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kamran1707
Community Member

After three weeks client is asking for false refund hourly contract

Hi,

This was my first ever hourly contract. The client added me on slack and when i submit my work he started to bash me and swearings. He said i didn't do anything for 3 days. He started abusing. Upon which i replied. He removed me from contract. Next he said he will not provide bad feedback.But after two weeks of contract ending he wrote very negative comments about me. Where i also replied about his misconduct. I didn't provide any feedback to him. Then he started fighting with me again in chat and today and called me dumb, stupid and psycho and he asked for refund today, which is absolutely wrong. I also replied in bad manner in chat but he instigated the situation. What should i do now. I want to get rid of such person

6 REPLIES 6
g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Kamran,

 

I'm sorry to hear about the bad experience you've had. Our team will investigate this further and will take proper actions as soon as possible. 
If you have any additional questions, let me know. Thank you.

 

~ Goran
Upwork

Thank you, no further query. I appreciate your response

kinector
Community Member

Kamran, it's nasty when this happens, my condolences.

But I suppose there is always two sides to each story. To external eyes, this looks like a classic communication mix-up escalated because of some random issue.

The review your client left is bad enough to kill your Upwork career before it really takes off.

And your response only makes it worse.

What kind of professional would put words like yours in a review on another human being knowing that the review will stay there as long as this platform remains active? And specifically, on YOUR profile, not just the client's. 😬

None, of course. Professionals stay objective and brief. And the best thing always is not to respond such reviews, you'd just make it worse FOR YOURSELF since the review will stay there for life.

Now, you have a simple choice to make. It doesn't matter what happened, were you right and the client wrong, or anything like that. You are in a fortunate position to choose your future on Upwork.

Your options:

A) Refuse the refund, fight about the money, and perhaps you get to keep it (if you tracked the hours with the time tracker app correctly). The review and your unprofessional response will stay on your profile which makes your chance of getting hired for the fifth time astronomically small. You're done.

B) Walk away and issue a refund with a polite apology for the mix-up and for your unprofessional conduct. Basically, just suck it up (even and perhaps particularly if it was not your fault). The refund will make the review vanish from your profile. In this case, you could still be hired on Upwork in the future.

I wish to highlight that at this point it doesn't matter what happened and why and who did what wrong. Your entire Upwork future is at stake so I hope you give this some consideration and a good night's sleep. Please think this over.

Either way, whatever you decide to do, at least keep in mind one thing: learn from this, absorb it, but most importantly don't let this stop you from continuing your work. The first 3 projects went great and your clients were very happy!!! Don't chew this any longer than you must to go through the reflection process on how to avoid a similar issue in the future. Get over it and keep going! 👍👍

Lastly, a tactical advice. It appears that the biggest risk in getting into trouble over here is those little tiny projects below $50 (I unfortunately don't have any first hand experiences). Worst clients, e.g. windowshoppers and pure scammers love to do those things because they know how the system works and how small things can be done for free with foul play especially with relatively new Upworkers who don't yet know all the rules.

Maybe try getting a bit more serious projects. I never get into any mix-up (6-year streak) because I smell the bad clients a mile away. A higher price tag filters most of them out in the first place.

Also, text only communication is more prone to mix-ups than voice or video calls. It's human nature, we can't help it.

Anyway, you'll get over this. All the best Kamran! 👍

Hi Mikko

Thanks for your condolence. I appreciate it. 

I chose to not comment on such client, but he kept on poking in chat. That's why i wrote few lines in reply of his feedback. But i agree that i should have kept my cool and i wrote wrong. Two zeroes can never make one. 

I have blocked him for the time being. Is it possible to remove my comments in reply of feedback. Because i just forgive him. I want to move on learnt alot from it no point of digging again into it.

Please tell me if there is a way to remove my response. I would really appreciate that.

2a05aa63
Community Member

If you check that client's feedback history, you'll see the worst possible review: the 1 star review without any comment. NEVER take on a client like that. They will never be happy, and they won't tell, just give you a 1 start and move on.

Better refund that project so you don't have the feedback nor your comment which is worse than the comment itself.

I agree thank you for your valuable response. Appreciate it

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