Have you had a bad experience hiring from Upwork?

Well, I guess that all marketplace has some things good and bad.

A little Tip I took somewhere year ago :
As employer, I always ask at the end of my post job that the freelance have to start their answer with a specific word (like [JOB]). This way, I'm sure they read my post job
Usually, about 70% (even more) of the applicants don't do that, so I removed them automatically. If they can't read my post job, they won't read any other documents.

It's a first filter that help me to stay away from some freelancers

Upwork can be scary because it's always the possibility of being scammed and many people who been ripped off (or feel like they were).

In the vast majority of stories I've heard and tried to help with, it's been miscommunication or lack of communication. And being a freelancer for on the platform, it just not worth scamming or ripping off people since it risks the chance of getting banned or blocked (upwork usually takes the client side).

I've been using upwork (previously called odesk) for over a decade. Made well over six figures over the years switching between full-time and part time (just due to preference). Nowadays I do more hiring (went through a dozen freelancers this year so far) for some larger projects I manage.

That said, I think it's a skill just like hiring in general. Once you understand that, it then becomes a super power imo. Scaling a business becomes relatively effortless (well in my experience).

I try to make time to write more about freelancing to kill all the stigmas and myths at freelanceafterfive.com but feel free to reach out if you need some advice!

Hope this helps!

Maybe for technical/engineering help?

All of my marketing & support hires from Upwork have been fantastic.

I've served few clients over UpWork and (more than 70%) of them asked me to finish pending tasks, code of previous hires. So, yes, there are chances of bad experience. I guess, it's due to UpWork's herd mentality of "Promise Everything, Deliver Almost Nothing".

Now-a-days I mostly go for clients outside UpWork. PS: I'm a full-stack developer (mobile/web) and looking for work as of now. I love building MVPs for aspiring startups. Contact Here: https://forms.gle/6ujCoHF2wRc3HnHt7

I'm not a client there but recently I started to take some freelance work.
It is indeed hard to get in. Some people work for a crazy hour rate.
To be honest, I have a hard time to get a job there.

I may move to Toptal as well.

Yup had a bad experience with them. Won't go into detail. Needless to say that after wasting weeks of my time, and cutting corners in the code at every chance he got, the freelancer was "dis-employed". I fought hard to get a refund but in the end got some of my cash back since Upwork at least have sort of an escrow system in place. I think the problem with Upwork is that the freelancers are not really vetted before they are allowed to advertise on the site (the last time I used it anyway) so anyone can just register, say they have skill A, get a few good reviews and soon they are an "expert". I'm sure that there must be some good talent on there but its more trial and error to find someone (and I picked wrongly I guess).

I've had a MUCH better experience with Toptal. They pre-screen every freelancer (apparently) with tests, etc to make sure that they are indeed proficient in the skill they profess to be. There is an onboarding for the employer as well. You're assigned a technical recruiter who speaks to you to find out your requirements, scope of your project, etc and then a handful candidates are pre-selected for you to interview if you wish and you can either pick one or let the recruiter do it for you. My experience was light and day! The Toptal freelancer was MUCH more proficient and got the job done.

The problem with Toptal is that they are much more expensive than Upwork. But I guess you get what you pay for.