Client is not responding

[04622847]

Hi,

I recently got a job on Upwork. Now after sending the 2nd draft to the client, the client is now not responding. It's almost 2 days, I understand the client might have an emergency or they are busy so I am willing to wait a week for their response. But what If the client doesn't respond even after a week. What step should I take? This is my 1st job at Upwork. So that's why I don't know what to do. Any help would be appreciated. 

Thanks

[robin_hyman · Accepted solution]

Clients not responding is not new. If you work the system correctly, it won't be a problem. If this is an hourly project, you will be paid for the work you've done to date. If this is a fixed-price project and the client has funded the milestone appropriately, submit via the submission tool and your funds will be released in 14 days automatically. Ta-da!

I agree it's annoying for clients not to respond (I have quite a few) but if they pay well and according to the system (funding prior to be starting on a milestone), I'm ok with it. 

[04622847]

Thank you Robin, Your answer really helped a lot. 

[antsgraphics]

Awesome. Does this affect your job score when there's no feedback left after the fact and the contract isn't closed out?

[prestonhunter]

re: "Does this affect your job score when there's no feedback left after the fact and the contract isn't closed out?"

No. Not for one contract.

Eventually you should close contracts if the client really has disappeared permanently. But there is no need to rush to do so.

[shahzad-zubair]

Hi Robin, 

Thank you for the answer. 
But my client creates an offer with 2 milestones of $7.5 means totals $15. And for milestone 1 I submitted the work and he didn't approve yet. By the way, he told me that he is satisfied with the result. And after some days he messages me that "sorry for the delay". I told him "no worries". And after that, he is not replying. Daily I'm sending him a message "Hi, Please reply me. Thank you ♥". But he not replying. 

[prestonhunter]

re: "But my client creates an offer with 2 milestones of $7.5 means totals $15. And for milestone 1 I submitted the work and he didn't approve yet. By the way, he told me that he is satisfied with the result. And after some days he messages me that 'sorry for the delay'. I told him "no worries". And after that, he is not replying. Daily I'm sending him a message 'Hi, Please reply me. Thank you ♥'. But he not replying"

Zubair:
Don't do that.

Don't send daily messages.

Personally: I send ZERO messages.
I don't even send ONE.

When I fiinish the task, I click on the "Submit Work and Request Payment" button.

That button AUTOMATICALLY sends notification to the client. It automatically asks the client if anything needs to be changed.

If the client does nothing, then I get paid AUTOMATICALLY.

[kirillpoezdnik_1]

Thanks!

[aia-dakdouk]

Hi, I started with a new client two weeks ago and he told me that he in a rush and he should submit the photos in January. I submitted the photos the first time and I asked for a contract and I did submit another one and still, till now, I didn't hear anything from him. Please what should happen in such a situation?

[BojanS]

Hi Aia,

If the client didn’t send you an offer on Upwork and you didn’t accept it forming an official contract, they will not be able to pay you. Please communicate with your client and advise that they hire you on Upwork to be able to pay.

When working on Upwork, please make sure that you have a contract with a client before doing any work. Ensure that they have a verified billing method so that the work you do can be covered by Upwork Payment Protection.

Make sure to check our Stay Safe series and learn more on how to work safe online:

• Stay Safe Online: Preventing Fraud

If you see a violation of the Upwork Terms of Service, we encourage you to use Report Suspicious User Activity feature.

Thank you!

[ramchandramani]

Hello, can you help me please? It's been over 14 days that client kept ignoring my messages and payment milestone.

It was 200$ project but client only paid me 25$ and then disappeared, I did sent client multiple revisions and client liked my work as well but now my payment is stuck ? What should I do? I've read in upwork one article that freelancer shall wait for 14 days if client is not responding, it's been 15 days!! I need your guidance.

Thank you & regards,

Ramchandramani.

[BojanS]

Hi Ramchandramani,

Looks like the second milestone has not been funded. You should have delivered part of the tasks you completed and start working on/provide remaining work once your client creates and funds the second Milestone for the remaining amount.

Please read more about working and getting paid on Fixed-Price contracts in this Help article. Upwork Payment Protection doesn’t apply to unfunded milestones and promised funds.

Thank you! 

[708997b4]

A month ago, I started a contract with a client. The client activated the first milestone for me but later messaged that i should wait a day or two before starting my work on it because he wanted to change the topic he would make me write on. I agreed. Since then, despite several reminders, the client hasn't gotten back to me and it has been a month now. I have other offers pending and I have decided to proceed with them. At the same time, I want to end my contract with this client but I'm hesitant because I don't know whether this will impact my job success score. what are the right steps to take in this situation? please guide me. I don't want this to reflect poorly on my profile since this is clearly not my fault.

[prestonhunter]

Most of my clients respond. But not all.

I know this annoys some freelancers.

But I get paid either way. So I am fine with it.

[04622847]

I also read that somewhere that projects without review hurt JSS. Although I don't have JSS atm. Asking for future so that I don't have to ask the question again. Thanks

[prestonhunter]

re: "I also read that somewhere that projects without review hurt JSS."

We used to talk about that a lot. Now.... not so much. The consensus is that unless the proportion of no-feedback jobs is huge, they have no negative impact on JSS.

I think the algorithm was actually modified considerably from what it was in the beginning and that no-feedback jobs had a big impact in the beginning of JSS implementation. But that doesn't matter now. Now, it probably won't hurt your JSS at all. But as far as how it looks on your profile page... it still looks better to have positive feedback generally than to have no feedback generally.

[arsalanodesk]

Hi, My client not responding which is done successfully a year ago, what should I do? Can you contact him to end the contract and give feedback? THanks

[prestonhunter]

re: "Hi, My client not responding which is done successfully a year ago, what should I do?"

Arsalan:
Clients are NOT obligated to respond. As freelancers, we get paid AUTOMATICALLY for our work, regardless of whether or not a client responds.

If you did not get paid, then it is because you something wrong. You used the Upwork tool incorrectly. You should NOT worry about getting paid at this point. You should concentrate on figuring out what you did wrong. Ask us questions until you understand what you did wrong.

re: "Can you contact him to end the contract and give feedback?"

No.

That is not how this works.

Arsalan:
If you already got paid, but simply didn't get feedback, then don't worry about it. Just close the contract yourself.

Upwork is not going to contact the client and ask him to leave you feedback.

[beemati]

Hi, I have completed 2 out of 3 milestones and get paid. I keep messaging my client to activate the third milstone for the last submission, but he is not answering for the last 5/6 weeks. What should be the proper way to poke him before a project completion day arrived like if it is a job less than 3 months? 

[prestonhunter]

re: "I have completed 2 out of 3 milestones and get paid. I keep messaging my client to activate the third milstone for the last submission"

Do not do that.

I never send repeated messages to clients.

I regard the project as the client's project.

So if the client planned 3 milestones and only funded 2 of them, that's FINE.

That is the client's choice.

The client didn't fund the 3rd milestone, so I didn't do the work for the 3rd milestone.

I don't think the client did anything wrong.

If I have done all the work that I was hired and paid to do, then the project deadline is not my concern. The client knows where to find me and he knows how to fund a new milestone. He'll reach out if he decides to do so. Until then, I have plent of other things to work on.

[prestonhunter]

re: "I keep messaging my client to activate the third milstone for the last submission, but he is not answering for the last 5/6 weeks. What should be the proper way to poke him before a project completion day arrived like if it is a job less than 3 months?"

Important to understand:

The project completion deadline posted on fixed-price milestone/contract pages is only a text string displayed for your convenience. It is NOT USED in JSS calculations. It is NOT USED by Upwork at all.

If the client anticipated setting up 3 milestones, but you haven't heard from him in 5 or 6 weeks, then you could simply close the contract yourself. Nothing bad will come of it.

If the client shows up again, he can simply set up a new contract to pay you to do more work.

[beemati]

Thank you, I will not ping him again to activate the milstone. He will surely come back for the task.

[julie_1917]

Hi,

I have the same issue, this is my previous client before 2019 i think and just saw he posted job recently and applied we started the contract at May 24 he doesn't always replied with my questions and sometimes didn't answering the question clear but i still continued and submit to him half of the requested amount and told him to please check before i continued but no response, May 31 he replied they are lockdown for a week and i understand due to the situation, but since then i didn't here anything from him. I ask him to just pay me for the half file i sent to him. Now i am confused if he still on upwork under his name i can't see the time unlike to my other clients. What action will i do?

[prestonhunter]

re: "What action will i do?"

When you finish a task, immediately click the  "Submit Work for Payment" button.

Never wait. Never ask permission. Click the button.

If you can only do half, then submit but ask for half payment.

And this means you set up milestone unwisely.

Don't set up this milestone:

"Do Part A. Get client feedback. Do Part B" - $100

INSTEAD, set up this sequence:

"Do Part A" - $50

Get client feedback.

"Do Part B" - $50

[julie_1917]

What if he got mad and denied my request on the half payment? I am afraid he will report me, but it's almost a month already and thinking that if he is lockdown he still has his phone or laptop with him.

[prestonhunter]

If you click "Submit" and he does nothing, then you get the money AUTOMATICALLY.

Once you get the money, you close the contract.

If he is not around or simply not paying attention to Upwork, then you will get your money and you can close the contract and he will never leave feedback of any kind.

Why would he get mad at you for doing what he hired you to do?

He can not report you for doing what he hired you to do. That does not make any sense to me.

Did he tell you to not work on this?
Maybe I don't understand your situation.

[julie_1917]

No, he told me to work for it. Will submit the files now and ask for the half payment 🙂 Thanks for the answer! 🙂

[julie_1917]

Hi,

I am just confused, the funded amount for my work is $200 and as i am saying i completed half and my client is not responding since then, as on your advised i SUBMIT work and request for payment of $100 but when i check REPORTS the In Review is $200 but just requested $100. Thanks for the answer.

[tamukamatare]

Hi I am still new to upwork. I was hired to do a job for $300 and I completed it I and I got paid for that job. The client game me another job of a similar nature after some weeks with almost the same amount of work but for $200 and I told him that it was less and I asked him to pay $15 per file. So the first project had 20 files it was paid for in full as for the second project he agreed to pay $15 per file to make it $270 but he had $200 in the Escrow account. I did the second project finished and submitted. The client then told me that He wanted me to fix some issues on the second project which I had done and also on the first project, but these issues were not my fault the clients data was not correctly positioned so it meant that the deliverables were also not correctly positioned. He told me that he tried to reposition what I had done for him but it was not working. Repositioning the files was not part of the contract so I told the client I was going to charge extra because this was not part of the scope and it meant redoing the job. I understood his position and I charge him $8 per file which was a huge discount and at some point he added the $70 to the $200 that was in the Escrow so project 2 was fully paid for. I worked on his 18 files for project 2 and submitted the everything where he wanted me to correct I corrected. He did not add a milestone or put money in the Escrow account and neither did I. He did not disagree with the fact that what he wanted me to do was not part of the initial scope, it was extra work and he agreed to pay extra all this is in the messages. He then asked me to fix issues in the second project and I told him again, the $8 dollar per file fee would apply as this was not part of the initial scope and he agreed straight away, so I started working on the first project again. I didn’t like the fact that at this point he did not add a milestone or add funds into the Escrow for project 2 which I had fixed. So I added a milestone of $144 for fixing the 18 files for project 2 at $8 per file which I think the client approved. I went on to adjust the whole of project 1, 20 files which amounts to $160 I fine tuned everything to his expectations and he went quiet for two weeks or so. He seemed to understand he never complained and at this time I was feeling very uncomfortable thinking did I make a mistake working without the funds in the Escrow account. At this point the client owed me $304 for extra work which was a huge discount in my opinion. He resurfaced after those 2 or so weeks and added a bonus of $70 while he was online A added a $160 milestone for project 1 because I had previously added $144 for project 2 edits. The client just went offline and was unresponsive ever since. My questions are as follows.

1. The client added a description Project 2 bonus and funded $70 dollars instead of $144 as agreed and its active and I don’t know what that means. The submit work for payment is greyed out since he decided it’s a bonus and it seems I can’t do anything for that money to be paid into my account. The other $160 is outstanding and the milestone was not approved. This $70 was funded on 11 june 2022 and the client is unresponsive since then.
2. How should I proceed all the messages are there the Client agreed to pay these milestones and he disappeared. I know this is business and I should have known better the client took advantage because I am still new and it looks like he has been on the platform for longer. I think if someone agreed to pay as is indicated in the chats upwork should at least follow up and least the client should explain why he agreed and then act otherwise.
3. Can upwork follow up with the client on my behalf on this matter?

[18ac0a14]

Hello everyone! My first client from Upwork is not responding me since april 14th (he hired me in April 11th). I didn´t have any problem to get paid because it was an hourly contract and he has payment method verified. I´m not sure if the best is to close the contract or to wait for his response in case he need more work to be done, but 3 months with not responding is kind of too much time. I´m not sure if an open contract without any activity will reflect in my future JSS or it will damage the possibility to earn the Rising Talent badge. At the moment I had 3 clients in total, 1 finished contract and +2k of earnings. 

In this case, can Upwork contact the client in my behalf?

Thank you.

[NikolaS]

Hi Luciano,

Thank you for reaching out to us. One of our team members will reach out to you directly via a support ticket to assist you further. You can access your tickets on this page.

[c089b4e3]

delete please

[NikolaS]

Hi Suzanne,

I am sorry you're experiencing issues contacting support. Our customer support team is creating a personalized experience to better assist all Upwork platform users via the chatbot. The more you interact with the chatbot, the more custom responses you’ll receive.

A quick way to contact support is by clicking the "Get Support" button that shows at the bottom right corner in the Upwork Help. You will be asked what type of account you need help with and to describe your issue or questions. Please select the best option for your situation. If you’d like to speak to an agent, you can request that via the chatbot. If you have some general questions about using Upwork or are looking for advice, feel free to post here in the Community.

[c089b4e3]

delete please

[LuiggiR]

Hi Suzanne,

The best way to contact our Customer Support team is by following the steps that Nikola shared with you earlier. You can also post your concern here in the Community so that any of the Community members can share their advice with you. If you're having a support-related issue, I or any of the available Moderators may escalate your concern to the appropriate team.

[tlsanders]

Of course, if the chatbot could answer the question, we could just look it up in the help materials and there would be no reason to be contacting support...

[arsalanodesk]

I have same question and issue. Client after dealing all details. Is Not responding. We need to just making contract. But he had difficulty to make a fixed contract. Please help him to make a contract he is may be new on upwork.he need some assistance to this. I have paused working untill he ia not responding to make a contract on upwork. Please help him i have attached acreenshot his name is **Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

[LuiggiR]

Hi Arsalan,

If your client is needing assistance setting up a contract, you can recommend they check this help article on how to send an offer. Alternatively, if they need assistance from the support team, you can advise them to click on the "Get Support" button that appears on the bottom right corner of this page.

[c089b4e3]

Hi! Is there a moderator who is willing to help me quickly? I'm having major issues with my account. I can't view many of my messages. I have trouble logging in and a client just said they can't send me a contract. I got a screenshot of it.

[c089b4e3]

Also, I had some comments above that I didn't want online. It was questions about one of my clients and how to handle the situation. I ended up writing "delete" because I wanted the MESSAGE BOX deleted. I only wanted my message box deleted so if someone googled, they wouldn't see my question. 

However today, I'm having major problems with my account today. My questions on the forum won't affect my account will they? 

Can someone on here like a moderator help me with my account? I am having really bad problems with my account.