Client refused to pay me for the hours I worked for and insisted he pay for only half of it.

[48ed150f]

Hi!

I'm new here in UpWork and I have my very first client. 

He offered me a contract for 3 hours per day, with a limit of 25 hours per week.

Last week, I worked for 8 hours in total. It was all logged on my UpWork tracker with the screenshots and the details, and you can also really see on the screenshots that I'm active with doing the task given to me.

However, client reached out to me earlier, saying that he can't pay for the 8 hours that was logged and he can only pay for 4 hours. 

He even offered it as 5 hours and asked me if it's fair, of course it's not fair. But at the time I was really sleepy and I agreed just so I can get to sleep and avoid chaos. However, I want to see if there's anything I can do with this so I can still get full paid.

What happened now was he actually fully paid me, since I cannot edit my logs on Work Diary anymore. But since we agreed on 5 hours only, he has requested for me to refund him for the amount of the 3 hours. 

Please help me with this. I still want to receive the full amount of the hours I worked for, and everything is logged as well.

He's claiming he can't see it but as far as my research goes clients should be able to see our work diary. 

PLEASE HELP I don't know what to do since I'm just new to this. 

[wlyonsatl]

You shouldn't have agreed to refund for hours you know you worked, but once you agreed to a refund you should stick to it.

Lesson learned. The road to lower income is paved with good intentions.

Welcome to Upwork.

[48ed150f]

Thank you Will. I definitely learned from this experience. I'll know better in the future what to so in case it happens again. Thank you!

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

Amelia:

This is NOT complicated. I am going to describe what to do, phrasing my description in the first person:

I worked 8 hours for this client.

The client asked for me to refund some time.

I agreed to refund 3 hours.

I will honor my agreement.

I will NO LONGER hold onto any desire to get paid for all 8 hours. Because I keep my word.

I will use the freelancer-side controls to issue a refund for the amount of 3 hours.

Then I will end the contract and not work for this client any more.

[48ed150f]

Thank you! I understand it was my fault I accepted. I will just move on and learn from this experience. Thank you!

[48ed150f]

Hi Preston, Just to ask though, because after I refund the client I'm planning to end the contract and block him, however, I still have remaining balance showing as "In review". Will I still get that on Wednesday even though the contract's ended and I blocked the client?

Thanks in advanced for your answer!