The None Stop Abuse and UpWork. Do we have a paid moderator to have a look at a file?

[ffe69867]

I was wondering; if an employer wanted to claim his money back from a freelancer, is it possible? Do we have moderators that we can hire to revise the file and tell me if I deserver the abusive language and the unfair project result? I was willing to forget but after the verbal unnecessary abuse I do not see it fair for someone to get away with the bad work and top it up with the hateful remarks.

Is it possible to get a refund? I am willing to provide all the explanation and the communication for the work and the communication.

Here is the story:

• I was very specific by asking to update tables from the main database to mine and then append further changes at certain triggers. Instead what he did was update two queries that depended on these tables. This made all the other raw tables redundant.
• The more I tested the more I realized that none of the tables are updating correctly and not even the queries. I know basic coding and the more I looked in the more I discovered the very very scruffy work (all evidence available). Eventually he proposed an extra 5 hours to fix, to which I decided enough is enough.
• The minimum weekly hours UpWork allowed me to go down to 1hr and not ZERO which is not fair because I needed to pause this madness without stopping the contract yet.
• Even this hour was consumed by him negotiating what to do. I was amazed how ruthless and unapologetic he was, so I stopped the contract and gave him a fair review.
• This opened hell’s gate on me with messages and abuse. The more I told him to stay respectful and not cross the line the worse it became. I even gave him an opportunity for me to revise my review.
• I ended up blocking him on Skype and on Upwork.

......and life goes on.

I was willing to forget this $420 before his abuse started but now I am just throwing a question out there to see if there is a method of claiming this money back. He sure does not deserve it for the work let alone the abusive remarks and messages he has sent on skype and upwork.

[holymell]

Yes. You can report him for the abusive language.

Your financial recourse is limited, but I'm sure you know from reading about the hourly contract that you agreed to, that you get five days to review the work your freelancer has completed per week.

After that review period, if you have not disputed the hours for that week, you have officially paid that money to the freelancer.

You can dispute this current week.

If you report the freelancer and show screenshots of the abuse, yes, action will likely be taken against that freelancer, rightfully so. No one should be abusive to a client or freelancer. That should be punished.

Report him and dispute this week's hours.

[AveryO · Accepted solution]

I'm sorry to learn that you've had an unfortunate experience with a freelancer on this contract, Ramzi. I checked and can see that most of your communication transpired via Skype, so I was unable to see some of the exchanges you had with this freelancer. 

As Melissa has noted, you should be able to file a dispute for the hours logged last week. To know how you can file a dispute, please check out this help article. 

[ffe69867]

Thank you Melissa and Avery for the reply. I am very new at this and the one week of disputed money in my case will be less than one hour and this is not worth thinking about. 

I am either missing settings or something did not add up. It was annoying to realize that In hourly hiring, I was unable to reduce the weekly allowance to zero hours and take a pause to see what is happening before I concluded about the work. The minimum was 1hr.

I also receive an email from UpWork informing me that the project was going to be shut down because it exceeded the time limit to hire someone. I don’t understand why Upwork would send such an email because I already had someone working but I kept it open for more hiring from the beginning with hope that there would be another hiring opportunity.

I will not be disputing this job because I consider this a lesson to me and disputing one hour is not worth it, I have always had the risk under control. I will also not dispute anyone until I learn more about the skill levels I find on Upwork. I have many projects coming my way but I think I need to revise my expectations before the next hiring.

In my message I wanted to know if there is any protection against workmanship even if it costs a moderator fee and I did not find any. This is also understandable by me.

Best regards and tahnk you for your reply

Ramzi

[VladimirG]

Hi Ramzi,

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I am either missing settings or something did not add up. It was annoying to realize that In hourly hiring, I was unable to reduce the weekly allowance to zero hours and take a pause to see what is happening before I concluded about the work. The minimum was 1hr.

Please note that clients can pause Hourly contracts by following these steps but can't select 0 as the weekly limit, since this represents the number of hours a freelancer can log, hence 1 is the minimum.

I also receive an email from UpWork informing me that the project was going to be shut down because it exceeded the time limit to hire someone. I don’t understand why Upwork would send such an email because I already had someone working but I kept it open for more hiring from the beginning with hope that there would be another hiring opportunity.

Note that job posts are closed automatically after 30 days of inactivity and you can easily avoid this action or repost the same job in a few simple steps in case it closes automatically.

I will not be disputing this job because I consider this a lesson to me and disputing one hour is not worth it, I have always had the risk under control. I will also not dispute anyone until I learn more about the skill levels I find on Upwork. I have many projects coming my way but I think I need to revise my expectations before the next hiring.

In my message I wanted to know if there is any protection against workmanship even if it costs a moderator fee and I did not find any. This is also understandable by me.

Please read more about Hourly Payment Protection (here and here), how you can protect your payment and successfully complete your job while using Hourly contracts.

[ffe69867]

Thank you Vladimir. This was helpful.

[barada00]

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@Ramzi K wrote:

I will also not dispute anyone until I learn more about the skill levels I find on Upwork. I have many projects coming my way but I think I need to revise my expectations before the next hiring.

---

Hello Ramzi,

No, don't revise your expectations before the next hiring. There are all kinds of freelancers here with experience and knowledge ranging from "amateur wannabes" to "hardcore professionals" Sometimes it is hard to know which is which. The best thing to do is never to hire somebody hourly if it is your first time working with that person and make milestones for each step of the work. For your first time collaboration never give down payment. Never release milestones if you are not 100% sure it is complete and tested.

After you successfully complete a project or two with the freelancer, then you can consider working hourly. If anything seems off, even a small thing that is making you uncomfortable, don't work with that freelancer. Have confidence in your feelings. Once you find the right person or people, stick with them, make them happy and they will make you happy too.

[wendy_writes]

Ramzi,  many of us rely on Skype. The best way to document all conversations is to copy/ paste all relevant parts to the workroom. 

This protects you and/or the freelancer.  If the freelancer (or client) does not dispute the info in the workroom - it is legit.

[ffe69867]

Thanks Wendy.

What I did few moments ago was I copied the Skype conversation as a snap shot to attach it to the workroom as a pdf or other means, but because I already closed the conversation I could not and I did not bother to try and un-archive it to attach. Thank you for the advise, next time I will do as per your recommendation. Generally speaking, I did not allow him to go off the charts and all the abuse was just slightly over the top and not completely off the charts, however, completely and utterly unnecessary since;

- When I discovered that even the work he did was not accurate and he took it more personal than appologetic and insisted that I should pay to fix it. 

- The more I told him I will not answer his remarks the more he escalated.

To me it is simple. I was not happy with the work and I wanted to move on with what ever losses or outcome because I did not see light at the end of the tunnel. I even never mentioned to him that I wanted a refund because all what i found on Upwork was that "the workmanship is not covered" and I really wanted it over and Life goes on.

In all cases, I really do appreciate the feedback from all of you. this was such a rewarding subject to discuss and I found out how really well the UpWork is managed and how much customer service means to them.

[ffe69867]

Baris. Thank you for your reply.

The first lesson leaned after this is not to hire hourly and you are absolutely correct.

I have two projects with UpWork and much more to come if I find the write setup. One of my projects is on contract for 2000$ so I thought i will try the second on hourly (this one). This is a lesson learned and I will never repeat it again because I am willing to pay bonuses rather than be timed.

I am generally a generous person so I guess from now on I am going to take over the steering wheel and have the freelancer either trust me or leave.

Thank you for your feedback.