Client Dispute and Potential Arbitration

[michaelmclaughli]

Hey Fellow Freelancers,

I recently engaged in a copywriting project for a London based consultancy, but it didn't end well. I delivered the first draft a day ahead of schedule. The following day, I had client meetings outside of Berlin, so I was offline during working hours. By the time I had logged back in, the client had cancelled the contract and requested a refund. Bear in mind at this point I had already written five 600 word flyers for him. He asked for some edits which I would have happily and easily executed for him, within hours and still way ahead of the agreed deadline. 

During Upwork's dispute resolution, he offered me $50, now its down to $30. He must think freelancers on Upwork enjoy working for nothing, the kind souls that we are. I feel there is a power dynamic in favour of clients on this site, as we are desperate to protect our feedback score and of course our income. This gives clients the impression that they can demand the world for what is mostly very poor pay.

Here are the figures:
Amount in Escrow $175

Charge for both parties and Upwork to enter a 3rd party arbitration - $291 per person.

Moral victory for hard-working, poorly paid freelancers - priceless?

[petra_r]

Pay the arbitration fee. Your "client" will not, you get the amount in Escrow AND your arbitration fee back,

[BojanS]

Hi Michael,

I'm sorry to hear about the bad experience you had with your client. I see that you communicating with our dispute team via this ticket. Please do keep communicating through your support ticket in order to keep all information in one place but feel free to follow up here if you have any additional concerns. Thank you!

[kat303]

Michael - If you knew about those meetings, what you should have done is to notify the client of that fact. I'm not saying that what happened was right or wrong on both parts, What I'm saying is that it shows IMO copurtesy on the freelancers part. Whether or not that would have prevented this situation I feel by doing that, that was the right thing to do. I always notify the client, even in interviews that I will be away from my computer for XX. So at least they know I'm not ignoring them or that I might have disappeared and not interested in their job.