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carpio-enrico
Community Member

Is this form of Blackmailing?

Good day everyone, I have a serious question about my experience in one of my client action. The situation is my client has a client outside Upwork and we do a collaboration in one of his projects for almost a month it is a fixed job where I need to accomplish each task given to me since the payment is per task (milestone). Now, I have accomplished all the tasks given to me and he already approved it since I believed my output is validated from his side so I have no worries because I know on my part that I have given my 101% effort and time to do the task. Here is the crucial thing happen, my client is asking for a full refund after 3 weeks because he said that my output is not accepted by his client to think that he already approved it a couple of weeks ago. Now, he is making a demand for me to do his task to compensate for my debt which for me it is a ridiculous action since our agreement is already done after I have finished his project. He gives me a task which is he threaten me if I do not do it he will report me to Upwork and give me an unsatisfactory rating, is this a form of blackmailing? how Upwork management resolve this issue? anyone can help me? Note: my client is him and I respect his decisions but his clients outside upwork or, dealing outside the platform is not my agreement. Any advice is much appreciated. thank you

6 REPLIES 6
prestonhunter
Community Member

Don't give the client a refund. If you did the work, you deserve to be paid for that work.

 

It does not matter if your client has a client.

That has nothing to do with you.

 

Threatening to "report you to Upwork"? This is an empty and meaningful threat. You haven't done anything wrong.

 

Has the client already released payment to you? If he has not done so, he must do so. If he does not, then you should file a dispute.

 

He needs to do the right thing. If he does not, then you may need to report him. He is violating multiple Upwork TOS rules.


Preston H wrote:

Don't give the client a refund. If you did the work, you deserve to be paid for that work.

 


If he did the work correctly...

 


Preston H wrote:

 

Threatening to "report you to Upwork"? This is an empty and meaningful threat.


Not necessarily...

 

 


AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Enrico, 

 

I'm sorry to learn about your experience with this client. You as a freelancer managing your freelancing business will have to decide whether to decline the client's request or agree with the refund. If you think you have the right to the money that has already been paid, you can respectfully let the client know. There is a possibility that the client may request mediation assistance from the team. You may want to read up on these help articles for more information. 

I was unable to identify the client in your account, kindly share the Contract ID# for this contract so that I can also look into this further.

 

Hopefully, there's no need to resort to mediation assistance, and you and your client can resolve this issue amicably.


~ Avery
Upwork

re: "Now, he is making a demand for me to do his task to compensate for my debt which for me it is a ridiculous action since our agreement is already done after I have finished his project. He gives me a task which is he threaten me if I do not do it he will report me to Upwork and give me an unsatisfactory rating"

 

Do not do any free work for this client.

 

If he is asking you to do something which was not part of the original fixed-price contract agreement, don't do it.

 

It is a violation of Upwork ToS for a cient to ask a freelancer to work for free.

 

If he asks you to do something, you may tell him:

 

"Peter, I think that is a good idea. That is something we should add to make the project better. But that was not part of the original fixed-price agreement. I can not do that as part of the current contract, but if you close the current contract, I will be able to do it."

 

If the freelancer closes the current contract and releases all remaining escrow money to you, then you may negotiate a new contract with him so that you can do the additional work. Or you may decide to not agree to a new contract with him. The choice will be yours.

petra_r
Community Member

There are two distinct and seperate matters here. The clients behaviour on one hand and what the client can actually do about it on the other. 

 

Was it a translation? If so, which language pair?

 

The client has 30 days from the day the last milestone was funded to dispute (if money has been released, such a dispute covers everything paid under the contract, not just the last milestone or the money in escrow).

 

Your ability to report the client's behaviour does not stop the client from being able to dispute.

varungs
Community Member

Yes, this is the definition of blackmail. 

Decide what's more important to you: the money or a good rating. Pick one. In any case, you're going to get low private feedback (which is what matters for your JSS), so you might as well go with the money and block the client.

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