Trouble with Freelancer

[333f15cb]

Hello there

Recently, I joined Upwork and unfortunately, I made a bad first experience. Part of it is my fault, part of it I have to blame on the freelancer. The job was on an hourly base with automatic time tracking, related to social media and I agreed on a 30h contract with the freelancer. The work he did in the diary did not make any sense, but every time I asked him about it, he told me that it is normal, because he does the most of his tasks on the phone. He told me from the beginning on, that he will issue me a full refund if he fails.

After 30h, he failed to reach the anticipated goal. Only time by time I learned that an hourly contract with a fixed price would have made much more sense. He moved the conversation away from Upwork to Skype. He still told me that he would issue me a refund, but only after he got his payment on his PayPal account. He would then transfer it back to my account. As an explanation, he said, that he does not want to risk his success rate. Obviously, for me, it was clear that I would never see this money again if I do so.

I requested a refund and opened a dispute, he rejected. He then contacted me via Skype again. Very pushy, almost threatening, he said that he will win the dispute anyway since his work diary was filled by the time tracker. I thought that this might be true. He eventually offered me a refund of 60% and I agreed. But, in return and before giving this money, he forced me to give him a five-star rating. He also wrote the review about himself and sent it to me. I was desperate and followed his instructions. After that, he refunded me a small part, asking also to close the dispute. In the end, I was so annoyed that I just wanted to at least have some money back, and I also did that.

Well, and now that was it! Obviously, he did not refund me any more money and he got away with everything. I can understand that in the end, it is my naivety that led to the loss of money, but I am not sure if his behaviour is correct and not against community guidelines. For me, it was like he was following a plan from the scratch on of what he did, almost like a criminal. I have do admit that I was completely new to this platform and I only learned a lot of things during the first contract with a freelancer. Obviously, I would not act so naive in the future.

Is there anything left I can do?

Thanks

[g_vasilevski · Accepted solution]

Hi Mario,

I`m sorry to hear about the bad experience you had with your freelancer. Regarding this, I will reach out to you via PM (you can open your PM's by clicking on the envelope icon at the top right corner).

I also checked your dispute and I can see that it's still opened. Are you seeing anything different on your end? To learn more about disputing freelancer hours, check out this Help Article.

To learn more about the dispute process, check out this Thread. Thank you.

[prestonhunter]

Mario:

I am sorry that you had a bad experience.

I am not going to try to excuse or explain bad behavior on the part of any one freelancer.

But I will tell you how to save money and be more successful as a client on Upwork:

Fire people.

That is such an important key to success here! I am surprised that some clients come here without understanding how important this is.

When a freelancer does not live up to your expectations, then fire them. That's all you need to do. Close the contract. You can close a contract at any time, for any reason. You don't need to justify this to anybody.

You have four freelancers working for you (for example)... You evaluate the work that they all do, and you close the contracts on all of the ones who are underperforming. Only continue working with the freelancers on your team who provide you with the most value.

For a project such as yours? Of course you should have hired multiple freelancers to do the same type of work. Then you would have saved money because you could see that one freelancer was getting the work done in one hour that the others were taking four to eight hours to do. So you would have kept working with the effective freelancer and closed the contracts on the others.

If you only hire one freelancer, you have no way to compare their work and ROI. If budget isn't a factor for you, hiring only one freelancer for a big project like this is fine. But if you want to save money, of course you need to hire multiple freelancers and compare them.

[333f15cb]

Thank you for your advice. I am very aware of this now, but it was my first experience on Upwork and I didn't know about so many things I know now.

[prestonhunter]

Freelancers like the one you hired are bad for ALL of us. None of us who participate in the Forum want to see people like that be allowed to stay here. I appreciate the time you took to report this.

[333f15cb]

Hello

I am looking for a way to contact somebody from Upwork via E-Mail or private message, but I was unable to find anything like this. Can you help me?

Best,

Mario

[BojanS]

Hi Mario,

Could you please share with us your concern so that we can assist you accordingly or have the correct support team assist you?

Thank you.

[333f15cb]

After an unsuccessful job done by a freelancer, I am unsure about the next step and concerned by his way of dealing with it. I would like to ask some questions to the support team about this.

[BojanS]

Thank you for following up, Mario.

One of our team members will reach out to you directly via a support ticket to further address this request.

[84eca2ba]

Hello Bojan and Joanne Marie P - I am having a lot of trouble with a freelance agency I have been working with. Long story short 1.) they promised to build a website with specific functionality, 2.) they have not delivered on the site development/QA, and 3.) they are demanding to be paid more or they won't fix the issues.

We are stretched FAR beyond the original contract terms, and need help remediating the issue as we do not have any additional funds - Happy to share a more detailed review of the experiences, and we kept all official communication in the project chat, so I hope this helps keep record of the agreement.

Please help.

[prestonhunter]

Toye:

If you do not love their work, then fire them.

Upwork already gives clients unlimited freedom to fire freelancers or agencies whenever they want to.

You do not need to explain yourself to anyone. You do not need to ask permission.

Fire underperforming freelancers and continue working with the freelancers who provide you with the best value.

Upwork does not provide clients with project management. You may hire project managers on Upwork if you yourself do not want to act as the project manager.

I can assure you that it is not Upwork's intention to intervene on your behalf and force any freelancer or agency you hire to do something.

If you have any remaining questions of would like additional advice, feel free to ask.

[AveryO]

Hi Toye, 

I checked your account, and I'm not sure if I have the correct contract. Are you referring to Contract ID# 28892742? I can see that this is an hourly contract, but only a few hours have been charged on the contract. You have the option of pausing the contract by going here and hitting the pause button so that the freelancer assigned on the contract will not be able to track time until this is sorted.

If you are referring to another contract, please let us know so that our team can assist you further. 

[prestonhunter]

re: "After an unsuccessful job done by a freelancer, I am unsure about the next step and concerned by his way of dealing with it. I would like to ask some questions to the support team about this."

You may indeed receive help from Upwork Customer Support. I hope that you do.

But you are also welcome to ask questions here in the Forum.

I can tell you that it is rare for a client to actually need help from Customer Support.

I have hired over 100 freelancers, and I have never needed Customer Support's help in dealing with them.

It is NORMAL to encounter a statistically predictable failure rate when hiring freelancers. The failure rate varies depending on the job niche, experience level and pay rate.

That is part of hiring EVERYWHERE (not just on Upwork).

Because I am not the freelancer's parent or coach or college professor - someone who is trying to mentor them - then my primary interest is my my own interests and my project. Therefore, I have little interest in underperforming freelancers. I don't wish to spend additional time and resources on them.

So basically what I do and what I recommend that all clients do is to monitor the work submitted by freelancers... especially early on when they are unfamiliar to me... and quicly close the contracts on any underperorming freelancers. Only continue working with the members of your team you provide you with the most value.

That way, I save time and money and I maximize the success of my project.

[23379410]

Hello, we are having some trouble with a freelancer. The project dating back to mid-october and he is slow to respond and quick for excuses. Can you please advise how we should move forward to best resolve the situation

[prestonhunter]

re: "Hello, we are having some trouble with a freelancer. The project dating back to mid-october and he is slow to respond and quick for excuses. Can you please advise how we should move forward to best resolve the situation"

Jovan:
I want you to succeed in your hiring efforts on Upwork.

The best way I know of to help you is to be very straightforward and honest.

This particular freelancer is not particularly interested in your project.

Upwork is not a project manager.

You CAN hire project managers on Upwork, but Upwork itself does not provide project management as a free service.

You DO NOT WANT Upwork to help you with this freelancer. You SHOULD feel free to ask for advice here in the Community Forum. You can ask questions pretty much endlessly, and we will provide advice. We are a chatty, supportive bunch.

But Upwork employees and Upwork Customer Support can't do anything to light a fire under this freelancer and make him awesome.

So ask for advice, for the purpose of YOU handling this situation yourself.

Your MAIN PROBLEM is that you are relying on one underperforming freelancer. Which is completely unnecessary. There SO MANY great freelancers on Upwork. There are so many freelancers who would be a good fit for your project.

Hire some more freelancers. Give them assignments on the project. Continue working with the ones who do a fantastic job. Stop working with the ones who aren't so great. Use hourly contracts. They are flexible and easy to end at any time.

As you hire new freelancers and give them assignments on this project, you can shift the work away from this one underperforming freelancer and assign the work more and more to the freelancers who provide you with the most value.

[23379410]

Wow,

Thank you for your candor. I will take this advice and implement it.

Be safe.

[JoanneP]

Hi Jovan,

I'm sorry to hear that. I have requested the help of our team so that you can be assisted directly. One of our team members will reach out to you via a support ticket to assist you further.