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shubhranilm
Community Member

Chargeback after completion of project successfully

Hello upwork Community

 

I am deeply saddened by what happened to me today. A client on upwork with payment verified account contacted me a month back on Upwork regarding some project related to statistics on fixed term basis. It was a project where I was supposed to solve questions and return back with answers. It went along for nearly 2 months and I completed the project successfully. He was so satisfied with my performance that he created 13 milestones one after another. I completed them all. It took me much of my time to complete the tasks. After his work was completed he ended the contract and left without a feedback review. However he paid for all the milestones.

 

15 days later I got a message from Upwork team regarding Chargeback from the client. Upwork informed me that my account has a temporary ban on withdrawal of any money from my account. This was new to me but I readily responded to it and eventually Upwork has taken away my hard earned money against this chargeback.

 

I tried to contact my client on the platform but I failed to reach him as he was not in a mood to respond back. I have attached a screenshot of the milestones that I have worked on for the client.

 

I have two questions in this regard:

1) I am paying a hefty 20% of my income to upwork for securing my payment. I have completed all the tasks as per the clients satisfaction and the client had days to review my work before making the payment. It all ended well but all of a sudden he decides to cheat me of my hard earned money. This is a scam and Upwork realizes it. My question is why should a freelancer pay for this scam and what does escrow do to prevent the scam from happening specially when 20% of my income is taken away for payment protection?

I understand that the scammer's bank charges Upwork once the chargeback is initiated but isnt this upwork's fault that it doesnt guarantee payment protection for which it charges a 20% commission?

 

2) Since many of my clients work on fixed term contract then is it possible that one fine day few others would do the same (since I really dont know whats their in the mind of the clients)? I really appreciate Upwork for being genuine and fair but dont you feel that it has become very easy to scam freelancers on this platform? Also if fixed term contract is not protected then why am I paying Upwork the 20% on fixed term contracts?

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

28 REPLIES 28
NikolaS
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Shubhranil,

 

We will look into this further and will get back to you once we have more information.

 

Thank you,

~ Nikola
Upwork
petra_r
Community Member


Shubhranil M wrote:

I am paying a hefty 20% of my income to upwork for securing my payment.

...when 20% of my income is taken away for payment protection?

... it doesnt guarantee payment protection for which it charges a 20% commission?

...why am I paying Upwork the 20% on fixed term contracts?


payment protection is only a small part of what you pay your fee for, and does not apply to charge-backs that can't be defended for fixed rate contracts.

 


Shubhranil M wrote:

 Since many of my clients work on fixed term contract then is it possible that one fine day few others would do the same


Obviously it theoretically could, but overall it is vry rare. Most freelancers never experience a chargeback. i#ve never experienced one in 10 years and  320+ contracts

I can second this: never experienced a chargeback (and dispute only once, plus threatened a dispute once more and refunded voluntarily). Chargeback on the part of the client is also a gross violation of Upwork ToS, and results in clients' account being deleted from the system - so if you tried to ping him over Upwork, this is in vain because the account is dead.

 

Bottom line: Upwork can't protect you here, you just got badly, badly unlucky.

Petra, you have no way of knowing that, "Most freelancers never experience a chargeback." Or do you?

 

 


Will L wrote:

Petra, you have no way of knowing that, "Most freelancers never experience a chargeback." Or do you?


Will, you have no way of knowing that Petra has no way of knowing that "Most freelancers never experience a chargeback." Or do you?

I loves me some epistemology.


Douglas Michael M wrote:



I loves me some epistemology.

I love when someone uses the word "epistemology".  It makes me so happy. 

Douglas Michael M,

 

I share your keen interest in epistemology.

 

As does, apparently, another of this board’s fairly frequent posters Petra, who has insisted that other posters here not claim they actually know something when all they really have is a mere personal opinion or guess not based in verifiable facts.

 

Standing tall for this important concept, she once admonished a poster she disagreed with by saying,

“Facts please? Numbers, sources, real stuff….Please present your proof for your statements.”

 

I was only asking her to do the same for her claim that, “Most freelancers never experience a chargeback."

 

We wouldn’t want to have a double standard here when it comes to factual information, would we, Douglas Michael?

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Shubhranil, 


I'm sorry for the delay as we had to look into this further. It's also always best to make sure that you meet the Payment Protection Guidelines in the separate help articles linked here to ensure that you are payment-protected while working on Upwork. Please also read up on Section 4. Prohibited Site Uses of the Terms of Use for more information on what actions are prohibited on Upwork. 

 

As for your ticket, please know that a member of the team has reached out to you through this ticket. Since this is being handled by another team, it would be best to communicate with them regarding your concern so that they can assist you further. 

The team will continue assisting you with your concern on your support ticket. 


~ Avery
Upwork
ashrafkhan81
Community Member

Hello Shubhranil, 

 

So are you telling us that you did everything Upwork requires you to do in order to offer payment protection and still faced a chargeback and had your earned money taken away? 

 

So you essentially :

- Waited for Escrow to be funded for the milestone before starting the work. 

- You delivered the work and allowed the client to review. 

- After the client completed his review you waited for another 5 days while the funds were in pending stage

 

And still, had the money taken away? I would like to ask here, whether it is the client who is doing all this to get the work for free or is it that the client used a fraudulently obtained credit card credentials? 

 

If all of this can happen what is the meaning and scope of payment projection on escrow funded milestones? 

 

 

 

 

Yes this is what has happend. The project was completed and I had my payment in my account. After all this I had to face the chargeback after 15 days and I have to reimburse for this scam after 2 months of dedicated work efforts.

 

This is a scam that happens on Upwork and other freelancing sites... Its very demoralising now

Thanks to Upwork team 

Even after everything the cheater today issued a fresh chargeback for some remaining amount and Upwork just sent me a mail that he again did this and I will have to pay for it. What a great experience folks... I could see that Upwork could do nothing in this regard... What a great way to scam people

 

Really depressed now.. 

 

I was just looking at the finished contract and i found he gave me a 5 star for my job.

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**


Shubhranil M wrote:

Thanks to Upwork team 

Even after everything the cheater today issued a fresh chargeback for some remaining amount and Upwork just sent me a mail that he again did this and I will have to pay for it. What a great experience folks... I could see that Upwork could do nothing in this regard... What a great way to scam people

 

Really depressed now.. 

 

I was just looking at the finished contract and i found he gave me a 5 star for my job.


It's interesting you are calling him a cheater, because it's true. You did his college homework for him. See Avery's response.

Do you expect that he told me that it was his college homework?


Shubhranil M wrote:

Do you expect that he told me that it was his college homework?


Avery's comment confirms what you are doing, and I just looked at the client/job. You did his homework for him. If you want to work in a shady dishonest side of the internet, fraud/chargebacks will be the norm for you.

 

It looks to me like this might be a college kid or could be someone farming out work for others. I can't tell for sure. His job history is all over the place.

Is the clients profile still active? He isnt responding to me.


Shubhranil M wrote:

Is the clients profile still active? He isnt responding to me.


I have no idea but if he filed a chargeback he's probably not going to respond to you. it's not like "whoopsie my CC charge failed." He purposely filed a chargeback for whatever reason.

 

 

petra_r
Community Member


Jennifer M wrote: He purposely filed a chargeback for whatever reason.

Or the real owners of the credit card filed the chargeback 😉

lysis10
Community Member


Petra R wrote:

Jennifer M wrote: He purposely filed a chargeback for whatever reason.

Or the real owners of the credit card filed the chargeback 😉


I was thinking that too but the client has a history. A weird history but a history. I think this is a farmer possibly getting jobs either on Upwork or other platforms and outsourcing. Looks like the client has gotten into the academic fraud market because he has an accounting job open too that is basically "do my homework."

 

But I guess with the chargeback he's not a client anymore. lol

Thanks for the insights Jennifer but I was thinking is there no way to stop these scams on this platform? What if Upwork strictly bannes use of credit cards or any other payment methods that involves the provision of chargeback. 

 

Its not a huge thing for me to refund the amount but I feel what is wrong is that this person can again create another profile and scam other freelancers as well. I respect this platform and hate to see Upwork loosing against such scamstars.


Shubhranil M wrote:

Thanks for the insights Jennifer but I was thinking is there no way to stop these scams on this platform? What if Upwork strictly bannes use of credit cards or any other payment methods that involves the provision of chargeback. 

 

Its not a huge thing for me to refund the amount but I feel what is wrong is that this person can again create another profile and scam other freelancers as well. I respect this platform and hate to see Upwork loosing against such scamstars.


Work hourly. Use tracker. Follow rules. If you're doing people's homework though, Upwork will probably decline your payment.

 

lol tell me what payment method doesn't have fraud protection and chargebacks? lmao

Look there are payment methods like debit cards where chargebacks are nearly impossible... Once money is paid its paid it wont return.

Coming back to your proposal for not doing homeworks suppose I teach a student some subject and he asks me about a particular question related to his asssignment. I solve it for him and teach him how to do it. Does this also account for homework violation... 

Sorry this is how teaching works

 


Shubhranil M wrote:

Look there are payment methods like debit cards where chargebacks are nearly impossible... Once money is paid its paid it wont return.

Coming back to your proposal for not doing homeworks suppose I teach a student some subject and he asks me about a particular question related to his asssignment. I solve it for him and teach him how to do it. Does this also account for homework violation... 

Sorry this is how teaching works

 


Yes, solving the problems for the student is doing their homework, and no, it's not how teaching works. You can likely find equivelant problems to tutor them with so they can do their own actual homework on their own. I looked at just a few of your "jobs" and you were clearly doing someone's homework. That's not tutoring and that's not teaching. The jobs themselves specifically asked you to do the work for the person on Zoom while they were in an exam. You're committing academic fraud, period. You are part of the problem many of us have been complaining quite loudly about. Upwork should do more than suspend your transactions. They should ban the accounts of anyone taking jobs to commit academic fraud. 

Got it Thanks


Shubhranil M wrote:

Look there are payment methods like debit cards where chargebacks are nearly impossible... Once money is paid its paid it wont return.

Coming back to your proposal for not doing homeworks suppose I teach a student some subject and he asks me about a particular question related to his asssignment. I solve it for him and teach him how to do it. Does this also account for homework violation... 

Sorry this is how teaching works

 


oh sweaty, that is so cute and precious. No chargebacks on debit cards. That's a cute way of thinking. It's not accurate, but it's cute.


 What if Upwork strictly bannes use of credit cards or any other payment methods that involves the provision of chargeback. 

There is NO credit card that does not facilitate chargebacks.

 


Shubhranil M wrote:

 I was thinking is there no way to stop these scams on this platform?.


Yes, I also want Upwork to ban academic fraudsters, on both sides. The clients who buy such things, and the freelancers who accept such fraud jobs and don't report them. They are just as bad.

 

Shubhranil M wrote:

Look there are payment methods like debit cards where chargebacks are nearly impossible...


You are completely wrong. It depends on the country. Upwork won't ban all US-based clients.

 


Shubhranil M wrote: 

Sorry this is how teaching works


It isn't. You know exactly what kind of "jobs" you've done, and maybe now you know better, you won't do it again in the future.

If you know where your "client" is a student, you should turn him in.

I tried but failed... I understand all your comments and I shall refrain from such projects in future

Except you won't

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