Client refuses to pay me the agreed upon rate

[#1]

I was a freelancer doing Described Video (DV) work for a company. The rate was $3.75 per minute. A year and a half later, they hire me to be a freelance transcriptionist doing Closed Captioning (CC) work.

They said I didn't need an updated contract and would just be rolled back in (I have this in writing). However, when I submitted my invoice, they said "No no, the rate isn't $3.75. It's $2.50 for transcription work. Please amend your invoice." This is obviously news to me.

I tell them that $2.50 is fine going forward, but could they please pay me the $3.75 rate for this invoice because that was the agreed upon rate, and I was never told there was a different rate for transcription until now.

This is clearly an HR screwup on their end. We've been going back and forth, but I think they will continue to refuse to pay me the $3.75 rate.

I want legal advice, but hiring a lawyer would be more expensive than just getting paid less.

What should I do?

[#2]

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Scott S wrote:

What should I do?

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What type of contract do you have with them ON UPWORK? On Upwork this situation wouldn't normally occur.

[#3]

Hi Scott,

Could you please send me a private message with the email address of your Upwork account along with the contract ID so that I can check?

Please note that having duplicate accounts is a serious violation of Upwork's Terms of Service.

Thank you.

[#4]

re: "I want legal advice, but hiring a lawyer would be more expensive than just getting paid less."

You don't need "legal advice."

(Also: You are correct in pointing out that you can't afford legal advice.)

Also, you don't need help from Upwork Customer Support.

All you need is common sense advice.

You can obtain all of the advice that you need right here in the Forum. Right here in this thread.

Here is the main advice that you need:

If you don't want to continue working for somebody, then stop working for them.

If you want to continue working for a client, then go ahead and continue working for the client.

If you want to get paid more than you are currently getting paid, you have two options:

a) Ask to get paid more

b) Be quiet about it and accept your current pay rate

If you ask to get paid more, then one of these things will happen:

a) Your client will pay you more

b) Your client won't pay you more

c) Your client will end the contract

It seems like you are making a very simple situation far more complicated than it really is.