Contacting a client that went silent outside of upwork.

[jboazman]

So its been a week since I heard back from a client that I finished a job for. They said the designs were perfect and just needed to show their staff. What is yalls opinion on contacting the company outside of Upwork to ask about me getting paid. They are a big company and im thinking about calling to speak to a manager. Do you think this is something i should or should not do? This is really messing me up financially. It was a lot of work I could have been making money on another job.

[mtngigi]

Jonathon,

You already started a post and received answers here: https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Advice-on-a-client-gone-quit-after-the-work/m-p/622888#M...

If you have anything more to add, you should do it there, where others have already spent time offering help. It is frowned upon to create multiple posts with the same question.

[jboazman]

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Virginia F wrote:

Jonathon,

You already started a post and received answers here: https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Advice-on-a-client-gone-quit-after-the-work/m-p/622888#M...

If you have anything more to add, you should do it there, where others have already spent time offering help. It is frowned upon to create multiple posts with the same question.

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Im asking a completely different question. But thanks for going out of your way to NOT answer my question. 

[kat303]

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Jonathon B wrote:

So its been a week since I heard back from a client that I finished a job for. They said the designs were perfect and just needed to show their staff. What is yalls opinion on contacting the company outside of Upwork to ask about me getting paid. They are a big company and im thinking about calling to speak to a manager. Do you think this is something i should or should not do? This is really messing me up financially. It was a lot of work I could have been making money on another job.

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Hourly job - hours get submitted on Sun. Client has 5 days to review screenshots. Then it goes through Upwork processing stages. If you didn't use tracker, the client can dispute everything, including manual hours and in that case, you don't get paid

Fixed rate job. - Client FULLY deposits escrow. You finish and deliver work by clicking on the Submit Work/Request Payment button and then you just wait. The client will either release the funds in escrow, request revisions or the client will disappear which, if that happens, in 14 days, you'll automatically get whatever is in escrow

Do NOT contact the client whether the job is fixed rate or hourly. Just wait and see what happens.

[feed_my_eyes]

This IS the same question as on your other thread: should you freak out over the client not getting back to you for a week. As others have already said, you should be patient, and that advice would obviously include not contacting their manager outside of Upwork. If the client asked for time to consult other staff, then give them time. As long as they don't dispute your manual hours, you'll get paid on the same date regardless of when or whether they get back to you.

[petra_r]

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Jonathon B wrote:

What is yalls opinion on contacting the company outside of Upwork to ask about me getting paid.

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It is entirely inappropriate.

If it was an hourly contract and you added the hours manually (as you don't like the tracker) you get paid automatically unless the client disputes

If it was a fixed-rate contract and you submitted properly, you get paid automatically.

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Jonathon B wrote:

. They are a big company and im thinking about calling to speak to a manager. Do you think this is something i should or should not do?

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Absolutely not.

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Jonathon B wrote:

 This is really messing me up financially. It was a lot of work I could have been making money on another job.

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Well, did you or did you not log the time you worked (I seem to remember it was an hourly contract)?

If you logged your time properly (either by tracking which you refuse to do, or by manually adding the time to the work diary) the client is charged automatically and whether you harass them or not or whether they respond to you or not makes no difference to when you get paid in any way, shape or form on hourly contracts, ever.

If I was a client and a freelancer pulled a stunt like that (calling my manager because the freelancer doesn't understand how Upwork works) I'd call Upwork and have that freelancer dealt with. I'd also end the contract and leave appropriate feedback.

Edited to add: I went back to your other thread where you stated that it was indeed an hourly contract.

With hourly contracts, you get paid according to the weekly billing cycle, absolutely regardless of whether the client ever responds to you, never responds to you or responds to you within 5 minutes. This makes you freaking out even more unnecessary and your thoughts of chasing the client and inappropriately calling some manager in the company even more ludicrous.

There is the so-called work-week during which you do your work. You either track the time or add manual hours, if your client allows that. The workweek runs from Monday to Sunday.

On Monday, after the workweek ended, your client is charged automatically (!) for all time logged /tracked/added manually during the previous work week.

The client then has 5 days to review and (if needed) dispute the time. That 5 days timeframe ends on Friday midnight UTC. Then there is the 5 day security period and the funds become available on Wednesday (essentially 10 days after the workweek during which you logged/tracked/ added time manually.)

Go to your Reports Overview Page to check.