Unresponsive Freelancer

[a8ce096c]

I hired a  freelancer on March 30th, and he had promised to deliver work by April 12th and charged $$ on April 4th. Since April 4th, there has been no communication or updates. Finally, he stated he would deliver on April 13th. Since then, I have reached out to him multiple times with no response. I have asked him for a refund; once again, crickets! I have tried to contact customer service, but it keeps taking me to the same page over and over again, which is frustrating. I would appreciate it if there is a better way to contact customer service to file a dispute. Thank you.

[prestonhunter]

I can assure you that you do not need to contact Upwork Customer Support in order to manage your freelancers and projects. 

I have hired over 150 freelancers. I have never needed to contact Support in order to manage freelancers.

You don't need to file a dispute.

There are strategies that work for getting data done on time. Contacting Support is not one of those strategies.

For your correct situation, all you need to do is close the contract and edit the amount of money to release to be zero. Then proceed to finalize closure of the contract. If the freelancer continues to do nothing then all the money will be returned to your credit card automatically.

Like this:

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211062058-Get-an-Escrow-Refund

You don't need to talk to the freelancer again. He does not want to talk to you any way. You don't need to contact Support. You don't need to file a dispute. You click a couple buttons and you'll be done.

[prestonhunter]

For future reference, if you have an important deadline, then do not hire a single freelancer you have never worked with before. Do not use fixed-price contracts.

Hire multiple freelancers with hourly contracts. Assign them the same task. Tell them the deadline. Tell them that when the work is done, the project is over.

Once you have received the files you need, then close all the contracts. This method can be used to guarantee that you receive the work you need on time.

And no money is tied up in escrow. If any freelancer does no work, then they receive no pay. That is fair for everyone.

[petra_r]

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Preston H wrote:

For your correct situation, all you need to do is close the contract and edit the amount of money to release to be zero.

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On an hourly contract?

How?

[prestonhunter]

What I told the original poster applies if the contract was a fixed-price contract.

If the original poster has an hourly contract, then the situation is even simpler, because no money is tied up in escrow. The client simply needs to close the contract, and not ask for a refund, and not try to contact Upwork Customer Support.

[petra_r]

This was an hourly contract, correct?