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alejandrg
Community Member

Client asks to delete screenshots and promises to pay later

My hourly client says that he has problem with his bank account and asks to delete screenshots . He claims that he will pay it later as a bonus. And he says that if I will not remove the screenshots then his account will be blocked because he can't pay. I'm not sure that he will pay me later if I will remove screenshots. What can I advice him? Will his account be really blocked permanently or temporarily until he pays what he should? 

10 REPLIES 10
petra_r
Community Member


Aliaksandr H wrote:

My hourly client says that he has problem with his bank account and asks to delete screenshots . He claims that he will pay it later as a bonus. And he says that if I will not remove the screenshots then his account will be blocked because he can't pay. I'm not sure that he will pay me later if I will remove screenshots. What can I advice him? Will his account be really blocked permanently or temporarily until he pays what he should? 


The client knows that the payment for last week's hours will not go through. Yes, if his payment method is repeatedly declined then the client's account will be put on hold until he pays (not permanently)

 

Did you track your hours properly with the tracker and have meaningful work memos and high activity levels? In that case you are protected and Upwork will pay you anyway, out of their own pocket if the client fails to pay. In that case, do NOT delete your hours. Personally, unless it is a trusted, long term client of mine, I would not trust the client to pay later as a bonus.

 

If you used manual time you might as well delete the hours, because if the client fails to pay Upwork, you won't get paid anyway.

> Did you track your hours properly with the tracker and have meaningful work memos and high activity levels? In that case you are protected and Upwork will pay you anyway, out of their own pocket if the client fails to pay. In that case, do NOT delete your hours. I would not trust the client to pay later as a bonus.

 

Yes, I did. Thank you for explanation about client suspension

g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Aliaksandr,

 

Could you please share your contract ID with me here and our team will reach out to your client to assist them further. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

Done

Now he argues that his account will be limited for the days before he will pay and his contractors will be unable to log time.

ansmoh
Community Member

potential fraud client who is trying to scam? you.


Aliaksandr H wrote:

Now he argues that his account will be limited for the days before he will pay and his contractors will be unable to log time.


Yes. This is true. But his account will not be limited for a few days after the payment fails, and then only until the minute he actually pays.

 

He should not have people log time when he can't afford to pay them.

 

This isn't your problem and by not deleting the hours you are doing the other freelancers a favour. 

It is now too late to delete the hours anyway. The deadline to make any changes to last week's work diary passed an hour and a half ago at noon UTC.

prestonhunter
Community Member

You can't trust anything this client says.

 

I don't believe for a moment that his bank account was in jeopardy.


Upwork doesn't allow clients to use debit cards. Full credit cards are required. Or PayPal accounts backed by credit cards.

 

Your time will be automatically billed to his credit card account.

If he doesn't have the money in his checking account to pay the charge, that is fine. He can carry a credit card balance for a short time, and pay it off when he has the money. Much more convenient than asking you to delete hours and paying you a bonus later.

 

I don't believe this client has money troubles. I think he has plenty of money and is playing games with people... seeing if he can rip them off and get away with it.

 

I'm not sure what is the more condemnable action:

- hiring a freelancer you can't afford and trying to weasel out of paying

or

- hiring a freelancer you CAN afford to pay and playing mind games by pretending you can't afford to pay him


Preston wrote:


Upwork doesn't allow clients to use debit cards. Full credit cards are required.


Many (not all) debit cards (those that behave like credit cards, and are common in many countries) CAN be used as billing methods.

 

Screenshot at Jan 20 15-36-25.png

 

Preston wrote:

 

I don't believe for a moment that his bank account was in jeopardy.


The client never said their bank account was in danger. The client (correctly) stated that their Upwork account would be suspended for non payment until he pays.

Thank you for the correction.

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