Automatic Refund to Client without Notification

[joceebagsic]

Yup! That's it, $747 of my earnings was refunded without warnings or notification, and the client no longer online for a week.

[youssefbahaa]

Hi Jocee, Sorry to hear that. 3 months ago I was in your position, and I wish I can give you any hope that you can get your money back; unfortunately, neither I nor a friend of mine managed to get our money back. 
And Yeah! This is the magical tool that clients [or Scammers, to be accurate] use to get the job done without paying a penny, then no one can do anything about it.

[JoanneP]

Hi Jocee,

I can see that you already have an open ticket regarding this issue. One of our agents will update your ticket and assist you further. 

[petra_r]

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Jocee B wrote:

Yup! That's it, $747 of my earnings was refunded without warnings or notification, and the client no longer online for a week.

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It wasn't really refunded, The client never paid in the first place and your hours didn't qualify for hourly protection. Presumably that was the contract at $100 per hour when your profile rate is $15? What was the thinking behind that?

[youssefbahaa]

Hi Petra,
From what I understood, I believe it is something related to Chargeback.

Also, what's wrong with creating the contract for 100$/hr even though it is not the rate shown on the profile; as long as the client agreed on whatever the reason was?

Please clarify this point for me.

[prestonhunter]

re: "Also, what's wrong with creating the contract for 100$/hr even though it is not the rate shown on the profile; as long as the client agreed on whatever the reason was?"

Upwork has rules for Payment Protection payouts that stipulate that hourly payments aren't covered when the hourly rate is so far out of the norm for the job niche of the freelancer.

There is also a calculation based on the freelancer's regular earnings and that becomes a limit to a Payment Protection payout. We had a discussion in the forum about this a few months ago. Read more here:

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Hourly-payment-protection-limits/td-p/625275

[petra_r]

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Youssef B wrote:
From what I understood, I believe it is something related to Chargeback..

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No, it isn't. The client plain didn't pay for the hours worked. It has nothing to do with a chargeback. Where do you get the idea from that there is a chargeback?

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Youssef B wrote:
Also, what's wrong with creating the contract for 100$/hr even though it is not the rate shown on the profile; as long as the client agreed on whatever the reason was?

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Why would a genuine client pay a genuine freelancer several times their profile rate? 

Do you go into a shop, try on a $100 pair of shoes, walk to the checkout and say "Let me pay you $700 for those shes, because they are so pretty..."? 

The hourly protection is limited to the freelancer's usual rate or their profile rate, whichever is lower, anyway. Most of the OP's hours were at $5 per hour.

[youssefbahaa]

Thanks, Preston and Petra for clarifying the hourly rate part for me, I thought that there would be no problem as long as there is an agreement between the client and the freelancer about the contract hourly rate ( The reason might be, for example, the client agreed on a specific budget and the freelancer agreed to do the job with the same budget but using an hourly contract to benefit from the Hourly protection.
I know this is not professional, but this might be the reason.

Re: Where do you get the idea from that there is a chargeback?

Because what I understood was that it was a fixed price contract and the amount of money was refunded to the client. And this is what happened to me when a client initiated a chargeback.

[petra_r]

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Youssef B wrote:
( The reason might be, for example, the client agreed on a specific budget and the freelancer agreed to do the job with the same budget but using an hourly contract to benefit from the Hourly protection.
I know this is not professional, but this might be the reason.

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As has been explained twice now, the protection would be moot for stunts like that. 

Stuff like that just throws up all manner of red flags.

It's likely that the same thing will happen a week from now for the rest of the hours (from last week).

Youssef B wrote:
Because what I understood was that it was a fixed price contract and the amount of money was refunded to the client. And this is what happened to me when a client initiated a chargeback.

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What happened to you and what happened here are two completely different things.

In this case, the money wasn't refunded. It was never paid in the first place. It appears as a refund, but is a reversal of funds that were never received in the first place.

[martina_plaschka]

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Youssef B wrote:
Hi Petra,
From what I understood, I believe it is something related to Chargeback.

Also, what's wrong with creating the contract for 100$/hr even though it is not the rate shown on the profile; as long as the client agreed on whatever the reason was?

Please clarify this point for me.

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In principle, there is  nothing wrong with charging 100/ hour. Lots of successful freelancers to that. There is also nothing wrong with gradually increasing your rate, especially if you have too much work.

The problem with this case is the optics. How does it look on a profile, when a freelancer does not:

- charge their hourly rate that's displayed on their profile. (Always charge only your displayed rate!), or

- charges widely varying rates depending, seemingly, on the client. 

In short, it does not look good. It looks as if the freelancer is taking advantage of a client. My thought is: what idiot is willing to pay so much more when he can get her service at a fraction of this? Or worst case, there's something fishy going on. 

[prestonhunter]

Joyce:

The good news is that the unpaid amount was only $112 at your regular posted rate. So... not as big a loss as $747.

The other good news is that the rules for Payment Protection are easy to find, so you can brush up on them and avoid losing money next time.

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211068288-Hourly-Protection

[roberty1y]

If it's any consolation, the client says he'll recommend you to his family and friends.