See Close My Account for customer self-service steps. If the customer is unable to close account (or, they only want to close one profile in their Upwork account and not the full Upwork account), follow the appropriate steps below.
- Users will be notified on their screen if there are any issues preventing them from closing the account. They must take care of those before being able to close their account.
- If user has 2+ Upwork accounts & they’re trying to close an account not associated with their support ticket: Follow the proper process to verify info on account they are trying to close. If they verify properly, continue with this KB page. If they cannot verify the info or there is any doubt this is not the user, request user to submit a ticket from the specific account they are trying to close.
BEFORE closing an account, review the list below. If the customer cannot close their account for any of these reasons, send the Account, Registration & Password > Close Active Assignments, Openings, Candidacies macro OR explain how to take care of them if via chat / phone.
- No current open jobs. (If an active contract(s) with escrowed fees, the contract should be closed by the customer on their own. All contracts need to be ended before CS is able to close an account.)
- No open proposals (if a freelancer). (User needs to withdraw any active proposals.)
- Make sure there are no amounts owed. This information can be seen in OBO or by going into (sudo-ing) customer’s transaction history page. (If customer has amounts owed, it will show as negative balance in the account balance section and they must pay them in order to have the account closed.)
- Make sure all funds are withdrawn.
- Confirm there are no open disputes. (To view the status of disputes filed and received by the customer, click on the dispute hyperlinks.)
- If account is suspended by Payment Risk or CE - do not close account right away, see the
- If CE suspension, assign ticket to Content_Engagement_Tier_2_TS425 for review
- If Payment Risk suspension and customer insists, see steps on this KB **Payment Risk Escalations Directory.
See images below for where to locate the above information in OBO
When closing a company, before closing the main company team, close all sub-teams first, if any, using the map below. Then, use the close user function following the process under the Closing a Freelancer Account (Agency or Individual) drop-down.
Here’s how to find the Company ID to use when closing the main company:
In the account widget of the user’s OBO, copy the number in line with the Client information. See screenshot below.
Proceed with the map below.
Link to use: https://int.upwork.com/obo/ng/tasks/#close-team
If for some reason the entire account has been closed, please refer to "Restoring a Closed Account" map below. If a user is reaching out about closing only one of their profiles (not the entire account), agent should do it on their end.
Process Map
Freelancer accounts can be closed using the map below.
Link to use: https://int.upwork.com/obo/ng/tasks/#close-user
Process Map
Close Providership
- Access the account in OBO.
- In the Contractor section, find Providership and click "Set Providership Off"
- Add necessary CSS Notes per proper format and click Apply
Once an account is closed, a customer may request to have all their information deleted from our database.
Any requests for deleting information should be escalated to Privacy Requests. As the handling may be different case by case, we don't want to make promises that the request will be honored.
- For tickets, assign to Privacy Requests without a touch response.
- For calls/chats, let the user know we'll be sending their request forward and that team will be in touch.
If you receive a warning that the account cannot be closed because the customer is a Staffing Manager (or any other role in another team), share this external help article: Close My Account.
Before restoring an account, check notes in OBO to make sure that there are no existing suspensions on the account. If any suspension, check first with the suspending team or follow the CS notes "next steps” first.
Important: When restoring a CL or Agency account, after following the process map below (actual restoring process can be done by CS agents), please do the following:
- Find the Company name and check out the Company ID (long letter & number combination) in the Account box
- Go to the Identity box > click the wrench > select ‘Companies’
- Find the right Company name/ID combo and ensure “Permissions” are showcased for the Account Owner that requested the restore for that specific CL/Agency account that was restored. If there ARE permissions, then they are all set! If the permissions section is BLANK, continue to the next step. (Reminder: CS agents can restore an account, we only send to TS if the permissions section is blank after restoring).
- A Task ticket needs to be sent to Tech Support to help fully restore this customer’s account:
a. Tell the customer our Tech Support team will help us to restore this account and we’ll get back to them as soon as it’s ready
b. In the Internal Notes of the ticket, include all the necessary info; what account you restored and how permissions are showing as blank
c. Select “Task” from the Type field on the left of the ticket
d. Assign ticket to Technical Support and save ticket as “Open”
e. TS will respond ASAP once completed