Guidance required on the contract in dispute after completing final payment and ending the contract.

[pranjal_rewatkar]

Hi,

I am Pranjal a Game Developer and I have worked with a client whose Unity game project was very complex and their project also heavily relies on the backend server built by their own team. after multiple meetings and very long discussions with the client, my team and client agreed to divide the project into multiple contracts. And for the first contract, we agreed to do a specific list of tasks.

And after doing all the tasks in the first contract the client itself completed the payment and ended the contract with a 5-star rating.

After a few days, the client put the contract in dispute asking for a refund. And claiming that we did not deliver everything as promised. Which is clearly not the case. The client claims that the game has bugs and does not work as it's supposed. The client never reported these bugs during the contract. And even after completing the contract, they did not report these bugs otherwise we would have fixed them(Please note: we still did not find any bugs). But the client directly put the contract in dispute.

Fast forwarding to now after multiple long conversations in the group threads with the client and Upwork. Upwork has recommended arbitration.  And I have looked into it and I am ready for the arbitration process. This means that the third party will check our work and verify it according to the contract.

My main query is if by any chance the arbitration goes in favour of the client. What will I have to do as my team has worked very hard on the project? And we got paid that amount. And we do not have the funds to provide a refund itself. If anyone has gone through something like this on Upwork or has any knowledge about this and knows about Upwork Arbitration process. Please kindly provide any guidance. Thank you.

[spectralua]

Arbitration process (if reached) will take money, an $300. Be sure that you have it ready. It is unrefundable.

But you have all chances to win: job was done, verified and contract ended.

[pranjal_rewatkar]

Hi Mykola,

Thanks for the response, we are ready to pay for the arbitration process. But the main question is if by any chance the Arbitration goes in favour of the client do we have to pay them a full refund? As I have already withdrawn the amount from my Upwork balance.

[spectralua]

Yes. Arbitration decission is a must to complete. With no money account will be suspended until paid. Or banned if you will reject to pay.

[pranjal_rewatkar]

Hi Mykola,

thanks for the response, after long conversations with the Client and Upwork Dispute Specialist in the group discussions, this was the latest message posted by Upwork Dispute Specialist person. It points that if neither moves to arbitration the funds from the escrow will be refunded to the client, but the funds are not in escrow as the project was successfully completed.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[spectralua · Accepted solution]

Sure. Now client must initiate arbitration (you will be informed) or case will be closed. July 5 is deadline.

[pranjal_rewatkar]

Hi,

I am Pranjal a Game Developer and I have worked with a client whose Unity game project was very complex and their project also heavily relies on the backend server built by their own team. after multiple meetings and very long discussions with the client, my team and client agreed to divide the project into multiple contracts. And for the first contract, we agreed to do a specific list of tasks.

And after doing all the tasks in the first contract the client itself completed the payment and ended the contract with a 5-star rating.

After a few days, the client put the contract in dispute asking for a refund. And claiming that we did not deliver everything as promised. Which is clearly not the case. The client claims that the game has bugs and does not work as it's supposed. The client never reported these bugs during the contract. And even after completing the contract, they did not report these bugs otherwise we would have fixed them(Please note: we still did not find any bugs). But the client directly put the contract in dispute.

Fast forwarding to now after multiple long conversations in the group threads with the client and Upwork. Upwork has recommended arbitration.  And I have looked into it and I am ready for the arbitration process. This means that the third party will check our work and verify it according to the contract.

And after long conversations with the Client and Upwork Dispute Specialist in the group discussions, this was the latest message posted by the Upwork Dispute Specialist person. It points out that if neither party me or the client moves to arbitration the funds from the escrow will be refunded to the client, but the funds are not in escrow as the project was successfully completed. But there are no funds in escrow as this was a successfully completed Contract with the client providing 5 Star rating. After which they filed for dispute.

And we do not have the funds to provide a refund itself. If anyone has gone through something like this on Upwork or has any knowledge about this and knows about the Upwork Arbitration process.  Also, the Upwork Dispute Specialist has not responded to any of my queries in the personal discussion thread. So I request you all to please kindly provide any guidance. Thank you.

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Upwork Dispute Specialist Message:

**Edited for Community Guidelines**