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emmamclaren
Community Member

Adding funds to my account so I can pay back Upwork

So since the threads keep getting closed, how do I add funds to my account so that I can get this payment back to Upwork sorted and be able to gain access to my income again? 

 

Or am I just meant to wait and stress over it?

 

 

27 REPLIES 27
emmamclaren
Community Member

Why can I not get a response to this question ? 

Because people are afraid to comment.  (Edited)

 

Im sure there is a way to add funds, or it may just pull automatically from your established payment method.  I'm not sure.  In my case it pulled straight from my registered account.

Hi Emma,

 

Thank you for your message. Apologies for the delayed response. I checked and I see that you are already communicating with the relevant team via a support ticket here. One of our team members will reach out to you directly on the same ticket as soon as possible to assist you with the requested information.

 

Thank you.

Pradeep

Upwork

I'm not getting a response from the support team. I've asked twice at least

Have you tried calling?  I can't post their phone number because I'll get in trouble, but you could try to Google it.  Whenever I have called they've been very helpful - I think they have 24/7 support, but don't quote me on that.

Yup spending money on an international call looks to be my only option. Just losing more money

I forgot that you mentioned that.  Does your country participate in the North American numbering plan?  If it does, the 800 number *might* be free.  Worth a shot?

 

from wiki:

In the United States of America, Canada, and other countries participating in the North American Numbering Plan, a toll-free telephone number has one of the area codes 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, and 888. ... In addition, 899 is reserved as a member of the series x9x for future numbering plan expansion

Phone support isn't available at weekends so that's pointless.

Hi Emma,

 

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear that you have not received a response. Please note that all inquiries via support tickets are handled in the manner they are received in the queue. Please allow 24-48 hours for the team to review and respond to your inquiry. I have already followed up with the team to expedite the process for you.

 

Thank you

Pradeep

Upwork
petra_r
Community Member


Emma M wrote:

how do I add funds to my account so that I can get this payment back to Upwork sorted and be able to gain access to my income again? 


Upwork can simply take it out of your earnings until it is paid off.

Alternatively, you can make a payment with the help of Suport. Give them time to respond, it's the weekend.

Yes and I want it done before that. I don't want to be waiting a fortnight to receive a payment. My bills aren't going to wait. 

 

And who cares if it's the weekend. I didnt get extra time to respond to the initial issue despite the 48 hours falling over my weekend. 


Emma M wrote:

Yes and I want it done before that. I don't want to be waiting a fortnight to receive a payment. My bills aren't going to wait. 


Sorry, what do you actually mean? Do you currently have a balance that is in excess of what you owe Upwork in your available balance? Where does "waiting a fortnight" come into it?

 


Emma M wrote: And who cares if it's the weekend.

I don't think anyone cares as such, I am simply stating the fact that support takes longer to respond at weekends. Maybe try not shooting the messenger.

Do you ever stop and think you may not actually be helping?

I think Petra is providing as much as help as possible considering you seem to want immediate action and it's been explained numerous times that that isn't going to happen. 

 

Your options are to wait for CS to respond to pay the balance or let them take it out of your next withdrawal. 

 

I am also not sure what having bills due has to do with it. It doesn't change your available balance withdrawal dates at all, just the amount. 

Because of this, I have no money coming in this week to pay my bills, feed my family etc. 

 

My options are wait, or pay a 3% processing fee to get it done quicker. So lose money because of the chargeback, lose money because I have to pay back the service fee and lose money because I have to pay a processing fee if I want it sorted and to have income next week. 

 

All in all - I get screwed up the behind and everyone else gets to go on as normal. 

Do you ever stop and think that posting on a public forum and then snapping at people who respond to it may be the reason your threads get closed? Nobody here caused the chargeback. And it's completely unclear with the way you're writing how paying back directly would speed up anything - if you have an available balance, the reversed money will be taken out of that and restriction will be lifted. If you don't have available balance, it won't matter if you pay directly or not and will not make the process of receiving the money any faster. 


Tatevik G wrote:

Do you ever stop and think that posting on a public forum and then snapping at people who respond to it may be the reason your threads get closed? Nobody here caused the chargeback. And it's completely unclear with the way you're writing how paying back directly would speed up anything - if you have an available balance, the reversed money will be taken out of that and restriction will be lifted. If you don't have available balance, it won't matter if you pay directly or not and will not make the process of receiving the money any faster. 


Maybe the only people I want responding are Upwork? I didn't cause the chargeback, yet I'm getting stuffed around. 

 

Right now, what I have available is being held until there is enough in the account to cover the chargeback. This means

1. No income for me this week

2. Pretty much no income for me next week

 

By paying the amount out directly (I had someone willing to do that for me in another manner), I'll be able to access my funds. But no, there's a 3% charge for doing that. 

 

If the post annoys you - scroll past. I have every right to be frustrated, annoyed and more about this situation, including the minimal support from Upwork. I'm being quite reserved in my posting on here. 

This is a public forum, everybody can respond. If you don't want that, you can yourself either scroll past non-Upwork responses, or at the very least be respectful. Your frustration and stress is understandable, but it's not an excuse to lash out at others who have nothing to do with the issue.

 

You're saying someone else is willing to pay the chargeback amount directly to upwork, after which you expect the available funds in Upwork, that is currently less than the chargeback, to be released to you. 

First, you may want to clear with Upwork if someone else is even allowed to process the payment. It's likely that they will require you to use a payment method that belongs to you. Otherwise the person can issue a chargeback as well and claim that he didn't authorize this payment. 

Second, it's puzzling why this person doesn't just directly pay you, so you can pay your bills until you can make enough money on Upwork to cover the chargeback amount and have the rest released to you. 

Because by giving me cash using a credit card, they end up paying even more in fees. And it becomes an accounting nightmare for various reasons. 

 

I'm sorry I'm not happy and dancing around praising Upwork. Because frankly, their whole support (and the way they want the whole process to occur means I lose even more money)  has been terrible. 

I think it's fair to understand the frustration of being paid for an honest days work, only to have a client rip it away with what sounds to be little justification.  

Emma, I think you're going to be stuck until UW's next business day.  I know that doesn't help your situation, and it's certainly not what you want to hear, but there's not much else that can be done.  Is it possible to ask your friend to loan you some money instead of them paying Upwork directly, as others have suggested?  I understand the direct credit card payment would cost less than a cash advance fee, but what are your options at this point?  I would assume that paying Upwork directly vs. Upwork deducting the refund takes the same amount of time, although I could be mistaken.  


Why can't your friend just give you the funds directly and the amount can come out of your balance when it's available? That way there's no fee and you have access to your friend's $100 to pay your bills immediately? 

 My friend isn't in the.position to do that - doing it on a cc meant it was doable. Paying cash advance fees means it's not. 


Emma M wrote:

 My friend isn't in the.position to do that - doing it on a cc meant it was doable. Paying cash advance fees means it's not. 


Okay, so just for the sake of dealing with one problem at a time, can your friend pay another bill for you via credit card - usually electric/gas/water or something else can be paid via CC, so that way you're covered what you would have been out for now, and the Upwork thing can be dealt with as you earn the money to cover it? 

 

I understand your frustration with Upwork right now, but that doesn't help in solving the immediate problem. I'm just throwing some ideas out there to help you resolve the immediate issue, with the resources you have told us you have, so you can then take a breath and deal with the Upwork thing. 

emmamclaren
Community Member

Just a word.of warning to freelancers - Upwork is happy to see you out of money.

 

I understand. A chargeback isn't avoidable however the way they want you to pay it back means you are out of money. Figures below in my case

 

Full job: $100 USD

Service fee: $20.USD

 

As a freelancer I have to pay back $100 USD and Upwork will then refund me the $20 USD. In the mean time, I pay more with exchange rates and transfer fees because of upworks double handling. No one can explain why we need to lose more than we already have.

 

Their response is canned "let us know when the money is in your account" - that's the only response they can provide. I've told them when the money will be available but no that's not good enough. Apparently they can't make these notes on their system. 

 

Upwork is going to take whatever money they want from your account, whether you give them permission to or not. And my bet is they will do it at a time suitable to them while I have to wait even longer.

 

Oh and the best response "maybe you should make sure clients can pay before you work for them". Maybe Upwork should make sure clients should pay considering its their TOS.

 

But no, no that comes back onto the people who pay Upwork - almost sure they forget who that is. 


Emma M wrote: Oh and the best response "maybe you should make sure clients can pay before you work for them".

If that is an actual quote of what you were told, that would be entirely inappropriate. Especially with a chargeback. The client can pay. The client DID pay.

 

Maybe you are communicating with support in a similar manner as you are communicating here, if so I could understand why that would not go down too well, but no matter the provocation, that would not be an appropriate thing to say.


Emma M wrote:

Just a word.of warning to freelancers - Upwork is happy to see you out of money.

 

I understand. A chargeback isn't avoidable however the way they want you to pay it back means you are out of money. Figures below in my case

 

Full job: $100 USD

Service fee: $20.USD

 

As a freelancer I have to pay back $100 USD and Upwork will then refund me the $20 USD. In the mean time, I pay more with exchange rates and transfer fees because of upworks double handling. No one can explain why we need to lose more than we already have.

 


I understand your frustration and I understand sometimes this may not be obvious by the way the platform works. But if you check your invoices to the client you will see that you charged the client $100 and Upwork then charged you $20.

If a chargeback occurs then the only way this can happen is if you pay back the client those $100 and Upwork pays you the $20. Upwork can't pay back those $20 to the client because they never charged them to the client in the first place, they charged them to you.

 

You could argue that Upwork could pay first to you and then you would pay back the client, but I'm not sure that is possible either. Because the initial $20 charge was a fee attached to a transaction (you charging $100 to the client). The chargeback may also need to be attached to the new transaction (you paying back those $100).

 

Sorry about your situation and I hope you can get passed this soon.

claudiacezy
Community Member

I wonder if there are issues with email notifications from Upwork. I understand the OP didn't receive any email notification about the chargeback, which could cause lots of trouble and frustration due to lack of information on steps that should be taken in this kind of situation, and delays on taking an action.


Recently I had a contract paused by Upwork but I didn't get any email, I've seen the message only on the contract page.

 

I sent an email to the client to mention about the contract being paused, I didn't enquire much about it, but the client wasn't aware the contract was paused. I received an email when the contract was reactivated.

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