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Godsgift's avatar
Godsgift I Community Member

Contract Suspended

I started an hourly contract and I have worked for over 12 hours. Now I have been informed that the contract is suspended as Upwork is carrying out an investigation. So what will happen to the 12 hours worked?  Will I be paid?

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Annie Jane's avatar
Annie Jane B Retired Team Member

Hi there,

 

There are two reasons why your contract may be paused:

 

  • Your client has decided to pause your Hourly Contract: If no work needs to be done at the moment, clients can temporarily and immediately pause a contract. This prevents hours from being logged on the contract, without the need to end it, until you are ready to proceed with the next part of the project. 
  • There is a problem with your client’s Upwork account: In this case, your contracts with them will be paused automatically and you cannot continue to bill that client through Upwork until the issue is resolved. There are many possible reasons this could occur, although we can’t share the specifics regarding your client’s account due to privacy concerns.

 

You can check out this help article to learn some tips on what you can do if your contract is paused.


~ AJ
Upwork

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494 REPLIES 494
Muhammad's avatar
Muhammad A Community Member

Contact with your client. There will be an issue with client account. If issue is resolved, you will get paid

Marco's avatar
Marco C Community Member

Yeah, that happened to me once. The client sent the contract without all the info required for his profile. Fortunatly i got lucky and the client wasn't a grifter, he only had and issue with the account...

But it could have gone the other way...

Annie Jane's avatar
Annie Jane B Retired Team Member

Hi there,

 

There are two reasons why your contract may be paused:

 

  • Your client has decided to pause your Hourly Contract: If no work needs to be done at the moment, clients can temporarily and immediately pause a contract. This prevents hours from being logged on the contract, without the need to end it, until you are ready to proceed with the next part of the project. 
  • There is a problem with your client’s Upwork account: In this case, your contracts with them will be paused automatically and you cannot continue to bill that client through Upwork until the issue is resolved. There are many possible reasons this could occur, although we can’t share the specifics regarding your client’s account due to privacy concerns.

 

You can check out this help article to learn some tips on what you can do if your contract is paused.


~ AJ
Upwork
Joshua's avatar
Joshua D Community Member

I have had freelancer's contracts suspended and I cannot get an answer back from Upork?

Nikola's avatar
Nikola S Retiring Moderator

Hi Joshua,

 

Thank you for reaching out to us. Could you please share the Contract ID of the contract you are referring to so that we can check and assist you accordingly? You can find the Contract ID by clicking on the name of the contract, navigating to the Details tab and clicking "Show More."

 

~ Nikola
Ali's avatar
Ali A Community Member

Hi, My hourly contract got suspended by Upwork and the client is not replying to my messages. I have spent a few hours working. How i can get paid for that? Here is my contract id. 34559925

Pradeep's avatar
Pradeep H Retired Team Member

Hi Ali,

 

I looked into the job you mentioned and found out that the contract is on hold because we are reviewing a problem with your client's account. This could happen for various reasons, but we are not allowed to disclose any details about your clients' accounts for confidentiality purposes.

 

Please note that hours worked before the contract was paused may be covered by Upwork Hourly Protection. You should stop working on the contract and request the client to resolve the issue flagged on their account. 

 

- Pradeep

Ali's avatar
Ali A Community Member

Thanks, Pradeep, Upwork has refunded the payment to the client. I was paid for the hours of work. Could you sort it out? Because the client is not replying to my text messages.

Annie Jane's avatar
Annie Jane B Retired Team Member

Hi Ali,

 

We won't be able to share information on another user's account for privacy reasons but rest assured that whenever an account is put on hold, our support team reaches out to the client so they can fix the issue on their account and you can resume working on the contract.


~ AJ
Upwork
Lucio Ricardo's avatar
Lucio Ricardo M Community Member

¿Really?. All my recent projects that have been closed due to undisclosed client TOS violations by the client have been not covered by Huorly protection.

Ivygail's avatar
Ivygail J Retired Team Member

Hello Lucio,

 

I am sorry to hear about your experience with your clients. I'd like to share this helpful article on how you can protect your work hours and ensure that you will get paid. 

 

Additionally, I highly recommend checking this help article and available learning paths in the  Academy section to help you stay safe on Upwork.

 

~Ivy
Muhammad Usama's avatar
Muhammad Usama K Community Member

Dear Nikola,

 

I am currently working on an hourly contract and it was suspended by Upwork few days back. I messaged my client about it and she is trying to resolve the issue by did not succeed. She told me that she didn't received any email from Upwork about why the contract is suspended, she also confirmed that the full payment is charged from her bank and there is no problem with payment. We are working on a time sensitive project and this issue is causing us too much delay. She even contacted with Upwork support twice but issue is not resolved yet. Can you have a look at it please. The contract ID is 36296418. 

 

Best regards,

Usama

Luiggi's avatar
Luiggi R Retiring Moderator

Hi Muhammad,

 

I checked the contract you're referring to and see that it is no longer paused. You should be able to resume working with the client. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you, and don't hesitate to let us know if you need further assistance. 

~ Luiggi
Leo Marco's avatar
Leo Marco A Community Member

Hello, Annie, I faced same problem again with another project.

Client added part milestone and said to pay rest milestone when done project, he said to give result file first due to time urgency, so I did it, but project suspended suddenly by upwork.

In this case, my account will get bad effect by upwork?

and why this happens? I am really disappointing now, because its 2nd time for me.

Please let me know clear answer, thanks.

Leo.

Pradeep's avatar
Pradeep H Retired Team Member

Hi Leo,

 

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear about your contract. I checked the job you are referring to and noticed that the contract is suspended as we are currently investigating an issue with your client's account. Your profile is not affected by the action taken on your contract. Your contract will be restored as soon as the client resolves the issue with their account. 

 

Thank you,

Pradeep

Odey's avatar
Odey J Community Member

Hi Upwork, 

 

Please resolve this issue as I have lost several good offers in the past because of the Upwork system.

 

I received an offer this morning but I can't accept it from my end as it's showing there is an error and that i should contact upwork to resolve it. 

Arjay's avatar
Arjay M Retired Team Member

Hi Odey,

 

I've checked the offer you're referring to and confirmed that the contract is on hold because we are reviewing an issue with your client's account. This could happen for various reasons, but we are not allowed to disclose any details about your clients' accounts for confidentiality.

 

In the meantime, you may keep in contact with the client for updates. The contract will be restored as soon as the client resolves the issue with their account. 

 

~ Arjay
Upwork
Odey's avatar
Odey J Community Member

Hi Arjay, 

 

There is an issue but Upwork did not notify me that there is an issue. I think Upwork needs to improve in it's communication with freelancer. 

 

I have tried contacting the client, but it's showing no room details. Please provide valuable feedback of the client. 

 

Josh  

Pradeep's avatar
Pradeep H Retired Team Member

Hi Odey,

 

Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry to hear about your experience. I understand how important it is to have clear communication and we are already working to improve this. As informed by Arjay above, the client is no longer active on the platform due to action taken on their profile for TOS violation. Apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

 

- Pradeep

Odey's avatar
Odey J Community Member

So what do i do now? 

Rommahdi's avatar
Rommahdi M Community Member

Hi, I know this question has been asked before, but I'm trying to sort out why my contract with a client has been suspended and when/if it will be lifted. The client is asking me to do additional work, and I just have to keep putting them off because of this. I don't know if there's something on my end or theirs. Then today they said that everything was squared away, which made me think it was cleared up on their end, but my contract is still showing suspended. It's really confusing not be able to know what's exactly going on, and I'm desperately trying to figure out how to correct it to no avail. 

Ahmad's avatar
Ahmad S Community Member

I worked around 16 hours for a client on an hourly contract. And I used Upwork hourly protection (I did all the work using a time tracker). After 16 hours, the client paused the contract and my weekly summary is in review now.
But now I cannot see his chat in my messages. 
What is the issue, and will I get the payment that is in review?

Rehman's avatar
Rehman K Community Member

Brother for hourly projects your payment will move from review to pending on Tuesday almost. Don't worry you will get it if client paused or cancelled the project. Because Upwork offers hourly protection 

Arjay's avatar
Arjay M Retired Team Member

Hi Ahmad,

 

I'm sorry to hear that you got caught off guard about the status of your contract and payment. Please note that if a contract is on hold, it means that there is a problem with your client’s Upwork account, and you cannot continue to bill that client through Upwork until the issue is resolved. There are many possible reasons this could occur, although we can’t share the specifics regarding your clients' accounts due to privacy concerns.

 

Also note that hours billed prior to the contract being paused are still eligible for Payment Protection.  You should stop working on the contract and get in touch with your client to know when the contract could resume. You can check this help article to learn more.

 

~ Arjay
Upwork