Unresponsive Freelancer, Work charged but not delivered - how can we get our money back?

[707276db]

Hi

We hired a freelancer to build a web-based viewer in WebGL in order to integrate it into a new wordpress based online store. We did the mistake of hiring on an hourly fee and defined a maximum cap of 80 hours for delivering a functioning result based upon the freelancer's estimates and offer. The cap is also stated in the briefing and contract additional doc but we did not set milestones with a price.

Not only did the freelancer delay the project by weeks for every milestone, totalling in over 2 months of delay of our going live by now. But worse than this: All 80 hours were billed, we have no working product (the main challenges are not solved) and we cannot use any of the delivered work in progress codes, so basically we have nothing, cannot get a hold of the freelancer since weeks, but were charged 80 hours at an expensive rate.

I see we cannot launch a dispute, as we did not dispute the weekly hours, how can we start an upwork based dispute process to claim back (part of) our money? As delivering the briefed outcome is hopeless (after all the delays and promises), this will be the only solution.

We cannot afford to brief someone new but are stuck with the cost and no outcome, so any help is appreciated!!!

Thank you,

Daniel 

[g_vasilevski · Accepted solution]

Hi Daniel,

I'm sorry to hear about the bad experience you've had. I've escalated your concern to our team and one of our team members will reach out to you via ticket and email to assist you further with your contract. Thank you.

[707276db]

Thank you Goran, got the ticket and will respond.

Best, Daniel

[prestonhunter]

Daniel:

You are definitely using the Upwork tool incorrectly.

Here is what you need to do differently in the future:

Decide now that you will never ask for a refund, for any reason, no matter what.

Decide now there you will not try to contact Upwork Customer Support in order to help you manage projects and freelancers.

If you do these things, you will save time and money and you will have more success in achieving your goals.

The problem you face now is that you have been billed a large amount of money and you probably won't be able to get it back. It is not Upwork's intention that clients pay money to freelancers and then get money back from those freelancers.

In the future, because you have decided to never ask for a refund (which is a gamble, and the odds are NOT in your favor) you will instead:

Hire freelancers thoughtfully and proactively. Monitor their work and review it, especially early on. When you first hire a freelancer, set the maximum number of hours they can work to only one or two hours. Review their work after that time and if you love the work they are doing, increase the time. If you see that any freelancer is not doing work that provides great value to your project, then close the contract. Assign tasks to other members of your team. Hire additional freelancers as necessary.

Gerald hired a freelancer to create a website. The freelancer logged 100 hours and cost Gerald a LOT of money. Gerald was not worried. He trusted the freelancer, and he assumed that he could get money back if things did not work out. After four weeks, Gerald had not received any files. The website didn't work. Gerald tried to get a refund. Gerald received a $100 refund. But he had paid thousands!

Sandra hired a freelancer to create a website. Sandra had long ago decided she would never ask for a refund. So Sandra reviewed the freelancer's work early on and saw that he wasn't sending files she could use. She fired the freelancer after spending $50. She hired two other freelancers who sent her regular updates and did great work. The project was finished on time and on budget.

Which would you rather be? Gerald or Sandra?

Refund thinking hurts clients.

[707276db]

Hi Preston

Believe it or not, we have figured this out as well and would also never again hire on an hourly fee base for result-oriented projects.

A feedback to your feedback: It felt more as a finger pointer or accusation that doesn't really help us. Right now we are in the situation we are in, and we either need the result promised for the hours charged, or a refund, regardless of whatever we will never do again on upwork 😉 Also, we need a new solution for which we will go far beyond what we have evaluated in the first place.

Either way thank you for the effort and time you took!

Best,

Daniel

[claudiacezy]

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Preston H wrote:

Which would you rather be? Gerald or Sandra?

Refund thinking hurts clients.

---

Refund thinking doesn't hurt clients. Refund thinking may actually help clients to research how payment protection works on the platform.

I don't think Gerald assumed that he could get his money back. I don't think Gerald had his mind set to ask a refund if things didn't work out well. Whatever the reasons, Gerald thought he will be delivered what he paid. If Gerald had set his mind on asking or not a refund he would have researched the platform to educate himself on how the payment protection works.

Sandra made a conscious decision, she knows how refunds work. Maybe Sandra had a similar experience as Gerald in the past. It's not that she decided not to ask refunds, it's that she knows how payment protection work, so she uses the system in such manner to be protected.

A party may be well versed into how the platform works and misuse the system to trick the other party. Contacting the customer service doesn't hurt, a refund may not be issued but at least the other's party activity may be reviewed and proper actions will be taken if found that the system was abused/misused. Thus, more of Gerald could be protected.