Timing of Payment

[60fd21c1]

Hi, a freelancer is requesting full payment release prior to uploading all his work on our hosting server. This means that once fully paid he will have the payment and our work. Is this normal practice to pay in full for work that will be available only after payment? I would prefer that the work is uploaded first and the payment released. After all, the money is in escrow...

Please advise,

Martin

[petra_r]

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Martin S wrote:

Hi, a freelancer is requesting full payment release prior to uploading all his work on our hosting server. This means that once fully paid he will have the payment and our work. Is this normal practice to pay in full for work that will be available only after payment?

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Hi Martin, Absolutely not!

The workflow is:

1. Client funds the money
2. Freelancer sends the work (!) and requests payment
3. Client has 14 days (but few take that long) to review the work and request changes if needed.
4. Client is happy and approves the milestone, which releases the money from Escrow to the freelancer.

[60fd21c1]

Hi Petra,

Thank you so much for your reply. The thing is that this coder has completed most of the work on his local server (we can verify that). Major milestone payments have already been released, only one left. But he is refusing to give us rights to this work (until we release last payment). Can he do that? If not, what should we do to get it hosted on our server and then release payment?

[petra_r]

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Martin S wrote:

Hi Petra,

Thank you so much for your reply. The thing is that this coder has completed most of the work on his local server (we can verify that). Major milestone payments have already been released, only one left. But he is refusing to give us rights to this work (until we release last payment). Can he do that? If not, what should we do to get it hosted on our server and then release payment?

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You have indeed no rights to the work until it is fully paid for.

Is hosting on your server part of the last milestone? Can you properly test whether it works on the freelancer's server? You need to be able to test if you have what the milestone corresponds to.

Is communication breaking down with the freelancer? If there is a danger of that you could ask the freelancer to contact Upwork for advice, they will tell him to deliver the work before requesting payment.

That gets you out of the "meanie spot!"

[60fd21c1]

Thanks, this is what the last milestone description says:

The site should now be uploaded to the live hosting server, so that we can test it in the hosting server environment (not on local server). From now, all fixes and correction should be done on the live hosting server to minimize different server issues.

[kochubei_valeria · Accepted solution]

Hi Martin,

I'll ask one of our support agents reach out to you in case you need help communicating with the freelancer and sorting this out. A support ticket will be created where you can share any relevant information.

Thanks!

[60fd21c1]

Thank you Valeria, much appreciated.