I turned the work in and am dealing with an unresponsive client - Escrow funds involved - Thoughts?

[kessler_sam]

I turned in the work and there is money in escrow. However, the client has not responded. I submitted the work and request for funds on February 14th. Since money is in escrow, what is the next step? I thought it automatically funds me after a period of time if no response. Is this correct? Thanks in advance! - Sam

[martina_plaschka]

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Sam K wrote:

I turned in the work and there is money in escrow. However, the client has not responded. I submitted the work and request for funds on February 14th. Since money is in escrow, what is the next step? I thought it automatically funds me after a period of time if no response. Is this correct? Thanks in advance! - Sam

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If you have submitted the work using the submit for payment button, you will automatically receive the funds after 14 days. (plus a review period.) So there is nothing that you need to do now. 

Some clients never respond after you submit, and that's fine. You probably need to end the contract from your side at some point. 

[jr-translation]

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Martina P wrote:

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Sam K wrote:

I turned in the work and there is money in escrow. However, the client has not responded. I submitted the work and request for funds on February 14th. Since money is in escrow, what is the next step? I thought it automatically funds me after a period of time if no response. Is this correct? Thanks in advance! - Sam

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If you have submitted the work using the submit for payment button, you will automatically receive the funds after 14 days. (plus a review period.) So there is nothing that you need to do now. 

Some clients never respond after you submit, and that's fine. You probably need to end the contract from your side at some point. 

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There is no need. Once he received some money the job will not count against his JSS.

[martina_plaschka]

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Jennifer R wrote:

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Martina P wrote:

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Sam K wrote:

I turned in the work and there is money in escrow. However, the client has not responded. I submitted the work and request for funds on February 14th. Since money is in escrow, what is the next step? I thought it automatically funds me after a period of time if no response. Is this correct? Thanks in advance! - Sam

---

If you have submitted the work using the submit for payment button, you will automatically receive the funds after 14 days. (plus a review period.) So there is nothing that you need to do now. 

Some clients never respond after you submit, and that's fine. You probably need to end the contract from your side at some point. 

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There is no need. Once he received some money the job will not count against his JSS.

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I know. Some people let these contracts accumulate on their profile, though, and have, say, 30 jobs in progress. That could turn off potential client because they think the freelancer is too busy anyway.

[jr-translation]

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Martina P wrote:

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Jennifer R wrote:

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Martina P wrote:

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Sam K wrote:

I turned in the work and there is money in escrow. However, the client has not responded. I submitted the work and request for funds on February 14th. Since money is in escrow, what is the next step? I thought it automatically funds me after a period of time if no response. Is this correct? Thanks in advance! - Sam

---

If you have submitted the work using the submit for payment button, you will automatically receive the funds after 14 days. (plus a review period.) So there is nothing that you need to do now. 

Some clients never respond after you submit, and that's fine. You probably need to end the contract from your side at some point. 

---

There is no need. Once he received some money the job will not count against his JSS.

---

I know. Some people let these contracts accumulate on their profile, though, and have, say, 30 jobs in progress. That could turn off potential client because they think the freelancer is too busy anyway.

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But accumulating too many (how many ever that is) contracts without feedback can harm the JSS. I only close abandoned contracts after I several contracts with a good feedback. 4 active contracts won't stop clients.

[prestonhunter]

Sam:

One of the really great things about Upwork is the AUTOMATIC PAYMENT for fixed-price work.

Can you imagine if you were just dealing with somebody in another country via email? You send them an invoice for finished work, and never hear from them? What do you do then? There's not much you can do!

But with Upwork... how cool is it that you can click a button, and get paid automatically if the client does absolutely nothing.

There is a great benefit to freelancers when a CLIENT DOES NOTHING: As freelancers, we don't need to do any modifications, we don't need to answer any questions. So it saves us time, and we can use that time working on other projects.

The other participants in this thread have discussed the problem with a contract that remains open. I support the suggestions to eventually close these, but to do so interspersed with contracts that were closed by clients and DO have feedback.

So ALWAYS wait to get that automatic payment before closing a contract. Then wait some more time. Maybe the client was on vacation and will come back. After I have been paid, when I client contacts me again after an absense, I use that as opportunity to ask the client to CLOSE the contract.

Client: "Sorry I didn't reply earlier. I was on vacation. The project looks great! Could you field one more button to the main form? I forgot to ask you to include a field for a company's FAX number?"

Freelancer: "Hello again. Glad to hear from you again. Yes, I would be happy to add that field. If you can go ahead and close the contract, then I will add that field and send up an updated file."