Financial Transactions Limited and Client not responding, extremely frustrating

[mazamats]

I did a fixed price contract for a client who was new to the platform. I submitted the work, client released payment and gave me a good review.

After the contract is closed out and I'm about to withdraw funds, Upwork sends me the following message notifying me about my contract being reviewed and asks me to verify my identity along with questions like ('How did you Meet', 'What was the nature of the work', 'How did you communicate').

Please be informed I am currently reviewing your contract with your client [REDACTED]. While we investigate our concerns with your contract, I’ve placed a temporary hold on your ability to withdraw funds. This hold is to ensure your financial security during the investigation.

I verified my identity (again...) and send all the info they asked for, but 21 days later I'm still waiting because the client (who received an almost identical support message doesn't want to go through the trouble of getting utility statements.

In their mind they already paid and could care less about Upwork, they did provide some sort of business registration documents when I talked to them but felt it was over-the-top to provide more.

Support doesn't seem to care at all when I tell them this, they keep telling me to talk to the client to make them follow Upworks demands but I feel like this burden shouldn't fall on me and the client has stopped taking my calls or responding to my emails.

I've read other posts on the community forums about it seems like this is a recurring issue, my biggest issue is that I can't withdraw earnings from other clients and the complete lack of transparency from Payment Compliance.

If anyone has been in this situation, I'd love to hear your thoughts and see if you have any answers for the below.

- How long is my account going to be stuck in this purgatory state?
- Will I get paid for the contract? If the client gets a refund I essentially got scammed and Upwork was compliant in it.

[BojanS]

Hi Azamat,

I'm sorry to hear about the inconvenience this case caused. It looks like you have an open ticket with our team about this case that you've updated just recently. Please allow time for our team to respond and consider following up on your open ticket if you have any additional questions, in order to keep all the information in one place.

Thank you!

[mazamats]

This is what I'm talking about, every response is like this from Payment Compliance when I respond to the ticket.

`We are sorry for inconvenience yada yada` while answering none of my actual questions. I would rather get silence than this.

[902a47d9]

Has this issue been resolved yet ?

[zubair_khalid]

Your issue resolved ?