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0edaf23f
Community Member

Rude client threatening to give 1 star if I won't do free work

I've been hired by someone to do a few changes to a website template. He gave me a list of things to do and specified that I only do things on the list so I did. I asked him for feedback but he didn't respond. I did a thorough review and even suggested a few changes if he'd like to implement them. Then a few days later, he placed our contract on hold but didn't tell me anything. Now he messages me this:

**Edited for community guidelines**

 

What do I do? I've just been given a Rising Talent badge and wouldn't want to just end the thing since this is 18 hrs of honest work. I've even used Work Diary.

 

Plus I checked his other review and it turned out that he does this to freelancers regularly. He's got a lot of reviews so his overall rate is 4+ stars so I didn't bother reading his ratings. And I completely regret that now!

**Edited for community guidelines**

7 REPLIES 7
wickedlnl
Community Member

Someone thats way longer on the platform can give you a better answer but as short as I am here what I learned to do very fast was always to look at past projects and reviews of a client before I submit a proposal or accept an invite. As well as their hourly rate and how often they hire. If those are below average I dont even bother as I can see it being a headache in the future or just wasted connects.

 

Just seeing so many 1* reviews...I wouldnt of even bothered applying. This guy is obviously straight up **edited for Community Guidelines**

Thanks for the tip. I really didn't think much about his ratings cause he has 4+ stars. And I only checked now. And really looking at it, most of his 5 stars were small fixed rate jobs. This has been causing me a lot of anxiety today. I really feel bad for being told that my work is "trash" even when I know that it's not. And I don't even know why he's so mean. I hope Upwork does something about this.

petra_r
Community Member

Never accept a contract without checking the client's history.

 

Unfortunately, it is what it is now. You have 5 contracts with super feedback, you'll likely get your JSS on Sunday. One poor outcome is unfortunate, but it won't kill your Upwork career.

 

Furthermore, Upwork exclude contracts with clients who have a really poor history (this one clearly qualifies)

 

I would fix the things you have caused or are in some way responsible for and not the things you are not, and take it as a learning experience.

0edaf23f
Community Member

Would I still get paid though? What's the worst thing that can happen? I'm really worried about this affecting my reputation especially that I'm still new.

Hi Lois,

 

I'm sorry to hear about your experience working with this client. It looks like the contract is hourly. On hourly contracts the client is billed for hours already logged and the payments are processed automatically according to the Weekly Billing Cycle and it doesn't matter whether the contract is closed, active, or paused. You can go to your Reports> Overview and check the status of your payments.

~ Joanne
Upwork
0edaf23f
Community Member

He is now filing a dispute. And I have all the proof. Would Upwork do anything about this? Are they just gonna leave him off the hook?

Hi Lois,

 

I understand your frustration with this. If a dispute is opened our team will reach out to you directly via ticket with additional information.
To learn more about our dispute process check out the information on this Thread. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork
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