Hi Caroline,
You can go to your Jobs>Contracts and click on the name of the freelancer. Then from the contract details you can click End Contract. On the next page you will be asked if you would like to release funed amount to the freelancer or refund it to you. Choose the appropriate option and make sure you provide honest feedback.
I hope it helps.
Community Manager
Hi Ashley,
We encourage freelancers and clients to communicate professionally and extensively, discuss all the terms, deadlines and details before the offer is ever made and accepted. I suggest that you continue communicating with your client before you decide on closing your contracts.
If the contract is ended, both you and your client will have the opportunity to provide feedback during the 14-day review period. Your Job Success Score won't be affected negatively if you as a freelancer close your contracts, unless there's a pattern of contracts with no feedback.
The party that ends the contract is required to leave feedback, and we'd advise building your communication and relationships with clients in a way that you don't need to close the contracts yourself.
~ Avery
Community Manager
Hi Manuel,
If the payment was released on your contract, you'll need to communicate with your freelancer regarding issuing a refund in order to get the funds back. If this was already agreed, you can keep the contract open until you receive the refund but note that refunds can be issued on closed contracts as well.
Community Manager
Hi Mhd Ghazwan,
I'm not familiar with the terms of your contract but if your freelancer isn't providing the work you agreed and paid for, and you can't resolve this problem in direct communication, let us know and we'll have someone follow up with you to review and advise.
Gazwan,
You can end a contract anytime. If the money is still in Escrow, you'll be able to request a refund from Escrow and the freelancer will have 7 days to approve it or dispute it. The money that has already been released to the freelancer can't be disputed. You can ask the freelancer to issue a refund if they didn't deliver work as agreed.
Gazwan,
Fixed-price contracts allow clients to deposit money into an Escrow account at the start of the project and release the payment from Escrow after they received and reviewed work delivered by the freelancer. The client releases the money at their own discretion. Unfortunately, after the money was released and withdrawn by the freelancer, Upwork doesn't have any access to it as it's not stored in Escrow anymore.
In the future, please make sure you release payment to the freelancer only after you received and checked the work.
Gazwan,
A milestone is automatically released from Escrow only if the client fails to reply to freelancer's request to review work and release payments for 14 days. You can find more information about that in Fixed-Price Escrow Instructions here.
Mary Ann,
When the freelancer ends the contract, the client is notified and sent a link to leave their feedback. They have 14 days to leave their feedback but if they don't, the contract will show as "No Feedback Given" in freelancer's Work History.
Also, please note that if a freelancer ends a fixed-price contract with money still in Escrow, the money is automatically returned to the client.
Retired Team Member
Hi Rania,
I`m sorry to hear about the bad experience you had with your client. I can see that a dispute has been already opened and one of our team members will reach out to you and your client and assist you both further. To learn more about how you`re protected on fixed price contracts, check out our guide for Fixed-Price Protection for Freelancers. I would also suggest to check out this Thread and learn more about disputes as well. If you have any additional questions feel free to post them here, thank you.
