I've requested a refund from a freelancer but they won't reply. What are my options?

[colej17]

I recently worked with a freelancer who failed to deliver my work. They were over 24 hours late, delivered very poor work and then asked for another extension. I ended the contract but the money has now been taken.

I've requested a refund but the freelancer isn't replying. What are my options?

[prestonhunter]

From a business perspective, I advise you to put yourself and your project first. You don't owe this underperforming freelancer anything. That includes your time and energy.

Refund thinking hurts clients.

I believe clients save money and have more success with their projects when they proactively plan to never ask for refunds. Instead, monitor the work that freelancers do and close the contracts quickly on freelancers whose work is not excellent.

It is much easier to close an hourly contract on a freelancer and stop paying him, rather than to pay him a bunch of money while he does bad work and then try to get money back from him. It is much easier to set up a small fixed-price milestone and review a freelancer's work and then end the contract if his work is bad, rather than pay him with big milestones to do the whole project and then try to get money back.

The simple fact is: any time you pay money to a freelancer, or fund an escrow payment for a freelancer, you might not get it back. Planning to get a refund if things don't work out is a gamble.

To help you with your current situation, answer these questions:

Was this a fixed-price or hourly contract?

How much money in total did you pay this freelancer?

When did this contract end?

Do you want to use the files that the freelancer created for you?

[colej17]

I ended the contract before payment was made, didn't realise the payment would still be taken.

It was an hourly contract. 

He was paid $35 in total. 

It ended May the 19th.

No, the files are completely incorrect and not close to what I was looking for. 

[prestonhunter]

With an hourly contract, you may dispute time segments during the five-day period after the week ends. So you have until Friday of this week.

If time segments were manually logged, Upwork will remove them from what you need to pay for. If there are no memos, or if the mouse/keyboard activity is extremely low, or if screenshots don't show the freelancer working on your project, Upwork will remove the time from what you need to pay for.

Otherwise, Upwork is not going to facilitate a refund.

The worst case scenario is that you pay $35.

Regardless of whether or not you get any refund, don't let thoughts about this freelancer weigh you down or derail your project. He isn't worth it, and the amount you paid him isn't worth it.

A big part of my success as a client is that I plan to pay freelancers for work that I can't use. So that I can focus on the great freelancers and use the highest quality work in my projects.

[colej17]

But this is focused purely on the amount the freelancer worked. 

What he delivered was awful. I asked for a list of companies making 1-3m in revenue and he delivered businesses such as UnderArmour. 

This is literally not usable, surely that should require a refund in itself?

Me paying for this is not acceptable, the service wasn't offered so I'm not sure what I'm paying for. 

[prestonhunter]

When you hire an hourly freelancer, you pay for the freelancer's time, not a specific deliverable, and not a specific level of quality.

These are Upwork's rules. Not mine.

You can try to get a refund. But I don't think it is worth your time.

I feel like you are putting the freelancer and thoughts about his work on some sort of pedestal, making these things far more important than they deserve.

You are not required to use anything this freelancer sent you. You are not required to give this freelancer one more second of your time.

[colej17]

So in other words, there's no protection for buyers even if the quality of work is unusable?

[jr-translation]

---

Jack C wrote:

So in other words, there's no protection for buyers even if the quality of work is unusable?

---

Your only chance is a refund if the freelancer wants to remove a poor feedback.

[prestonhunter]

re: "So in other words, there's no protection for buyers even if the quality of work is unusable?"

Upwork does not guarantee the quality of work done by freelancers. There is no "protection" offered to clients in that regard.

As a client, you may end a contract at any time. If a freelancer is doing work that doesn't meet your quality standards, you can close the contract immediately. After just an hour, for example.

[colej17]

So in what regard is there protection for clients? As at this point I'm being charged for nothing? Surely that's a scam?

I had no option to end within an hour, he logged all 5 hours in one go. 

[prestonhunter]

Next time, you should CHOOSE a maximum number of hours per week of just one hour, and after that hour, review the freelancer's work, and then add more time as needed. If you like his work.

You were not scammed. You hired a low quality freelancer who did low quality work for low pay. That is not the same thing as a scam.

I am sorry about the $35 that you paid. I know that you are disappointed.

One thing that we have not yet discussed is simply asking one more time for the freelancer to give you a refund, but this time asking for only a partial refund. Tell him:

"Carmine, I know that you did your best on this project, but I can't use the work you sent. I don't want to get into a big thing with Upwork over this. Could you please give me a refund in an amount that you feel is appropriate? I would like to suggest a $15 refund. That would make me feel better about the situation and I could move on."

[colej17]

Preston, you're not actually answering my question. What protection is there for clients? As from this chat there's seemingly nothing, you're simply blamed for working with a freelancer. 

I hired a low quality freelancer as the work didn't need to be of a high quality. But when you request a list of companies making 1-3m revenue then receive companies like UnderArmour, it's fair to say the work is borderline a scam. 

I've already tried to message the freelancer several times. He's decided that he doesn't want to respond. The sheer lack of protection as a buyer here is a joke. 

[prestonhunter]

re: "What protection is there for clients?"

Nobody here is claiming that you, as a client, have the type of protection you seem to be asking for.

There many ways to protect yourself, as discussed in this thread. Mainly: Limit the time that a freelancer can work. Review their work. End the contract if you don't like the work.

Upwork does not guarantee the quality of work done by a freelancer. For that type of protection, you will need to look elsewhere. Sorry.

[e6e1c3fa]

Forget the $35

[e6e1c3fa]

If I were you, I will request work time by time.
Even though I set 40hrs, I will ask work for 1hrs, and if he can't meet your expection for 1hrs, I will fire him 

In worst scenarios, you would lose only $7 
UPwork is a method.

[AleksandarD]

Hi Jack,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. You can dispute the hours logged by the freelancer by going to the 'Terms & Settings' tab of the contract page and clicking on the 'Dispute' link. You can also check this help article for more information. This Community thread contains a lot of info about the dispute and mediation assistance so I encourage you to check it out as well.

Please note that filing a dispute through Upwork’s process must be based on the hours a freelancer has billed you for. That means you cannot file a dispute with us because you are not satisfied with the quality of the freelancer’s work. In those cases, you and your freelancer should discuss the matter and work together to resolve any issues.

Thank you.