WARNING of Webdesigner Freelancer **Edited for community guidelines**

[a3f35d7b]

Long story short.

We hires **Edited for community guidelines** to re-design our company´s website March 12 2017.

He did not want to use time tracker and sent us invoices with 4 900 USD. After noticing that he has done only some scetches of few pages for that money we told to claim the money back from him. After telling that he agreed to finish the work without any additional costs. BUT after that he has not done anything but giving excuses. Last time he did small edits 6 months ago where he probably used less than 1h. At the moment we don´t have anything, not even working link for the sketch page.

Luckily all our conversations are in written form and we have good legal insurance, and we are considering legal acts against him in case if we won´t get our money back through Upwork. But please try to avoid problems and do not hire him.

[BojanS]

Hi Tero,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I can see that you have a ticket with our mediation team about this case. I'll follow up with our team about your concern and they will update you directly with more information and advise you further. Thank you for your patience.

[prestonhunter]

re: "He did not want to use time tracker and sent us invoices with 4 900 USD. "

For web development?  That is a pretty big red flag.

 Web developers should have no qualms about using the time-tracker tool.

And should be able to provide you with testable, verifiable updates on a daily basis.

[kat303]

Freelancers who enter manual time, or send invoices to you and don't use Upwork's Tracker, take a Huge risk. Of course there are some jobs where Tracker can't be used, but the freelancer still takes a chance. 

On hourly jobs, a client is billed for the HOURS a freelancer works. not for the work they do. But that does not mean that you shouldn't get work delivered to you. On Mondays, a client has the opportunity to review the screen shots that Tracker takes. (I think there's a 5 day period for a client to look over the work and test out work.)  If you're not getting anything delivered except empty promises you can pause the contract or you can close the contract. 

If the screen shots shows no work, a freelancers personal email account, game playing, surfing the internet or doing something else other then the clients work the client can discard those screen shots and not be billed by Upwork for those hours. That also goes for manual time. A client doesn't have to pay for manual time entered because there's no way of knowing if the freelancer was actually working on the clients job.

You as a client are not obligated to work with any freelancer if they are not delivering any work. Clients can end a contract at any time for any reason. In the future do not work with a freelancer who doesn't want to use Tracker. Do not pay if you do not get work whether the job is hourly or fixed. Only pay for hours tracked and work received during that week. 

[petra_r]

---

@Tero P wrote:
... in case if we won´t get our money back through Upwork.

---

 Unless the freelancer refunds voluntarily you won't "get your money back through Upwok"

Disputes can only be done for funds released to the freelancer within the last 30 days.

Not well over a year ago.