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dikshitsethi786
Community Member

Client is asking for refund but the job is already completed.

The job is completed but the client asked for a refund. The client asked me to do extra work on the same amount but when I refused he filed a refund for the existing work. Please help me with this.

 

The contract is already ended.

9 REPLIES 9
5fd43722
Community Member

You may communicate with the support team.

I raised a ticket for that but I am a little bit worried about my payment if it will get deducted before that.

prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "Client is asking for refund but the job is already completed. The job is completed but the client asked for a refund. The client asked me to do extra work on the same amount but when I refused he filed a refund for the existing work. Please help me with this. The contract is already ended."

 

This client is behaving in an unprofessional, unethical, immoral manner. Moreover, the client is undermining his own best interests. Refund thinking hurts clients.

 

Of course you should not give this client any money.

 

But always be polite in your communications.

 

The fact that the contract has already ended means the client has very little leverage. Very little power. He can't give you a bad or good review/feedback. That has already happened.

 

Time is on your side. The more time that goes by, the more unlikely it will be that anyone at Upwork will help him in any way if he asks for help to take money from you.

 

Do not engage the client in conversation. Do not criticize. Do not defend yourself. Do not argue.

 

Communication with the client should be minimal, and days should go by between exchanges.

 

You could ask the client very short simple questions, such as "What was the reason for this request?" The client might be too embarrassed to even respond, and drop the matter. If the client answers, then tell him "Thank you. I'll look over this and get back to within the next three days." Then, three days later, ask another simple question.

 

The client doesn't really have any power to force a refund from you. With time, the client will hopefully lose interest. Even if he does not, time will soon pass beyond the time period during which Upwork might provide assistance to a client seeking a refund.

So, do you mean the amount will not be automatically deducted?

re: "So, do you mean the amount will not be automatically deducted?"

 

You did not provide enough details for me to answer this question.

 

The time period for clients to dispute hourly work is within five days after the work week ends.

 

A client AUTOMATICALLY wins a dispute if you didn't follow the rules for Payment Protection.

 

I don't know if you followed those rules.

I don't know if the client formally disputes your time, or is informally asking you for a refund.

 

If Upwork sends you something asking if you agree to refund money, of course say no.

 

But depending on the details and timing, you may have no power.

 

If you didn't follow the rules for Payment Protection, that's your fault. If you did follow the rules, then you probably have nothing to worry about.

It was a one-time project. And client asks me to add some more things after completion. I refused it and the client filed a refund for the existing project.

So this was a fixed-price contract?
And you have already received all your money?

 

Then it sound like what the client did was click a button to request a refund, but that button has no real power. You simply need to say no.

NikolaS
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Dikshit,

 

Thank you for reaching out to us. I checked and it looks like you already communicated with our team via a support ticket regarding your experience with the client. If you need further assistance or have further questions feel free to follow up with our team and they will be happy to assist you. 

 

~ Nikola
Upwork

Sethi:

I appreciate your posting about this situation.

 

I realize that you are the freelancer in this situation. You have already been offered assistance and advice. I would like to provide advice and assistance to this client, and other clients.

 

A general observation about this client can be useful to any clients reading this thread:

 

I think that Upwork should PRIMARILY focus on helping clients. Upwork should be client-centric.

The client described in this situation was just so self-defeating. It's sad.

A client doesn't help himself by asking a freelancer to work for free.

And a client doesn't help himself by asking a freelancer to refund money if the freelancer refuses to work for free.

 

There are lots of great freelancers on Upwork. But also lots of freelancers who are not at all a good fit for a client's project.

The fact that this client asked Sethi to do MORE work on the project tells us that the client VALUED Sethi's work.
The client wanted Sethi to do MORE work.

All that client had to do was offer to create a new contract and pay Sethi to do more work.

But when the client asked for free work, the client not only did NOT get that work done, he lost the freelancer's good favor. The client was NO LONGER trusted or apprecaited by the freelancer. So the client lost something VERY VALUABLE.

How much time and effort and money will this client expend in order to replace the valuable, quallified, knowledgeable freelancer he already found?

 

The client had a freelancer who could do the work well, and was already familiar with the project, and could easily do more work on it. But in order to try to... do what? Save a few dollars? For whatever weird reason he had, the client tried to get some work for free and then dispute already-completed work. This is such an unforced error. The client is smashing his own hand with a hammer.

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