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.