I have faced this crucial situation as well. This is very shocking when Login into our Upwork account and sees a message like ‘Your account has been suspended, please contact customer support. So let’s explain Why my Upwork Account was Suspended? and What should you do next?
So after seeing this message, I was depressed and I had no idea why this happened. I don’t if there is any way to get back my account active.
I search online and read lots of articles. But no one article can provide the exact reason for my account suspension. According to me, I didn’t do anything wrong and didn’t break any policy of the Upwork event. I had completed so many projects with 5-star ratings with positive feedback. Because of Upwork account was suspended, I was really depressed.
If you are a beginner, you should read this: How to Get Work on Upwork with No Experience?
But there is one thing, is fair that if you have a due amount of clients then you will get paid and your money will be available to withdraw from your account.
I did research on various forums and even the up work community and find out the significant reasons, which are the cause of the suspension for up work accounts in most of the cases.
You should read this also: How to deal when a Client does not make payment?
Basic Cause behind the Upwork account suspension for freelancers
1) Accepting Payments outside of Upwork
This is the first reason for account suspension if the freelancer accepts the payment outside of Upwork. Sometimes Freelancer reduces the commission cost that is 20% (10% if billing crosses $500 and 5% if billing crosses $10,000).
For big projects commission cost is high, so most freelancers suggest to clients outside payment methods like PayPal or other methods. In that case, when the client pays outside the Upwork system and this is a violation of Upwork policies.
2) Creating multiple Accounts
If a freelancer creates more than one Upwork account then it will be immediately suspended.
Some freelancers create multiple accounts to get more connections to bid on more projects. Upwork is the largest website that processes a system to find out persons who have multiple accounts and it will immediately suspend the account, without giving any warning message. Upwork does not give the chance to recover the account.
3) Sending spam proposals (Copy Paste Proposals)
Submit the proposals for the projects by using copy and paste which is just wasting of time. The employer wants valuable proposals that have real keywords related to the project. If you are just sending spam proposals then Upwork will count as spam and most of the chance Upwork suspend the account.
4) So many pending proposals without any positive response
If you are submitting proposals for a long time but not getting any response from Clients. Then there is a chance of your profile is not worth hiring and Upwork will suspend your account. Upwork checks the quality of proposals it should be professional and worth full.
5) Poor Reviews or Client Communication
In case you’ve got won your first job but have not finished effectively and the client has not been satisfied and the client gives bad ratings and on the off chance that this can be repeated multiple times, at that point Upwork will suspend your account as your account are not able to add value within the Upwork worth framework. In case you’re not professionally sufficient in your communication with clients, at that point your account can be suspended. Upwork, the team works for the system to ensure the quality of work through freelancers for the client.
6) Irregularity
Upwork algorithm work for only valuable person if any people are not able to add value to Upwork worth then it suspends those accounts as well.
Assume you’re not using Upwork long time like a month or more at that point your account will be suspended. My Upwork account also was suspended for this reason since I was working outside clients and not using Upwork whereas usually not no violations of Upwork policy.
Maybe this is important for you: How to Get Upwork Profile Approved?
Basic Cause behind the Upwork account suspension for clients
1) Make the Payment Outside of Upwork
This is the same reason just like a freelancer that is paid to the freelancer outside of Upwork to save the commission.
2) Rejections of the Freelancer’s work OR giving the unfair reviews
In some cases, employers do not accept the work submitted by a freelancer so they don’t want to pay as well.
While the job has been done by a freelancer so that is professional or they want to do extra work and force and blackmail by negative reviews these things can be the reason for client account suspension.
How to recover my suspended Upwork account
Upwork does not give proper reasons to the freelancer why his account has been suspended and there very low chance to get back to activate your suspended account.
You can just appeal again suspension but first, you have to make sure that you have not violated Upwork policies. Maybe you have broken the policy by mistake. But you have to appeal and then depend on whether Upwork can restore your account or not. Sometimes Upwork suspends those accounts that are not working on Upwork for a long time. Then that account also suspends any account that isn’t suspended.
So I appeal to Upwork and I got a revert email from Upwork, which mentioned a point if you have any running project on Upwork then your account can be activated.
Any my luck I had projects the contract was not ended and one client was active. So I send a message and requested top he assigns any task please and he agreed.
Finally, my account has been activated and restored.
So please take care of Upwork policies. Upwork is now very risky any time anything happens.