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aricaballero
Community Member

Client is lying and wants a refund under false statements

Hello! I have a problem with a client who is lying  to make me look bad giving me a bad and false review. 

This person first hired me for a Pinterest ad, which I finished following the references and requirements he sent me, and he satisfactorily approved it. After 9 days, he asked for a new banner for Facebook (I quote: "hi can i get the size for facebook ads too please"). Which I was happy to do but obviously I had to charge for my time.

He said he wanted it for free, on which I refused because Facebook ads have different requirements and formats than Pinterest ads. He inmediately got mad and become agressive (lying and threaten me saying he would report me to upwork) just after I told him I had to charge for my work, and started saying the pinterest ad "was not usable anyways", after 9 days he have had the ad that he himself approved, but I looked up his pinterest account and HE IS ACTUALLY USING MY DESIGN. He asked me if I was going to do the new format for free or not, to start the dispute. I couldn't do it for free, so he is now asking for a refund, saying "when asked for fixes she charged double the price.", which is an absolut lie because, frist, I didn't charge double at all, and second, he NEVER asked for a fix, he asked for a NEW different ad for another social platform from the beginning, he just didn't want to pay for it, its all clear in our messages, so he is lying.
He is misrepresenting the facts to take advantge of me and my work, and there's no option for me to disput the refund. What can I do? He already did a false review in my profile and  he just wants to have the pinterest ad I did for free, because he is actually using it (I took a screenshot but I can't attach it because there's a limit of only 4 pictures). 

I'm attaching screenshots of the conversation. 

 

**Edited for community guidelines**     

11 REPLIES 11
jr-translation
Community Member


Ariana C wrote:

Hello! I have a problem with a client who is lying  to make me look bad giving me a bad and false review. 

This person first hired me for a Pinterest ad, which I finished following the references and requirements he sent me, and he satisfactorily approved it. After 9 days, he asked for a new banner for Facebook (I quote: "hi can i get the size for facebook ads too please"). Which I was happy to do but obviously I had to charge for my time.

He said he wanted it for free, on which I refused because Facebook ads have different requirements and formats than Pinterest ads. He inmediately got mad and become agressive (lying and threaten me saying he would report me to upwork) just after I told him I had to charge for my work, and started saying the pinterest ad "was not usable anyways", after 9 days he have had the ad that he himself approved. He asked me if I was going to do the new job for free or not, to start the dispute. I couldn't do it for free, so he is now asking for a refund, saying "when asked for fixes she charged double the price.", which is an absolut lie because, frist, I didn't charge double at all, and second, he NEVER asked for a fix, he asked for a NEW different ad for another social platform from the beginning, he just didn't want to pay, its all clear in our messages, so he is lying.
He is misrepresenting the facts to take advantge of me and my work, and there's no option for me to disput the refund. What can I do? He already did a false review in my profile and  he just wants to have the pinterest ad I did for free. 

I'm attaching screenshots of the conversation. 


There is not a lot left to do since you already closed the contract and replied to the feedback. You should have written in your feedback that he asked for free work.

You should also stop closing contracts yourself. Too many contracts without a feedback do a lot of harm and you have 1/3 without feedback.


Jennifer R wrote:

You should also stop closing contracts yourself. Too many contracts without a feedback do a lot of harm and you have 1/3 without feedback.

It would have to be a literally insane number. to do any harm at all, let alone "a lot of" harm.

A third is not anywhere near enough. Lots of people with far more, even over 80% of No feedback contracts and 100% JSS.

I closed the contracts I had after theproblem with this guy. So there's nothing else to do? I dont want to give him a refund, because he is taking advantge of my work, there must be a solution for that, should I not respond at all? I already boclked him before he asked for a refund.

Also, when I go to my profile, I cant see the answer I give to his review. 

Should I ask my other clients to give me a review? Because almost no client actually closes the contract. 

Hi Ariana,

 

You certainly need not refund the money since he is trying to get more work done without paying for it.

 

Ignore him and then get UW to intervene and remove the bad language. 

 

You'll be ok.

 

As for your other clients, if they like to talk about your work that would be wonderful.

aggarwalsaroj
Community Member

I am sorry you had this problem. I have been in a similar situation where the client made unreasonable demands. She wanted a coursework for kids within "1,000 words" complete with images. I tried very hard to explain that creating a 15-chapter course is just not possible. I kept sending in drafts and she kept asking for changes. 

 

After a point, she changed the entire requirements and wanted me to create entirely new content that I would have had to start from scratch. Her problem? She did not want to spend more and was trying to get me to do multiple tasks for the price of one. The best you can do is contact UW support with transcripts of the communication and hope for the best. 

 

I was only able to get the initial milestone amount that was half of the promised price for the entire project. I got scammed! 

That's horrible! Isn't there a way  to report her account? These kind of people like to take advantage of our work, and will continue to do so. 

Hi Ariana, 

 

I'm sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience with this contract. I checked this for you and this case has been escalated to the correct team for their review. Please allow time for them to carefully investigate all facts and once they do they will reach out to you with more details.

 

Thank you for patience!

~ Bojan
Upwork

Thank you, where can I follow  the case or will I get a notification once they start investigating the case? Also, I wasn't able to attach another screenshot, but I look for his pinterest account and he is actually using the  first design I did for him (the pinterest ad). I'm attaching the screenshot here so there'll be a record of what this client is doing.

 

**Edited for community guidelines** 

Hi Ariana,

 

Posting anything that violates the Community Guidelines are going to be removed from the community. Please be mindful of the guidelines when posting.

 

You'll receive an email notification once our team sends you a support ticket.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork
colettelewis
Community Member


Ariana C wrote:

Hello! I have a problem with a client who is lying  to make me look bad giving me a bad and false review. 

This person first hired me for a Pinterest ad, which I finished following the references and requirements he sent me, and he satisfactorily approved it. After 9 days, he asked for a new banner for Facebook (I quote: "hi can i get the size for facebook ads too please"). Which I was happy to do but obviously I had to charge for my time.

He said he wanted it for free, on which I refused because Facebook ads have different requirements and formats than Pinterest ads. He inmediately got mad and become agressive (lying and threaten me saying he would report me to upwork) just after I told him I had to charge for my work, and started saying the pinterest ad "was not usable anyways", after 9 days he have had the ad that he himself approved. He asked me if I was going to do the new job for free or not, to start the dispute. I couldn't do it for free, so he is now asking for a refund, saying "when asked for fixes she charged double the price.", which is an absolut lie because, frist, I didn't charge double at all, and second, he NEVER asked for a fix, he asked for a NEW different ad for another social platform from the beginning, he just didn't want to pay, its all clear in our messages, so he is lying.
He is misrepresenting the facts to take advantge of me and my work, and there's no option for me to disput the refund. What can I do? He already did a false review in my profile and  he just wants to have the pinterest ad I did for free. 

I'm attaching screenshots of the conversation. 


______________________________

I think you treated this aggressive and threatening client professionally. You can certainly dispute the refund, but you must follow all the guidelines that CS sends you. You should report the client for threatening you and call his bluff and take it to arbitration if necessary. But do not refund him. He was asking  for free work, which is against Upwork's terms of service. 

 

ETA: Just be a little careful when defending bad feedback. Try to remain professional and not to rant, however justified. 

 

Ariana,

make sure this client gets flagged for ToS violation (asking for free work). On the JSS page it says:
We understand that some projects have bad outcomes because the client is difficult to work with. So we track freelancer feedback of clients and flag those clients with a history of poor collaboration. If one of your clients has been flagged (or has been suspended for Terms of Service violations), then the client's feedback will not count against your score.

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