Charge me a refund by upwork already knows that the client cheated me

[xeekhan123]

Today I got shocked when I see in a message that I have charged a refund of $20 to the client whom I have already launched a complaint against. This client assigned me an hourly job and he allowed me to take 40 hours as you like manually or by track time, I submitted the file. It was a single file and it's can't be sent separately. so the client was agreed to give me $150 but when reached 12th hours the contract gone suspended. The hourly rate was $7 so I received only $84 from the total amount we were agreed $150 and I lost $66. But I really got shocked when I saw that I charge more $20 as a refund to this client. I think its totally an unprofessional approach when Upwork knows well that the client has already cheated me they charge me refund too. I have already launched a complaint against the client. 

[prestonhunter]

Zubair:

It sounds like you don't completely understand how Upwork works.

Clients may pause or cancel a contract at any time.
For any reason. Or for no reason at all.

They do not need to give the freelancer any notice.

When you have an hourly contract, it is okay to estimate how long something will take to do. But you do not "agree" to a dollar amount. You log time and get paid for the time that you work.

So in an hourly contract, there is no such thing as "agreeing to $150."

Furthermore, you said that the client allowed you to use manual time.

That's fine, but if the client wants to dispute manual time, Upwork automatically rejects the disputed manual time and refunds the client.

From everything you described, it sounds like the client played by all of the rules. The client has not "cheated."

You have no basis to file a complaint against the client.

[petra_r]

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Preston H wrote:

Clients may suspend or cancel a contract at any time.
For any reason. Or for no reason at all.

---

The client can not suspend an hourly contract. Just end it or pause it.

Upwork suspends contracts because there is an issue with the client's account.

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Preston H wrote:

From everything you described, it sounds like the client played by all of the rules. The client has not "cheated."

You have no basis to file a complaint against the client.

---

Nonsense.

The client did not pay Upwork, hence the refund. Upwork suspended the client, so clearly the client did not "play by the rules"

There has to be a limit somewhere to your obsession with blaming freelancers for being cheated? Now you even declare fraud clients who got kicked off the platform to be model-citizens who have done nothing wrong?

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Zubair,

I checked and it looks like you already have a support ticket with our team about this reversal. I understand that this is very disappointing for you, however, when the client fails to pay for the hours logged on the contract, Upwork Hourly Protection will only cover hours that qualify. Check out this help article for more information about Upwork Payment Protection. 

[kat303]

Zubair - This was an hourly contract/job. For hourly jobs you get paid hourly for the amount of hours you work. For example, if the client says they will pay you $150 and your rate per hours is $10 and you only worked for 1 hours, you'll be paid $10 (minus Upworks service fee percentage.)  Also any time tracked manually does not qualify for Upwork's payment protection plan. The amount per hour for manually tracked time will be refunded to the client. 

The contract got suspended by Upwork probably due to the clients financial account. Which is ok, because Upwork will pay you for the hours you worked but ONLY IF 

You used the Tracker

If you wrote meaningful notes in the screen shots it took

If it showed you were working on the clients job 

If you had reasonable keystroke activity.

Hours not covered and for which you won't get paid by Upwork are

Manually entered hours

Unusally high or low keystroke activity

No notes on the screen shots Tracker took

Hours showing you were not working on the clients job (surfing the internet, watching youtube videos, playing games, reading and sending personal email etc.)