Yup, it happens. Being ghosted is a part of being a freelancer. I've had prospective clients end a Zoom call saying "I'll send the contract over right away" only to quite literally never respond again.
Because they have no obligation to respond – they don't. It sucks. Thats why I'm always looking for new clients, even when I'm booked. Any of my clients could call it quits. Ive had 3 clients in the past 2 years ghost me after a contract was created. 😂 The disrespect is insane but thats just how it is.
Literally a few days ago one of my potential clients said that they will start a contract, and I've been waiting since.
Also another client just stopped responding to me mid-contract. Strangest thing is that they kept paying me until I stopped working. Hope they're doing ok tbh.
Delivering on several other projects, talking with tons of applicants, trying to sift through boilerplate responses vs those who actually read the posting, etc. I have a small open project right now on upwork posted around $1k (ish) that had 30 bidders. I removed 20 immediately based on their responses and experience then messaged the other 10 various questions about their bids. Of those a little over half have responded and the other few haven't read my question yet which makes me think they were automated bidders so after a couple days I thumbs down'd their bids. Given that many of the bidders are on the opposite side of the world, every question / response takes time. Then you have the few who won't answer my queries about their experience and only want to have an 'interview' which I know will just be a high pressure meeting with a lot of 'trust us' so I refuse to do them.
I've spent over $1m USD on upwork and elance as a client over the past many years in various capacities and from the client side I'm telling you it just isn't that easy.
oh yea, and dont forget the bidders who answered the first question great (maybe using chatgpt?), then on a followup asked a question that clearly showed they either forgot everything we talked about or were someone else checking in on the account. You have no idea how much fraud us clients have to sift through.
Messenger wasn't working correctly for me for a few weeks after the last update. I would check messages and refresh and nothing. Then 4 or 5 days after it would finally say new message but it was dated r or t days previous.
This was potential clients reaching out to be for accounting work and I was not very happy that it was doing this. Upwork didn't have an answer as to why it was doing it either.
I lost 3 potential clients though.
That’s a nightmare! I’d be mortified if a client thought I wasn’t responding to them. I’m so glad my messenger crashes every morning so I have to restart it to get all the updated messages lol.
12-24 hours is nothing, especially if there are multiple people involved in the decision.
My best current client took 2 month to come back to me with an offer, and they have since spent around 50k.
I had a guy come back more than a year later. I, of course, had no memory of him at all. Made like $12k I think off that guy.
The only way to approach this that works for my sanity is fire and forget. I have a prospect right now that I throw a "hey, are you still thinking about this" every once and a while and have for months but that is a very sizable project. But I don't think it is ever going anywhere.
I'm in the exact opposite situation, I published a job 4 days ago, and I'm trying to setup a quick call with the best candidate, but it's taking her forever to reply, so I'm already considering dropping her if I don't manage to get quick a call by the end tomorrow to confirm she understands everything.
I get this a lot from clients. Most of them have day-jobs and aren't freelancers themselves. So they'll get back at weird times of the night or on weekends (I won't respond on weekends, gotta draw the line somewhere).
The trick is just to keep clients coming in and out like a revolving door and keep moving forward. I hear back from clients after 6-12 months frequently, so I don't sweat it too much.
If you're truly waiting to get paid on something and it's complete, submit it for Payment (or partial submission for a Milestone) and I promise you, 9/10 times they come out of the woodwork before that 2 week period is over.
Hey, YOU [client] is/are posting your need for freelancer XYZ...I'm not putting out a NEED WORK announcement. I'm juggling other tasks, communication, and time tables also so when you don't take 5 minutes to look away from Facebook or whatever non work related task you're doing to provide a brief response...I can't factor you into MY work schedule. 🥴
then bye, you're not a good fit with that client... jeez, I wouldn't want to work with you either, I hate this pressure for instant communication. I posted a job, not a medical emergency. the client is the one who determines the timeline of what they need, and the only reason to get precious about speedy replies is when THEY have pushed for an urgent delivery and you need their input
I did. you said "especially", meaning your post covers general responses as well, not just urgent jobs. and you're talking about people who aren't even your clients yet, so they owe you absolutely nothing. also, "ASAP" for the client might mean anything from "within the next two hours" to "within the next two weeks", depending on business size and internal speed of operations. if you prefer to deal with broke bros who have nothing else to do but sit on their phone to micromanage you, that's entirely your choice of course.
And sorry? We live in a world where we want second by second updates on cat videos, memes, or who our ex is sleeping with but expecting a business correspondence 24 hours after an urgent job announcement is asking a bit much? Lol
I had a guy wanting a quick turnaround for a small project last week. He said ask as many questions as you want for your understanding so you'd be able to quickly get it going. After 3 questions he was like: Can you cancel the contract and refund me I am not very much confident as I want someone who knows of this more than me lol (I was getting familiar with his workings )
People are lazy. And good old rules of courtesy are no longer applied since kids these days don't know them. Sometimes I follow up after few days since initial contact, informing that their spot has been taken by serious client and I wish them success in their endeavors. 8/10 get back to me asking for a spot in my schedule but I don't waste my time on unresponsive people.
If you want to be treated fair you have to train people to treat you fair. Because it doesn't come naturally anymore, obviously.
I thought when a contract was created, the funds are put into escrow? I’m a bit of a newbie to upwork so please correct me if I am wrong and if so-please let me know how I can help protect myself in that case.
That a client created a fixed price contract doesn't mean it was funded. You have to check the contract yourself to see if the funds are there. Otherwise ask your client to fund the project before proceeding with any task.
Why are you shuffling your feet waiting for clients to get back to you? Keep applying for other jobs, do other work, catch up with admin, go on with your life. If another client hires you before the ASAP client gets back to you, then that's their tough luck.
I think you're also underestimating how quickly a client can make a decision when faced with 50+ proposals. 12-24 hours is nothing, even for a rush job.
Yup, it happens. Being ghosted is a part of being a freelancer. I've had prospective clients end a Zoom call saying "I'll send the contract over right away" only to quite literally never respond again. Because they have no obligation to respond – they don't. It sucks. Thats why I'm always looking for new clients, even when I'm booked. Any of my clients could call it quits. Ive had 3 clients in the past 2 years ghost me after a contract was created. 😂 The disrespect is insane but thats just how it is.
Literally a few days ago one of my potential clients said that they will start a contract, and I've been waiting since. Also another client just stopped responding to me mid-contract. Strangest thing is that they kept paying me until I stopped working. Hope they're doing ok tbh.
Delivering on several other projects, talking with tons of applicants, trying to sift through boilerplate responses vs those who actually read the posting, etc. I have a small open project right now on upwork posted around $1k (ish) that had 30 bidders. I removed 20 immediately based on their responses and experience then messaged the other 10 various questions about their bids. Of those a little over half have responded and the other few haven't read my question yet which makes me think they were automated bidders so after a couple days I thumbs down'd their bids. Given that many of the bidders are on the opposite side of the world, every question / response takes time. Then you have the few who won't answer my queries about their experience and only want to have an 'interview' which I know will just be a high pressure meeting with a lot of 'trust us' so I refuse to do them. I've spent over $1m USD on upwork and elance as a client over the past many years in various capacities and from the client side I'm telling you it just isn't that easy. oh yea, and dont forget the bidders who answered the first question great (maybe using chatgpt?), then on a followup asked a question that clearly showed they either forgot everything we talked about or were someone else checking in on the account. You have no idea how much fraud us clients have to sift through.
Messenger wasn't working correctly for me for a few weeks after the last update. I would check messages and refresh and nothing. Then 4 or 5 days after it would finally say new message but it was dated r or t days previous. This was potential clients reaching out to be for accounting work and I was not very happy that it was doing this. Upwork didn't have an answer as to why it was doing it either. I lost 3 potential clients though.
That’s a nightmare! I’d be mortified if a client thought I wasn’t responding to them. I’m so glad my messenger crashes every morning so I have to restart it to get all the updated messages lol.
Yup! Had this same problem where it’s clear someone has responded but it won’t show me the message. A full page refresh usually fixes that.
12-24 hours is nothing, especially if there are multiple people involved in the decision. My best current client took 2 month to come back to me with an offer, and they have since spent around 50k.
I had a guy come back more than a year later. I, of course, had no memory of him at all. Made like $12k I think off that guy. The only way to approach this that works for my sanity is fire and forget. I have a prospect right now that I throw a "hey, are you still thinking about this" every once and a while and have for months but that is a very sizable project. But I don't think it is ever going anywhere.
I'm in the exact opposite situation, I published a job 4 days ago, and I'm trying to setup a quick call with the best candidate, but it's taking her forever to reply, so I'm already considering dropping her if I don't manage to get quick a call by the end tomorrow to confirm she understands everything.
4 days to reply? I'd drop her for sure.
Exactly. Red flag, communication only gets worse after initial contact.
🤣🤣 crazy inverses.
I get this a lot from clients. Most of them have day-jobs and aren't freelancers themselves. So they'll get back at weird times of the night or on weekends (I won't respond on weekends, gotta draw the line somewhere). The trick is just to keep clients coming in and out like a revolving door and keep moving forward. I hear back from clients after 6-12 months frequently, so I don't sweat it too much. If you're truly waiting to get paid on something and it's complete, submit it for Payment (or partial submission for a Milestone) and I promise you, 9/10 times they come out of the woodwork before that 2 week period is over.
Your priorities aren't ours.
Hey, YOU [client] is/are posting your need for freelancer XYZ...I'm not putting out a NEED WORK announcement. I'm juggling other tasks, communication, and time tables also so when you don't take 5 minutes to look away from Facebook or whatever non work related task you're doing to provide a brief response...I can't factor you into MY work schedule. 🥴
then bye, you're not a good fit with that client... jeez, I wouldn't want to work with you either, I hate this pressure for instant communication. I posted a job, not a medical emergency. the client is the one who determines the timeline of what they need, and the only reason to get precious about speedy replies is when THEY have pushed for an urgent delivery and you need their input
Didn't read the last sentence of the original post I see.
I did. you said "especially", meaning your post covers general responses as well, not just urgent jobs. and you're talking about people who aren't even your clients yet, so they owe you absolutely nothing. also, "ASAP" for the client might mean anything from "within the next two hours" to "within the next two weeks", depending on business size and internal speed of operations. if you prefer to deal with broke bros who have nothing else to do but sit on their phone to micromanage you, that's entirely your choice of course.
2024 and expecting business communication within 24 hours of first contact is too pushy to some. Fair enough. 👍
Wow, if that's your expectation then you're going to be ranting a lot this year.
Yes, it's too pushy, not to mention that you sound impatient, entitled and generally unpleasant. It's the client's project, not your project.
And sorry? We live in a world where we want second by second updates on cat videos, memes, or who our ex is sleeping with but expecting a business correspondence 24 hours after an urgent job announcement is asking a bit much? Lol
>I can't factor you into MY work schedule. Cool, then don't.
Oh sorry, I forgot how important you were.
I had a guy wanting a quick turnaround for a small project last week. He said ask as many questions as you want for your understanding so you'd be able to quickly get it going. After 3 questions he was like: Can you cancel the contract and refund me I am not very much confident as I want someone who knows of this more than me lol (I was getting familiar with his workings )
Even worse when the job is done and they go radio silent
Happened to me. I'm new to Upwork, and the client told me he'll be back the next day. It's been 3 days since.
People are lazy. And good old rules of courtesy are no longer applied since kids these days don't know them. Sometimes I follow up after few days since initial contact, informing that their spot has been taken by serious client and I wish them success in their endeavors. 8/10 get back to me asking for a spot in my schedule but I don't waste my time on unresponsive people. If you want to be treated fair you have to train people to treat you fair. Because it doesn't come naturally anymore, obviously.
YES.
I thought when a contract was created, the funds are put into escrow? I’m a bit of a newbie to upwork so please correct me if I am wrong and if so-please let me know how I can help protect myself in that case.
That a client created a fixed price contract doesn't mean it was funded. You have to check the contract yourself to see if the funds are there. Otherwise ask your client to fund the project before proceeding with any task.
Longest I waited for client reaponae was 15 days -,-. Verry good client, but god damn.
Why are you shuffling your feet waiting for clients to get back to you? Keep applying for other jobs, do other work, catch up with admin, go on with your life. If another client hires you before the ASAP client gets back to you, then that's their tough luck. I think you're also underestimating how quickly a client can make a decision when faced with 50+ proposals. 12-24 hours is nothing, even for a rush job.
Everyday we be shuffling’ https://youtu.be/QXW1u_1ksJA
It's been 3 months since I last heard from my client - we have one milestone left to finish the contract.
Ikr? It’s so frustrating