Hourly Contract - Refund Request outside of a Dispute?

[godrin01]

Hey there fellow Freelancers!

Here is my weird question:

For a   recent Hourly Contract that a client closed with 5-Star Feedback, and everything billed & work completed, the client now requested a refund . It's not a dispute.

Q1: Do I even need to react to it to reject to this request?  If so, what do I need to do? He missed the dispute date for this hourly contract.

Q2: Please confirm, I read on the article of the Hourly Billing that a refund request does not count as filing a dispute.

Screenshots attached.

In other words (example): 

-In week 1 I worked the hours

-Week 1  was billed with Week 2; no dispute by Friday 

-Week 3 Payment pending (this Wednesday)

- Ended contract with 5 stars, wants Week's 1 money back as of today (?), no dispute.

Best Regards,

Michael

PS: I take pride in my work. I told the client in a humble manner that such behavior is not  professional.  He also wanted to blackmail me to suddenly change feedback, which is not possible for a closed contract that he closed. 

[petra_r]

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Michael S wrote:

Here is my weird question:

For a   recent Hourly Contract that a client closed with 5-Star Feedback, and everything billed & work completed, the client now requested a refund . It's not a dispute.

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The client *CAN* still request dispute mediation. Were the hours all tracked using the tracker and had meaningful memos and activity levels etc?

IF you do not want to refund, simply write to the client briefly and professionally, declining to refund (no need to go into reasons etc.) Say as little as possible and as much as possible.

[godrin01]

Thanks!  Yes, only used the time tracker. All payments except this last one were already made. So by Wednesday, the Refund request is dealing with funds that have already been released.

- Wait until Wednesday or respond now? Will Funds automatically refund to the client, if I wait to respond?

- Is a personal message enough , similar to this? 

"Work was completed as per the contract, tracked and approved on Sat, XYth of March, 2020. No Refund will be given."

-Is it enough to click "cancel" in the Refund Window? 

Thanks again Petra!