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aamir100
Community Member

Escrow amount before accepting the offer

Hi,

 

A client has sent me offer of $90 but there is not milestone funded. He is forcing me accpt the offer and I asked him again to fund the Escrow.

 

Accoding to him, he fund an amount of $90 and his bank deducted his amount but I cannot see any Escrow so what I should do?

 

Is there any problem on the Upwork side?

 

Please let me know

Thanks & regards

Aamir

ACCEPTED SOLUTION

re: "I accpted the offer and I can see the funded amount. Thanks for your guidance."

 

That's great. I wish you well.

 

If you have ANY questions, then come here to the Forum and let us know. I'm not always here. But there are always great people here who can provide helpful guidance.

 

An important part of a fixed-price contract is that you ONLY do the work specified in the original task agreement. If the client asks you to do OTHER WORK, that is asking for free work, and that is not allowed under Upwork ToS. If that happens, come here and ask for help. We can provide advice.

View solution in original post

12 REPLIES 12
wlyonsatl
Community Member

Aamir,

 

You shouldn't feel a client is "forcing" you to do anything.

 

The best you can do is follow Upwork's rules and help your clients understand them as well.

prestonhunter
Community Member

Aamir,

 

It is not possible for a client to create a fixed-price contract offer and hire a freelancer with zero escrow.

 

So if the client sent you an offer using the Hire button, there MUST be a funded escrow payment in place.

 

I believe the client is telling the truth. But of course I can't see what you can see in your own account. You need to look at the details associated with the offer and confirm that the $90 is there. Then go ahead and accept the contract.

Hi Preston,

 

I can not see any Escrow on the detail page of the offer as you can see in the attachment. I don't know what is wrong.

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

The $90 escrow payment is identified right here in the offer:

 

Screen Shot 2021-07-10 at 5.53.29 AM.png

 

What you are seeing tells me that if the client sent you a hire offer in accordance with the amount in your proposal, then the client's credit card has ALREADY been billed $90.

 

That money is waiting for you.

If you want the money, you need to Accept the job offer and do the work.

If you don't want the money, then you can decline the job offer and the money will be refunded back to the client within 5 business days.

Thank Preston,

 

I can accept this offer. Actually, I was confused by these two offers that I receive in my inbox.

 

One of them says clearly that amount is in Escrow while other does not show such information.

 

Please see the attachments

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

It looks like there are two different amounts discussed - one for $90 and one for $80.

 

Maybe you OFFERED to do the project for $90.

 

And the client sent a hire offer for $80.

 

In the end:
Keep in mind that every fixed-price contract offer is accompanied by an actual funded escrow payment.

 

The BUDGET does not matter. Ignore the budget.

What matters is the money in ESCROW.

I'm seeing real dollar amounts in the offers you are sending me screenshots about.

 

That should be the information you need.

 

After you ACCEPT an offer, you will see a real dollar amount specified in escrow, in the contract details.

 

If you are not satisfied with what you see, you don't need to accept anything, and if you DO accept a contract and still aren't satisfied, you can end the contract without doing any work.

I accpted the offer and I can see the funded amount.

 

Thanks for your guidance.

re: "I accpted the offer and I can see the funded amount. Thanks for your guidance."

 

That's great. I wish you well.

 

If you have ANY questions, then come here to the Forum and let us know. I'm not always here. But there are always great people here who can provide helpful guidance.

 

An important part of a fixed-price contract is that you ONLY do the work specified in the original task agreement. If the client asks you to do OTHER WORK, that is asking for free work, and that is not allowed under Upwork ToS. If that happens, come here and ask for help. We can provide advice.

Thanks,

 

The offer with amount of $80 for a different and a past project.

Preston,

 

If a freelancer accepts such an offer from a client then changes their mind and ends the contract without doing any work, does the client have the ability to leave feedback that will part of the freelancer's JSS calculation?

Will:
Yes.

I assume that if a freelancer actually accepts a contract and then closes it without doing any work, there is an opportunity for a client to leave private feedback which - if negative - could impact a freelancer's JSS.

 

So it is not a good idea to accept a contract thoughtlessly.

 

But if a freelancer accepts a contract and then sees that something about it is wrong, it will be better for all parties if the freelancer closes the contract rather than works on it.

 

For example:

Paul accepted a contract to paint a book cover. He thought the payment would be $500. After he accepted the contract, he realized that only $5 was in escrow. He quickly closed the contract. This was the right decision.

 

Janet accepted a contract to translate a blg article into French. After accepting the contract, the client said that she needs to translate the article into Mandarin Chinese. Janet closed the contract.

 

In both of these situations... yes, a client could indeed leave bad private feedback. But if these freelancers handle the situations professionally, with clear, polite communication, I hope there will be no negative feedback. Even if there is negative private feedback, we know that there will be no feedback of any kind appearing on the public profile page. Nothing will appear in the freelancer's job history, because these are zero-pay jobs.

 

How much could these contract closues hurt the freelancer?
I don't know.

But what is the alternative, once these freelancers saw that the contracts they had accepted are completely untenable?

 

Keep in mind that we are told that the impact contracts have on JSS is weighted based on the dollar amount. Meaning: A $1000 contract will have a bigger impact on JSS than a $10 contract. This seems completely fair and reasonable to me.

 

With this in mind... How much will a $0 contract impact JSS?

I don't know.

 

For someone like myself, who has completed hundreds of jobs, this entire question matters much less than it would for a brand new freelancer.

tlbp
Community Member


Aamir M wrote:

Hi,

 

A client has sent me offer of $90 but there is not milestone funded. He is forcing me accpt the offer and I asked him again to fund the Escrow.

 

Accoding to him, he fund an amount of $90 and his bank deducted his amount but I cannot see any Escrow so what I should do?

 

Is there any problem on the Upwork side?

 

Please let me know

Thanks & regards

Aamir


No one can force you to do anything. You are a freelancer. 

Just say no.

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