Got a 3 star review after 4 hours of work with no chance to revise- is this normal on Upwork?
I’m pretty new to Upwork and looking for some perspective on a situation that caught me off guard.
I was hired for what was supposed to be a one-month trial (up to 5 hours/week) to create content. We only ended up working about 4–5 hours total before the client ended the contract.
Within that time, I delivered:
1 reel
3 caption options + hashtags broken down by platform
I also set up a shared Google Drive, organized a workflow, reviewed his existing content, and created a collaborative inspiration board to align on direction.
I expected there to be a feedback/revision process (especially since it was framed as a trial period), but the client ended the contract without any prior feedback or communication and left a 3-star review.
His feedback said I’m “better for idea creation” and that content creation isn’t my expertise, which felt confusing given there wasn’t an opportunity to revise or align further.
I was responsive throughout (even while traveling), so I’m mainly trying to understand how to prevent situations like this moving forward.
Questions:
Is it common for clients to end trials this early and still leave negative feedback?
Should I be setting clearer expectations upfront about revisions?
How do you avoid clients making final judgments off a first draft?
It also dropped my Job Success Score from 100% to 50%, so I’m trying to understand how to avoid situations like this moving forward.
Appreciate any insight!