How much can I client 'chargeback' to a freelancers funds

[andrewcalifornia]

Title says it. I've thankfully never experienced a chargeback, but I've been reading the forums and quite a few people have, some of which I think truly are fraudulant. So exactly how serious can this be, for example:

If a developer completed a $100,000 fixed price project and had been paid for the entire project, but a few months later the client issues a charge back, the developer would have to pay back upwork the full amount before he could start earning money on upwork again? This could be very serious for some people as they built a business around upwork over many years.

[puda]

Don't foget that freelancers can fight chargebacks after sending proofs of their work. Upwork will then send that to the Merchant who will end up deciding who's right and who's wrong. You can always appeal the decision as well.

Also, it sounds pretty unlikely that a client would dispute every single milestone that they released over time. (Hourly contracts are not affected unless hours were not being tracked via the Upwork app) Trying to chargeback for 1 milestone is one thing but trying to do that for like 50 milestones wouldn't make sense at all. Like how would the client win?

[lysis10]

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Lisa J wrote:

Don't foget that freelancers can fight chargebacks after sending proofs of their work. Upwork will then send that to the Merchant who will end up deciding who's right and who's wrong. You can always appeal the decision as well.

Also, it sounds pretty unlikely that a client would dispute every single milestone that they released over time. (Hourly contracts are not affected unless hours were not being tracked via the Upwork app) Trying to chargeback for 1 milestone is one thing but trying to do that for like 50 milestones wouldn't make sense at all. Like how would the client win?

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Easy. "I didn't approve these 50 milestones." Some banks are stricter than others, but I've heard AMEX is very consumer friendly and will issue a chargeback easily. That's why some merchants won't take it.

[lysis10]

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Andrew M wrote:

Title says it. I've thankfully never experienced a chargeback, but I've been reading the forums and quite a few people have, some of which I think truly are fraudulant. So exactly how serious can this be, for example:

If a developer completed a $100,000 fixed price project and had been paid for the entire project, but a few months later the client issues a charge back, the developer would have to pay back upwork the full amount before he could start earning money on upwork again? This could be very serious for some people as they built a business around upwork over many years.

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Yep, if their bank approves the chargeback, you screwed. If this is a concern, stick to hourly with payment protection.