Customer Support ignoring a real issue

[veronika_o]

Hi everyone! 

The weirdest thing is happening to my boyfriend's account. He has been banned recently despite being a perfect Upwork newbie (got a project just a few weeks since starting, an amazing client review, rising talent badge, successful video ID check). Whatever, we're really over it and he'll probably be looking for a different platform to use because the customer support experience is just sickening. 

The real problem we have left to solve is that the money he has earned for the project is GONE! In the transaction history, it says it has been "reversed". The client said he doesn't know anything and I'm pretty sure fixed-price projects are non-refundable. Okay, weird situation, but we were sure that customer support will help, at least, because that's a legitimate issue and we're not even trying to debate his suspension. But we were oh so wrong 🙂 Every single ticket he submits gets closed down. Once, an agent replied 'oh I see you already have a ticket open, I'll contact the agent handling it' and then there was nothing. Like a laugh in our face.

Anyways, maybe any of you know why customer support can ignore a person?

[veronika_o]

Just to add: he never copied proposals, submitted only to relevant projects yadda yadda. I have spent hours over the ToS. I guess they just wanted to reduce the number of freelancers in his field.

[prestonhunter]

Upwork isn't going to discuss somebody else's account with you.

[veronika_o]

That's obvious. My question was "are there any reasons customer support wouldn't reply to someone", not "why are they not replying to him specifically". Thanks for your addition. 

[petra_r]

"reversed" means the money went back to the client - they can see it in their transaction history.

[veronika_o]

But how is that possible? The client said they didn't ask for a refund and didn't receive one. And this - https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211063718-Get-Paid-for-Fixed-Price-Contracts "funds in escrow cannot be returned to your client until the contract is complete and you agree to the refund or you go through dispute resolution."

Is it possible we're dealing with fraud then?

[petra_r]

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Veronika O wrote:

But how is that possible? The client said they didn't ask for a refund and didn't receive one. "

Is it possible we're dealing with fraud then?

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If it was reversed the client received the refund. Your boyfriend and the client know each other?

In case of suspected fraud on the freelancer side Upwork does reserve the right to not send funds to such a freelancer. In such a case the funds are returned to the client.

So yes, it seems Upwork suspects fraud (on the freelancer side.)

Maybe some detail on his profile wasn't entirely truthful.

[veronika_o]

No, they don't, of course. Only through Upwork. He just messaged him through the platform asking about the issue, and he said he didn't receive a refund. 

Thank you so much for shining some light on this. There's really nothing that can be considered fraud on his side, but I can imagine that during his video call he may have had issues with English and misunderstood a question about his qualifications or something. It's a shame there's no review process anymore. Thanks, Petra!

[BojanS]

Hi Veronika, 

Unfortunately, we won't be able to discuss another user's account status here in the public Community or with other users. Please, refer the freelancer to the notification they received from the Upwork team about their account suspension for more information.

Thank you.

[veronika_o]

Of course, Bojan, only his suspension isn't the question. It's about funds, and there's nothing about funds in his notification.