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36c83a57
Community Member

Hi, my client thinks that my solutions are wrong.

Hi, I solved competitive math problems for my client. (He is not a mathematician, he is a director).
He showed my solutions to teachers in his school and told me that some of my solutions are wrong. I double-checked my solutions and believe they are correct. My money is in escrow. What should I do now?

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
prestonhunter
Community Member

Alperen:

 

You did the work. The client needs to pay you.

It is that simple.

 

If the work you did doesn’t meet the needs of the client for some reason, then the client has every right to not hire you again.

 

But for this work, the client needs to pay you.

 

Note that Upwork does NOT provide a button that the client can use to unilaterally get his money back.

 

The client needs to pay you or get YOUR permission to get the money back.

 

If the client does not release payment, you may need to do this:

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211068528-Dispute-Non-Release-of-a-Milestone-Payment



It is not up to the client to tell you that some of your work is “wrong.” That has nothing to do with whether or he needs to pay you. Upwork is not going to look at your work and make a decision about who is right or wrong.

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25 REPLIES 25
a_lipsey
Community Member

Your profile doesn't agree that you have a contract or money in escrow. 

 

Doing math homework for a client is academic fraud and against the TOS. Why is the client showing them to teachers in his school? If he is a director, why doesn't he just have his expert math teachers solving the problems? 

 

I would be careful because this sounds like it's academic fraud and I know you don't want to do that, but also, you don't have a contract right now, so there can't be funds in escrow. 

Hi Amanda, When I view my contracts, I see that I submitted my work, and the money in escrow is 200$. It is not homework. It includes competitive questions for math. So I think there is nothing illegal.

petra_r
Community Member


Amanda L wrote:

Your profile doesn't agree that you have a contract or money in escrow. 


Contracts do not show on any profile until money has been released. Contracts with unreleased money in escrow don't show until at least $1 has been paid.

 

Robert Y wrote:

Looks like you didn't violate the terms of service, given that no contract was signed and no money will change hands. 


How would money be in escrow if there was no contract? That would be physically impossible.

Money in escrow means there is a contract.

 

 


Petra R wrote:
Robert Y wrote:

Looks like you didn't violate the terms of service, given that no contract was signed and no money will change hands. 


How would money be in escrow if there was no contract? That would be physically impossible.

Money in escrow means there is a contract.

 

 


I know, I meant no money will change hands because there is no contract. Except that now I know there is a contract.

a_lipsey
Community Member


Petra R wrote:

Amanda L wrote:

Your profile doesn't agree that you have a contract or money in escrow. 


Contracts do not show on any profile until money has been released. Contracts with unreleased money in escrow don't show until at least $1 has been paid.

 

 

 


Ah, thank you for that clarification. I did not know that. 

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Hi Alperen,

 

In general, I'd like to refer you to the following help articles to learn more about the process and available options in case you and your client can't come to an agreement:

Fixed-Price Protection

Dispute Non-Release of a Milestone Payment

 

I also encourage you to check out this section of the Upwork TOS to learn more about what types of services and uses aren't allowed on Upwork.

 

Thanks!

~ Valeria
Upwork

It is an active contract. So I think I need to file the dispute with customer services.

roberty1y
Community Member

Looks like you didn't violate the terms of service, given that no contract was signed and no money will change hands. 

prestonhunter
Community Member

Alperen:

 

You did the work. The client needs to pay you.

It is that simple.

 

If the work you did doesn’t meet the needs of the client for some reason, then the client has every right to not hire you again.

 

But for this work, the client needs to pay you.

 

Note that Upwork does NOT provide a button that the client can use to unilaterally get his money back.

 

The client needs to pay you or get YOUR permission to get the money back.

 

If the client does not release payment, you may need to do this:

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211068528-Dispute-Non-Release-of-a-Milestone-Payment



It is not up to the client to tell you that some of your work is “wrong.” That has nothing to do with whether or he needs to pay you. Upwork is not going to look at your work and make a decision about who is right or wrong.

All right. I will wait one or two days. Then I will apply to the dispute center if we can not agree. Thanks

Good luck.

You have some leverage here.

 

The money is "tied up in escrow" and the client can't get any of it back without your help.

 

The client may have thought he could make up a story about your work being incorrect. (Or maybe he is even telling the truth. Who knows?) He thought that would be some kind of ace card. But it's not.

 

Is the contract still open?
If the contract is open, then the client has the opportunity to come to an agreement with you about how much to pay you.

 

For example, you could agree to refund $50 back to him, and he could edit the amount of money to release when he closes the contract.

I believe the client. He is the director of a school and spent over than 7k$ on Upwork. So most probably, he is not one of that frauds.

He said that he showed my solutions to teachers in his school and those teachers claimed that some of the solutions are wrong.

However, since these questions are competitive questions, I still believe that my solutions are correct, (I double-checked my solutions + High school teachers are not experts in math obviously).

 

The contract is still open. Unless he proves that I did wrong some of the questions, I want my full payment. What I wonder is, what happens if we fail to come up with an agreement.


Alperen D wrote:

All right. I will wait one or two days. Then I will apply to the dispute center if we can not agree. Thanks


The client has 14 days to review the work and request changes. If he doesn't, the money is released by the system. There is no need to dispute anything until he requests a refund.

I agree with you. I will wait for 14 days. I wonder, what happens if he refuses to pay all of the money but some. I believe I did my work %100. What will happen if we can't come up with an agreement?

 

Preston said that you did your work. You'll get your payment but, all Community Gurus say different things. Therefore I am a bit confused.

petra_r
Community Member


Alperen D wrote:

Preston said that you did your work. You'll get your payment but, all Community Gurus say different things. Therefore I am a bit confused.


Preston meant that in his opinion, that would be the fair thing to do. Unfortunately, that is not how it works.

 

Preston forgot to tell you that if the client decides NOT to pay, there is a dispute process, and that can't make a decision, and if no compromise can be reached, the only way to get paid is going to legally binding arbitration. Which costs you $291...

 

And frankly, that contract was academic fraud, so the last thing you want to do is draw Upwork's attention to such a serious violation of their terms of service.

36c83a57
Community Member

Why would it be academic fraud? He has spent over 7000$ on Upwork.(He is not a 200$ guy) I don't think that he would do that.

petra_r
Community Member


Alperen D wrote:

Why would it be academic fraud? He has spent over 7000$ on Upwork.(He is not a 200$ guy) I don't think that he would do that.


You completed a school assignment for pay... The end.

What he's spent is irrelevant. There was one "client" who sold those homework to students at several times what he paid the freelancers here. He spend loads before he and his freelancers were finally caught.


You do know that directors of schools don't hire freelancers to answer exam questions, don't you? That is just ridiculously, utterly silly.

36c83a57
Community Member

I checked the website of his academy and found an e-mail address. Compared that address with the one he sent an e-mail to me. Guess what? %100 match

Also searched about his academy. Guess who is the director of the academy? My client. His name matches as well.

So it is easy to create an account with someone else's name but how could he send me an e-mail using the academy's e-mail address? Therefore, there is no way that this guy is a fraud.

 

These questions are not simple math questions. Even some math teachers may fail to solve it. That is why he was looking for an expert.

If the client does nothing, you get ALL the money.

 

If he wants to pay only some of the money, then you will choose whether or not to take the deal, or refuse.

 

There are aspects of this particular contract that may be problematic if Upwork looks into it closely… things that Upwork might not fully appreciate or understand. Upwork support personnel are not mathematicians. Don’t say anything to the client. Don’t say to Upwork.You may want to accept a deal if one is offered. But that is a choice for you to make. If the client disputes payment, and if you and the client end up not coming to an agreement, the next step would be arbitration, which would cost both of you $291, which is non-refundable.

 

You way need to decide if you want to pay $291 for the opportunity to MAYBE receive $200. The math here is simpler than the math you did for the client.

What happens if client disputes payment and one of the sides rejects the arbitration process?

 

petra_r
Community Member


Alperen D wrote:

What happens if client disputes payment and one of the sides rejects the arbitration process?

 


If you pay the arbitration fee and the client doesn't, you get the arbitration fee back and the funds in escrow.

If neither party pay the arbitration fee, the money goes back to the client

If the client opts to go to arbitration and you don't, the money goes back to the client

lucioric
Community Member

That is academic fraud. And you shuld not been aware of it to post it publicly. Once you did it, better don't move the waters and forget about that job.

I don't think so. He has +7k$ payment in total.


Alperen D wrote:

I don't think so. He has +7k$ payment in total.


How much he has spent is completely irrelevant. 

Spending over than 7000$ doesn’t prove that personX is not a fraud. I definitely agree. I just compared his user profile with those people(identity and payment methods are not verified). Additionally, he sent an e-mail using academy’s gmail. Finally, his name matches with the academy’s director.
Now, considering all these, can you still say this guy is a fraud?
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