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d1760526
Community Member

Client deleted milestone and refuses to pay me

Good evening,

 

I am having an issue with a client- they hired me to film product footage for them and requested a snowy scene. I scoped put a location, but there was a warm spell and they had recent rain so a lot of the snow had melted. I sent photos and made them well aware that there was not that much snow and told them they may want to find a different videographer with access to a better location, but they told me to shoot anyway and just try to focus on the product. They also told me I needed to deliver all the footage THAT day or one day later, giving me less than a week to complete the work and deliver it. 

I delivered over 240 shots over Google Drive because they were too large to upload on UpWork. They immediately said that all of the clips are useless and they have deleted the milestones and are refusing by to pay me anything for the footage I've already delivered to them. 

I've asked multiple times for an explanation of why they can't use the video clips I've provided and they won't reply to my emails now. 

what can I do?? I had to get four models for this and am out a significant amount of money after getting wardrobes for them all and traveling to the location. It took THREE days to shoot and now I am getting nothing even though I've already delivered the video clips. Help!!

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
petra_r
Community Member


Veronika R wrote:

They set up a milestone for all clips to be delivered to them but deleted them milestone AFTER I delivered all the clips to them. So they are in possession of the video work, but I haven't been paid for my work. 


The milestone wasn't funded or active.

That means there is nothing anyone can do about it.

 

You still own the rights to the work that wasn't paid, but whether your client cares or not is anyone's guess.

 

In the future, pay attention to whether milestones are active/funded before handing over work.

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6 REPLIES 6
prestonhunter
Community Member

A client may end a contract at any time.

 

If a client sets up a fixed-price contract with ten milestones and a budget of $5000, and the first milestone is for $59...

 

And the freelancer does the first milestone and the client releases $59 and then closes the contract, then the client has done nothing wrong.

They set up a milestone for all clips to be delivered to them but deleted them milestone AFTER I delivered all the clips to them. So they are in possession of the video work, but I haven't been paid for my work. 

petra_r
Community Member


Veronika R wrote:

They set up a milestone for all clips to be delivered to them but deleted them milestone AFTER I delivered all the clips to them. So they are in possession of the video work, but I haven't been paid for my work. 


The milestone wasn't funded or active.

That means there is nothing anyone can do about it.

 

You still own the rights to the work that wasn't paid, but whether your client cares or not is anyone's guess.

 

In the future, pay attention to whether milestones are active/funded before handing over work.

d1760526
Community Member

That is such a blow. Thanks for the reply. That makes sense- I'm new to UpWork and felt pressured by the client to deliver the work quickly but I should have known better. 😞

 

Thank you. 

03829da4
Community Member

Really sorry to hear this. Besides the answers already received, just wanted to mention if you haven't already that it may be worth applying other perspectives to the material you have now. For example, can you resell it directly or through a platform like Etsy? Repurporse it for another project, including a project you could offer on Upwork or something else for someone else? License it through stock media websites?

 

While this is a hard lesson and best to not dwell, considering the money and resources you've put into it, could try to find some way to make part of the money back somewhat passively. Sorry again to hear this experience and all the best.

That's a really good idea- thank you for the feedback!

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