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growthpub
Community Member

Charged twice for a hourly contract

I started an hourly contract with a freelancer on a trial basis. The contract was capped at 10 hours/week. The first week started on July 29 and ended on August 4. The hourly rate was $18/hour, or $180/week.

 

However, yesterday - August 5 -  I was charged twice, i.e. $360 for the contract. I was given one invoice under the title head 'Hourly' and another under the 'Salary' head. 

 

The freelancer himself has logged 10 hours for the contract. So why is there a second "Salary" head?

 

Can someone please tell me what's going on? Why am I being charged twice? I've only used fixed price contracts so far and that usually works out well enough. 

 

P.S.: It's a travesty that UpWork doesn't even offer a support center to resolve client queries. I shouldn't have to turn to the community or the horribly useless support bot to resolve billing issues.

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prestonhunter
Community Member

Puranjay:

 

We have read many accounts from clients who have faced this same situation.

 

You are NOT the only client who made the same mistake. I think this MUST mean that there is a way for the client-side user interface to be improved in order to avoid the confusion over the "automatic weekly payment."

 

This wasn't the freelancer's fault. He didn't even realize that you set up the contract with an automatic weekly payment ("salary").


The freelancer was NOT expecting an automatic weekly salary.


If you simply contact him and explain that this was a mistake, he will be able to issue a refund to you for that amount of money.

 

You can close the current contract and start a clean new contract with him and this time make sure you don't check the box for weekly payments.

 

(This literally happened to me yesterday! A client who was new to Upwork sent me a contract offer with an automatic weekly salary of $264. I'm a fairly experienced Upwork user, so I DID notice this. I declined that contract offer and asked her to send a clean one without a retainer. But I think MANY freelancers would not notice this. I don't blame this entirely on clients. I think there's something confusing about the contract set-up tool.)

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11 REPLIES 11
prestonhunter
Community Member

Puranjay:

 

We have read many accounts from clients who have faced this same situation.

 

You are NOT the only client who made the same mistake. I think this MUST mean that there is a way for the client-side user interface to be improved in order to avoid the confusion over the "automatic weekly payment."

 

This wasn't the freelancer's fault. He didn't even realize that you set up the contract with an automatic weekly payment ("salary").


The freelancer was NOT expecting an automatic weekly salary.


If you simply contact him and explain that this was a mistake, he will be able to issue a refund to you for that amount of money.

 

You can close the current contract and start a clean new contract with him and this time make sure you don't check the box for weekly payments.

 

(This literally happened to me yesterday! A client who was new to Upwork sent me a contract offer with an automatic weekly salary of $264. I'm a fairly experienced Upwork user, so I DID notice this. I declined that contract offer and asked her to send a clean one without a retainer. But I think MANY freelancers would not notice this. I don't blame this entirely on clients. I think there's something confusing about the contract set-up tool.)

Hi Preston,

 

I spoke with the freelancer and got a refund. The freelancer was more than accommodating and it wasn't his fault at all. 

 

Agreed with you that the UpWork client interface is very unhelpful. I thought I was paying at an hourly rate capped at $18/hour, but the contract was also set up for weekly billing. 

 

The freelancer was helpful, but UpWork itself has been a cumbersome experience.

I'm in a similar situation. I'm the freelancer. Amount was for $100. But in my report the amount is only $80 because of the 20% service fee. Will i have to shoulder the missing $20 for the refund to client?

Hi Zennia,

 

The fee was already applied and you can check this help article for more information on freelancer service fees.

 

Thank you.

~ Aleksandar
Upwork
petra_r
Community Member


Zennia A wrote:
I'm in a similar situation. I'm the freelancer. Amount was for $100. But in my report the amount is only $80 because of the 20% service fee. Will i have to shoulder the missing $20 for the refund to client?

No, if you want to refund the money in full, refund $ 100, That'll take the $ 80 from you and Upwork will refund the missing $ 20

prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "It's a travesty that UpWork doesn't even offer a support center to resolve client queries. I shouldn't have to turn to the community or the horribly useless support bot to resolve billing issues."

 

I would not advise using the support bot.

 

But the Upwork Community Forum is an excellent source of information and guidance.

Don't worry about posting questions here. The Forum members appreciate your use of Upwork, and are happy to answer your questions.

petra_r
Community Member


Puranjay S wrote:

I started an hourly contract with a freelancer on a trial basis. The contract was capped at 10 hours/week. The first week started on July 29 and ended on August 4. The hourly rate was $18/hour, or $180/week.

 

The freelancer himself has logged 10 hours for the contract. So why is there a second "Salary" head?

 

Can someone please tell me what's going on?


When you set up the hourly contract, you clicked on "advanced options" - then entered the sum of $ 180 as a weekly salary, ignoring the text that explains that such a sum is in addition to any hours logged by the freelancer.

 

You can ask the freelancer to refund the $ 180 which you (accidentally or not) chose to pay him.

 


 I shouldn't have to turn to the community or the horribly useless support bot to resolve billing issues.


This is not a "billing issue" - you were billed exactly what you set up.

re: "...then entered the sum of $ 180 as a weekly salary, ignoring the text that explains that such a sum is in addition to any hours logged by the freelancer."

 

Perhaps the user interface is not adequately anticipating the speed with which clients are setting up these contracts, or the extent to which clients are (or are not) reading explanations associated with various text entry fields.

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Puranjay, 

I'm sorry that you find it difficult to contact our Customer Support Team directly. Other than our support channels, the Community is a good resource for clients and freelancers who have questions about the platform. 

Petra, and Preston are correct, and I can also confirm that you have setup a $180 recurring weekly payment for this contract. I would recommend that you close this contract, and setup a new one, making sure that you do not setup a recurring weekly payment to make sure that you are only charged for the hours logged by your freelancer. You may read more about paying for hourly contracts in this help article.


~ Avery
Upwork
growthpub
Community Member

Avery, I still don't know how to contact your customer support. If there is some link to access it, I don't know where it's been buried. 

I've resolved this issue but I really hope I don't have to turn to the community in the future. 

Hi Puranjay,

 

You can reach out to our Customer Support from this Link by clicking on the Get Help button. If you have any problems with connecting to our Customer Support let us (Moderators) know so that we can assist you further. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork
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