Hired and sent $150 in supplies, now she’s not responding.

[bdddf4eb]

I’m a business owner and was seeking a seamstress to make bikinis for us specifically for the upcoming holidays. 
We agreed on cost and set milestones. 

This was my first transaction using this platform. I sent her $150 in supplies. The first and second milestone has passed and I’ve sent multiple messages to this person without response. 

What do I do now? 

[prestonhunter]

re: "The first and second milestone has passed and I’ve sent multiple messages to this person without response."

Ashley:

You have stated that the freelancer did the work for the first milestone, and then submitted the work to you. And then you reviewed that first milestone work and released payment for it.

Then you set up a 2nd milestone, and the freelancer did that work as well, and you reviewed the results and released payment for it.

I am sorry to hear that the freelancer is currently not responsive.

But what I'm wondering about is this:

You have received the work for the first and second milestones. This is significant work. Why don't you want to simply hire somebody else to do the next step?

[petra_r]

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Preston H wrote:

You have stated that the freelancer did the work for the first milestone, and then submitted the work to you. And then you reviewed that first milestone work and released payment for it.

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She stated no such thing. You presumably noticed that she stated no such thing.

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Preston H wrote:

Then you set up a 2nd milestone, and the freelancer did that work as well, and you reviewed the results and released payment for it.

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Ashley didn't say that either. 

It sounds like Ashley sent the material and even though the deadlines for the first 2 milestones have passed, she never heard from the freelancer again.

Ashley, if that's the case, close the contract and request for the escrow funds back, then start again with someone else. The material you sent is unfortunately gone, Upwork can't get that back for you.

[prestonhunter]

re: “She stated no such thing.”

I have provided a clear interpretation of the original own poster’s words.

I am aware that the interpretation is probably not what she meant.

This provides an opportunity for the original poster to either confirm that what I said is correct, or clarify and explain what she actually meant.

[petra_r]

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Preston H wrote:

I am aware that the interpretation is probably not what she meant.

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So, if you know fully well that's not what she said and know fully well that is probably not what she meant, why present it as if it was a fact by declaring that she "stated" this whole scenario you plain and simply made up?

[JoanneP]

Hi Ashley,

I'm sorry to hear that the freelancer you hired has been unresponsive. I can see that you have submitted a support ticket to our team already. One of our agents will update your ticket and assist you further. Thank you for your patience. 

[prestonhunter]

re: “What do I do now?”

You are the best person to answer that question.

Because only you know how important this project is, how important the deadline is, etc.

If the freelancer you hired has not done any work on this project (assuming that is what you meant when you said that “two milestones have passed”), then it should be clear to you that this freelancer is not interested in working on your project. Or at least it means the freelancer has no interest whatsoever in your timetable.

So there are really two different topics to deal with, and they are largely unrelated:

a) I hired a freelancer and sent her materials and she hasn’t done anything.

b) I have a project I need to get done by a specific, impending timeline.

I don’t know YOUR specific financial situation or interests. For many businesses, a $150 loss is insignificant, and it would not be worth it to the business to pay its employees to try to recover that amount of money from a remote freelancer.

If there was an amount of money that you funded in escrow, the THAT money is easily recoverable. All you need to do is close the contract, and while doing so, edit the amount of money to be released, changing it to zero. Then proceed with contract closure. Because this freelancer is not responding to messages from Upwork, her lack of response to the this-generated refund request will result in Upwork automatically refunding all escrow money to you.

So you will get back the money you paid to the freelancer. But you won’t get the $150 worth of fabric/materials.

If the completion of this project is in any way important to you, then you need to work on item (b) above, without any connection to item (a).

In other words, you need to hire other people to work on this.