Client is complaining about an approved charge

[0ca3aae0]

Hi! I started working with a client who hired me for his own agency this May. (2022)

at first we agreed on a rate of $25 per 1000 words. However, the client sent me an hourly contract at $15 per hour, with a maximum of 40 billable hours. 

they reached out to me a month ago and put me in contact with one of their clients to have me write blog posts for them. I worked for two weeks and stayed within my billable hours. The total charge was $600 and it was released from escrow. However, after I got my paycheck, the client reached out to me saying I billed them too much. When in fact, all I did was bill my hours. He then suggested $50 per article, so I started to only bill 3.5 hours to meet the $50 rate. I wrote 3 articles and was paid $150. After it was released from escrow, the client reached out to me again and said they never agreed to this. I've forwarded them their own messages that said they will pay $50 per article, however they don't seem to get it. I contacted upwork support but couldn't get a response from them either.

I do not feel comfortable working with this client but since it's a long term contract that's paid more than 1k, having an unjustly given bad rating could seriously hurt my JSS and my career. Therefore I can't risk terminating it.
I would appreciate any possible support and solutions.

Thanks!

[bobafett999]

If you got your money, let them complain.  They are just trying to push you to see how low you can go.

[prestonhunter]

I see no way that responding can benefit you.

Probably best to ignore such complaints.

By the way, a person who hires a freelancer to do something, and then the freelancer does what was asked, and then the person tries to not pay for that work? An appropriate descriptive phrase for this is "a bad person."