Unresponsive Freelancer

[#1]

My freelancer set up 2 milestones. One was to start the job, and the other was upon completion. I paid her $100 at the start and we communicated back and forth until she suddenly stopped responding mid December. I requested a refund, but haven't heard back. The green dot appears so I know she's active, but she ignores messages and emails. How do I get my money back?

[#2]

You lost your money.

[#3]

Hi, First of all I am extremly sorry to hear that some freelancers do these wrong things. You have the option to open a case with upwork dispute center they will take care and If you'll be right they will help you to refund.
Stay safe, be happy always.
cheers!

[#4]

You shouldn't care so much about random strangers on the Internet.

You are not required to mentor this freelancer. You aren't required to help this freelancer be a better person.

You should put YOURSELF and YOUR PROJECT first.

Stop thinking about this one random freelancer you hired in the past you disappointed you. Think about your project and how to movie forward with your goals. That means working with OTHER people.

If a freelancer is taking too long to work on something, you can simply close the contract and edit the dollar amount to zero, meaning that you will release zero dollars. That means you get a full refund of the money remaining in escrow.

If the freelancer does nothing, then all of that money will be returned to you AUTOMATICALLY.

If you ALREADY released money to the freelancer, then that money is gone.

If you did not RELASE that money, but you simply FUNDED an escrow payment and the money is still in escrow, then it will be easy to get the money back if the freelancer is completely non-responsive.

I strongly recommend that you do not try to get the money back. You ALREADY approved the milestone. You ALREADY said that you received and reviewed the work done for that milestone. If the freelancer did nothing and you lost your money, then THAT IS NOT FAIR. But as a businessperson, I think it would be a waste of your time to try to get that money back.

You used Upwork incorrectly.

In the future: Never pay upfront payments to freelancers on Upwork. That is NOT how the system is intended to be used.

[#5]

Not sure where you got the idea I care about strangers on the internet? I'm not looking to mentor the freelancer either. I'm just new to the platform and was unsure if there was a way I could get refunded if I had valid proof. I didn't pay a large sum so I'm more than ok with walking away. However I do think Upwork should flag profiles that scam people. 

Definitely a lesson learned. 

[#6]

I'm very sorry this happened to you.

But I'm glad that it wasn't a large sum of money.

[#7]

But I do encourage you to report that dude.  Also, close the contract and leave a review.

[#8 · Accepted solution]

I believe you must not accept the milestone to start the job. Reason being simple - you are not funding any project startup cost to the freelancer.

 I believe milestone must set or release post delivery of work. It must desgined in a way that you are able to get accountable work from freelancer. A dollar save is dollar earned. You lost the money and that is not a good epxerience. 

Moreover you must also consider that there could be some genuine problem which freelancer might have got into. You must report the same to upwork so that freelancer is aware that this is not correct and against work ethics. Freelancer must refund the money or complete the job. 

[#9]

Thank you for your message. How can I report the matter to Upwork because there is no option to speak to an agent when I use chat even when I choose 'I need additional support' and I cannot find a place to submit a ticket.

[#10]

It is here. Some moderator will contact you about that.