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f22f5c82
Community Member

Closing paused contract for client's inappropriate behavior

The client paused our contract but the job wasn't done 100% yet. Now the client is asking to finish the job but I see the contract is still on "pause mode". I have two questions"

1) Can I close this contract without further notice due to the inappropriate client's behavior or should I first talk to the Upwork administration?

2) What kind of consequences might be for me if I close the paused contract? First of all, if the client might still technically write a bad review about me? 

I want to accentuate - the client paid for the job done and received everything I did on per hour basis. There is still work to do on this contract but as I said - it looks like I have to do it for free and I find it inappropriate. Yet, I'm a good guy with very high success score and I want to know what happens if I end this contract. I'm kind of confused here. 

7 REPLIES 7
petra_r
Community Member


Vyacheslav B wrote:

The client paused our contract but the job wasn't done 100% yet. Now the client is asking to finish the job but I see the contract is still on "pause mode". I have two questions"

1) Can I close this contract without further notice due to the inappropriate client's behavior or should I first talk to the Upwork administration?

2) What kind of consequences might be for me if I close the paused contract? First of all, if the client might still technically write a bad review about me?  I want to know what happens if I end this contract. I'm kind of confused here. 


1. You may close the contract any time you like. You should not "talk to the Upwork administration" as this is a matter between you and your client and has nothing to do with Upwork.

2. Obviously the client can leave feedback. If you have not used your feedback removal perk in the last 3 months and 10 contracts, you could zap the client's feedback.

 

In general, you may want to rething the entire "Wikipedia page creation" business model. It does not sit well with Wikipedia (as you know, having already lost WP accounts over this stuff)...

tta192
Community Member

Most probably the client forgot he paused the contract. You should first remind him about this and ask to reactivate it so you can log time.

If he refuses to reactivate the contract but insists on you doing extra work, close the job yourself and report the client.

 

Remember you can add your own comments to a client's feedback and say you were asked to work for free.

You can close a contract for any reason. You certainly don't need anyone's permission. This is not the type of thing you should contact Customer Support about.

 

As a practical matter, if you close a contract, and the client is not around, then it is entirely possible the client will never leave any feedback at all.

 

Having positive feedback is nice. But having no feedback on some contracts really is not a big deal. It won't hurt JSS and is hardly noticeable in your work history.

re: "There is still work to do on this contract but as I said - it looks like I have to do it for free and I find it inappropriate."

 

I am not sure what you mean by this.

 

When a client pauses a contract, it does not mean he wants you to work for free. It means he wants you to stop working on the project.

No, this is exactly what I meant: the client paused the contract and yet asked me to finish the job. 

Okay, I get it that this client is saying that. He is a bad client, and a bad person.

 

You would never do that kind of thing to another human being. You would never hire someone with an hourly contract and then simply stop paying that person, but tell them to continue working.

 

The question for you now is what to do next.

 

My recommendation: If you don't want to work for free, then don't.

 

You could certainly close the contract. That would put an end to things. Is it possible this would result in poor feedback? Yes. Petra offered some good advice about that.

 

You could leave the contract open. It isn't actually hurting you now... to have an open, paused contract.

 

 

petra_r
Community Member


Vyacheslav B wrote:

No, this is exactly what I meant: the client paused the contract and yet asked me to finish the job. 


Just pretend you think the client forgot that she paused the contract.

 

Write to her quite innocently saying: "Hi Janet, sure, just go ahead and unpause the contract so I can finish it up for you!"

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