I've been billed excessively on hourly rate without completing the tasks on the contract.

[3876f061]

I posted a job on upwork few months ago to enhance my App. IOS, Android, Backend. I listed the major tasks and who can apply to this job, Expert level only.

Some freelancer from India had great proposal saying all  issues are fixable and guaranteed. So he quoted me 384hrs to do the entire project. I hired him and we had a contract not to exceed the 384hrs and to cover whats listed in the contract. The freelancer said in his statement if we come close to this amount of hours without completing the project he will pause upwork timer! 

The second week after handling the source code to him, major issues not fixed and until this moment the major tasks listed on the contract still not completed. Every other week started discovering this freelancer is not an Expert level,  PLUS who is working on my project I don’t know him and never existed in group. Many basic features and functions it’s his time doing it! like in-app purchase... upwork dairy screenshots shows he was looking it up how to implement it.

The time come so close to 384hrs so I paused the upwork timer... freelancer went crazy saying that he doesn’t work without active billing. 

I filed dispute and attached all the screenshots, proofs, my statements along with the contract. Pretty much I've been scammed, lack of experience and lack of progress. The freelancer stole the source code in legit way and abused the upwork timer by dual monitor setup on his computer, God knows what was going in the sec monitor, Netflix or maybe other projects.

My request to the dispute team to refund all my money and take a serious action toward his account.

Has anyone been through similar to this hassle?

[prestonhunter]

That is a lot of hours. Why didn't you stop working with him early on and only work with the members of your team who provided you with the best value for your project?

[3876f061]

I've trusted that freelancer and relied on his statments as a backup proof. 

[tta192]

Your initial agreement cannot be valid and it's unreasonable on your part to expect that.

The freelancer is not allowed - even if he wanted to - to work for free. So I can assure you Upwork will not make the freelancer complete the project without billing.

Your only options right now are to re-activate the contract with this freelancer, or to find another freelancer, or to cancel the project.

The best option would have been to actually manage the project while it happened. Had you done that, you would have had regular status updates from the freelancer and would have known what to expect. 

[AveryO]

Hi Sammy, 

I'm sorry to learn about your experience with this contract. I can see that the Mediation Team is assisting you and your freelancer come to an amicable agreement regarding your concern. If you have other issues you wish to bring up, please feel free to update your mediation ticket. Hopefully, this gets resolved soon. 

[prestonhunter]

I do not doubt that the original poster is disappointed by how things turned out with this project. I really do hope that he will be able to get some help from Upwork Customer Support.

I feel bad for every client who is in a similar situation.

But Andrei is right about the importance of managing a project.

This and similar situations always serve to remind us of the importance of project management. If a project is not managed, there is a very high chance that it will fail. Upwork can not change that fact. There is nothing that Upwork or anybody else can do to change that fact. Nobody, no matter what their system intentions are, no matter what their marketing says, can guarantee positive outcomes for a large development project that is not managed.

The original poster said he trusted the freelancer he hired. But this is not about trust. A freelancer can be 100% honest, and a project can still fail.

A project manager reviews work and keeps the project on track and maximizes return on investment by assigning work to the most productive team members. The PM assigns the work to those who provide the most value to the project. The freelancers who we stop working with? It is usually not a matter of them being untrustworthy. It is usually because they are not a good fit for the project. Their skill set or their way of working are not what the project needs.