk to. Stay far away.

Do not touch Upwork. They have been nothing but a pain. Firstly they refused to accept that I could live in NL but have a British passport. How dare someone live in a country other than where they were born. After a year of being on there, I got two jobs and endless spam. I ended up reporting one person after he sent me 15 emails about the same job that I wasn't qualified for. Upwork did nothing. I eventually decided to close my account and request my money, only to be told that I couldn't withdraw money because my bank account has my middle name on it and therefore didn't match my name on Upwork. It took weeks to get through to an actual human to talk to. Do not use Upwork if you value your sanity.

They dont give refunds on their membership plans, and the plan is basically useless. All you can find is shortterm gigs that pay basically nothing, and you have to give away your face or voice. If they had given refunds I wouldnt have given them 1 point but, isnt it possible to regret paying that 1 month membership when there is nothing on the platform? No, because they dont care about your experience, they care about your money.

Freelancers are unresponsive, and you have to pay an upfront fee to have your project posted. Pricing is not transparent AT ALL, and they make it impossible to cancel your membership.

Dispute with Freelancer. No Code, No Files, $1280 Down and Upwork doesn't care?
Hey Reddit,
I wanted to share a cautionary tale and get some opinions from others who’ve used Upwork as clients. This is a long one, but I hope it helps someone avoid a similar mess—or gives me some advice on how to move forward.
I hired a freelancer on Upwork for what should’ve been a straightforward Magento 2 integration. The job was to install and configure two prebuilt modules (Dropbox and Revolut) on our staging and live sites. The store has no customers yet, so no production risks. I gave full access to the developer before the project began.
💬 Agreed Scope and Price
He messaged me:
“To align with your budget of $700, I’d propose proceeding on an hourly basis for a total of 40 hours, billed at my standard rate of $18/hour, but capped at exactly $700.”
Then later confirmed:
“Please hire me at $18/hour. For 40 hours, the total will come to exactly $720.”
So, I agreed, understanding this would be about 40 hours of tracked work at a capped rate.
What Actually Happened
Work started, but the quality immediately became questionable.
Multiple people were working on the contract. I noticed through Upwork’s own time-tracker screenshots that different desktops/OSs were being used—clearly undisclosed subcontracting, which is against Upwork TOS.
They were editing the live and dev environments without version control or a CI/CD pipeline, breaking basic dev hygiene.
Their updates caused inconsistent bugs: modules randomly disappearing from the admin panel, 404s, errors after cache flushes.
He didn't know what github and bitbucket were and how they worked
📉 No Deliverables, No Code
Despite repeated requests:
No code was submitted via GitHub or any repo.
No logs or debugging notes were ever shared.
They blamed “server-level restrictions” with no evidence—even though our hosting provider confirmed otherwise in writing.
After multiple weeks, nothing was working on the live site. The staging version had some signs of functionality, but nothing stable or testable.
🔒 Then I Got Locked Out of Upwork
Here’s where it got worse:
I was locked out of my Upwork account for nearly two weeks, while the developer continued billing me. I couldn’t stop the contract or review timesheets. When I regained access, I saw I’d been billed over $1,280 USD—nearly double the original estimate.
I immediately filed a dispute, but Upwork only refunded $9 (!!). When I questioned the developer, he claimed not to know about the dispute—even though he issued the $9 refund.
🧑‍⚖️ Dispute Resolution = Useless
Upwork’s dispute mediator initiated contact and asked both parties for evidence. I submitted:
Screenshots of agreement.
Lack of deliverables.
The time-tracker logs showing multiple users.
Hosting provider chat logs proving there were no server restrictions.
The freelancer? Submitted nothing. No code. No files. No response.
I even told Upwork this during the mediation process. The very first email was asking Sharad to provide proof, but after this they never asked him to prove anything, just kept asking him to consider refunding me if he wanted
Then Upwork told me:
“We are an unbiased third party. We cannot evaluate work quality or usability.”
“If no agreement is reached, the case will be closed with no resolution.”
So let me get this straight:
Upwork processes the payments, charges platform fees, promotes the freelancer with “Top Rated” status, and hosts a dispute tool… but won’t protect the client if the developer fails to deliver anything?
I’ve now drafted a chargeback request for my bank, referencing unjust enrichment and breach of terms under UK consumer law (I’m based in the UK).
No deliverables = No payment.
Undisclosed subcontracting = TOS breach.
Locked account during billing = Exploited vulnerability.
Dispute failed despite lack of freelancer evidence = Broken system.
This isn’t just frustrating—it feels like fraud.
In the end, I was given $90 by Upwork for Low Activity, and the Developer refused to refund me the excess above $720. He refunded an additional $110. So 200 USD in total, for no work.
They removed their files from the server in the past 72 hours of the mediation.
🤔 What Do You Think?
Has anyone had success escalating issues with Upwork? Or filing chargebacks after failed mediation?
Would love thoughts from both freelancers and clients—especially if you’ve dealt with non-delivery and subcontracting under an hourly contract.
Thanks for reading,

Stay away from upwork, money hungry, horrible support team, banned for no reason, constant bugs on the website use, Fivrr, upwork is horrible

I would put 0 if I Could. The platform is scam that taking advantage on new freelancers. I thin there are many scam offers becasue they never return with feedback. In the ;last month I bout 150 connects and got 1 offer to work open only fan sites as pimp texting girls on instagram. It is joke and scam. Shame on you up work. Your offers are terrible, it is scam. and you are trying to take advantage on new freelances. If you start you carrier AVOID this scam at all cost

I was shocked to see that you have to pay just to apply for jobs, and not even so little. That’s super unfair: job platforms should support job seekers, not charge them. Please reconsider this approach. I will never pay for that.

They permanently banned my account without explaining reasons why they did this other than "we were not able to verify your identity" while i sent every document they asked . my client paid me and in the same moment they first suspended my account and i was not able to withdraw money , then they took it on another level, i'm trying to appeal it and contact support but i have no idea what other useless reasons they will come up with . they charging for landing job, they are taking 15% of your income just to delete your account whenever they want no matter what. it is not safe , their security makes their platform useless . they restricting people who use their account honestly but they are not touching scammers until they scam someone and do not pay employees . DO NOT RECOMMEND ITS NOT SAFE , USE ANY OTHER ALTERNATIVE

This platform is basically a legalized scam. They make you pay to submit proposals, just for the chance to land a job — but the people posting these jobs often don’t even bother to open your application. So you end up spending money for literally nothing.

I’ve wasted countless “connects” (which cost real money) only to see my proposals never even viewed. Meanwhile, Upwork keeps cashing in on these fees. That’s insane.

Be very careful before investing your time and money here. It’s a rigged system that benefits Upwork, not freelancers.

Charged and refunded my account a total of 11 times and threatened to block me because 'my card information was wrong'. I opened the app and it suddenly started working, there never was an issue, but their dumb software keeps messing around in my bank.

I want to permanently delete my account but the link for that is broken - funny coincidence.

Like many other users whose public reviews reflect similar experiences, my account was suddenly and unjustly placed on a temporary hold without clear cause, communication, or opportunity for recourse. I didn’t even receive an email or notification—I only found out when a freelancer I had sent a proposal to told me they couldn’t confirm it. This happened after I had already paid.

This kind of unexplained and abrupt restriction mirrors what numerous users have described online: a concerning pattern of account holds and closures that appear arbitrary, inconsistent, and sometimes retaliatory. This behavior raises serious questions about the transparency, ethics, and internal practices of your platform.

I work directly with victims of abuse, and this hold occurred while I was actively assisting a survivor of domestic violence, trafficking, and sexual assault. The disruption to my work put that individual in real and immediate danger.

From the outside, this pattern of silencing or disabling legitimate users—especially those who have done nothing wrong—resembles scammer behavior. It gives the impression that Upwork is profiting from labor, fees, or client payments, only to later cut off access and avoid accountability. This is not only unethical; it may be legally actionable; thus why I've already gone to the BBB and lawyers regarding this matter.

If this matter is not fully resolved—including reinstatement, an explanation, and appropriate remedy—I will be pursuing full on litigation moving forward.

Complete waste of everyone's time. I've taken on 2 projects (luckily I decided to wait and see how the payment process worked before taking on any further jobs). I can't get my money and have been speaking to a number of agents for over a week now. Each time an agent answers they say that they've created a password reset but now I can't get into my account. They've been paid by the people that I completed the work for - so lucky them!! I've also been inundated with scam jobs. It's obvious they are scams but they allow the jobs to stay on site. I nearly got sucked into the first one, but I can now spot them a mile off. How many other people are being caught out?The most ridiculous site I've ever used. Don't go near it.

Terrible. If you hate gambling, steer away from this site. I wish I invested all the money I spent on Upwork, in my local casino. What a waste

This platform is extremely slow and support team is scammer group. They told me they didn't suspend my account but I couldn't signin to my account because suspension.
In a words, they are totally scammers.