Stop payment to a freelancer on hourly basis before resolving dispute.

[ghicham]

Good afternoon,

I had my first hire on Upwork and realized that the freelance skills do not meet the job he applied for.

I choose to follow upwork recommendation while setting the contract and it was done hourly.

After first delivery, i realized that wahat was delivered are plain templates from the web i could have done myself, and that the freelance has no experience on what he was doing.

After asking him if he has ever worked on the version of loopback 4 he confirmed that he has never worked on it but he has a 2 years experience on loopback 3, that if i choose to use it, it will be delivered much faster.

I accepted and after few hours he published something, but again simple starter template, not even working and i was able to debug it and correct.

Now i paused the contract but i realized that there was hours booked by the freelance and that upwork has already set it to be paid on wednesday.

Now the freelance is not even answering my messages..

is there a way to stop the payment until we settle and agree about the deliveries?

or i should pay and ask for a refund?

Thank you for your help.

[petra_r · Accepted solution]

Hourly contracts are paid according to the hours that were worked, not any specific deliverables. If the hours were logged properly according to Upwork's protection terms for hourly contracts (using the tracker, with adequate activity levels and project specific screenshot) there is no basis for a dispute.

End the contract, leave appropriate feedback, and hire someone who can do what you need to have done. 

The quality (or lack of) of the deliverables is not a valid basis for a dispute on an hourly contract.

[ghicham]

Hi Petra,

Thank you for answering.

Sorry but i dont agree with your statement that the lack of qualiity and knowledge of the freelance is not a basis for a dispute.

I hire on upwork because i believe there s a good control of knowledge of the freelance and that what they put as their skills is correct. Then anyone can register as a freelance and scam clients.

Why should I then use upwork?  

[prestonhunter]

re: "Sorry but i dont agree with your statement that the lack of qualiity and knowledge of the freelance is not a basis for a dispute."

Hicham: Your statement is TRUE. By this, I mean that it is indeed your opinion or belief that the lack of quality and knowledge of a freelancer should be something that can be the basis for a dispute.

But Petra is correct with regards to what Upwork's actual policy is.

If you believe that Upwork's policy should be changed, then you are welcome to advocate for such a change. The Community Forum, and even this very thread, are appropriate places for you to explain your position.

You should know that Upwork has employees who monitor all conversations in the Forum and regularly report to management and appropriate teams on what they see being discussed. There have been many positive changes to Upwork functionality and policy that began here in the Forum.

For now, it may help if you look at this as a technical issue, because that is truly what it is. I think most of us would agree with the points that you made: That freelancers should have good knowledge and skill in the area that they claim to have expertise in. I think everyone would agree that freelancers should only take on jobs that they can do an excellent job on, and that they should strive to meet or exceed client expectations.

But Upwork has policies based on long-standing standards that apply to hiring practices, and also based on technical limitations. Upwork's software and technology can indeed measure how long a freelancer has worked on your project. But how would Upwork's software measure the quality of the work? How would Upwork's automated software judge whether a drawing of a cat wearing a funny hat is "good enough"? How would Upwork's automated software judge whether a blog article about a lawn mowing company has "enough punch"? What if a client hired a freelancer to write ad copy in the style of Jane Austen? And what if the client thinks the ad copy is not quite Jane Austen-y enough? How does software measure that? It simply isn't practical.

If you think of solutions to these problems, then don't hesitate to offer them here.

[ghicham]

Preston : thanks for your answer.

on your statement : "If you believe that Upwork's policy should be changed, then you are welcome to advocate for such a change. The Community Forum, and even this very thread, are appropriate places for you to explain your position."

I believe that a company driven by quality does not need me to say what is obvious. As far as i am concerned in this first experience, hiring here is the same as just picking any developer from google search. 

They are some rising freelancing sites where the tests are done very seriously. But i must admit the rates are higher. 

As i said it s my first hire and was hoping for good result. For me it looks like uber has sent a driver without checking his licence or airbnb listing a property without a bed... lol.

I ended the contract, the payment has been taken. But just realized i cannot delete the credit card for further deductions.

The only positive thing is that the community looks quite active!!

Regards.

[prestonhunter]

Hicham:
I appreciate your thoughtful comments.

I can assure you that Upwork does not vet freelancers in the ways that you are suggesting.

You are correct that there ARE other sites that do vetting along those lines.

[prestonhunter]

You can end the contact at any time.

You can pause the contract at any time.

You can change the number of allowable hours to zero at any time.

You can review work diaries at any time.

You can require the freelancer send you work files at any time.

You have all the power. You don't need to get help or permission from anyone to use your power.

Refunds aren't applicable here. Don't worry about that.

Technically, you CAN ask the feeelancer for a refund. You can ask for a full or partial refund and see if she will agree. But that is probably a waste of your valuable time. It will be faster and more efficient to simply close the contract and not spend any more time or energy on a freelancer who deserves neither from you.

[ghicham]

Thank you Preston.

You are right I will just forget about this short experience, and hope i will meet better freelancer next time.

[jr-translation]

---

Hicham G wrote:

Thank you Preston.

You are right I will just forget about this short experience, and hope i will meet better freelancer next time.

---

You can leave a feedback when you close the contract. Leave an honest feedback including that the freelancer lied about his qualification. Then wait what happens.

[ghicham]

Hello,

Thanks for your comment.

I left a review, a honest and factual one. But i am very surprised that my feedback is still not displayed and that he is a top rated with a 100% success (which was the initial criteria i selected him). 

I closed the contract but cannot remove my credit card from payment method even though the contract is closed and i dont have any remaining invoices. 

[prestonhunter]

If you closed the contract and left feedback, then your feedback will not appear until after the freelancer leaves feedback as well.

BOTH client and freelancer need to leave feedback before anybody's feedback appears. Or, if one side never leaves feedback, then feedback will appear after 14 days.

Also, even when both sides leave feedback, it can take a few days for it to appear, because content blocks on profile pages are cached for speed purposes, and don't necessarily appear generated anew upon each page load.

[AveryO]

Hi Hicham, 

I would like to confirm that since the contract is closed, the freelancer will not be able to log time in the contract. However, if you wish to remove your credit card from your billing methods, you may follow the steps noted here. 

As Preston has shared, when a contract is closed, you and your freelancer will have 14-days to leave feedback for each other. The system is double-blind, so once both of you have left feedback for each other or the 14-day feedback period is over, whichever comes first, the feedback will be visible on the freelancer's profile. You may read more about it here.