Can I work without money in escrow account?.

[#1]

Hello,

I have been working with this client for 7 weeks now. He is my first client on Upwork. I have a long term contract with him to write articles for him. I chose to be paid in milestones and he has paid for all the milestones I've completed.

About 3 weeks ago, my client asked me to write a design guide for his company. He knew it was a highly technical article so he gave me some information to check if I will be able to write the design guide for him. I agreed to write the design guide for him after going through the information he provided.

But this time around, my client didn't send me an offer for this work. He just asked me to write the design guide through text. That means no money was funded to escrow. The main reason is that he said the design guide has no words limit. He initially asked me to write 10,000-20000 words so he would pay me based on the total words I can write. He later asked me to write 5000-10000 words.

My first question is that is it right to work on a milestone of a long term contract without an official offer from a client and no money in escrow?

I wasn't sure about this but I still went ahead to work for my client since I have had a good working relationship with him for the past 7 weeks.

He first asked me to conduct extensive research and raise FAQ questions for the design guide. I did this and submitted it to him. He sent me feedback that he appreciates my effort but he wants me to convert the FAQ questions I wrote into an outline. I went ahead to do this. When I sent him the outline to him, he sorted it and added additional content to the outline. He then asked me to write 5000-10000 words design guide based on his approved outline.

He gave me 4 days to finish writing but I couldn't meet the deadline. The design guide is very technical and it needs more time to conduct research to write. But I still submitted the first 3300 words I had written to him. I requested for 4 additional days to help me finish writing the rest of the design guide. He agreed so I continued to write.

But after reviewing my first 3300 words of the design guide, he made a lot of comments and asked me to improve it based on his recommendations. He asked me to focus on improving the first 3300 words and hold on with the rest of the design guide.

I did my best and improved on my work based on the comments he made. This morning I received feedback from my client and he is still not satisfied with my improved work. He has requested a further improvement on it.

In as much as I am willing to put in the work to get my client's desired results, I am of the view that in case I am unable to meet his requirement, he may not pay me. Since he didn't fund Upwork escrow for this work, I feel all my efforts may go waste if he refuses to accept my work.

What do you think I should do now?

[#2]

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Isaac G wrote:
My first question is that is it right to work on a milestone of a long term contract without an official offer from a client and no money in escrow?

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Only if you don't mind not getting paid.

If there is nothing in escrow, you can't dispute... Whether the client pays you or not is entirely up to them.

[#3 · Accepted solution]

If you work without money in escrow, the client can refuse the work and refuse to pay you (or even steal the work and refuse to pay you) and you have no recourse through Upwork. No money in escrow means no money to dispute. No contract means any recourse you have would be through suing the client which would be expensive and come with no guarantee of success. Upwork cannot help you if you don't comply with Upwork's rules. 

The client may be sincere or the client may be trying to get you to do a lot of work for which they will offer you little or no money in the end. Regardless, whatever work you have done belongs to you. You can keep the 3300 words and use them as a writing sample--just remove references to the client's name. 

[#4]

Thank you.

[#5]

Hi

I had the same question and I just want to say thanks for your answer.

Regards

William

[#6]

By carrying on such huge amount of work without first ensuring milestone was properly funded, you gave the client the impression you can afford not to be paid.

You are not likely to be paid for any further work and the client is unlikely to be satisfied because you did not have him invest anything into the relationship.

Sorry.

If you're keen about getting paid, you should discontinue all work and ask him to fund the milestone in full before you can carry on working, in line with best practices.

He may oblige and fund it. He may not.

But at least you would have learned your lesson and hopefully, become once bitten, twice shy.