Reporting ToS violation - a pattern of a client obtaining work without paying

[f9f08439]

Had a bad experience with a client recently. Very detailed professionally written specification and impeccable communication on the onset of project, and a completely different picture once the work was delivered: client claiming he cannot use the result and refusing to provide change requests with clear acceptance criteria when the work can be accepted.

My first instinct was to do a refund and move on, thinking that perhaps there may have been a genuine misunderstanding, however then I noticed that the client has made three hires and then cancelled all three contracts without paying for the work.

Besides, I'm quite confident about high quality of the work I delivered.

I have contacted the support, providing all the details, however despite exchanging several messages couldn't get any answer apart from canned responses about fixed-price protection and dispute options available (which I'm following).

Its been a bit disappointing to hit this brick wall with the support after reading all the brilliant work community managers are doing here in forum explaining how platform works and encouraging to report clients' ToS violations.

I've decided to raise the issue here in case if its a systemic issue with clients finding a hole in the Upwork system that allows to obtain free work without explicitly asking for it that existing support procedures cannot adequately handle.

[pandoraharper]

Without going into detail, there are ways to get around lots of fine lines on Upwork, and clients know this. Those clients who try to get free work have all sorts of tricks.

I wish you luck in getting the client your speaking about off the system. A lot of times, CS can't see the forest for the trees.

And then too, sometimes a situation like this can really be not what it appears. Sometimes the MODs can see this right away, but if there is a case, they can probably put a word in for you. No guarantees though.

Good luck!

[jcullinan]

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@Pavel T wrote:

I've decided to raise the issue here in case if its a systemic issue with clients finding a hole in the Upwork system that allows to obtain free work without explicitly asking for it that existing support procedures cannot adequately handle.

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Getting Customer Service and moderators to recognize a pattern rather than evaluating one case at a time is an ongoing problem. The "letter" of the terms of service always wins out over the "spirit" as they all work within very narrowly defined parameters.

[7d986e32]

What about the other way? Where a freelancer bills for hours that really didn't produce outcome? I have one now that asked me to partner with her and then billed me hours for her ideas reguarding the partnership. Wow is all I could think, the audacity! I'm searching the site to discuss with a rep, do u happen to have a phone number for Upwork to get help or even email?

Marie

[lysis10]

There is a difference between not liking results and not doing anything. If you don't like a freelancer's work, pay them and move on. 

The big difference here is that a freelancer will lose the account or have such a low jss that they will become a black hole of proposals that never see the light of day. A client can keep doing it because freelancers don't research well before applying and the Upworks of the world don't kill client accounts for anything but non-payment because that's when they lose money. That was my case with a guy who really had the system down to a T and even after filing a dispute he knew exactly what he was doing. After me, he was still doing it to freelancers.

[kochubei_valeria]

All,

Options to dispute are available for both fixed-price and hourly contracts. In this post you can find general information and links about how disputes work for different types of contracts.

For fixed-price contracts the freelancer can dispute client's failure to release funds from Escrow when the work was delivered.

For hourly contracts the client can dispute hours logged during the previous Work Week if they weren't spent working on the project. Please, see this help article for more information.

[lysis10]

Oh **bleep** I've worked with one of these before. How the guy managed to keep his account...well, I really don't know. It was only after going back that I could see he did this several times. Not talking a few but like at least a dozen times. This was back on elance when you could see when things went into dispute.

I wound up taking it to arbitration and I could tell he had done it before. I kinda wonder how many freelancers got scammed by him but he met his match with me.

I went through arbitration before realzing that was what he did. Escrowed and then says he can't use it to get his money back. If you did the work and think he's playing games, it might be time to call him out. But that's up to you.

eta: Also, in my case he tried to escrow half, and I"m glad I told him full escrow or go scratch or I would have made nothing on the deal.

[69aa02d5]

I had a freelancer who couldn't perform original art work. He always needed a sample photo of someone else's work. Low and behold the freelancer would do a replica of the sample. I paid him for for reproductions and not my vision of the characters.

[prestonhunter]

re: "I had a freelancer who couldn't perform original art work. He always needed a sample photo of someone else's work. Low and behold the freelancer would do a replica of the sample. I paid him for for reproductions and not my vision of the characters."

Yeah... that freelancer was not the right person for the job.

I have hired over 150 freelancers on Upwork. At least half have been artists. Most have been great. Some not so great.

One of the reasons I am an effective and successful client is that I expect a certain percentage of hires to fail. All Upwork clients should have that understanding. That way they won't continue working with an underperforming freelancer, or a freelancer whose work is not a good match for the project.