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fb9ddc0a
Community Member

Fixed price project, 90% money paid (not in escrow), freelance closed the project and not responding

hi,

I hired a freelancer for my mobile app developemnt, 90% of the money is alredy paid ($2200 in milestones) however the build he has delivered has bugs and the app is dysfunctional (totally useless). He has closed the contract and non responsive. I am very frustrated as a client as i dont know what to do. I have requested for a refund but not sure if that helps. Is there a way i can reach out to upwork and escalate it?

 

any help?

16 REPLIES 16
prestonhunter
Community Member

If that freelancer is non-responsive, it means that he is no longer interested in working on the project.

 

Refunds are a waste of your time, and have nothing to do with accomplishing your goals.

 

It is time to move forward, working with the other members of your team to finish the project, or hiring additional freelancers if necessary.

he didnt even share the full source code. How can I leave it like that and move on, there must be some protection in place from upwrok for the clients.


Promaple S wrote:

he didnt even share the full source code. How can I leave it like that and move on, there must be some protection in place from upwrok for the clients.


Of course you have every right to ask for at least a partial refund if the work was faulty or incomplete. There's more information here.

thanks Christine & Preston, i have already requested for a refund but isnt that at the discretion of the freelancer than Upwork?

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Promaple, 

I'm sorry to learn about your experience with this freelancer. I checked your contract and since you are still within the dispute period, you have the option for filing a dispute against the paymente made on this contract. You may read up on this post about information on disputes on Upwork. Once a dispute is filed, a Mediation Specialist will get in touch with you to assist you with your dispute. 


Just the same, I have shared this information with the team and they will reach out to you to assist you further through an email.


~ Avery
Upwork
fb9ddc0a
Community Member

thanks Avery for giving me some hope. Eagerly awaiting to hear from your team.

If the freelancer has closed the project, you can leave a feedback. Make use of this option. Inform other potential client about this issue. Some freelancers are incliened to refund just to make a poor feedback disappear. The freelancer might ask you to change your feedback. As we have recently learned you can do it as often as you like within 14 days after the freelancer left you with the option.

Just make sure to keep everything short and professional instead of ranting.

fb9ddc0a
Community Member

Hey Avery- i havent heard back from the team. Unfotunately i have to come back to you for help.

Hi Promaple, 

 

Sorry about the delay. We followed up with the team that's handling your case and they will update you directly on your open ticket to assist you further. We really appreciate your patience. 

~ Joanne
Upwork


Preston H wrote:

 

Refunds are a waste of your time, and have nothing to do with accomplishing your goals.

 

Well, unless you need the money to hire someone else to do the job. You always seem to overlook that possibility.

slawomir_rewaj
Community Member

Hello Promaple,

 

I'm sorry to hear about your situation. Unfortunately there is no way for you to avoid losses.

You may get part of the funds back, but I assume at least part of it is lost forever.

You have made few mistakes and, unfortunately, there is no way to avoid consequences. At least you can learn something of it. My few propositions:

1. Every software development milestone should be accepted only after source code is delivered. If you have no source code you have got nothing

2. Be prepared that freelancers may try to deceive you in a clever way. That can always happen and Upwork can do nothing about it

3. Don't believe that you can save 90% of the cost by going to Upwork. Get a quote from your local provider. You will need the budget equal between 30% and 70% of that quote to do the same on Upwork, depending on your location. If you find somebody willing to do the job for less, then become really cautious.

re: "I hired a freelancer for my mobile app developemnt, 90% of the money is alredy paid ($2200 in milestones) however the build he has delivered has bugs and the app is dysfunctional (totally useless)."

 

Obviously this freelancer has let you down.

But for the sake of your project, I hope you realize that this means the project manager COMPLETELY FAILED at her job.

Obvioiusly you need a different project manager.


If you are using Upwork properly, and working with a competent project manager, it simply isn't possible to lose that amount of money on "useless" or "dysfnctional" work.

 

Your project manager is supposed to evaluate the work as it is delivered, check out the source code and files, test it, etc. She should tell you if the work is useless, and she will advise about which freelancers to stop working with and which to continue using on the project.

 

It sounds like she did none of these things.

hey Preston- thanks for responding.

I dont really agree that it was PM's fault. To give you a perspective, we were working together quite well and there is always that human factor. the only mistake i did was, i got very comfortable with the developer and trusted him to finish the project.

Even if i would have asked him for the code after every milestone it would still be irrelevant because we made some changes and increased project scope and budget for the last milestone This last milestone was crucial and there is where he let me down. 

hoffenberg-irit
Community Member

Hello Promaple

I believe you can file a dispute to request a refund unless the freelancer will fix the bugs. If you already asked for a refund, wait untill you get a respond from upwork. You may need to hire another freelancer to fix the bugs. I am doubtful  if this application could be comleted with one freelancer, and I am not sure if this is a fair expectation from one freeelancer to complete a mobile up by himself. It seams as these applications need teamwork of freelnacers untill they can be completed .One of my cousines developed a mobile application and I know he hired several freelancers untill the job was done. I have a client that constantly develop applications for mobile and she hires many freelancers to make a progress, not just one. It takes a lot of work to develop a good moble application. 

 

Hey Irit- Thanks for responding. I have already lost money by hiring a wrong agency and this was my second attempt. I was close to finish and then this happened. This was a challenging project for sure but because the developer could not fix the recurring bug, he decided to close the contract instead. 

 

When i opened this dicussion on the forum, Upwork got in touch with me immediately but since then there hasnt been much development. I have emailed support team multiple times but no respone as yet, not sure what is happening. 

 

re: " I have already lost money by hiring a wrong agency and this was my second attempt"

 

Promaple:

It really sounds like your approach to this project is insufficiently modular.

 

All of the money you are spending should be going towards functional, usable pieces which are demonstrated and tested.

 

You shouldn't be losing money at all. You should be assembling the pieces needed in a stepwise fashion, regardless of changeover in personnel.

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