A new(?) type of fraud

[nicollette916]

I would like to share my very bad experience with one of the clients - who is trying to get free work by sabotaging your ratings.

The project involves translating more than 1,800 words for localising his website. It is agreed that the work would be $80. He has set up 2 milestones, one for "submitting work" at $10 and one for "final payment" at $70. As I was new to Upwork at that time, I started working without hesitation and not did detect the potential fraud in it.

After I have completed and submitted the work - which he is now using in his website, he did not respond to any of my messages. I seek help from Upwork who kindly sent emails to the client. All of a sudden, he ended the contract and leave me very bad review - which is entirely untrue. He would not have used my work if he is so dissatisfied with it. He did this purposefully to sabotage my ratings, which is very important to a newcomer such as myself, in revenge for me chasing for his payment, which he is, indeed, obliged to pay. I believe that he is also counting on the chances that I would refund him in full so as to remove the bad comment. As such, he can have quality work done for free. Even if it is not refunded, he has already got what he needs for his business at a 1/8 price. 

I have already escalated this issue to Upwork and hope that I could have some justice. I hope that none of you, especially newcomers, will experience such nightmare.

[spectralua]

You cannot remove negative affect with refund. Public feedback will be removed then but private feedback still dropped you JSS if it is bad. Also your publick feedback to client will be removed with full refund.

I see you got 1 star. I think both feedbacks (public and private) was 1 there.

With full refund you able to recall your job and force client to delete it.

ps Your 1 star to client was very unprofessional. Availability 1: client never answered to you? Or it is a lie? What you write to a client also says something about you.

[asra_sarker]

I had a similar experience client who had done something similar first. We agreed to design seven web pages and decided to develop the website on Figma. Done the design he liked it; then he told me to submit it I did. Then a few weeks later, he asked me for PSD files. I told them we agreed on Figma. He threatened me to leave a bad review; then, I decided to convert the design. He was okay, then a few weeks later, he returned and did something, but he wanted a more paged design. Then I checked out his profile. They are an agency from a third-world country that takes projects and does them for lower prices. I was okay with it, but I told him that you are harassing me because every time his clients wanted a revision, he could make an issue, say something outrageous, or blackmail me by giving negative feedback. Then I contacted the marketplace and reported to him they canceled his account. I feel the pain. Best advice is keep contacting marketplace 

[feed_my_eyes]

Upwork doesn't get involved in deciding whether reviews are fair or not, so unfortunately the only practical advice we can give you is to refund this client to make the public review go away (it will still impact your JSS).

You could have avoided this whole situation in the first place, though, so it's important to learn from your mistakes. If you had told the client that the work needed to be fully funded BEFORE you did it - not after - then the funds would have been released automatically and neither you nor Upwork would have needed to chase the client. This is going to be hard for you to hear, but technically, the client used Upwork as intended, and you did not. He set up a $10 milestone for submitting the work, which you agreed to. If the client didn't request any work after that, then he didn't owe you any more money. The milestones should have been set up as $70 for the initial submission and $10 if a minor round of revisions was needed, not the other way around.

He can't use your work on his website if he didn't fully pay for it, though. You can do a DMCA takedown request.

[the-right-writer]

It's possible the client did not like your translation. You say you are an English native or bilingual but there are multiple errors in your profile.

If the client is using your work and you can prove it, it's a simple matter to have it removed. You need to learn how fixed payments work as well as automatically tracked hours.

What do you mean by "chasing payment?" clients don't usually seek vengeance on freelancers for asking to be paid. You did make a mistake by setting up the milestones the way you did.