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claire-bacon
Community Member

Dispute - I am asking some general information about a dispute -

My friend is in a dispute. (He's top-rated and had 99% JSS before entering the dispute and has earned almost 80K in over 2 years). The client has said that he has no hired another designer to design logos and for that reason, he does not want to pay for half of the contract. My friend is willing and highly capable of completing the work on the logos. Is the client able to just not pay for half of the contract? He has now put 60 hours of work into the contract and says he will still put additional hours into the contract but does not want to give a refund as it will be detrimental to his JSS not least he has put 60 hours of ork into the contract and would like to get paid! 

 

So, yes - does the client have grounds to do this? Please help. 

 

Thanks

4 REPLIES 4
prestonhunter
Community Member

Claire:

 

Upwork's user interface does allow clients to click a button that requests any funds in escrow to be refunded back to them.

 

The interface allows a client to ask for half of the funds back.

Or even ask for all of the funds back.

 

It sounds like the client is asking for half of the money in escrow, as a sort of compromise.

 

If your friend the freelancer has completed half of the work, and the client is asking for half of the money back, and the freelancer won't need to do anything else... Then the request by the client is understandable. Perhaps not welcome, but it can be justified and I would advise any freelancer to agree to such a request.

 

If the freelancer has completed all of the work, and a client asks for half of the money back, then obviously such a request is unethical, unprofessional and immoral. Obviously if a client hires a freelancer to do work, and the freelancer does that work, then a client should pay for the work.

 

The freelancer may accept or decline such a request.

 

If the freelancer declines the refund request, then the client does NOT get their money back. The matter goes into a "dispute." And if the dispute does not resolve the matter, the next stage is arbitration.

 

It is extremely rare for abitration to decide in favor of the client.

 

Arbitration costs $291 for the freelancer, the client, and Upwork (each).

 

Depending on how much money is involved, and what your friend is willing to do to avoid refunding any money... Your friend could indeed agree to the client's request to receive HALF of the money back. Or your friend could reject that request and try to get all of his money back.

 

But your friend should NOT worry about the impact on JSS of agreeing to refund half of the escrow payment. That does NOT hurt JSS.

 

A zero-pay contract hurts JSS.

 

A partial refund does NOT hurt JSS.

 

Working with the client and ending up with positive private feedback in this situation may actually be BETTER for your friend's JSS. (Better than fighting with the client and getting negative feedback. That doesn't mean that what the client is doing is morally acceptable. I'm just looking at potential JSS impact, which is what you asked about.)

lysis10
Community Member


Claire B wrote:

My friend is in a dispute. (He's top-rated and had 99% JSS before entering the dispute and has earned almost 80K in over 2 years). The client has said that he has no hired another designer to design logos and for that reason, he does not want to pay for half of the contract. My friend is willing and highly capable of completing the work on the logos. Is the client able to just not pay for half of the contract? He has now put 60 hours of work into the contract and says he will still put additional hours into the contract but does not want to give a refund as it will be detrimental to his JSS not least he has put 60 hours of ork into the contract and would like to get paid! 

 

So, yes - does the client have grounds to do this? Please help. 

 

Thanks


Sounds like the client doesn't like the work, so he has to decide if he will settle for partial payment or go into dispute and fight for full payment (whatever is in escrow, if it's an escrow job). If it's hourly, then the timetracker is all that matters.

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Claire, 


You may also share this thread with your friend for more information about disputes.


~ Avery
Upwork
petra_r
Community Member


Claire B wrote:

My friend is in a dispute


Is this the same case as your previous thread? Or a different and unrelated dispute?

Is it an hourly or fixed rate contract?

 


Claire B wrote:

 The client has said that he has no hired another designer to design logos and for that reason, he does not want to pay for half of the contract. 


Has 100% of the work been done?

 


Claire B wrote:

 He does not want to give a refund as it will be detrimental to his JSS


It won't be, A refund (provided something has been paid at some point under the contract) has absolutely no effect on the JSS.

 

The client's feedback (especially the private feedback), however, obviously does. As the client hired someone else means the client likely does not like the work. Feedback might reflect that, private feedback, at least.

 

If your friend is top rated, he can have 1 contract-outcome per every 3 months and 10 contracts removed from his JSS calculation anyway, but refunding part of the Escrow fees does not have any detrimental effect by itself.

 

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