Client ended the contract before releasing the full payment - filling for a dispute?

[admir_h]

Hi community, 

Recently I have worked with a client on a $100 agreed job. She decided to split the job into 5 milestones ($20 each), which included the delivery and 4 more revisions.

I have delivered the overnight analysis and she approved the first milestone of $20 which was funded in Escrow, and did not respond since, nor activated the other milestones. Eventually, she ended the contract and gave me a 5 stars review, but also leaving me with a $20 job instead of $100. 

Is there a way to file for a dispute, that is, to get the remaining amount which was agreed in the contract?

Thanks in advance!

[prestonhunter]

re: "Client ended the contract before releasing the full payment - filling for a dispute?"

You are confused about something.
It is impossible for a client to simply end a fixed-price contract unilaterally without either:

a) releasing all money in escrow to the freelancer

[or]

b) asking for the freelancer's permission to pay less money than is in escrow.

re: "I have delivered the overnight analysis and she approved the first milestone of $20 which was funded in Escrow, and did not respond since, nor activated the other milestones. Eventually, she ended the contract and gave me a 5 stars review, but also leaving me with a $20 job instead of $100."

Okay, that makes sense.

The client funded a $20 milestone.
You did the work.
The client released the payment and closed the contract.

The client did not break any rules here.

Moreover, you were paid for the work that you did AND you received great feedback.

This is over. You should be pleased with how things went.

re: "Is there a way to file for a dispute, that is, to get the remaining amount which was agreed in the contract?"

No. You can not file a dispute.

You already received ALL of the money in escrow.

There is nothing to dispute.

It is what is in escrow that counts. What was "agreed upon" in messages elsewhere, and what is shown in the "budget" field do not count.

$20 was funded.
You received $20.
So as far as Upwork is concerned, this is now over.

[admir_h]

Thanks for your answer, Preston.

You say ''You should be pleased with how things went''.

But how should I be pleased having in mind that I applied for a $100 job, spent my time, connects, worked on it, and instead of $100 get $20? I wouldn't consider a $20 job in the first place. 

That is so broken. The client obviously misused the system.

[petra_r]

---

Admir H wrote:

instead of $100 get $20? The client obviously misused the system.

---

Have you politely asked the client what happened? Very often clients don't even realise what happened.

In future, don't work on unfunded milestones. There is also little point chopping a $ 100 contract into 5 milestones.

[feed_my_eyes]

---

Admir H wrote:

Thanks for your answer, Preston.

You say ''You should be pleased with how things went''.

But how should I be pleased having in mind that I applied for a $100 job, spent my time, connects, worked on it, and instead of $100 get $20? I wouldn't consider a $20 job in the first place. 

That is so broken. The client obviously misused the system.

---

It's you who misused the system. If the client funded $20, then you should only do $20 worth of work, then ask them to fund the next milestone before you do anything else. And if you didn't want to work on a project that was broken into $20 milestones, then you shouldn't have accepted this project.

[petra_r]

---

Admir H wrote:

Recently I have worked with a client on a $100 agreed job. She decided to split the job into 5 milestones ($20 each), which included the delivery and 4 more revisions.

---

You were actually paid exactly what was agreed.

The first milestone was the delivery of the whole job. You delivered and were paid in full.

The other milestones were revisions. No revisions were necessary, so the milestones were not worked on or needed.

[jr-translation]

---

Admir H wrote:

Hi community, 

Recently I have worked with a client on a $100 agreed job. She decided to split the job into 5 milestones ($20 each), which included the delivery and 4 more revisions.

I have delivered the overnight analysis and she approved the first milestone of $20 which was funded in Escrow, and did not respond since, nor activated the other milestones. Eventually, she ended the contract and gave me a 5 stars review, but also leaving me with a $20 job instead of $100. 

Is there a way to file for a dispute, that is, to get the remaining amount which was agreed in the contract?

Thanks in advance!

---

So you had a job with 5 milestones
Milestone 1: delivery
Milestone 2: revision 1
Milestone 3: revision 2
Milestone 4: revision 3
Milestone 5: revision 4

You did the first milestone and she paid for it. Since the other milestones were not needed, she closed the contract. She paid the agreed amount of $20 for the overnight analysis.

[wlyonsatl · Accepted solution]

Admir,

I'm guessing you thought you could wrap up the project, or you did all the work the client really wanted, with the first milestone you submitted.

For the future, remember a) only submit work limited to the milestone(s) that have been fully funded and b) don't work on unfunded milestones (or at least don't submit the work to the client for those milestones until they are fully funded).

The client knows she only paid you 1/5 of the agreed price for your work. If she doesn't pay you the full amount she knows she's cheating you - I have no doubt about that. But there is no mechanism in the Upwork rules that now allows Upwork to help you get paid. The contract is closed and that's that. 

It's hard to understand all the details of how Upwork works without making a few mistakes. Now you better understand how fixed price projects are supposed to work.

Good luck.