Resume an automatically cancelled contract due to inactivity

[ma-karmous]

Hi,

I was working as a freelancer with a fixed-price contract and for some reason we paused the discussion for several days until I received this notification from Upwork:

But the employer forget to update the 14 days and now I received a notification from Upwork that the contract was cancelled:

In the "Milestones & Earnings" web page, I have the following money:

Budget: $X
In Escrow: $X
Milestones Paid: $0.00
Remaining: $X
Total Earnings : $0.00

X = the fixed price budget

How can we resume the contract without dispute ? We are both agreeing that we have to do it but we don't know how.

Thank you for any help

Best regards

[JoanneP]

Hi Mohamed Aymen,

One of our agents will reach out and assist you further via a support ticket. Thank you. 

[ma-karmous]

Hi Joanne Marie,

Thank you for your assistance.

I'll be waiting for the support agent.

I wanted to add that the last email that I received regarding the contract cancellation was from 24 hours and the email content contains this phrase:

The client has requested that you return the funds from escrow. You have 7 days to take action or the remaining escrow balance will be returned to the client.

So, If the support agent could create the support ticket within these days that would be great so that the contract will not be definitely closed.

Best regards

[JoanneP · Accepted solution]

Hi Mohamed,

I checked, and I can confirm that one of our agents already reached out to you to assist you further. Please log in to your account and go here. Please check your ticket number: 29322275. Thank you. 

[ramavelayutham]

Hi madam,

I'm also having the same issue. My client and I decided to discuss for few days. We are continuing the project now. Upwork automatically cancelled the contract and requested for refund. Can you please resolve the issue. https://www.upwork.com/nx/wm/workroom/32271626/overview 

[PradeepH]

Hi Rama,

Thank you for your message. I checked the job you are referring to and noticed that the contract was closed due to inactivity. Please request your client to reinitiate a new contract to continue working with you.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[ramavelayutham]

The only solution is to create a new contract. Am I right??

Is there any way to resume or reactivate old contract?

[bundie702]

I am in a similar situation. I was notified that one of my contracts was canceled due to inactivity. The client says Upwork told him nothing about this, nor didn't ask if he wanted to cancel (he didn't; a hospitalization put me behind schedule and he agreed to push the due date to September 30th). I'm unable to move forward with either returning his escrow or not returning his escrow because Upwork first says I have to leave feedback. I don't want to do this because none of the situations listed apply to me, and I'm afraid that anything other than "Job Completed Successfully" will hurt my JSS.

How can this job be reinstated?

[JoanneP]

Hi Bettye, 

I've shared your concern with the team, and one of our agents will reach out to you via ticket to assist you further. Regarding your concern with your JSS, it looks like the client has already provided feedback for you. This contract was also not closed without any earnings. When a contract fails to lead to any earnings your JSS will be negatively impacted. Contracts with no client feedback, including ones you ended or left open and inactive, do not affect your score unless you have excessive contracts with no feedback. You can check this help article for more information. 

[bundie702]

I don't understand, Joanne. I didn't request for the contract to be canceled. The client tells me he neither requested nor was notified that Upwork canceled the contract. So why can't it just be left open and inactive? Why did Upwork take it upon themselves to cancel the contract when this will negatively affect my JSS? I really need to have a grasp of what they're doing.

[AleksandarD]

Hi Bettye,

Please note that Upwork will automatically close fixed-priced contracts that have been inactive for 90 days. Also, I checked and can confirm that the email notifications were sent to both you and your client before the contract was closed due to inactivity.

Thank you.

[petra_r]

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Aleksandar D wrote:

Please note that Upwork will automatically close fixed-priced contracts that have been inactive for 90 days*. 

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*if there are funds in Escrow (only).

Such a contract can not be reopened. The client will have to rehire you, Bettye.

If you were previously (before the 90 day inactivity, on a previous milestone) paid anything, it won't affect your JSS:

[bundie702]

Yes, the client has already sent me a rehire offer. But I received NO notice from Upwork of their intent to cancel the job; they only notified me AFTER the fact (the only emails I received from them were "19 New Jobs for You!" and "22 New Jobs for You!" My client also said he received no notice of a pending cancellation, either. He also pointed out that he had set no milestones or due date for the job. He is very annoyed at Upwork for canceling the job without consulting him first.

I already got the Upwork rep to remove that canceled job from my profile so it will not be included in my JSS. I mean, come on. I have enough problems with medical bills pouring in for co-payments after my hospitalization without Upwork attempting to hurt my record and make it more difficult to be hired. My client readily agreed to a later delivery date when my illness put me behind, and I get penalized for that? And then in order get the client's funds released from escrow I have to say something that's not true, like he misrepresented the job, didn't want to pay, or I wasn't able to deliver on time (there was no deadline), or some other inaccurate reason? (I'm letting it sit until the funds are automatically returned to the client.) By the time I'm ready to deliver in 2-3 weeks he'll have the funds back.

I've already informed the rep that none of my jobs are set to deliver before the end of the month, and if my JSS drops between now and then I'll know it was because of this cancellation and they will be hearing from me...

This stinks.

[guemri_oualid]

Hi Aleksandar,

I have a contract which is not active more than 90 days (the client doesn't make positive responses) but the contract still not-closed, can I please know why ?

[759e32fa]

Hi Oualid,

Thanks for reaching out. May I know if the contract is Hourly or Fixed Price? If you could also provide the contract ID number, that would be great. 

Also, if there's no more work needed and you're ready to end the contract, you may do so by following these steps:

1. Go to My Jobs
2. Click the contract's title
3. Select the (...) options menu
4. Click End contract

[guemri_oualid]

Hi Annie, 

It's a fixed price one (job title : "Vehicle Routing Problem_ Dynamic Programming_mathmatical modelling_heuristic algorithms"). 

In fact, I have money in escrow of a work that is done and client doesn't make positives responses (I can provide more details later)

I stopped reaching client and the contract should becomes dormant, and for me this will solve the issue between my client and me. After 75 days (in 19/09/2023) I received a notification that after 15 days they we will close the contract and then I can start a dispute, however and up to now there is no change !

Please can you give more details about that ?

Thanks, 

Best, 

Oualid.

[LuiggiR]

Qualid, if you still have deliverables pending and there are funds in escrow for said deliverables, it's best to submit the work you've completed instead of waiting for the contract to become dormant.

When submitting work for payment, you can set the dollar value to a lower amount, in case there are more funds than anticipated in escrow for the deliverable that's pending. After submitting the deliverable, your client will have 14 days to respond. If they do not respond within 14 days, the funds in escrow will be released to you and you can proceed in closing the contract if you wish. If the client refuses to release the milestone payment, you will have the option to dispute this. See this article to learn more about the dispute process.

[guemri_oualid]

Hi Luiggi, 

Unfortunately, my client requests always changes without setting what he needs exactly (the work meets exactly the requirements but he set simply "work doesn't meet requirement you need to improve it") and when I tried to ask him what doesn't meet the requirements in order to change it he didn't responsed me.

Is the procedure you mentionned above works for case client ask changes ? 

In addition, I want to know why the contract didn't become Dormant even after more than 90 days (I need also this information because this also will work well with him) ?

Thanks, 

Best, 

Oualid.

[PradeepH]

Hi Oualid,

I am sorry to hear about your experience with this client. The reason why the contract has not become Dormant as I see there are activities on the contract from you and your client. If you are unhappy with the client requesting multiple changes, you have the option to discuss with the client and end the contract anytime. Feel free to message us if you have further questions. 

- Pradeep

[guemri_oualid]

Hi Pradeep, 

I think there is no activity from more than 90 or at least I didn't received any notification about an activity (I think I should recieve a notification about any activity on the milestone).

As I said before I tried with my client for more than 2 years !!! He didn't make any positive action. I asked him also to end the contract and he didn't do !!! If I end the contract I will loose my efforts/money.

Please let me know if the client had do an activity on the milestone or not and why I didn't received a notification about that ?

If yes (he made an activity) then I want to end the contract and start the dispute.

Thanks, 

Best, 

Oualid.

[NikolaS]

Hi Oualid,

To be able to better assist you I shared your report with our team and one of our agents will reach out to you directly via a support ticket as soon as possible to assist you further. You will be able to access your ticket on this page.

[researchediting]

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Bettye U wrote:

I don't understand, Joanne. I didn't request for the contract to be canceled. The client tells me he neither requested nor was notified that Upwork canceled the contract. So why can't it just be left open and inactive? Why did Upwork take it upon themselves to cancel the contract when this will negatively affect my JSS? I really need to have a grasp of what they're doing.

---

Upwork muddies the waters by claiming "the client" or "the freelancer" did this or that action that was taken by their automated system. There's really no excuse for that kind of deception and obfuscation. It can be particularly galling when the two parties to the work contract (hint: neither of whom are Upwork) have reached an understanding that Upwork undermines with a false narrative.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Bettye and Michael,

I'm sorry to hear Bettye has had a negative experience with this contract being closed. However, I'd like to clarify that dormant Fixed-Price contracts with funds in Escrow have be closed after 90 days of inactivity in order to comply with Upwork Fixed-Price Escrow Instructions. Funds cannot be kept in Escrow indefinitely. The process is described in detail in section 4 here.

I've also checked and see that the email notifications were sent out according to the process outlined in the instructions I linked above. As an example, here is a screenshot of the email (Second Notice) notification that's sent out in situations like this. 

Bettye, I also see that our support agent provided more information in your support ticket #29647112 here about your contract. Please, refer to the information they've provided and feel free to reply to the ticket directly if you have any follow up questions. 

[anassiddiqui2]

Hi! I found out early this morning that one of my on going contracts with the contract ID: 24494578 had been automatically canceled by the system due to inactivity. I would like my contract to resume. Thanks!

[petra_r]

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Anas S wrote:

Hi! I found out early this morning that one of my on going contracts with the contract ID: 24494578 had been automatically canceled by the system due to inactivity. I would like my contract to resume. Thanks!

---

That's not possible. The client will have to hire you again on a new contract. Don't let single milestones drag on for 3 months in future, as this is exactly what happens when you do.

[anassiddiqui2]

I am aware of the policy, however, I did not know that contracts cannot be reinstated once closed. Thanks for letting me know!

[NikolaS]

Hi Anas,

I would like to confirm that Petra is right, this option is not available. Please note that Upwork will automatically close fixed-priced contracts that have been inactive for 90 days. 

[romerized]

Hi, Can someone from Upwork please help me and my client reinstate our contract? I admit that there was no activity in regards to payments in the contract but, I and the client have been constantly in communication regarding the project, and are almost at the stage of submission and billing when we got the notification that the contract is canceled and that I was requested to refund the amount on escrow which, I did only to find out that it was not the client that really canceled the contract but, Upwork. The client contacted me and we are in agreement that we would like to continue working on this project and other future ones. 

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Romer,

I would like to confirm that your contract was closed due to inactivity. If no funds are exchanged in 90 days the contract will be closed.
Your client can send you a new offer at any time and set up a new contract. I would recommend to break down the contract into smaller milestones so that your contract/s are not closed due to inactivity. Thank you.