Client asking for a refund after the job was successfully finished and preapproved

[b9a65ee9]

Hi! A client is asking for a refund after he initially liked the project, and told me to move on and finish it. He loved the final result, and a week later he ended the contract and asked for a full refund. I filed a dispute, but since we haven't got to a mutual agreement (he refuses to pay), Upwork recommends to start an arbitration. If I do so, I'll still lose money, since the arbitration is more expensive that the job this client is refusing to pay. Just by a bit, but it's right there.

The client's argument is he's not gonna use my design, but he already has it and I have no way of knowing we won't actually use it.

If I don't agree to the arbitration, he gets the escrow money back, but if I do, I still lose money. 

What should I do? Has anybody gone through the same?

Thanks!

[sapphire31]

I had the same experience.  My client paid only half of the agreed price saying that she had to hire another writer to write it. We went through a dispute proceeding, but in the end, I was forced to refund the amount instead of elevating the case where we had to pay a higher fee than the project cost. I lost my top-rated badge both due to the dispute and negative feedback. Since I'm working on long ebooks, I still haven't regained my JSS score and still suffer from the setback.

Learning from my past experiences, I can say that filing for a dispute is not a good solution, especially when dealing with a scammer. They are aware of the flaws in the system and they are taking advantage of them in any way they can.  It's best to charge everything to experience and learn from it.  After all, it's our best teacher. 🙂

[petra_r]

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Santiago M wrote:

If I don't agree to the arbitration, he gets the escrow money back, but if I do, I still lose money. 

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Not necessarily... If you insist on going to arbitration, the client loses their advantage. Once you have paid the arbitration fee, the client is in a lose-lose situation. They have to pay to get back less than they can possibly win, so chances are they'll cut their losses and drop out. If that happens, you get both your arbitration fee back and the money in escrow.

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Santiago M wrote:

The client's argument is he's not gonna use my design, but he already has it and I have no way of knowing we won't actually use it.

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It's irrelevant whether they use it or not. That's an invalid argument...  They bought it, it's theirs. Whether they use it or not is makes no difference!

Helen D wrote:

 We went through a dispute proceeding, but in the end, I was forced to refund the amount instead of elevating the case where we had to pay a higher fee than the project cost.

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You were not forced... You could have opted to go for arbitration. That would have called the client's bluff and they almost certainly wouldn't have gone ahead. Then you would have got the arbitration fee back and all the money in escrow...

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Helen D wrote:

 I lost my top-rated badge both due to the dispute and negative feedback.

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The dispute had no effect on your JSS at all, or your top rated status. The private feedback the client left did. Didn't you have your top-rated perk available to eliminate the contract from your JSS calculation?

[sapphire31]

I lost my perks when I lost my badge. I can see how easy it is for a scammer to avoid paying and tarnish a freelancer's reputation when Upwork claimed they can't judge the content quality. When a client left you a rating of 1.6 and a negative review, it surely creates a bad impression and a huge impact on the JSS.