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motoyen
Community Member

Has anyone dealt with the Upwork mediation team when it comes to settling an arbitration case?

I recently when through the AAA arbitration which was ruled in my favour 5 days ago. Since then I've recieved nothing but the run around from the Upwork mediation team about when I am going to recieve my money. Seems like they all have no clue what they are doing and can't commit to a specific update on my dispute. 

 

Has anyone else dealt with this team and were you able to receive your funds? 

13 REPLIES 13
AndreaG
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Anthony,

 

I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience with a contract that resulted in Arbitration. I checked and can see your concern has been escalated. I can assure you our team is reviewing the situation and you can expect to receive an update today via support ticket. Please continue to communicate with our team via support ticket as they are the ones who can best assist you.

 

~Andrea
Upwork
wlyonsatl
Community Member

Anthony J., Please come back to the board to tell us how this eventually worked out for you. Thanks.

 

To update this. We went to arbitration and the judgement was in my favour. The client then decided to be sneaky and filed a dispute with his credit card company. Upwork has paid me per the terms of the arbitration but it took over a week of contstant emails to them for me to receive my payment. 

 

The Upwork mediators were pretty useless and anyone going through this process I would advise just go straight to arbitration. The mediators don't really mediate but rather just copy and paste message back and forth between the two parties. I suspect they are just out sourced call center workers who don't recieve any actual mediation training. 

 

In the end I'm glad I recieved my money as I knew I was in the right but overall it was quite the hassle. 


Anthony J wrote:

To update this. We went to arbitration and the judgement was in my favour. The client then decided to be sneaky and filed a dispute with his credit card company. Upwork has paid me per the terms of the arbitration but it took over a week of contstant emails to them for me to receive my payment. 

 

The Upwork mediators were pretty useless and anyone going through this process I would advise just go straight to arbitration. The mediators don't really mediate but rather just copy and paste message back and forth between the two parties. I suspect they are just out sourced call center workers who don't recieve any actual mediation training. 

 

In the end I'm glad I recieved my money as I knew I was in the right but overall it was quite the hassle. 


____________________

Glad you received your money, but the Upwork mediators are not there to arbitrate, which is why you went further. All the mediators do (and if you read all the Tos this will be confirmed) is to try and reconcile freelancer and client. If this doesn't work, arbitration is the next step. The arbitrators are outside Upwork's jurisdiction and are called in to judge the issue.  Upwork has no say over the ultimate decision. 

 

 

Yes, obviously. You've just stated exactly what I said happened. 


Anthony J wrote:

Yes, obviously. You've just stated exactly what I said happened. 


__________________

Actually, I did not.  You are  ranting against complaining about the mediators. Their role in these situations is limited. So to accuse them of being useless in this situation, especially when arbitration went in your favor, is uncalled for.  They cannot interfere either with chargebacks or attempted chargebacks. 

 

kthnxbye! 

Anthony J.,

 

Thanks for coming back to the board to let us know this worked out for you. I'm glad to hear it worked out for you.

 

We have been told Upwork doesn't allow disputes about lower value projects to go to arbitration.

 

What are my chances of winning a third-party ... - Page 2 - Upwork Community

 

Considering that it costs Upwork the same amount as both client and freelancer have to pay for arbitration, it's no wonder that Upwork won't pay out an amount of money for arbitration when that amount is well above what Upworks fees are on a project.

 

I assume mediators are making binding decisions when it comes to resolving disputes and divvying up funds in escrow. We have had many people tell us this is not possible...

 

The client is harassing and bullying me onlin... - Upwork Community

 

...but there really isn't another option, other than mediators making no decisions at all and also not allowing disputes to go to arbitration.

 

 

No matter what a person believes Upwork SHOULD DO... an Upwork user can only become more effective and powerful in achieving his goals if he knows what Upwork ACTUALLY does.

 

It is very useful to hear first hand accounts of users' experiences with mediation and arbitration.

 

A lot of wasted time and expense would be avoided if Upwork users - especially clients - were familiar with these details before they began using the platform.

 

So many times we read about clients who thought that mediation and/or arbitration would make everything all right if they hit a snag. But that's not how it works.

 

I wish that every Upwork client knew that mediation doesn't have the power to grant them their wishes. Mediation does not mean that Upwork will look at evidence and decide who gets money. And I wish that every client knew that arbitration rarely decides in favor of the client.

 

Understanding these facts is why I think disputes, mediation and arbitration are overwhelmingly tools that make sense only for FREELANCERS to use. The most important tool for clients to use is firing people (closing contracts). If I don't like working with a freelancer.... I don't need to "file a dispute" (a toothless procedure) or pay $291 to take part in a proceeding I will likely lose when all I need to do is click a button to release escrow and end a contract... an action that a freelancer has no way to counteract or appeal.

I couldn't agree more, Preston. Both freelancers and clients should fully understand Upwork's dispute resolution process.

 

So. what action does an Upwork mediator take when they cannot get a client and freelancer to agree to the mediator's suggested solution to a dispute?

 

Will the mediator allow (or require?) the dispute to go to arbitration as long as the freelancer is willing to pay the $291 fee, after which either a) the client refuses to pay the same fee amount and the dispute is resolved in the manner requested by the freelancer or b) the client and Upwork each pay the same $291 fee and arbitration commences?

 

What DOES Upwork ACTUALLY do?

Preston,

 

You apparently have more experience as both client and freelancer than anyone else who regulsrly posts here and doesn't work for Upwork. 

 

In your opinion or experience, is it reasonable for a client or freelancer to expect Upwork will ACTUALLY pay $291 out of its own pocket to allow a disputed amount to go to arbitration when Upwork's fees on the related project were less than $291 (which works out to about $2,410 in project value). 

 

I have no doubt Upwork does its best to resolve disputes of any value, but paying out $291 for a $100 dispute makes no sense for Upwork. Meaning arbitration is not an option Upwork will likely ACTUALLY offer for disputes involving less than about $2,400).

 

Your thought?


Will L wrote:

We have been told Upwork doesn't allow disputes about lower value projects to go to arbitration.


We have "been told" no such thing. Upwork offering to contribute financially to make a dispute go away (and parties agreeing to accept this) is not the same as "not allowing disputes to go to arbitration". 

I don't think we have ever been told of a situation where Upwork didn't allow for a case to go to arbitration where both parties insisted to do so.

 


Will L wrote:

I assume mediators are making binding decisions when it comes to resolving disputes and divvying up funds in escrow.


Mediators throwing some Upwork money at an issue hoping that it will cause both parties to accept that and go away is not the same as "making binding decicions and divvying up the escrow funds". Neither of the threads you linked included any hint of mediators doing any such thing.

 

With low value disputes it costs Upwork less to pay parties out of their own pocket than to pay $291 for arbitration. So by offering a (non-binding) compromise of Upwork paying the freelancer some money that is considerably less than the $291 Upwork would have to pay for arbitration and the client getting some or all of the escrow funds back, the issue goes away.

 

That is still a non-binding solution, not something Upwork forces upon the parties. It doesn't mean the mediator makes a decision over the escrow funds, it means the parties agree to this non binding suggestion.

kinector
Community Member

"Pretty useless," you say? 🤔

Just wondering if the word 'mediation' got mixed up with the word 'meditation' at some point... 🤭
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