Client aking for a refund on a suspended contract

[fanika]

Hello,

I have a client asking for a refund on an hourly contract based on the statement "incomplete job full of errors". The contract has been suspended from April, 3rd. The job was delivered on March, 29. I didn't receive any corrections since yesterday and when the client claimed "tons of errors", I responded I cannot make any corrections because the contract is on hold. Today I receive an Upwork messages: requested a refund. "I am not happy with the work provided and it is incomplete with errors"
I don't see any options accept "Give refund".  Also I see this only in Messages window, not in the Terms and settings.
Can you please tell me what my options in this situation are?

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[jr-translation]

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Stefanka L wrote:

Hello,

I have a client asking for a refund on an hourly contract based on the statement "incomplete job full of errors". The contract has been suspended from the 2 weeks. The job was delivered on March, 29. I didn't receive any corrections since yesterday and when the client claimed "tons of errors", I responded I cannot make any corrections because the contract is on hold. Today I receive an Upwork messages: requested a refund. "I am not happy with the work provided and it is incomplete with errors"
I don't see any options accept "Give refund".  Also I see this only in Messages window, not in the Terms and settings.
Can you please tell me what my options in this situation are?

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

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The first and most important question is, did you mess up the job? An hourly contract is paid for the time you spend working on it. The quality of the result does (sometimes unfortunately for the clients) not matter. Did the client share the mistakes with you?

BTW: I hope the kid is fine.

[fanika]

No,  the message I received yesterday says she has just reviewed the document and it still needs a ton of changes. She didn't specify any.

And then I responded the contract is on hold and I am not able to make any corrections utill the issue is resolved.

Today I received the message: requested refund.

I don't believe the real reason is the disappointment, because the contract was suspended on 3rd of April and she reviewed my work on 6th of April. Also it was a simple job and the tons of errors are just text corrections I expected from her.

[petra_r]

Just tell the client politely and firmly that you are not able to grant any refund as the work was completed correctly. Was it fixed rate or hourly? The client has not (yet) filed a dispute. So nothing to worry about (yet)

[fanika]

The contract is on hourly rate, it is suspended from 3rd of April, but not ended. When I open the refund message it only gives me the option: Give refund or Cancel, there is no Reject. What should I do?

[petra_r]

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Stefanka L wrote:

The contract is on hourly rate, it is suspended from 3rd of April, but not ended. When I open the refund message it only gives me the option: Give refund or Cancel, there is no Reject. What should I do?

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OK, that means the client likely didn't actually pay for your hours. Did you use the tracker, with meaningful memos and decent activity levels?

Cancel the refund request, but if the client never paid for your hours, your work diary must conform to the terms of the protection for you to get paid.

[fanika]

How can a client asks for refund if she didn't pay?

Yes, I have tracked 3:50 with memo. When I click on Cancel, nothing happens. The message is still there. It only gives me the option to Add/edit the Invoice details i.e. the amount of money to be refunded. And when I type 0.00, it gives me red warning.

[petra_r]

Just ignore it. If it isn't letting you ignore it, enter $ 0.01

You shouldn't have gone into that field in the first place.

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Stefanka L wrote:

How can a client asks for refund if she didn't pay?

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If she didn't pay on the 29th of March she'd have been suspended for non-payment on the 3rd. If you refunded now, she'd be unsuspended, as she no longer ows anything....

[fanika]

I don't want to give any refund, as I worked according to her instructions. I just need to be sure the refund will not be automatically operated if I don't do anything right now.

My only option is to send her message, but this do not deactivate the refund request. Is there any term for it?

She may decide to end the contract and asks for refund again. Is that possible?

[petra_r]

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Stefanka L wrote:

I don't want to give any refund, as I worked according to her instructions. I just need to be sure the refund will not be automatically operated if I don't do anything right now.

My only option is to send her message, but this do not deactivate the refund request. Is there any term for it?

She may decide to end the contract and asks for refund again. Is that possible?

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She can't dispute if she has not paid anything

No, no refund will be automatically generated if you do nothing.

She can't dispute while suspended, either, as that requires an account in good standing.

[fanika]

Thanks, Petra!

Do you think I should leave her any message in order to inform her I'm not giving the refund? Or it's better to stay quite? Should I say I have completed my job and her statement is false? How would this be interpreted in a possible dispute situation?

[petra_r]

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Stefanka L wrote:

Thanks, Petra!

Do you think I should leave her any message in order to inform her I'm not giving the refund? Or it's better to stay quite? Should I say I have completed my job and her statement is false? How would this be interpreted in a possible dispute situation?

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It does not really matter. If there were a dispute (and she can't dispute while suspended) all Upwork would look at is your work diary, and all they will care about is whether you tracked the time with good activity levels and meaningful work memos. 

I would do nothing for now.