Greetings, Upwork vets and experts!
I have the following two questions: from what I’ve read, if I fully refund a client that has closed a contract and given me a mediocre review, said review will not be visible, is that true? And do the Rules allow it?
More in detail:
- I started my Upwork career with the right foot: got a client that was delighted by my work and gave me a 5-star review, and shortly after a second contract (still ongoing, thus far happy client).
- Then came the third, which was not the charm: it was a writing assignment, broken in five deadlines; as I delivered (on time) the first installment, the client didn’t like what they saw and cancelled the contract on the spot, also blocking me from the Messenger (so I cannot reach out to them).
- To their credit, they did honor the first milestone and paid that in full (I have to say I can certainly respect and appreciate that), but,
- They gave me a 3-stars review, which I think it's a bit unfair (the client is the sole judge for quality, of course, but on other topics like Communication, Availability, meeting Deadlines, etc, I think it was too harsh), and
- More to the point, it kicked me from Rising Star and way below a 90% rating, which I fear may make it very difficult for me to land another job.
My normal course of action in the outside-Upwork world would be to talk to the client and try to find a way out, which I cannot do here since the client blocked me from the Upwork Messenger. I could write a discharge in the Feedback, but I fear that has a risk of backfiring (client may get angry with that and even change the review for the worse), and a discharge itself won't change the Rating (basically I mean: new potential clients are not gonna bother reading my discharge if they don't even seem my profile since it's below 90%)
So, the next course of action I’m entertaining is to refund the client fully, pretty much in a “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sense (I’m 100% certain they won’t use my work so this won’t be a case of “unpaid work”: it was the first milestone of several, if they actually intended to use what I sent them they would just have asked me for more), since I've read in other threads that it will eliminate the review since technically no money exchanged hands.
Which is basically what I'd really appreciate some expert to confirm or deny, if possible!
My question, as noted above, is: can I do fully refund a clinet (even the contract has already been closed), and will that make the negative review disappear (as I’ve read elsewhere that it would)? Is it allowed by the Terms of Use?
For clarity’s sake: I’m well aware that this is not a wise policy long-term, but sadly there are costs to “getting your foot on the door”, so to speak, and a lot of Upwork seems to hinge on that 90%+ rating. If I had several 5-stars jobs under my belt, I would not follow this course since a single bad review wouldn’t have that big of an impact (and, as noted above, I definitely respect the client paying the first milestone). But, right now, I think a full refund in exchange of removing a bad review is an investment I am willing to risk, above all when I think it's not fully deserved, and I have no way to reaching the client.
Thanks very much for your time, and for your insights!
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