Contact customer support & hourly billing question

[6a957649]

Hi 

I have two questions:

a) why is there not a single way as a client to contact support via e-mail or a contact form? These seems really dodgy and unprofessional. 

b) when I'm hiring someone on an hourly contract, the terms state that the payment will be made automatically, which sounds insane, as freelancers could bill any hours and it would be up to the client to start a dispute. Could someone please confirm that the automatic payment refers to the payment in the escrow account and then needs to approved by the client to release payment to the freelancer?

Many thanks

David 

[natacharodriguez]

I'm also wondering what happened to Upwork support. I no longer see the option to submit a ticket.

[yitwail]

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Natacha R wrote:

I'm also wondering what happened to Upwork support. I no longer see the option to submit a ticket.

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It still exists, but it's well hidden and laborious. There may be ways to do this in fewer steps, but this worked for me, as a freelancer.

1. Go to support page https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us 
2. scroll to bottom and click Get Help
3. In popup, select "I'm a freelancer", or "I'm a client" as appropriate
4. type in some question and click Ask Question
5. scroll to bottom of popup and click Contact Support
6. select a question category -- "Other" will do -- and click Continue
7. with luck you'll see 4 choices for support, as in the screenshot below

[natacharodriguez]

Thank you so much 🙂 They fixed it. The issue I was having when clicking on "Get Help" is that it would direct me to "Ask Data".

[yitwail]

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Natacha R wrote:

Thank you so much 🙂 They fixed it. The issue I was having when clicking on "Get Help" is that it would direct me to "Ask Data".

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You mean ask him? I want to know how! 

[f06a365f]

Hi There
Have they changed this again? I went to the support page and can not  Find Get Help anywhere? It seems Upwork is intentionally making it hard for clients to raise concerns!
Please let me know if they updated how one can raise disputes?

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Donna,

I'm sorry about the inconvenience this has caused you. I checked your account and I can see that you were able to connect with our Customer Support. If there's anything else I can assist you with, let me know. Thank you.

[yitwail]

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David S wrote:

b) when I'm hiring someone on an hourly contract, the terms state that the payment will be made automatically, which sounds insane, as freelancers could bill any hours and it would be up to the client to start a dispute. Could someone please confirm that the automatic payment refers to the payment in the escrow account and then needs to approved by the client to release payment to the freelancer?

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David, the clients who hired me for a combined 1500+ hours by and large seemed sane to me. Regardless, if freelancers use time tracker, for every 10 minute segment with activity level of at least 5 out of 10, and screenshots and memos appropriate to the task, payment is automatic. If that's unacceptable, then you should probably steer clear of hourly jobs. I suppose you could state in the job description that you will not allow the use of time tracker, because payment for manually recorded time is completely up to client discretion, but as far as I know, there's no way a client can enforce such a restriction.

[AndreaG]

Hi David,

I would also like to add that on Hourly Contracts after you are invoiced on Monday, you have 5 days to review the Work Diary and approve/dispute the hours logged by the freelancer. 

Please let me know if you need any further assistance and I'll be happy to escalate your concern to the appropriate team to assist.

Thanks!

[prestonhunter]

As a client, I have hired over 100 freelancers on Upwork.

I have very little interest in using fixed-price contracts.

Hourly contracts work great for the type of work I need to hire for.

For most industries and types of work, I would say this:

Your competitors are hoping that you will only use fixed-price contracts.

Serious, successful clients understand the many ways that they are provided with protection and oversight by using hourly contracts, and they know that is how serious work with top-performing freelancers can be obtained.

[petra_r]

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Andrea G wrote:

I would also like to add that on Hourly Contracts after you are invoiced on Monday, you have 5 days to review the Work Diary and approve/dispute the hours logged by the freelancer. 

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For almost all clients, there is no way to approve hours, and any dispute for properly tracked hours will be unsuccessful.

[tta192]

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David S wrote:

Hi 

[...]

b) when I'm hiring someone on an hourly contract, the terms state that the payment will be made automatically, which sounds insane, as freelancers could bill any hours and it would be up to the client to start a dispute. [...]

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The freelancer cannot just bill any amount of time. You can set a maximum limit of hours per week. You will not be charged more than that. Simply set a lower limit until you get comfortable with both the system and the freelancer you hired. You can also disallow manual logging to make sure you only pay for properly tracked time. Also, make sure to discuss that limit with the freelancer before setting and/or modifying it to avoid situations when he/she continues to work past the limit due to missing the change. (the system allows to log hours past the weekly limit but the client is not charged for that)