Ended contract due to inactivity and then freelancer submitted documents asking to be paid

[6f71b509]

I had an hourly contract I started on Friday last week, and expressed I needed a fast turnaround time.

After several messages from me, and no response or activity from him, it is now Tuesday so I ended the contract. 

Since ending the contract, he has sent me a document, he wants to be paid for. 

What do I do?

[a_lipsey]

You can still pay the freelancer by issuing a bonus. Go to your contracts list and click on the 3 dots. You'll see where it says "Give Bonus". 

Hope that helps. 

[6f71b509]

thank you for your input, yes I have used bonus payment before. Great idea.

In this case, I do not plan to use what he provided (it's not at all good).

[pgiambalvo]

Even speaking as a freelancer and not a client, since they were late, unresponsive, and delivered something you won't use because it's awful, I wouldn't pay them anything. Rewarding incompetence isn't good for clients or freelancers.

[jr-translation · Accepted solution]

If you still need the work and can use it, you could pay a bonus.

BUT

If you no longer have any use for his work, ignore him. He had the chance to work on the task and track time for 4 days and nothing happend.

AND

There was no reason for him to work on a closed contract and then expect to get paid. My guess is that the task has been subcontracted so the FL could not track the time. Subcontracting on an hourly contract is a ToS violation, so the FL might consider himself lucky for not getting reported. Play stupid games win stupid prizes.

[a_lipsey]

Thank you, Jennifer. Yes, if the work is still needed the client can issue a bonus if they feel it is warranted. Obviously if she had to close the contract due to lack of response and does not want the work, then she can ignore it. But if she chooses to use the work, she should pay for it. 

[7b50d295]

I'm new to UpWork. I have been a freelance designer/writer for over 14 years but have always been lucky enough to have a steady stream of clients. That being said, the market is terribly saturated by people who are either taking jobs and just copying content from other websites or taking jobs for way less than the normal pay and doing a subpar job. This has made it really hard to find clients who need strong talent. 

Anyway, rant over, LOL.

This is a tricky situation and I was hoping that someone might be able to answer a couple of questioning stemming from the original question. 

How was the client able to submit work on a terminated contract? I would assume that once terminated, there would not be a way to submit work? Is that not the case? And if that is not the case, how can I protect myself from that? For example, how will I know that a contract is still open before submitting work? 

Perhaps he did not know the contract had been terminated?

I do agree that if the original poster decides to use the work afterall, they should pay the client. I understand that they gave the poster the run-around, but it would still be unfair to steal the work. If you do not want to pay, don't use the work. If you need the work still, pay, but perhaps leave a review that outlines the situation and your displeasure of being put in that situation. 

[jr-translation]

Meagan, you need to get the teminology right. The OP is the client and the other party is the freelancer (referred to as "talent" by Upwork).

You get a notification in your message room when there are changes to a contract (new milestone, different hourly rate, released payment etc).

You can only officially submit  work on a fixed rate contract.

You can always send files in the message room, even after a contract has been closed.

Now, noone said anything about stealing the work. The freelancer ignored the OP for several days and the contract did not reflect that the freelancer had started any work. That is why OP cancelled the contract. The freelancer was informed about that so why did he work on it anyway?

The clients leave a feedback when closing the contract. Without payment, there will be no public feedback which allows to write anything.

[6f71b509]

HI Jennifer

Your response helps me out the most.  I do not want to pay him, as I found him to be unreliable, and simply difficult to deal with.  

He sent the document via Messages after I closed the contract. 

I worry about just ignoring, as I like to close out nicely (karma and all). 

I will not use what he provided, as it was not good quality, and now I have to pay someone else to do it.  

[6f71b509]

Meagan I appreciate your input. 

He submitted the document after I closed the contract, via Messages.  He practically begged me to re-open the contract.  The work he provided was very poor quality, so I will not use it - or steal it, as you say.  If I planned to use it, I would have re-hired him on contract.

My question was in essence, how to manage a Talent sending work after the closure of contract. Harm Minimization! 

Everyone suggests ignore him.  so that's what I will do.  

[7b50d295]

Shannon,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my message. Really, the biggest reason I responded at all was to ask how I might be able to avoid this situation in the future. However, I would never take a job, ignore the client, and then expect to be paid after they told me they were ending the job. But, being new to the platform, I also didn't want to find myself in a situation where I worked on a project, submitted it, and then found out the contract was terminated. So, I was mainly asking how you can tell if that happens.

I understand your situation. A lot of people seemed bothered by my use of the word "steal". I didn't mean to offend anyone. It just sounded like the client sent the work in a last ditch effort hoping that you might look at it and like it, thus deciding to continue working with them afterall. I was just saying that it wouldn't be right to use the work but not pay them, regardless of their behavior.

It is upsetting, though, that people would take a job and then not take it seriously. It just makes it harder for those freelancers who do take their work seriously to find a job when client's have been burned in the past. I hope you found someone who was willing and able to complete the work quickly for you!

Thank you again for responding. 

[prestonhunter]

Don't just ignore him.

Also block him.

[bobafett999]

If they had met the deadline, you would have to pay.  In hourly contracts you pay for the time. You can't use 'didn't like it" as an excuse.

However, since they didn't meet your time-line,  you don't need to pay. 

But you can be bit charitable, and treat them like humans.  If they are from third world countries,  money involved may not be much.