Disputes and watching videos as part of job

[nhansen]

I had a dishonest client try to dispute the hours I worked for him. He was not able to get all the hours refunded, but Upwork decided to refund him some hours because of "low activity." Now, I can understand I may have started the time tracker near the end of a 10 minute period  or stopped it shortly at the beginning of a 10 minute period and this could have resulted in low activity in some segments, but the client also asked me to watch multiple videos of himself that were 45min-1 hour long and therefore I would not have been clicking on my mouse or using my keyboard much, or at all. Unless I needed to pause the video to review something I didn't understand.

While it is not the case with this client, in other cases, I have had long calls while tracking time where other people were speaking and I did not need to click the keyboard or mouse. I recall even some times whree these calls were so long the tracker paused tracking and I had to add the time as manual time later.

I have reached out to the dispute person to ask which hours were considered "low activity" specifically so I can see if it was during the time I was watching the videos. 

This suggests to me that the dispute resolution process has a gaping hole in it in that low keyboard and mouse activity may be considered a sign the person isn't working even when it should be obvious from the screenshots that the person would not have high keyboard or mouse activity.  I believe as long as the freelancer can demonstrate this time spent on calls or specific videos was part of their assigned work (from screenshots of emails or chats) then the benefit of the doubt should be given to the freelancer and the client sholdn't be able to get a refund for that time.

[PradeepH]

Hi Nicole,

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear about your experience with a client. I see that the refund is already processed but I understand your point. I will share this feedback with our team.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[feed_my_eyes]

The simple solution is to type notes in MS Word while you're on a call or watching videos. And wouldn't this be a good idea anyway? If a client asks me to review something, presumably he wants me to share my thoughts afterwards, so it saves time to take notes while I'm watching. It works well on phone calls, too, because then I can send the client a written summary of what was discussed and get them to sign off, so there's no chance of, "but I told you on the call that I wanted such-and-such" later on.

[nhansen]

You're right, a normal cliet is like that, but this client DIDN'T want me sharing thoughts on his videos. In fact, he berated me for actually doing so and that was part of the reason he demanded a refund! He considered this not doing the work he had assigned me. This was the worst client I worked with in my 15 years on Upwork. I would agree with all his points and then he accused me of spending the entire contract arguing with him! It was just unbelieveable.