Dispute with client

[039e1925]

Dear Upwork community,

I have a client for a contract named "proofreading Hungarian". He is called**Edited for Community Guidelines**

. I have been working together with him for almost a month. I have invoiced him 4 times for 320USD, which is the 40hours hourly limit a week via manual time. 

The fourth invoice was incorrect, and I have I have invoiced the wrong contract. The client informed me about this and filed a dispute, which I have immediately approved. 

After this client kept asking me for a refund, so I thought he hasn't received the one I have approved. I have contacted Upwork support and they told me the invoice will be automatically refunded when the billing week ends and there is nothing to worry on my side. Client still kept asking, but it turned out he is asking for the other 3 invoices, which he has already approved. I am not willing to give the funds back to him for hours I HAVE WORKED. 

He ended up filing an Upwork dispute, when a member of a mediation team told me that I should refund the client because he thinks I have invoiced him without work. The reason for this because the client and me communicated via LinkedIn and that is where he sent me the work (this doesn't violate ToS, because it was after signing the contract). The time added is manual, so there is no proof of work being done. THE HOURS HAVE BEEN APPROVED ABOUT A MONTH AGO. 

Mediation team member told me if I am not willing to give a refund he will send this case to an Upwork investigation team. He also noted that they will might suspend my account. 

It is also important to note that my response to the mediation agent was strictly focusing on everything went accordingly to ToS and my communication towards the client in Upwork might be confusing because I thought I am talking about the first refund for a long time. 

Am I the one who is right in this situation or should I give a refund and what is the Upwork investigation team looking for in a situation like this?

Best regards,

Kovacs Almos 

[wlyonsatl]

If you did the work as agreed, expect to be paid. Whether or not you will be paid is completely up to Upwork.

In the future, remember this experience and decide whether you really want to use manually-entered work time, for which you will have no payment protection from Upwork.

Using manual time should, in my opinion, only be used with clients you know well and trust completely. (Upwork should include in clients' public profiles how many times each client has demanded refunds from their prior freelancers or refused to pay manually-entered work time, but that's never going to happen. It's up to freelancers to protect themselve from crooks and liars.)

As another protective measure, always copy important emails and files to each job's Upwork project page. If the client objects, just tell them you want to keep important information in one place because you once had a hard drive go bad and you lost important files. By putting them on Upwork they will always be available to you and the client for the foreseeable future.

If a client vehemently argues against this, you know you likely have a client who's hoping to do something you will not find pleasant to deal with, as with your current client.

Like everyone who drives defensively, freelancers should freelance defensively.

Good luck!

[039e1925]

The manual time has already been payed and the money is sitting on my bank account. 

The only thing at risk now is my account. 

Thank you so much for your answer! It really means a lot to me. 

[wlyonsatl]

Kovacs A.,

That alone doesn't matter. As Upwork says in Section 7.2 (Upwork Dispute Assistance) of its TOS:

Upwork Legal Center

"Upwork reserves the right to review the Freelancer’s work for 30 days prior to the date of the request for Dispute Assistance for compliance with Hourly Payment Protection requirements, and in its sole discretion, to make adjustments to invoices, and to direct Upwork Escrow to make appropriate releases to Client if it finds work that clearly does not relate Hourly Contract requirements or Client instructions in the Work Diaries or violations of the Terms of Service during its review of the work."

Funds already released to you can be clawed back by Upwork as a result.

[039e1925]

Then why does Upwork say: "It is important to note that the decision to issue a refund is at the discretion of the freelancer or agency."

[wlyonsatl]

Where is that text from, Kovacs?

I think it reflects Upwork's consideration that a request for a refund is different than a dispute. For a refund you decide Yes or No. For a dispute, Upwork has the final word.