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mexius
Community Member

is there an appeals process after a dispute

 I have spent over $100k on upwork and always been able to sort issues out with the freelancers before, the first time it goes to a dispute, when it is an obvious case the freelancer was just ripping me off, i lose.   

The job was a very simple copy /paste job, many of the working screen shots taken 10-15 minutes apart were did not change. the freelancer did on average 1 row of copy paste every 5 minutes, and a row is about 3 words and charged me 34 hours of this rubbish 

 

Is there a way to appeal this after a dispute, I am also discusted taht updwork are happy keep freelancers on the system that blatently rip people off. It certainly makes me consider using other optins now for freelancers.

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petra_r
Community Member

Alexis, I am sorry this has happened to you, and maybe you do have some recourse if you contact support and point out that with screenshots being the same the test of "fair activity levels" is not met. They may also want to check how, if no work was clearly being done, keyboard and mouseclick activity was present...

 

That said, to a degree you have to share some of the responsibility. If you had taken a look after the first day you would have noticed that output and time spent do not match and could have looked at the work diary.

 

It certainly shouldn't take until 34 hours have been logged before you take a look.

With it being "simple copy and paste" one might suspect that it was also someone at a very low hourly rate?

 

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11 REPLIES 11
petra_r
Community Member

Alexis, I am sorry this has happened to you, and maybe you do have some recourse if you contact support and point out that with screenshots being the same the test of "fair activity levels" is not met. They may also want to check how, if no work was clearly being done, keyboard and mouseclick activity was present...

 

That said, to a degree you have to share some of the responsibility. If you had taken a look after the first day you would have noticed that output and time spent do not match and could have looked at the work diary.

 

It certainly shouldn't take until 34 hours have been logged before you take a look.

With it being "simple copy and paste" one might suspect that it was also someone at a very low hourly rate?

 

mexius
Community Member

I did check initially after a few hours I talked to the freelancer and checked the work, and discussed small changes. They did a couple of really big das just before the sunday deadline. 

 

I also pointed out in the dispute the there were was keyboard activity even though the screens were not changing - so either they were working on another screen? or randomly clicking the keys so there was activity.

 

I will try suport, but seems to have been replaced by a bot?

Alexis:

I am wondering why you even care so much about this freelancer.

 

From what you described, the freelancer doesn't seem like somebody worth even thinking about.

 

It sounds like you are putting way more time and effort into this person than I would.


Work with other freelancers - decent people who you can trust. If you closed the contract and left accurate, truthful feedback about my experience, then you have done your duty to help out the other users of the platform.

I guess it bother me like most people being ripped off, but I get your point, but it’s easy to think that when you are not personally involved.

 

I have hired over 200 freelancers so far, I think, never had to raise a dispute, and when I can show that the freelancer is type at the rate 36-60 words per hour, so less than 1 word a minute for 34 hours, doing a simple copy and paste job, I can’t understand how, with screen shots available upwork have come to the conclusion they have.

 

Also in terms of my duty, part of the reason I raised the dispute was that someone doing this shouldnt be on the upwork platform, not my decission, but my duty highlight it and raise it to upwork.

Preston, so you are perfectly happy with freelancers being encouraged to cheat and rip off their clients.

 

Nice one.

 

If Alexis's account of what happened is accurate, the freelancer was clearly cheating, and if he is allowed to get away with he it will defraud other clients too. It is one thing to say "Oh never mind" when one simply doesn't LIKE the work produced, but blatant abuse of hourly contracts like this needs to be stamped on for the sake of all clients and all honest freelancers.

 

So it's not about $ 100 more or less (assuming this was a low-cost provider) - it is to keep the site clean and clients AND freelancers safe.

 

I just imagine Alexis hiring me next and crawling all over my work diary looking for signs of abuse having just been ripped off. Stuff like this hurts everyone includig Upwork.

 

 

Petra, obviously I'm not happy with freelancers cheating anybody.

 

Nobody has been more critical of these types of freelancers than I have been.

 

My advice was to the client, to suggest that if she has already done what she can do, she does not need to expend more of her time and effort on somebody who doesn't deserve her effort.

mexius
Community Member

spoke to the support and it has been raised to mediation team, thanks

AleksandarD
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Alexis,

 

I'm sorry about the issue which arose on your contract and understand that you are unhappy with the decision made in regards to a dispute raised on your Hourly contract. Our team will follow up on your ticket with more information, but in the meantime, I would also like to add to some of the tips that Petra shared, and clarify that you as a client can set a weekly limit on your Hourly contract, limiting the number of hours the freelancer can log.

 

Thank you.

~ Aleksandar
Upwork

seems the mediate is a waste of time, relies on the freelancer agreeing that they were at least partly responsible. which isnt going to happen, after they aready won the dispute, and are saying the work they did was valid.

I did work out that on average over 34 hours the freelancer

> copied pasted 2 times every 5 minutes 

> which was 1040 words in 2060 minutes

All of this was clear in the screen shots available to the dispute team, where the screen wasnt changing for 10-15 minutes . 

Anyone hiring should be aware of some of the tips above may help this happening, but obviously no gaurentees, plus do not to think that a dispute will be evalutated in your favor even if it is obvious a freelancer is ripping you off.

For me it highlights the dangers of using upwork for hiring, so will look for other option in future.

e8b48b8b
Community Member

Thanks Alexis. 

I got the same twice in last months, freelancers do bad job, but I have to pay for it anyway.

All these refund, disputes and other blabla things doesn't help.

And if i'm putting rating like 1-2 stars, freelancers somehow dispute them , and it's now visible, but they put me back 1 star and it is visible.

It's insane, after spending 10k+ here and 160 jobs, i have 2 job in the row with the same result.

I lost money , get no job done, and once i was disagree i got one start rating. Freelancer got easy money and not rating damage.

 

mexius
Community Member

yeah the upwork, disputes support told me if is hourly they get paid whatever. obviously no safe guard if you are hiring. There are better safer ways to get freelancers, so I going to go with that in future. 

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