Facts about Disputes

[Ahmed Sultan M]

Hi Valeria, thank you for posting valuable information. I have a quick question
If I have 4 projects from a single client and 3 of the 4 projects are closed with 5 stars, where the 4th project gets disputed by the client for any reason. Do I have to refund the money for all the 4 projects or just the project I got disputed?  

[Goran V]

Hi Ahmed,

If you have decided to refund the funds for the disputed contract you will only need to do that for the contract that is disputed and not all 4 contracts. I would strongly suggest to continue  discussing any details with the dispute team and the client to come to mutual agreement.

If you have any additional questions let me know, thank you.

[Dmitry B]

Hello Valeria and community!

My client has approved and released several milestones on a fixed price contract.

During all the time and especially at the last stage he was adding tons of additional features.

Now he treats to go to AAA and return back not only money that are funded but even all those released payments.

Is there any possibility for this?
Or client can go to arbitration and get only the sum from the last milestone that will be disputed by me once refund is requested?

Thank you!
Dmitry

[Valeria K]

Hi Dmitry,

Please, check RULES OF THE PROCEEDINGS section of the Fixed-Price Escrow Instructions.

Specifically, this part: 

The amount at issue in any claims or counterclaims relating to a Fixed-Price Contract will be limited to the sum still held in Escrow and the sum previously released from Escrow for the Fixed-Price Contract.

[Dmitry B]

Thank you for your reply Valeria!
The question is still open, though.

The wording in section a bit not 100% direct.

Does statement "sum previously released from Escrow for the Fixed-Price Contract." means that any or even all of the 7 released milestones can be a subject for the Arbitration?

If so this is making freelancer protection put to zero level since any client can go this way.
E.g. approve work during the contract lifetime, pay money but then upon completion of works, having just a few bugs in place, go to the Arbitration and to callenge the entire sum.

Looking forward to your reply.

Kind regards,
Dmitry

[Gustavo B]

I'm new to Upwork and had to dispute my first contract on my first job.

Client was unresponsive for 1 week after receiveing the first milestone, and after Upwork contacting him he canceled the contract saying that the project delivered was not what he had requested. I did exactly how he asked me to do, i have all messages to prove indeed.

However, maybe the worst part of this all is the way client set up the contract. The total in escrow is only 100 USD and the milestone value was 900 USD. I told him it was wrong and he replied saying 100 USD was only to confirm the payment for upwork and he would add other milestones later to sum up to the project total (2200 USD). Now, client has the project and i probably will end up with 100 USD or maybe nothing.

Upwork shouldn't allow the client to cancel a contract after receiving the files. It's very unfair and make very easy to be scammed by clients with bad intentions.

[Rakibul I]

my client asking disput for ended work week. which also end review period and fund also pass the pending period. 

As I know client only can request for dispute in review period. 

How he dispute for this. And what happen next?

[Kevin N]

Hi

What if the client make the smallest millestone contract (5$) and take the job out of upwork. for example, create a login access for the freelancer to deliver the work directly on their plateform. As the work is ongoing contract, the client will say that he will pay at the end of the month or when the work reach some days. At the end, the client stop the contract by deleting his access from the platform he was supposed to work and after, the client will just relaese the 5$ on the escrow and stop responding to emails and shutdown dialog. In that case, how to deal with dispute? Thank

[Alok P]

Hello Valeria,

I would like to know how can refund a client for the Manual Hours that I logged into the worksheet for the past week. And also since I couldn't find any option to refund the client for the past week's hours, I asked him to raise a dispute for those particular hours.

If I refund the money to the client, will he be able to leave feedback for us? As he is insistent on leaving positive feedback and hours logged were misunderstanding.

And also how do you delete/add manual hours for the past week in case you forgot to log them?

[Muhammad F]

You know once a contract is disputed by a freelancer if he wins and get the amout in escrow.

After that is there any option left for the client to give bad star ratings and feedback?

Bcz dispute is never reported in happy mode.