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sr_vd
Community Member

Client asking to remove logs with activity less than 50%

Hey community, how are you doing, hope you're all good.

 

I have a client, who decided that activity less than 50% is not worth paying. I am a programmer myself, following client ideas, I should constantly type code and click mouse buttons without thinking about what I'm doing and how I'm doing this,  beyond that I spend additional time without charging him, on organization stuff of the project, like preparing icons, animating images a.o. Also I found a website where, a lot of clients complain specifically about this person, that he is a complete scammer, and he has there a ton of 1star minimal feedbacks there. Now he is telling me that he won't release payment until I'll not delete those screenshots, I just wanted to hear from your dears, how you would act in a similar situation, because it's seems like from this point my activity with this client is coming to the end, which will probably lead to a bad feedback.

6 REPLIES 6
andreag22
Community Member

If you used the time tracker correctly your payment is protected, do not delete the screenshots!

You can read about Hourly Payment Protection here: 

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211068288-Hourly-Protection

 

Also, on hourly contracts the client does not release the payment, they are charged automatically.

florydev
Community Member

If a client ever asked me to delete a screenshot, I doubt I would. Regardless I would never work for that client again.

The way I see it is the screenshot tool is a security blanket for both the freelancer and the client. It’s actual value is more one of psychology and is useful only until a trusting relationship forms. After a while my guess is clients never look at it. If I ever have a client make a deal out if it they will quickly be diplomatically dropped.
petra_r
Community Member


Vladimir S wrote:

Now he is telling me that he won't release payment until I'll not delete those screenshots,


He can't easily avoid paying on an hourly job, but if he disputes or indeed fails to pay, you will lose a dispute  / won't be covered for any hours with an excessive number of time segments with low activity.

resultsassoc
Community Member

Vladimir, you need a better quality of clients. I've spent a bunch of money on this board and even more on another, and have never seen a screen shot. I tell freelancers to bill their work and pay it. I've only been scammed once, and that was by a long-term freelancer who thought she could get away with it.

 

Mark is correct, screen shots are a substitute for trust. I refuse to use time tracker either as a provider or client. It destroys trust. Plus, it's so easy to bypass that anyone who can't figure that out in ten minutes isn't smart enough to work for me, or to become my client.

wlyonsatl
Community Member

Vladimir,

 

I do predominantly hourly projects and run TimeTracker to charge the client for all the work I do for their project. It helps to try to arrange my work time in multiples of 10-minute increments, so the client pays for 10 minutes of work. (My projects typically entail 20 - 50 hours of total work time spread over two weeks to many months.)

 

I don't care what level of activity each 10 minute segment shows on Upwork's system. If I have worked during a segment, I should get paid for it whether I was regularly clicking my mouse, typing on my keyboard, reading an important 30-page document from the client, etc., but I do try to find ways to click and type that keeps TimeTracker informed that I am busy (such as typing notes instead of writing them on a notepad, editing documents on-screen rather than manually on hard copy, etc.).

 

Of my 250+ projects on Upwork I can only remember one client who asked me about time I had showing on TimeTracker - she was young and it worried her that I started TimeTracker prior to our phone calls. Apparently, she never felt the need to get ready for a phone call that would include discussions of some complexity. (I eventually fired that client; she was clueless about a lot of things and painful to work with.)

 

But I would never proactively remove valid segments of my work time tracked by TimeTracker that show low activity. TimeTracker's ability to "know" whether I am working on a particular project at a particular time is very limited, but I do know and I don't cheat my clients with unjustified work time booked.

 

I do, however, check TimeTracker's tracking results to delete any 10-minute period when I know I only worked that period for, say, one minute and TimeTracker has taken a screenshot right at the beginning of that segment.

 

If I had a client who complained about paying for a particular low activity segment I'd explain what I was doing during that segment, which I also track in separate tracking software (Toggl). If Upwork subsequently decided I shouldn't be paid for those segments, so be it. I have found Upwork's payment assurance protocols to be very helpful in a couple of cases, so I'd expect Upwork to be fair in its appraisals of my use of TimeTracker.

 

Good luck!

sr_vd
Community Member

Thanks everyone for your feedbacks, I really appreciate your help, I spoked with another freelancer, and he said that he received the same notification from that client, It's not clear to me why he is doing what he is doing, since loosing people who's working on the project will only increase delivery time, and will lead to additional costs, just to save few bucks, here and there, absolutely nonsense to me.

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