Abrupt Contract Cancellation

[heritageanalysis]

I recently agreed to a fix contract with a client earlier this week. I was out of town but he insisted I needed to order supplies and pay for them to be able to start my position next week. He stated the would be reimbursed once I had them ready to go and could print my reimbursement. I ordered all the supplies and went around getting other supplies. This morning the contract was cancelled. I am net to Upwork. I just want to know if this is a common practice and if there is anything I can do outside of returning the supplies for my refund.

[varungs]

This is uncommon. Clients are not supposed to ask you to pay for anything - they are supposed to pay you for your work. If you expect to be paid for anything by a client, you must either have an hourly contract in place with them or you must have a contract with funded milestones. 

[heritageanalysis]

Yea. It was a payroll position. He had me buy the equipment and then I would be printing my own refund as training. All communication was fine
By text message. I think at this point since there was an abrupt cancellation with no communication I will be leaving a review and returning the equipment.

[petra_r]

---

Matthew R wrote:
Yea. It was a payroll position. He had me buy the equipment and then I would be printing my own refund as training.

---

You would be what?

That didn't sound unbelievably odd to you?

[heritageanalysis]

I did not at first but as time went on my gut told me something was wrong.

[heritageanalysis]

There also was an activated milestone for payment to be due in 30 days. Do I have any right to submit for payment based in what happened? Being that no work was done do I have a claim at all?

[mwiggenhorn]

This check printing gig is a pretty common scam.  I bet that if you check, the milestone was never funded.  Lesson learned - forget it and move on.

[prestonhunter]

re: "Do I have any right to submit for payment based in what happened? Being that no work was done do I have a claim at all?"

Buying equipment, printing checks... these are signs of common scams. It is doubtful that the "client" set up a real contract for you.

But to answer your question generally: Any time a client sets up an actual milestone with escrow funding, it causes a button to be available to the freelancer: "Submit Work / Request Payment". If the freelancer clicks that button then it shows the client a request to release payment. If the client does nothing, then payment is automatically released to the freelancer.

re: "Being that no work was done do I have a claim at all?"

I do not know all the details of your situation. I am just an Upwork user.

What most of us would do if we realized we were involved with a client who was simply a scammer would be to try to report this to Upwork and get out of the situation as soon as possible. If we were in a situation where a contract was in place, but no work at all had been done, and we needed to close the contract, then we would not try to get paid.

[heritageanalysis]

I would have to agree. I have spoken to UPwork ans they have confirmed this client was involved in fradulent activity. I have learne my lesson to trust my gut when I believe something is wrong with a position. From the start I thought this position was good fit but as we continued talking I should have backed away. Lesson learned return the equipment since I can with amazon and move on.