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14d473f1
Community Member

How do i get my money back from escrow? - Customer

Secured funds with escrow for freelance work (fixed not hourly) , although i havent released any milestones.is my money still being held by Escro?

Thanks for any help in advance.
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BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Martin,

 

Yes, the money for the milestone is still held in Escrow. If the freelancer didn't deliver work as agreed, you can close the contract and request refund from Escrow. The freelancer will have to either approve the refund or file a dispute. If they don't respond at all, the money will be refunded to you automatically. Please check this Help Article to find out more about Escrow and how to get a refund on money you have put in it.

~ Bojan
Upwork

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18 REPLIES 18
colettelewis
Community Member

You have to ask the freelancer to refund you, and if the freelancer refuses, you can dispute it.

 

Do you have a reason to ask for a refund?

Thanks for responding so quickly.the freelancer has ignored my messages for a month and has not completed the job, so i'm wanting escrow to release the funds. How is this possible?

You can close the contract. If the freelancer has already requested for the funds to be released, then you will probably have to dispute it, if he or she has disappeared. If you dispute it Upwork will notify the freelancer who then has seven days to refund you, or to contest the refund. If the freelancer ignores the dispute, then the money if it is still in escrow will be automatically refunded to you.

 

If the freelancer has not already requested funds to be released, then the money in escrow will automatically be refunded to you. Have a look here:

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211062058-Get-an-escrow-refund-on-a-fixed-price-contrac...

 

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Martin,

 

Yes, the money for the milestone is still held in Escrow. If the freelancer didn't deliver work as agreed, you can close the contract and request refund from Escrow. The freelancer will have to either approve the refund or file a dispute. If they don't respond at all, the money will be refunded to you automatically. Please check this Help Article to find out more about Escrow and how to get a refund on money you have put in it.

~ Bojan
Upwork
14d473f1
Community Member

Ah right. But i tried to cancel the contract and it isnt appearing in my jobs ? Is my money still in escrow then?

Hi Martin,

 

I checked and do see your active contract on your home page (My Jobs page/tab) and under the All Contracts tab.

 

Provided you're checking your account from a computer and not the Upwork mobile app, if you still can't see it when scrolling down, please clear your cache and cookies and try again, try using a different browser and follow up if you need further guidance.

~ Vladimir
Upwork

Dear Vladimir,

I have hired one person to do some photo manipulation. Upwork took money from my card, and now the person wrote me a message that he can't do the job. How can I get my money back ?

re: "I have hired one person to do some photo manipulation. Upwork took money from my card, and now the person wrote me a message that he can't do the job. How can I get my money back ?"

 

It is easy to get your money back.

 

Close the contract. You will be asked if you want to release funds to the freelancer, or ask for them back. Click the button to ask for all of your money to be refunded back to you.

 

The freelancer will receive a request to authoirze the refund. He will say "Yes." Your money will automatically be returned to your account within 5 business days.

 

If the freelancer does nothing, then the system will wait 7 days, and then automatically authorize the request, and you will receive your money back.

 

Read more about it here:

 

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211062058-Get-an-escrow-refund-on-a-fixed-price-contrac...

bf1528b0
Community Member

Question; if you have already released money to a freelancer from escrow but have requested a refund on it. If the freelancer does not respond back within 7 days will that money automatically be refunded back to the client as well?

Hi Brandon,

 

Could you please provide more information about your questions so that we can better assist you? Thank you.

 

~ Nikola
Upwork
bf1528b0
Community Member

Yes. So I have a $500 fixed price contract with a freelancer. I paid her the first milestone of $250 for research and to purchase the materials for the job. However she hasn’t responded back to my messages in 4 weeks and I feel she has misused the $250. I have requested a refund of that $250 but she hasn’t responded back; so will I get that money refunded back to me after 7 days even if she doesn’t respond back?

Hi Brandon,

 

Thanks for following up. Yes, if the freelancer does not respond within seven days, the money in escrow will be refunded. You can check out this help article for more information about that. 

 

Let us know if you have further questions.

 

Thank you.

~ Aleksandar
Upwork

So the money that has already been paid to her is still considered to be in escrow and will be refunded back to me?

Hi Brandon,

 

Sorry for any confusion, the process Aleksandar outlined below applies for the funds that are still in Escrow. You can still request a refund if the payment was released from Escrow within the last 180 days, click here to learn more about this process.

 

Thank you.

~ Luiggi
Upwork
bf1528b0
Community Member

Yes, I’ve read that information in the link but it is hard to tell from that information rather or not the money that has been released will be refunded even if the freelancer doesn’t respond to the refund request.

Hi Brandon,

 

Thanks for the follow-up. To clarify, Fixed-Price contracts allow clients to review the submitted milestone before they release payment from Escrow. Once the milestone is released, it's considered approved. The Upwork team is also able to provide mediation assistance in qualifying cases as outlined in the Fixed-Price Escrow Instructions here. However, if a payment has been released more than 30 days ago, this option isn't available. While you can still request a refund from the freelancer, provided the funds were released from Escrow within the past 180 days, it's technically up to the freelancer to provide such a refund. 

 

~ Luiggi
Upwork
bf1528b0
Community Member

Okay. Is there any way that Upwork can get involved as far as getting in touch with this scam artist who calls themself a freelancer? Because they are not responding to my messages at all.

Hi Brandon,

 

Thanks for the follow-up. In this case, we'll have one of our agents reach out to you via a support ticket to further assist you with this. 

 

Thank you.

~ Luiggi
Upwork
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