Lets protest Upwork's exploitation through chargeback/payment reversal.

[#1]

Today I'm going to speak against the horrible system of Upwork's chargeback/payment reversal process. The chargeback/payment reversal process is something in that a client gets his or her work done then pay in fixed price project and finally makes a reversal request from his or her bank and upwork sends the money from your account or if you don't have enough earnings in your upwork account, then it restricts withdrawals on your account until the chargeback amount is paid. That means, for a fixed-price job, you deliver work and get paid for that and after a few days your client makes a chargeback request and Upwork sends the money (you earned on that project) to the client. You have nothing to claim your money. and Upwork has nothing to protect you from such scam activities.

Recently I worked on a fixed-price project worth $4800. I delivered the work and once the client disputed to make a refund. upwork mediator suggested both the client and me not make a refund and If we are not satisfied then go for arbitration. I paid the arbitration fee but the client did not. So I was allowed to continue my upwork journey. Later on, the client made a reversal request from his bank, and Upwork restricted withdrawals on my account. They told me they will deal with the bank on my behalf and that the bank will make a decision within 90 days. Afterward, they restored my account and returned the amount they initially reversed from my earnings. I asked in support if the chargeback process and restrictions were lifted from my account. They replied back by saying that my account was fully restored.

Recently, I received an email where Upwork is again asking me to return the $4800 and they restricted my account again.     I asked why did they restore my account fully? They replied it was a temporary restoration.

Upwork, You don't need to restore my account temporarily. If you restore my account temporarily, then why you told me that my account was restored fully and you never told me that it was a temporary restoration. 

I worked and I delivered my work and your mediator checked everything and made a decision of not to refund the client. I won the arbitration process since the client did not pay a fee.

I worked, not theft. 

If upwork is not willing to protect freelancers in fixed-price jobs, It does mean that the scammer clients are part of upwork or upwork is involved in the scam indirectly.

Thousands of freelancers are exploited by this ridiculous chargeback system.

Alone a freelancer can not be able to make upwork willing to protect freelancers against fixed-priced job or change its horrible system. But If freelancers join together and take action, upwork is bound to think about our rights.

If upwork can not protect a freelancer in fixed-price job, then why do you have such jobs? I know you TOS does not protect freelancers in fixed-price job, then why you have this fixed-price system?

Again it seems upwork is involved in such scams directly or indirectly. If you are not involved then stop fixed-price jobs or change your TOS to protect freelancers.

If upwork is not willing to protect us, We can together take action against upwork:

1) Organizing online petitions against such inconsistency.

2) contract newspapers and news organizations and explain this.

3) Influencing clients and freelancers and promoting other freelance marketplaces.

4) taking legal action to protect freelancers and change their TOS.

5) other steps based on situations.

Dear Upwork, you are the top freelance marketplace and that's why we want to work here. But you are not the one and only freelance marketplace. Clients and freelancers have options to switch those marketplaces. and We are not thieves, we sell our skills. 

We know your TOS, please don't mention here those TOS and templated answers. You can not exploit or help someone to exploit freelancers through your inconsistent system. No one is permitted to scam, and you need to safeguard our earnings from such scams. That's why we pay you 20% commission from our earnings.

We want a solution not a templated answer, and we are not thieves.

Looking forward to having a solution from you soon.

[#2]

If you feel fixed price jobs are not safe, then don't use them. Nothing mandates you used fixed price.

[#3]

I think in the same way, if fixed price jobs are not safe and client can get back the money after making a payment, then Upwork needs to stop fixed price jobs or file suits agains such clients.

[#4]

This is why I rarely accept fixed price work anymore.  Hopefully you're able to get things sorted out and move on from this.

[#5]

Hi Shahriar,

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear about your experience with the client. This is a difficult situation and I understand your frustration. Some reversals (chargebacks) are a result of the client contacting their bank and asking them to reverse the payment.

In these cases, we look to our Terms of Service (TOS) for guidance and follow it by taking two steps:

1. We seek reimbursement from freelancers/agencies in cases where their client makes a payment, asks their bank to reverse it, and the bank does. (see more detail in sections 6.3-6.5 in our TOS).

2. We review the client’s Upwork account because reversing a payment, in most cases, is against our TOS and can result in us permanently suspending their Upwork account.

Aside from these steps, the Upwork team also helps the freelancer or agency challenge the reversal. Our team can submit a rebuttal to the client’s bank on the freelancer’s behalf if they provide a proof of the work or deliverables. They would need to move quickly, so please provide the requested proof within 48 hours of being notified of the reversal if you’d like us to proceed. Keep in mind that it can take the bank up to 90 days to review and provide their final decision. The client’s bank will have the final say regarding the rebuttal and we have no control over the outcome. Please don't hesitate to follow up with the team directly on your support ticket if you have additional questions.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[#6]

Again temaplated reply!

Did you read my post? I dont think so. Everything is done and your upwork restricted my account twice for the same project. Rebuttal is complete and your support agent said upwork maid decision in favour of client.

[#7]

This happened to me twice last year but the one that really surprised me was on an hourly contract with proof that I actually worked on the project as well as proof of me delivering the job to the client but I still got a chargeback the most annoying of the problem was the threat from Upwork to permanently suspend my account if I get a chargeback in the future. It really disgusted me because it was impossible for me to know what was on the mind of the client regarding payment, I would have known if the client had a stolen card or if the client intended to scam me but it happened. I would like to plead with Upwork to review policies on chargeback on its platforms to better protect its freelancers.

[#8]

Thank you so much for the reply. We the freelancers need to work together to make upwork willing to take actions against such scammers and protect us. If we can join together upwork is bound to bring a change.

[#9]

Come on now. Millions of freelancers banding together? Upwork has too many freelancers as it is. 

You are still implying that upwork is at fault when THE CLIENT fails to pay and that freelancers can force upwork to change. How? What? 

It is not cost-effective for upwork to sue clients that fail to pay. They just suspend them. 

Please come back to my point and explain how exactly you expect upwork to know that a client will execute a chargeback and how they can avoid that. 

[#10]

I also got chargeback request and I had to return 1000$ to upwork. It looks to me that more than 95% of the time upwork is unable to recover funds of seller. Because I have not seen a single peson here who successfully got chargeback money back after upwork fought for them

[#11]

Hi Shahriar,

While there are initiatives around better-educating clients and freelancers about chargeback as well as improving our internal systems to make payments on Upwork safer, chargeback happen when a client files a dispute with their financial institution outside of Upwork and that's outside of Upwork's control.

Currently, there are no intentions to discontinue the fixed-price contract model on Upwork. That said, in many cases, the Upwork team can offer specific help by submitting a rebuttal to the client’s bank on the freelancer's behalf. So it would be more productive for the parties involved to communicate with the appropriate team using those support tickets. 

Since all the arguments have been exhausted and this discussion is moving in an unproductive direction, we'll be closing this thread from further replies.