Upwork: Banned me after 3 years and $50k earned, for being unshaven

update: Happy ending

Upwork gave me chance on new call with escalation team, they asked me about unusual activity on my account. I am not sure I am allowed to share all the questions, but I was completely honest and their suspicions were unfounded. Shortly, corporate VPN on AWS, and some Chinese copycats who wanted to be me.

Like I said, I did no wrong and they confirmed that. They did not really apologize, but they reinstated my account and said I am all clear. I will ask support if I am allowed to share all the specifics.

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So in may of 2016, I started my freelancing carrier on Upwork, after I have quit my job as a computer technician in a local computers and networking equipment store. I have continuous Linux and open source experience since 2003, so this was something I am very confident about.

First client was paying me $5 daily milestones for 8 hours of work per day as Linux admin and virtual assistant for his VoIP company. That is what I had to go trough to get my first positive review. Then I moved to other projects in System admin, DevOps, Tech Writing and Network admin niches, something I have a lot of experience with. Here are some of my first reviews

After some time of hard work, I received my Top Rated status and started to get invites to high paying jobs. Things started to look up.

Here are some my more recent contracts:

My strategy over the time was to concentrate on one long term, full time, remote DevOps job I had at any time, and just do side jobs over weekends from time to time, mostly on jobs I was invited. I have been getting lots of invites, many of them I rejected, some of them I accepted but rejected latter when I saw in the interview that job is not fit for my strategy of only doing side jobs. I always politely said to client that I am not available for such a big time investment, and there were no hard feelings. I never accepted payment outside of Upwork.

And then fast forward, we come to reason for this article. On last Friday, May 3rd, year 2019… in the morning… I get email from upwork

Vincent (Upwork Help Center)

May 3, 2:30 AM CEST

Hi Mihajlo,

We are reaching out to let you know we need you to re-verify your identity.

Why? In order to keep Upwork secure and fraud-free, we occasionally ask freelancers to verify their identity. We do this in several different ways and it has become an important part of making Upwork a trusted place for freelancers and clients to work together.

To verify, you will need to join us for a brief video call within the next week.
During this call — which will take less than 10 minutes — we will ask you a few simple questions.

To complete the required video call, please click here.

Please note we have placed a temporary hold on your account until you successfully complete verification. During this hold, you will not be able to submit new proposals or edit your profile picture.

Video call tips:

• Please ensure that you are on a device with a camera and microphone.
• Please allow Upwork to access your camera and microphone during this call. You may disable this after the chat session.
• This process works best with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox web browsers.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation. Should you have any questions, just let me know.

Regards,
Vincent
Upwork Video Verification

So right from the bed, without getting up, I grab laptop to do a video call. They ask me about my email and my active contracts. I tell my active contract, but I forget contract of my agency member. I tell it latter in the chat.

(07:30:29 AM) Mihajlo Milenovic: I want to verify my profile.
(07:30:31 AM) Upwork: Hello! Thank you for contacting Upwork. One moment please, and an agent will be right with you.
(07:30:34 AM) *** Ofalyn joined the chat ***
(07:30:38 AM) Ofalyn: Hi. My name is Ofalyn. I hope you are doing well. May I place you on hold for 2–4 minutes while I check your account?
(07:30:46 AM) Mihajlo Milenovic: ok
(07:32:36 AM) Ofalyn: Ofalyn has invited you to video chat. https://rcrsv.link/B6mKgX
(07:34:18 AM) Ofalyn: We will reach out to you within 48 hours about your account status. Please expect an email from us once the process is complete. Please make sure to close your browser to end this chat session. Thank you for taking time to contact us today. It was a pleasure assisting you!
(07:35:32 AM) *** Ofalyn left the chat ***

(07:35:54 AM) Mihajlo Milenovic: Forgot to say, I also hae an agency
(07:35:59 AM) *** Ofalyn joined the chat ***
(07:36:08 AM) Ofalyn: Hi
(07:36:27 AM) Ofalyn: Its okay, thanks.
(07:36:30 AM) Ofalyn: Please make sure to close your browser to end this chat session. Thank you for taking time to contact us today. It was a pleasure assisting you!
(07:36:52 AM) Mihajlo Milenovic: In my agency my associate has contract with Boby about technical writing.
(07:37:06 AM) Mihajlo Milenovic: So two active contracts.
(07:37:27 AM) Ofalyn: Thanks
(07:37:32 AM) Ofalyn: Is there anything else, aside from this?
(07:37:52 AM) Mihajlo Milenovic: No. That is it. I hope all is fine.
(07:37:58 AM) Ofalyn: We will reach out to you within 48 hours about your account status. Please expect an email from us once the process is complete. Please make sure to close your browser to end this chat session. Thank you for taking time to contact us today. It was a pleasure assisting you!
(07:37:58 AM) Mihajlo Milenovic: Thanks

And that is last thing I heard from upwork support. Latter that day I was banned, with no explanation.

I still get verification link on my Job Feed

But when I click it, it redirects me to Upwork Support, and then immediately back to Job Feed. Endless loop. And Job feed is useless because all my active contracts are ended, can’t apply to new ones and all pending balance is refunded to client. Only client got email that I am banned due to “ToS violation”. They asked what violation. Upwork wont say. And my emails to marketplace-appeals@upwork.com are ignored. Suport and Help Center redirects me to job feed. I am banned from Upwork Commnity as well.

Here is a pic of my profile

Conclusion

Seems Upwork can ban you just for not looking your best in the morning. Or they use facial recognition software that does the banning for them. And maybe they wont even officially notify you about it.

Updare May 8: I got email from Rachel from upwork, offering me Google hangouts call to talk about unusual activity on my account and my account status. Says ste is available after 9:30am PDT, I sent 3 follow up emails asking to schedule call but so far no response and not sure they even got the email.

I figure that if call takes place, and they make any concessions and remove permanent ban, they will ask to keep contents of the call private and maybe even remove this post. I will have no choice but to accept.

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