Contract closed by itself?

[acostalaura]

Hi! I have an issue and I am not sure what to do.

i am working with a client and out of nowhere I receive a notification from Upwork saying that the contract is closed and that the client is asking for a refund. I talk to the client saying I am sorry that this is happening and he says that he did not close the contract nor asked for a refund and is actually downloading everything right now from the drive folders I shared.  I would say this project is virtually done, I ask the client what to do and if he wants to open another job so we can finish this (because maybe he wants more changes, even when I think by now I a have made more than enough changes) he says he is not on the pc and he will take care of it

I Got a little worried and I initiated a dispute but I am not sure if this was the correct way to move forward. Can the dispute be dropped or erased if we can work this out?

this sucks. I had a 100% top rated and now I have 92% 😞

thanks in advance

[AveryO · Accepted solution]

Hi Laura, 

For legal reasons, Upwork isn't able to keep funds indefinitely. That's why a fixed-price contract with funds in Escrow will be closed automatically after 90 days of inactivity. Fixed-price contracts with money in escrow and no activity for 90 days will be considered dormant and will be actioned on. You may read more about dormant contracts in Section 3. Dormant Contracts of the Fixed-Price Escrow Instructions. 

Would you like to cancel the dispute at this time? Let us know so that we can advise the team handling your ticket. 

[petra_r]

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Laura A wrote:

this sucks. I had a 100% top rated and now I have 92% 😞

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Edited as money WAS paid under the contract. That does, however, mean that the contract was not responsible for the drop in the JSS

Laura, ask the client to please pay you a small token amount on the closed contract, as it is currently counting as a "Nothing paid" contract. That would neutralize any negative effect of that contract on your JSS.

In future, it makes sense to not let contracts go 3 months without any payment. Avoid it by dividing the work up into smaller milestones.

[acostalaura]

Hi Petra, thank you for the answer. There afe actually half of the milestones paid. Although it was paid 90 days ago. Does the contract still looks as nothing paid in this case?

[petra_r]

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Laura A wrote:
Hi Petra, thank you for the answer. There afe actually half of the milestones paid. Although it was paid 90 days ago. Does the contract still looks as nothing paid in this case?

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No, it doesn't. Sorry, I assumed (and we know what happens when we do that lol) there was only one milestone.

Ignore my previous post 🙂

That does, however, mean that something else caused your JSS to drop. It wasn't this contract.