Automatic payment-refund

[239635a7]

I hired a freelancer, but he did not successfully complete my work, but the system automatically paid. How can I get my money back?

[prestonhunter]

re: "I hired a freelancer, but he did not successfully complete my work, but the system automatically paid. How can I get my money back?"

Short Answer:

You probably can't get money back. But maybe you can. if you can, we will help you. Answer these questions:

- Was this a fixed-price or hourly contract?

- How much money in total did you pay to this freelancer?

- When was the last time that the freelancer logged time or submitted work?

==============================

Long answer:

I think that your understanding of how Upwork works is incomplete.

Knowledge is power. The more you understand about how the system works, the more powerful you will become as a user.

You said that you hired a freelancer and the system automatically paid the freelancer. This means that the system was working as intended.

If you hired using a fixed-price contract, then the freelancer did the work that you asked, and then clicked the submit button. The system then notified you and provided you with the work. You reviewed the work, and then you clicked a button to release payment to the freelancer after YOU decided that the work was indeed completed successfully. Or you waited 14 days and did nothing, which meant that you approved of the payment being released automatically to the freelancer.

if this was an hourly contract, then the freelancer did work while logging time. You had the opportunity to track the work in real time. You had the opportunity to view the work diaries, view screenshots of the work, ask for the files, read the memos describing the work that was done, etc. When the work week ended, you had the opportunity to review the work and you had five days during which you could dispute any time segments. If any time segments logged by the freelancer did not quality for Upwork Payment Protection (no screenshots, work not on your project, inadequate memos or mouse/keyboard activity), then you had the opportunity to click a button to dispute those time segments and Upwork would automatically remove those time segments from the work that you need to pay for.

If the freelancer did any work last week, we are STILL within the review period for an hourly contract, and you MAY still be able to dispute time segments from last week.

But as a general concept, an hourly contract means that freelancers are paid automatically. Clients are billed automatically. Clients pay for the time that a freelancer works. Clients do not pay for "successfully completing work."

If you have any questions, you should definitely ask to make sure you understand exactly how things work.

If it is possible for you to get money back, we can help you do so. If it is not possible or not realistic to expect such, we will tell you.

As of right now, you have not provided us with enough detail to tell you whether you can get money back or not.

But you definitely will not get money back simply by posting a statement in the Forum. If it is possible to get money back, you may need to take additional action, and we can advise you about that.

Be sure to state exactly how much money you have paid to this freelancer, and whether or not this was a fixed-price or hourly contract.

[prestonhunter]

Question: I hired a freelancer but he did not successfully complete the job. Do I still need to pay him?

Answer: If this is an hourly contract, then you pay the freelancer for her time, not for "successfully completing the job."

Question: I used an hourly contract to hire a freelancer to draw a picture of a cat. I don't like the picture. Do I need to pay?

Answer: Yes.

Question: I used an hourly contract to hire a freelancer to draw a picture of a cat. I like the picture and plan to use it. Can I claim that I hate the picture and thus get out of paying for it?

Answer: No.

Question: I used an hourly contract to hire a freelancer to draw a picture of a cat. I sincerely hate the results. Do I still have to pay for it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: I used an hourly contract to hire a freelancer to draw a picture of a cat. It is a Siamese cat!! I would prefer a Calico cat. Do I still need to pay for it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: I used an hourly contract to hire a freelancer to draw a picture of a cat. After logging 3 hours, the freelancer still isn't done. Do I need to pay for this freelancer's time?

Answer: Yes.

Question: I used an hourly contract to hire a freelancer to draw a picture of a cat. I don't like the freelancer's work. What recourse do I have?

Answer: Stop working with the freelancer. Hire another freelancer. Or hire more than one freelancer. You may hire multiple freelancers and then only use the work that you like.

Question: What about the freelancer I hired whose work disappointed me? How can I make sure that she is punished?

Answer: There are many actions that you can take. You may fire her as soon as you realize that you her work doesn't fit your needs. You may fire her before she even finishes drawing the picture. As soon as you see screenshots, if you don't like the layout of the picture, or the style, you can end the contract. You can also make a note of her name and then make sure that you never hire her again. Also, when you close the contract, you may leave appropriate, honest feedback. If the freelancer violated Upwork ToS, then you may report her by clicking on the "Flag as inappropriate" link option on the freelancer's profile page.

Question: What kind of things can I report the freelancer for?

Answer: The types of things you can report are presented in the "Flag as inappropriate" dialog box:

Question: In the "Flag as inappropriate" dialog box, I see an option to report the freelancer for "Something else". Can I report the freelancer because she isn't a very good artist?

Answer: No. That is not what this reporting function is intended for. But if you don't like the quality of her artwork, you can explain that in an honest, appropriate way when you leave feedback.

[BojanS]

Hi Shang,

We’ll have one of our agents reach out to you via a support ticket to look into this request and advise you accordingly. 

Thank you for reaching out to us.