Biased UpWork Dispute System (Even when client wants to violate UW Policy)

[lastwish42]

2-3 days back, started working on a contract of $100 USD which consisted of 4 phases. The client initally funded (escrowed 20$) for the 1st phase as milestone. The remaining 2,3,4 phases were just add-ons (adding more functionality) to the same script, so i started writing the script as awhole.
After inputing several work hours into the job (completed most of the work), the client abruptly ended my contract stating he no longer needed my services. And asked for a refund, which wasn't ethical. So, I informed him that I'll be raising a dispute and did the same. The client tried to barter byoffering another contract to aid in his exam for which I didnt respond.
Note: The client at the beginning of our talks, tried to violate UpWork's policy and requested to continue the conversation Whatsapp and provided his no., for which i declined and asked to continue within UpWork. (Also mentioned the above in my dispute)

After all this, UpWork's specialist for disputes decided to favor the client and denied my dispute without even replying to my dispute (Neither did the client bother to defend himself). Most probably they didnt even read my dispute.

This is what one gets for being loyal. Is there anything I can do to raise this to another higher executive of UpWork?

Pranav D

[yofazza]

>  to aid in his exam

Don't trust students who look into freelancing sites for "aid".

[tlsanders]

It sounds like you don't understand how disputes work. Upwork makes no decisions. They simply attempt to get you and the client to reach an agreement. If you can't reach an agreement and need someone to make a ruling on who is right, you have to go to arbitration. 

But, the only amount of money at issue is the $20. It was a mistake to work on the whole thing at once--at least, without a fully-funded milestone for the whole project. There is no protection at all for anything beyond the funded milestone.

[lastwish42]

That I agree with, working on the whole script was a mistake.
But even the funded $20 was sent back to the client by upwork dispute specialist. The client didnt even bother to defend himself for the dispute (and had violated a upwork policy) still upwork decided to favour him? Makese no sense.

[25005175]

If the project was fraudulent or a violation of Upwork's ToS - as all Academic and Professional Cheating projects are - then there are no protections in place whatsoever.