The freelancer is no longer answering my questions

[815ef5a8]

I hired a free lancer hourly and things were going great.  We agreed to a budget through the messages and he has since gone over that budget.  When I brought it to his attention that I will no longer be making payments because the budget has been reached , he no longer will answer my questions and will not respond to me.  The project has not been finished so I am concerned.  What should I do?  Is it possible for me to dispute the past payments and cancel the project?

[prestonhunter]

David:

You are not required to continue working with this freelancer.

You can stop working with a freelancer at ANY time. For ANY reason. You don't even need to justify your decision to close a contract.

re: "When I brought it to his attention that I will no longer be making payments because the budget has been reached , he no longer will answer my questions and will not respond to me"

The freelancer was correct to stop working for you when you said that you would no longer pay him.

This is an hourly contract, not a fixed-price contract. This means that you pay for the freelancer's time, not for a specific deliverable.

It is a violation of Upwork ToS for a client to ask a freelancer to work for free.

I understand that this is probably not what you wanted to hear, but these are Upwork's rules. The freelancer could have reported you for violating Upwork ToS.

I kind of doubt that this freelancer will report you. I think all that happened to you is that you lost access to this freelancer's labor. You may be able to do some "damage control" to assure the freelancer that you will pay for all of his time. But I can't guarantee that would work. He may have lost interest.

re: "The project has not been finished so I am concerned. What should I do?"

You may do any of the following, or any combination of the following:
- finish the project yourself
- hire other Upwork freelancers to finish the project

- hire non-Upwork people to finish the project

- explain to the original freelancer that you did not have a complete understanding of how hourly contracts work, and you hope he will be willing to overlook what you said and continue working on the project

re: "Is it possible for me to dispute the past payments and cancel the project?"
You may dispute any hours that were logged manually or which did not have sufficient activity levels or which lack memos or which have screenshots showing the freelancer NOT working on your project, during the past week.

After a work week closes, there is a five-day period during which you may dispute the freelancer's hours for those reasons. You may read more here:

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211062158-Dispute-an-Agency-or-Freelancer-s-Hours

[AndreaG]

Hi David,

I'm sorry to hear you're having issues with this freelancer. Someone from our team will reach out to you via support ticket in order to assist you with your contract.

Thanks!