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27af9d17
Community Member

Refund for pay for hour

I had a contract with a freelancer and I had to cancel it after 20+ hours. The contract was dragging while 2 other freelancers hired for the same job finished their work. The freelancer said he needs 10+ more hours which is way too much for what I need.

 

I ended up with no deliverables, nothing to show for and $360 lost. How do I get a refund for this?

 

 

7 REPLIES 7
g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Sorin,

 

I'm sorry to hear about the bad experience you've had. Our team will reach out to you via ticket and email as soon as possible and will assist you further. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

Thanks, that would be great!

prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "I ended up with no deliverables, nothing to show for and $360 lost. How do I get a refund for this?"

 

You may dispute any hours logged during the previous work week. You have five days to do so after the week ends.

 

You may dispute manually logged time. You may dispute time segments without adequate memos or adequate mouse/keyboard activity. You may dispute work diary time segments in which the screen shows the freelancer playing computer games.

 

Keep in mind the observation I regularly make:

Dispute thinking hurts clients.

 

It is not Upwork's intention that clients get a refund for hourly work based on deliverables. You probably have no basis under Upwork ToS for getting a refund. In my opinion, you will be better off in the future if you plan to never ask for a refund no matter what, and instead move more quickly to close a contract on an underperforming freelancer.

 

Put yourself first. Put your project first. Don't worry about the freelancer's feelings. Be ready to fire a freelancer quickly.

 

The simple truth is that most of the time, a client can't get ANY money back from an hourly contract. So if you let a freelancer continue to log time, you are taking a big risk. If you close a contract now, then there is zero risk that any more time will be logged (meaning no more money will be spent).

Live and learn I guess. No more hourly contracts.

re: "No more hourly contracts."

 

If you are concerned about minimizing cost and minimizing waste, I recommend using hourly contracts.

 

With an hourly contract, a client may end a contract at any time, and there is nothing that a freelancer can do about it.

 

If you use fixed-price contracts, you fund payments PRIOR to anything being delivered. And there IS NO BUTTON for unilaterally cancelling a payment or getting the money back. If you fund a $500 payment for a freelancer to create a "client data import" module, then there is no way for you to get that money back unless you ask the freelancer to refund it to you. What will you do if the freelancer says "no"?

 

You might be thinking: "Well, the freelancer did nothing. Don't I get my money back?"
Answer: No.

What happens is you have the OPTION to file a dispute, which means that Upwork encourages you to talk things through with the freelancer and come to an agreement. Upwork will not simply decide you get the money. If the freelancer stands firm, then the next available option is arbitration, which will cost you $291 - a NON-REFUNDABLE fee. So if you DO take this to arbitration, then MAYBE you can get $500 back, but you will have paid $291 for the opportunity to go to arbitration. These are all reasons why many clients avoid fixed-price contracts. If they keep an eye on hourly contracts, they can control what is going on without ever tying money up in escrow. A freelancer might decide to NOT pay his $291 fee for arbitration, in which case there is no arbitration and you get all the escrow money and you don't need to pay $291. But what if the freelancer won't back down and insists on arbitration?

 

I certainly don't think that using fixed-price contracts is a sure-fire way to avoid losing money when hiing freelancers on Upwork.

petra_r
Community Member


Sorin C wrote:

I ended up with no deliverables, nothing to show for and $360 lost. How do I get a refund for this?


Have you discussed this with the freelancer? (PAUSE the contract in the meantime)

 

The freelancer can delete hours tracked this week. You have until tomorrow midnight UTC to dispute hours tracked last week.

 

Tell thefreelancer to send you the work done so far and then come to an agreement how many hours they are worth. The freelancer may agree to delete some excessive time.

27af9d17
Community Member

Yes it's been on pause for a while. I did ask him for a refund but he refused. So here I am with the money lost and with nothing in return. 

 

For sure in the future I will only go for fixed term contracts.

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