My money is deducted from Upwork account

[manpreetlombsar]

Hi Support team.

Please help me.

I have recently worked with a client and the contract id is 30509874. I started the work when he deposit the money on Upwork and the payment method was verified at that time.

I have done all the work as per the client's requirements. The client was happy with my work and approved my money and after approving the milestone his account was suspended.  His website is still working which I have developed. 

Then Upwork ended this contact and now the amount is also refunded without any dispute from the client-side. Even, though I was not requesting any kind of refund.

May I know where is our security and safety to work on Upwork? 

I am really disappointed and it hurts me a lot because this is my hard eaned money. 

Please help me out that what I have to do.

Thanks & Regards,
Manpreet

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[pgiambalvo]

This comes up all the time. Your money was not refunded. It was never really there. Upwork probably tried to charge them and it didn't go through. You are not protected unless you use the time tracker. Payment verified does not really mean that the client can or will actually pay.

[manpreetlombsar]

Thanks for sharing your valuable response.

Peter May I know if the fixed price contract is not a secure one then what is the work of Escrow? 

This is my hard-earned money and I really worked hard to complete his job.

It hurts me a lot and I am really disappointed with the action taken by Upwork. Even, though I am unable to withdraw my money from the available balance.

[yofazza]

Assuming it's not a scam or similar, there is a fixed-price protection but from what I read here many people said it doesn't work.

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All escrowed funds are covered by Fixed-Price Protection. Some exceptions include:

• Milestone payments in excess of the amount in escrow
• Funds from clients without a verified billing method
• Additional amounts that are discussed or promised between you and your client but not made official in the contract

What was the job? Everything's good / nothing suspicious?

[manpreetlombsar]

Hi Radia, 

Basically, the job is to develop a website. The amount of the job is $600. 

I have completed the job successfully and the client approved the milestone after his satisfaction.

I started the job when the client's payment method was verified and he deposit all the money to Escrow. 

How can we know whether the client is genuine or not, we can not ready the face of the client but we have trust in the Upwork policies, that's why we are not sharing our personal info like contact no and email.

I also don't have his personal info so that I can compel him.

[yofazza]

It's interesting to see how this goes. Snippet in my previous post contradicts with what many people said, including Peter here.

If the protection is truly given without complexion, it will ease my mind when working here. If not (which is my current state on seeing this) then I'll have to vet the client more, among other things.

You might want to keep trying, to put more effort to get the promised protection. I can somehow understand if it's a blatant scam, but if not then I think you should be protected. It's written there. Upwork decides to protect, which is good, and I can somehow understand if they can only do it under a set of "flexible" rules

Thinking positively, maybe Upwork mistakenly think it's one of the usual everytime scams and ignores you.

I should also mention about that other thread which is gone now.

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From what I see, they protect, if they decided it was a legit client who turns bad (dispute payment with their bank). But they don't protect, if the client is an "intentional scammer".

That's my view for the hourly work and it's good to see if this can be applied to fixed-price as well.

[pgiambalvo]

Any updates?

[pgiambalvo]

Escow is not 100% secure nor a guarantee that you will get that money, as you and many others find out all the time.  You are basically trusting the client is legit and that their card is not stolen. Upwork will not help you get the money back if that is the case.