Freelancer billed me for 30 unauthorized hours

[lingbolingbo]

Hi there,

I'm not sure what recourse I have other than posting here.

I've hired through Upwork for years and had generally ok to good experiences. But this was the first time I felt straight up defrauded.

The freelancer, **edited for Community Guidelines**, was doing gmail admin work. I set the limit to 10 hours a week since it was there were a half hour here and there over the course of a few weeks. I employ several other people for 1-2 years so I don't look at payroll every week. My bad, of course. But that still did not give license for them to bill me for 10 hours a week for 3 weeks - no work done, absurd excuse that I had awarded them a maintenance contract (no record of that in our chat).

I tried to work it out with them. They stopped responding so I left a review. Now they've removed that review. It's crazy because it wasn't just bad work - it was stealing and then refusing to return the money. 

How can future clients know that this guy does this? It seems irresponsible to completely remove that feedback given the circumstance. 

[AveryO]

Hi Lana, 

I'm sorry to learn about your experience with this freelancer. On hourly contracts, it is important to review the freelancer's logged hours during the review period so that you can dispute any of the logged hours that don't seem to meet your contract's guidelines. You may read more about it here. 

I have shared your concern with the team and they will reach out to you to assist you further with your concern.