My hours have been reversed back to the client,

[alejandrobatalo]

A client filed a dispute on my 10 hours work diary and I rejected it, the Upwork Dispute team after investigations of my work diary decided that 0.50 hours will be refunded to the client because of low activity, the remaining 9:10 hours are eligible for Upwork Hourly protection, but when I checked my balance expecting to have my payments today 09-March 2022, I have 0:00 balance and my transaction history says Upwork refunded or reverse all my hours back to the client due to client’s payment was unsuccessful or the client refuses to pay.

My question is what happened to the Upwork Hourly Protection? Is there any possibility I will be paid even the client is unresponsive and refused to pay? This so unfair.

**edited for Community Guidelines**
 Hope Upwork will look into this I need answers.

attached are:
1. Upwork dispute team decision
2. Screenshot of mywork diary.
3. Reversal Notification
Thank you

[AveryO]

Hi Alejandro, 

I'm sorry to learn about your experience with this client. I checked your account and I can see that you have an open ticket regarding your account concern. I will go ahead and ask the team to reach out to you through your ticket so that you can be assisted further. 

[alejandrobatalo]

I have a similar experience with Upwork.
My client filed a dispute on my 10 hours work diary and I rejected it, the Upwork Dispute team after investigations of my work diary decided that 0.50 hours will be refunded to the client because of low activity, the remaining 9:10 hours are eligible for Upwork Hourly protection, but when I checked my balance expecting to have my payments today 09-March 2022, I have 0:00 balance and my transaction history says Upwork refunded or reverse all my hours back to the client due to client’s payment was unsuccessful or the client refuses to pay.
My question is what happened to the Upwork Hourly Protection? Is there any possibility I will be paid even the client is unresponsive and refused to pay? This is so unfair I invested time and effort expecting to be paid but instead, Upwork refunded the client.

I Hope Upwork will look into this I need answers.

**Edited for Community Guidelines** 

[petra_r · Accepted solution]

Generally, if your hours qualified for protection, you would get paid under the protection

HOWEVER: This does not apply when the hourly rate is massively inflated. Upwork wouldn't cover you for 10 hours on your $500 an hour contract of course when you generally charge $4 to $10 an hour.

I'm mildly surprised you haven't been suspended for that stunt (yet).

[nyonomega0]

How were you able to get a $500/hour contract from a client who isn't a scammer?

Considering this and the client's previous spending history, I think they've done something wrong and you might not get paid.

[alejandrobatalo]

So freelancers now are the ones offering the contract to clients, The client offered me that price for complicated graphic design work. Our conversation is in what apps after the work was submitted and even thanked me, he deleted our conversations and accused me of scamming him, I'm not the one who created the contract take note of that, he filed a dispute and I reject the Upwork dispute found out that 0.50 hours of my 10 hours work diary are low activity so they refunded the 0.50 hours but the 9:10 hours passed the Upwork Hourly protection but upon checking my balances they also refunded the remaining hours back to the client. so what happened to my time and effort. thank you.

[petra_r]

---

Alejandro B wrote:

 The client offered me that price for complicated graphic design work. 

---

Yeah.... No lol. Of course not. That client never intended to pay you $500 an hour. With all due respect, nobody in this (or any other) universe will knowingly agree to pay you anywhere near $500 an hour.

The hourly protection is voided in cases of fraud or wrongdoing and does not cover ridiculously inflated rates such as that. As is clearly pointed out in the terms of service.

This is why the money was refunded.

---

Alejandro B wrote:

 so what happened to my time and effort. thank you.

---

They're gone. On the upside, you still have an Upwork account so that's good for you.

[alejandrobatalo]

What wrongdoing did I've done, Am I the one who hired the client, Am I the one who offered him the contract, If he made mistake hiring me should Upwork blame me. I understand now how biased it is.... blame me if I did not commit to the tasks given by the client who is happy with the work. they left me with nothing and blamed me for scamming.. nice ruling.

[petra_r]

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Alejandro B wrote:

 Am I the one who offered him the contract,

---

So you actually think (for a split second) that anyone would ever dream of intentionally offering you $500 an hour when you yourself value your hours at a minute fraction of that?

I believe the client made a mistake, you knew (or certainly should have known if you had thought about it for more than a second) that it must have been a mistake but tried to screw the client or Upwork over anyway under hourly protection.

As I said... you're lucky you still have your account for the time being anyway.

[alejandrobatalo]

You weren't there when we discussed the offer don't tell me I'm lucky I still have my account, Let's say He made mistakes should anyone blame me for his mistakes, what if everything is planned and intended so the work will be complicated...

[nyonomega0]

You're taking it wrong.

She is just trying to tell you that you don't work at a rate that is 25X the one listed on your profile as it can be scrutinized suspiciously by Upwork, which can become a reason for your account suspension.

That's all.

[nyonomega0]

---

Alejandro B wrote:

The client offered me that price for complicated graphic design work.

---

The work might've been complicated, sure, but still, no one is going to pay $500/hour to a freelancer with the rate of $20. It just doesn't make sense.

---

Alejandro B wrote:

Our conversation is in what apps after the work was submitted and even thanked me

---

Why did you not just communicate on the Upwork messenger? Messages on Whatsapp can be deleted at ANY TIME (It was a trap for you). 

---

Alejandro B wrote:

he deleted our conversations and accused me of scamming him

---

Actually, he Scammed you. Not the other way around.

---

Alejandro B wrote:

 he filed a dispute and I reject the Upwork dispute found out that 0.50 hours of my 10 hours work diary are low activity so they refunded the 0.50 hours but the 9:10 hours passed the Upwork Hourly protection but upon checking my balances they also refunded the remaining hours back to the client.

---

Maybe they used the chargeback. If that is the case, then you might have to forget about your money.

---

Alejandro B wrote:

so what happened to my time and effort.

---

Nothing. You made a mistake, and therefore your time and effort have been wasted.

Things to learn from this experience-

- Never accept contracts that seem too good to be true.

- If you feel that the client's suspicious, then stop, right there.

- Keep your conversation on Upwork (Except if the messenger is not working properly)

[alejandrobatalo]

That was my mistake but my advice also never trust Upwork hourly protection. they will leave you hanging when a client file a dispute.

[petra_r]

---

Alejandro B wrote:

 they will leave you hanging when a client file a dispute.

---

No, they don't do anything of the sort if the hours were honestly tracked, with good activity and with work memos and the hourly rate is appropriate to the freelancer's account, either the profile rate or the rate the freelancer usually works at, which in your case, is nowhere near $500, it's not even your profile rate.

[alejandrobatalo]

I already told you the Upwork dispute team already ruled out that only 0.50 hours are in low activity and will be refunded to the client the rest of the hours are eligible for the Upwork hourly protection. my rate is nowhere near $500 but he is the one who offered me that rate, per tasks instructed by the client, is successfully completed, now tell me where did I scam him.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Everyone,

This thread is now closed for new posts as it has moved from the original purpose in an unproductive way. Thank you all for participating and sharing your thougts.