How to know if my client is not in to scam.

lesterb22 · ‎05-14-2019

My client has sent me an offer for milestone, well we talked about hourly pay we both agreed to that.

Now, He says that i need to wait 6-8 weeks for approval of my first milestone and that is 1 half month to wait before i get my first milestone paid.. while I continue to work and innovate.. is this legit or a scam ?

petra_r · ‎05-14-2019

Lester B wrote:
My client has sent me an offer for milestone, well we talked about hourly pay we both agreed to that.
Now, He says that i need to wait 6-8 weeks for approval of my first milestone and that is 1 half month to wait before i get my first milestone paid.. while I continue to work and innovate.. is this legit or a scam ?

Is the first milestone fully funded? I have no idea what your client is talking about, if the milestone is funded the client has already paid.

Obviously you will only work as much as is funded for the first milestone, won't you?

You wouldn't fall for some nonsense such as a $ 1000 contrac, funded for $ 5, and you'd be expected to work for 6-8 weeks doing $ 1000 of work when only $ 5 is in escrow, right?

prestonhunter · ‎05-14-2019

re: "My client has sent me an offer for milestone, well we talked about hourly pay we both agreed to that.

Now, He says that i need to wait 6-8 weeks for approval of my first milestone and that is 1 half month to wait before i get my first milestone paid.. while I continue to work and innovate.. is this legit or a scam ?"

Lester:

First of all... yes, it sounds like a scam.

Second: IT DOES NOT MATTER IF THIS IS A SCAM.

Because only a ridiculous person would agree to work for two months without getting paid on Upwork.

You are not a ridiculous person, are you?

On Upwork, if you have an hourly contract, you see your pay show up on your Reports page within 30 minutes of doing the work. With fixed-price contracts, you work for milestones, and you submit them, and as soon as you submit them, you see your pay move over to the next box. You see your progress.

For fixed-price contracts, NORMAL FREELANCERS do work and immediately submit that work, and either:

- clients release payment

or

- the freelancer gets paid automatically in 14 days if the client does nothing.

So 6 to 8 weeks of work before getting paid?

No, that's ridiculous.

If you have done ANY work for client, then the client can PAY YOU FOR THAT WORK NOW, before you do any more work.

If you do some more work, then the CLIENT CAN PAY YOU for that work before you do anything else.

Those are YOUR terms. You set the terms. Not the client.

The client CAN NOT ask you to work for weeks and months before paying you. Not becaust it is a "scam" and not because of any Upwork rules. But because YOU don't waste your time like that.