First Time using Upwork and hired a Freelancer, BIG MISTAKE

[7b9c71ac]

I hire a freelancer to build a site for my shopify store. I was very cleary of i wanted to be done, and the freelancer agreed to it, I hire him because he claims he can build a fully funtional site from scratch, did payment true paypal. $150 Us, ($200 canadian) . after payment was done he say it will start working on it right away, guess what? not he didnt. 

Day 1 nothing was done,

Day 2 nothing was done, and he did claim he was working on it, and i asked to show what he had done, he uploade it the theme to my shopify store, were he had complete access to it, and what had done was to add the the main menu to navigation, (main menu i had already build on colletions)

Day 3 he say he need details, i reply that all the details he needs are in the store alredy, just work from there. 

the excuses when on and on, and nothing was done. I cancel the contract, and he right away dispute it. What a headache, i really dont need this, now I have to wait for the dispute to be resolve, who needs that?

Anyhow, a cancel my payments options on upwork to avoid any more paymets from upwork (to protect myself) and because i did that , now i have been warned that my account will be cancel.

I'm plannin on NO using Upwork any more, not sure if I gonna be out of C$200.00. (I hope not).

Anyhow, i hope Upwork will come true and refund the money. and i will consider on continue using the platform. 

I need upwork to back me up on this, as they have my money.

If the contract was cancel there should'nt be any question ask, just a refund, plain and simple, who needs to deal with that.

All the proof of the freelance failing to comply is in the chats, i will think UPwork has access to those. 

[NikolaS]

Hi Danni,

I am sorry to hear about this. I checked and could see that you already requested an Escrow refund. 

Your freelancer or agency can dispute the refund request if they feel a refund is not warranted. If this happens, we will notify you by email and you can either accept or reject the dispute:

• If you accept the dispute, the funds will be released to the freelancer or agency
• If you reject the dispute, an Upwork dispute specialist will provide mediation assistance to both parties to try and resolve the matter

You can find more information here. 

Additionally, please allow more time for one of our agents to reach out to you and assist you further with your Dispute according to our processes. You can access your dispute tickets here. 

[7b9c71ac]

I had already refuse the dispute, buy havent hear back from upwork to solve the situation, 

This has been a really bad eperience for me, i wish i would of read before hand, the bad reviews upwork has on reddit. I could avoid such a headache. 

[prestonhunter]

Danni:

If you want to learn how to use Upwork effectively and correctly, you may ask questions here in the Forum.

You have been using the Upwork system incorrectly and ineffectively. I am sorry if you have been disappointed in your experience here. But you seem to have assumed things about Upwork that are not accurate.

The first thing you should understand about Upwork is that the way it earns money is be collecting a percentage fee from the work that clients pay to freelancers. It is Upwork's intention that clients hire freelancers and those freelancers do work and then those clients pay the freelancers. It is not Upwork's intention that the money go back to the clients.

Refunds are something that should NOT be used normally. A client is not guaranteed to receive a refund just because she asks for one. The most effective and financially safe way to use Upwork as a client is to plan to never get a refund from a freelancer. Ever. For any reasons.

Instead: Hire freelancers thoughtfully and proactively. Monitor their work closely, especially early on. If a freelancer's work doesn't provide you with great value, then cancel the contract. Stop paying money to underperforming freelancers. It is far safer to not pay money to a freelancer whose work isn't helpful to you, rather than pay money to a freelancer and then TRY to get that money back.

[prestonhunter]

re: "If the contract was cancel there should'nt be any question ask, just a refund, plain and simple, who needs to deal with that."

That is definitely not how fixed-price contracts work.

If you want to be able to cancel a fixed-price contract plain and simple with no questions asked, then all you need to do is release any remaining escrow funds and end the contract. There is nothing a freelancer can do about it if you do that.

Instead, you tried to get the money back that you had put into escrow in order to pay the freelancer for his work.

You can't just get the money back automatically. Getting the money back requires getting permission from the freelancer.

If you don't want money tied up in escrow, then you should hire using hourly contracts. That lets you end a contract at any time, without needing to release escrow funds to a freelancer and without needing to ask a freelancer for escrow money back.

I don't know anything about you, your business or your finances. But typically it makes more business sense to simply end a contract and release escrow funds rather than return trying to get a refund. You are now spending additional time and effort going after a refund that you unlikely to ever get. You could have simply released the $200 in escrow and kept all of the work for yourself. You could have given that work to other freelancers you hire to continue the project. Or you could have discard the work. You are not required to use it.

[7b9c71ac]

Het there you Preston, thank you for your reply and the time invested, appreciated,.

Not sure wha you mean about this " release escrow funds", release funds to the freelancer? how in that case, or any case, will that help me to get my money back?

Can you elaborate a bit more on this..

"If you want to be able to cancel a fixed-price contract plain and simple with no questions asked, then all you need to do is release any remaining escrow funds and end the contract. There is nothing a freelancer can do about it if you do that.

If I realese the funds, it meas the freelancer get the money regardless? So I'm in the lost?

side note. The money held in the escrow is the total fix price of C$200 .00 , if i realse that money, where does the money goes?

BTW the contract has been cancel, but the freeslancer disputed, now I'm been sandwitched  between Upwork and the frelancer, I'm the ham in the middle that everybody wants. (get the point)?

I feel Naused

Thank you.

[prestonhunter]

If you release the escrow funds, then they go to the freelancer.

When you set up a fixed-price contract, you must fund an escrow payment. That money essentially has the freelancer's name on it and is intended for the freelancer.

This freelancer was planning to create the Shopify site for you. His plan was to create the site and then get that money.

I know it doesn't seem fair to you that he didn't agree to refund the money to you. But it doesn't seem fair to HIM that you hired him and then tried to avoid paying him for the work that he did.

He felt like he was working on this in a normal way, and his process involves asking you some questions, but you refused to answer his questions. He feels like he was trying to help you, and he spent a lot of time setting up this site for you, and then all of the sudden you just cancelled the project without even talking to him.

I am sorry that you don't seem to understand how this freelancer feels, and you don't understand how to use Upwork correctly. If you had just answered his questions, he could have finished the project for you. If you had talked to him, you could have explained that he wasn't working fast enough for you. Maybe you could have asked him to stop working on the project and asked him to refund $150 back to you. That is how you should try to get a refund. Just cancelling the project without talking to the freelancer? That's not the way.