Cancellation of Bonus

[3ec2c0d3]

Hi, I would like to cancel a bonus that I offered to my freelancer since he doesnt reply to my messages and he has taken too long to submit my project, despite me having paid him the full amount of the full project. And please help me how to deal with such a freelancer because am feeling like he has scammed me. I have heard no milestone on the project since January 20th.Please help me.

[mariouranjek]

Hi Cyprian,

Here is an article that i think answers your question.

Best,

Mario

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Cyprian,

One of our team members will contact you directly via ticket and assist you further, thank you.

[3ec2c0d3]

Alright am waiting Thanks for the reply

[3ec2c0d3]

Hi I have not yet received message from support yet

[3ec2c0d3]

Hi Gorav, I have not yet received message from support yet

[cupidmedia]

Mario, your information is irrelevant because bonus payments don't go through escrow.

Cyprian, why did you give your freelancer a bonus if they're not responding to you? Unfortunately bonus payments have no payment protection or dispute option because they're specifically designed for you to use to reward excellent work, not to pay for work being done (as that is done through a milestone).

Do you have any funded milestones pending? If you have already approved milestones, you can't get that money back either. You should only approve a milestone when you have received the work and are satisfied with it. You say that you've paid the freelancer the full amount of the projecct - why would you pay them if you haven't received anything?

[alphon612]

While it’s never easy to break the news that employees will not receive the bonus they expect every year, it can sometimes be a mandatory move to ensure that the company will hit all of its goals without having to use more drastic measures such as a layoff or RIF mybkexperience.

[tta192]

You pay a bonus for past activity/performance, not for future work. So you cannot take it back, because there is no obligation on the part of the freelancer to do anything.

If there was any other agreement about this bonus, it was just between you and the freelancer so Upwork cannot enforce it.

You can wait and see if the freelancer delivers the work as promised or you can create a new job post and get it done through a contract so you get the protection associated with that.

[prestonhunter]

If the original poster "offered" a bonus to a freelancer (which is the word he used), then he does not need to do anything in order to cancel it. Just don't pay it.

If he already "paid" the freelancer a bonus, then Upwork can not help him retrieve the money. But he is allowed to send a request to the freelancer to ask that the freelancer send him a refund for that amount.

[11532e2f]

This is not true anymore. I followed this message from community hub and my account got suspended for ignoring the bonus. Bonus reflects as a " Must Pay" option in case if you submit.  Instead of using milestones I used bonus option it said pending so I didnt worry about it and instead I used milestones and paid the freelancer. Then again Upwork notified me that I should pay the bonus.  My account got a negative balance and I got suspended. ( Posting this to make sure others are up to date)

[luqman_mak]

This was a peculiar but interesting read, thanks for the update and i hope they solved it  for you.

[mayabaotrinh]

Hello, I got a job where the client asked me to pay someone else in my country. he sent me bonus for the amount.. i was careless not waiting for bonus to be in available fund and i used my own money to pay another one.. Now there is some red flag which he asked me to keep paying more and he send more bonus.. I talked with chat bot and chatbot said bonus can be withdraw.. its 750usd.. and i am worried 😞

[spectralua]

You have no money, thats all. Read ToS or you will be scammed again and again.

Start dispute at your payment system where you transfered money to scamer.

[mayabaotrinh]

I have the proof of communication with client via upwork communication.. will it protect me Mykola?

[spectralua]

Sorry, no protection for that. Paying to "someone else in my country" is rules violation. It was fraud from begin.

[zuhaibahmed]

I also got a job offer from a client and he wanted me to use my own credit card to pay for a transaction at stripe.com. the transaction was worth $60 and he sent me a bonus of $250 upfront on upwork. But obviously upwork takes a few days until that money actually arrives in your account....

So I did the transaction using my own card.

The client came back to me again in 1 hr and then said can you make this another transaction it will charge your card 500$ but I can pay you $1800 on upwork upfront as Bonus.

And he sent me another bonus amount on upwork worth $1800.

However, I have a feeling that it's probably a scam, and maybe my upwork bonus i.e. $250+500 will not actually be deposited in my upwork account?

Can anyone please advise?
 

[759e32fa]

Hi Zuhaib, 

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Please keep in mind that any financial transaction outside Upwork is against ToS and real clients will not ask you to purchase anything for them.

We suggest that you stop working with this client and flag them to us so we can investigate the account.

We highly suggest reviewing our ToS, reading these tips on how to avoid questionable jobs, and this post from our Community member, Wes, about top red flags for scams for you to keep yourself safe in the marketplace.

[erinvega2016]

It's a SCAM. You DO NOT have an Upwork contract and you WILL NOT be receiving any money. However, any money you spent is gone and you should cut your losses now. 

You were looking to get a quick buck for doing nothing, that is not freelancing. 

Ask yourself this, why would a client send you more money instead of just reimbursing you for the money you spent? In the first place a true client will never ask for you to pay for something up front.

Prior to submitting anymore proposals I suggest you head on over to the Academy and read up on how the Upwork platform works and read up on TOS.

[cebe4768]

We have interesting clients in todays world hahaha