Client is delaying payment release by milestone loophole.

[08d6827c]

I just completed a fixed price job for a client. The offer was accepted and job was completed under active milestone. After that I submit the work and requested payment but he removed the payment request by a change in milestone. He says he will review and then he will pay. I have waited for 5 days and whenever I hit resubmit, he again loops by changing milestone resulting in prevention of 14 days escrow fun release. What to do ? help pls!!!

[wlyonsatl]

Anupam,

You can't make a client pay you for a completed milestone and formal file submission before the automatic 14-day deadline for automatic payment by Upwork.

But don't re-submit the work via the "Submit" button on the project page hoping that will get the client to release payment. Re-submitting the file just resets the 14-day waiting period.

[jr-translation]

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Will L wrote:

Anupam,

You can't make a client pay you for a completed milestone and formal file submission before the automatic 14-day deadline for automatic payment by Upwork.

But don't re-submit the work via the "Submit" button on the project page hoping that will get the client to release payment. Re-submitting the file just resets the 14-day waiting period.

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**Edited for Community Guidelines** If the client cancelled the milestone payment with the lame excuse he needs more time for reviewing, the OP needs to request the payment to be released using the "Submit" button. Otherwise the client might just cancel the entire job.

[08d6827c]

I think you didn't not get my problem. I know that but the client is just making excuses about the time and to prevent 14 days countdown he is just changing the milestone without any additional work. When he changed the milestone my payment request is gone. So tell me sir  if there is no payment request pending from me for escrow 14 days countdown as he changes milestone, how am I suppose to get the payment. Pls I need a good answer in this . Jenifer can you pls help me!!!

[prestonhunter]

Yeah, the client is a thief.

He is exploiting the "fixed-price loophole."

You need to do this:

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211068528-Dispute-Non-Release-of-a-Milestone-Payment

[prestonhunter]

The morality and ethics of this are not complicated.

If you are a client who hires a freelancer to do a task, and then he does that task, then you pay him.

Not complicated. Not a new thing. You can read about this in books that are thousands of years old.

If the freelancer submits the work, and the task - as written in the task agreement - is done, then a client has two choices:

- click the button to release payment

- do nothing (allow automated payment release)

These are your only valid choices.

You can't click the "request changes" button just to block payment. That is not what the button is for.

If you click that button in order to block payment, it makes you a bad person. It means you are a thief.

There is nothing wrong with the work? You just don't want to pay? That is not acceptable.

You haven't had time to review it? That's okay. Review the work whenever you feel like it. But you aren't allowed to click the button and still be considered an ethical person. If you don't have time to review the work before the 14 day review period expires, you must let the payment be automatically released.

The fact that you are physically capable of clicking a button does not make it okay to do so. You are physically capable of walking to your neighbor's house and kicking his dog in the head. That doesn't make it okay.

[jr-translation]

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Anupam A wrote:

I think you didn't not get my problem. I know that but the client is just making excuses about the time and to prevent 14 days countdown he is just changing the milestone without any additional work. When he changed the milestone my payment request is gone. So tell me sir  if there is no payment request pending from me for escrow 14 days countdown as he changes milestone, how am I suppose to get the payment. Pls I need a good answer in this . Jenifer can you pls help me!!!

---

You already identified the loophole. There are only very few in this system but this is one of them.

My biggest concers it that whatever you do you might not get out of this unharmed. The client might go as far leave a very poor feedback just because he can. Since this seems to be your first job, it really sucks. What kind of job was it? Was the quality really good or comparable to your profile?

[08d6827c]

Jenifer, It was a secondary work type for me which was an audio recording in my native mother tongue of 500 sentences.  I especially focus on writings but as the job vacancy needed audio recording in my native language I thought to give it a try by a proposal and I got the offer. I sent the proposal by seeing others freelancers review about the client and the review were good. I recently contacted him and he says he will inform me when he reviews it. And I am still waiting. If, at the end of 2nd week too, he denies letting payment flow, I won't have any other option than to file a dispute which I totally dont want to. But this unethical loophole must be made good by Upwork real fast because it's creating a sense of fraud and theft to hardworking freelancers out there, who live livelihood on earning from freelancing and to deal with some cunning and stupid client , they have to waste their precious time in dispute 😞

[08d6827c]

And Jenifer can they terminate that active milestone to be safe from paying us? Is there any expiry date of an active milestone? If yes what to do in my case?

[prestonhunter]

re: "But this unethical loophole must be made good by Upwork real fast because it's creating a sense of fraud and theft to hardworking freelancers out there..."

That would be nice.

But it has been like this for many years.

The CURRENT system is actually better than it was when I first joined Upwork in 2014.

But this loophole still exists even though effort has been made to make sure that money is really in escrow to pay for a contracted task.

re: "Can they terminate that active milestone to be safe from paying us?"

A client has NO WAY to unilaterally get escrow money back.

There is no button that they can click to do that.

Once a client funds an escrow payment, the client must either release payment or ask the freelancer to refund the payment.

Of course, as we have been discussing, a client can click a button to BLOCK payment from being released. But that is not the same thing as getting the money back.

If the client does not RELEASE payment, or get the freelancer to REFUND the payment, then the matter goes to dispute and possibly arbitration after that. Which are entire processes and certainly not a straightforward, unilateral way to get the momey back.

re: "Is there any expiry date of an active milestone?"

After 180 days, if the escrow money hasn't been released to the freelancer, it will automatically be returned to the client.

[jr-translation]

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Anupam A wrote:

And Jenifer can they terminate that active milestone to be safe from paying us? Is there any expiry date of an active milestone? If yes what to do in my case?

---

To cancel the milestone the client needs your permission. All the client really can do is delay the release and then hope for you to forget about it so he gets the money back.

Milestones are refunded to the client after 90 days if the payment has not been requested by the freelancer.

Request the payment to be released once more. If the client refuses again without requesting a revision, follow Preston's link and file a dispute.

[jr-translation · Accepted solution]

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Anupam A wrote:

Jenifer, It was a secondary work type for me which was an audio recording in my native mother tongue of 500 sentences.  I especially focus on writings but as the job vacancy needed audio recording in my native language I thought to give it a try by a proposal and I got the offer. I sent the proposal by seeing others freelancers review about the client and the review were good. I recently contacted him and he says he will inform me when he reviews it. And I am still waiting. If, at the end of 2nd week too, he denies letting payment flow, I won't have any other option than to file a dispute which I totally dont want to. But this unethical loophole must be made good by Upwork real fast because it's creating a sense of fraud and theft to hardworking freelancers out there, who live livelihood on earning from freelancing and to deal with some cunning and stupid client , they have to waste their precious time in dispute 😞

---

Follow the link Preston shared.Dispute sound "worse" than it really is. You are objecting the clients decision not to release the payment since you are entitle to get paid unless the clients requests a revision within 14 days. You have a valid point, the client has not.

Apart from that you need to make sure that your next contracts work out 100% otherwise you might have a really hard time when you get your first JSS. When you leave the feedback to this client, share your experience so other freelancers are warned and it might also help clients to understand possible issues with this contract.

[08d6827c]

Thank you Jenifer and Preston for your great support and information. You guys are truly a great community Gurus in Upwork. Yeah, I will be following your suggestions. Thank you!!!!