Unresponsive Freelancer & Unfinished Project

f5eea6ab · ‎06-10-2020

I hired someone on here but I haven't heard from the developer in over a week. I called him, left messages, but no response. I already paid the developer for one milestone. However, the developer has missed 2 milestones and haven't contacted me. I would like my money back and to cancel contract so I can move on to another developer to complete my project.What can I do?

mtngigi · ‎06-10-2020

Pursue D wrote:

I hired someone on here but I haven't heard from the developer in over a week. I called him, left messages, but no response. I already paid the developer for one milestone. However, the developer has missed 2 milestones and haven't contacted me. I would like my money back and to cancel contract so I can move on to another developer to complete my project.What can I do?

I'm a freelancer so I'm not entirely sure how things work from the client's end, but perhaps this will help you out: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211062088-Request-a-Refund

I've also flagged your post to get a mod's attention - hopefully one will be along soon.

prestonhunter · ‎06-10-2020

re: "What can I do?"

You can do whatever you want to do.

Not all client/freelancer collaborations are successful.

There is a statistically predictable failure rate for every job niche and pay level.

You may hire freelancers who start and finish a project within an hour or two.

You may hire freelances for whom you allow 3 or 4 months, or longer, to complete a task.

It is up to you.

If you have hired a freelancer whose availability or other aspects of their work no longer meet your requirements, then feel free to close the contract and continue working only with the members of your team who provide you with the most value.

If you close the current fixed-price contract, you may edit the amount of money to be released to zero dollars. Then, if the freelancer does nothing at all, after seven days, Upwork will release all of the remaining esrow money to you AUTOMATICALLY.

You may indeed wait until that escrow money is back in your account, but it is in no way necessary to do so from a user-interface perspective. If you want to push the project forward now, you may immediately hire other freelancers to do the work.

I appreciate Virginia's interest in providing you with help. But I have used the client-side interface fairly extensively (I have hired over 100 freelancers on Upwork) and I strongly believe that the client-side tools are flexible enough that they allow you to do what you need to do without any help from Upwork Customer Support. The most useful thing for you would be to better understand how the tools work and how you can use them effectively. For that, you should feel free to ask questions here in the Forum.

BojanS · ‎06-10-2020

Hi Pursue,

I'm sorry about your experience with this freelancer. One of our team members will reach out to you directly to assist you with getting in touch with the freelancer and advise on further steps.

Thank you!

~ Bojan

92573e44 · ‎04-27-2022

Hi Bojan. I hired a web designer on Feb 20th for a job that was estimated to take 1 month. The freelancer did some great work but has been slow and lately became unresponsive. The job is close to completion and we don't want to have to start over. I would appreciate help to either motivate this freelancer to make the final corrections to the web site or send us the wordpress file. Thank you

NikolaS · ‎04-27-2022

Hi John,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I shared your report with our team and one of our agents will reach out to you directly via a support ticket to assist you further. You can access your ticket on this page.

~ Nikola

92573e44 · ‎05-02-2022

Hi Nikola,

I resolved the matter with the web designer. She agreed to send me the work she has completed, and will reduce the amount I owe. Now the question is how can the escrow be reduced. The only option I see is to pay the remaining amount. Thanks in advance for your help.

John K.

JoanneP · ‎05-02-2022

Hi John,

I'm glad to hear that you were able to come to an agreement with your freelancer. You can release a partial payment by the following these steps:

Select the contract from Jobs › My Jobs and click Review & Pay
Choose Approve & Pay
Click the pencil icon
Enter the amount to be released
Click Send Payment

More information can be found here.

~ Joanne

92573e44 · ‎05-03-2022

Hi Joanne,

I do not have the ability to edit. Instead of Review & Pay, I see Pay Now.

When I click Pay Now, there is no pencil to edit, only a

button

- John K

prestonhunter · ‎05-03-2022

John, you need to click End Contract.

Then you will be given the opportunity to EDIT the amount of money you release.

You can change it to any amount, even zero. And the remaining money will be released automatically back to your credit card when the freelancer approves the refund.

92573e44 · ‎05-04-2022

It worked! Thanks Preston.

JK

prestonhunter · ‎04-27-2022

re: "I hired a web designer on Feb 20th for a job that was estimated to take 1 month. The freelancer did some great work but has been slow and lately became unresponsive. The job is close to completion and we don't want to have to start over. I would appreciate help to either motivate this freelancer to make the final corrections to the web site or send us the wordpress file. Thank you"

John...

I really do wish you well.

If Upwork actually helps you in some way, I guess that's a good thing.

But you really should set a goal to never contact Upwork Customer Support in order to manage your projects or freelancers. That is not their role.

I think you'll be disappointed in the long run if you think like this.

Better to do this: Use the client-side tools that have at your fingertips to manage your projects and freelancers. You have all the tools you need.

I have hired over 150 freelancers on Upwork. I have never needed to ask Customer Support for help managing freelancers.

If a freelancer disappears or is unresponsive, an effective client simply assigns other team members to do that freelancer's work.

I don't need to wait for anybody or rely on anybody at Upwork Customer Support to do that.

92573e44 · ‎04-27-2022

Hi Preston,

Good advise. My frelancer has all of the work stored on her Wordpress account. It would be difficult to pass a 95% complete project to someone else. The remaining 5% still renders the web site unusable, and my business is impacted. If upwork can not help, it seems my feedback is the only tool I have available.

rahman_ashfaqur · ‎06-22-2020

Hello Pursue,

You can directly apply for refund and if he still does not reply you or respond to your calls or messages. You can open up a contract dispute and Upwork Support Member will be there to assist you in many possible ways.

For near future, always hire a freelancer. Who is always available, check the availality, his feedbacks on his Upwork profile. That might help you get a great freelancer.

I hope my say will be a solution for you.

Best regards,

Ashfaq

prestonhunter · ‎04-27-2022

re: "For near future, always hire a freelancer who is always available, check the availality, his feedbacks on his Upwork profile. That might help you get a great freelancer."

Okay.

But also:

There is no way to know for sure that a freelancer will always be available.

You're not supposed to hire just ONE person to work on a complex, important project.

You're supposed to hire multiple people for your team.

A client had an IMPORTANT project.

John, Jason and Joyce were working on the project.

John got sick and simply couldn't work on it for a few weeks.

But that's okay! Because Jason and Joyce were able to do the tasks that had been assigned to John.

A few months later, Joyce quit the project because she adopted puppies. But that's okay! John and Jason were able to keep the project going.