No work after receiving offer

[2f6538c4]

One of my clients asked me to share email address so that they can invite me to their platforms, but it's against Upwork policy, so I asked them to send me an offer before that.

I got the offer and started contract, shared my email, and I got no invitation or updates from the client as mentioned earlier.

Do I need to leave the contract as it is or any other better way to manage this situation?

Also, was it a bad decision to share email even tho I got the offer? It's my first time to share email, so not sure if it was good or bad.

[ea94a5a7]

You have done everything right by only providing email once an offer was made. 

Have you followed up with the client? Do they have a history on upwork?if not then it is perhaps a red flag

[2f6538c4]

They have work history on Upwork and I got no message from the client. 

[a8d1dc31]

My recommendation is to schedule a discovery call as the very first step - just before sharing any further information like the email address. Except of special situations (i.e. working in a customer's M365 tenant), there is no need to share email addresses, because UpWork as a platform is powerful enough to do the work and collaborate on requirements and results.

And regarding the state of the contract: If you communicate clearly - and set your expectation - it should be possible to get out of this stuck situation. 

From my understanding, leaving contracts open without any activity is not a good idea. If the customer needs more time to think and talk about next steps, you always can start a new contract with same or other conditions.

[andriyofarts]

You did everything perfectly correct according to Upwork's TOS. It's whatever client's reasons not to proceed with actual work. maybe they changed their minds, found someone else without notifying you about this, etc. In such case I would reach out to client via messages and ask if something changed / my services are not needed anymore.

And sharing email shouldn't be a big problem, just make sure to have strong password and two-factor authentication enabled.