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371bb786
Community Member

The client has gone unresponsive and did not approve the milestone we agreed to add and had not paid

This task was to reinact customer service calls in a noisy background. The agreement was that all freelancers would be paid based on the amount of hours they did. It was not posted as an hours contract, but a fixed price one. We agreed to submit our payment requests each week in accordance with the amount of call minutes we did. The client agreed that we would add milestones as we go. My payment was short for the first milestone and we agreed that I'd add the missing funds onto the next milestone. However, they client is yet to approve this second milestone and has become unresponsive altogether. When the group of freelancers on this projects noticed a delay in payment, he said he would put $25 in escrow while we waited for our full payment but this never happened. Given that no set amount was in escrow for this second milestone, how do I go about resolving this issue for the group of freelancers who worked with me on this project?
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prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "The client has gone unresponsive and did not approve the milestone we agreed to add and had not paid"

 

There is nothing wrong with that.

 

I clicked the green "Submit Work for Payment" button.

I don't care if the client is "unresponsive." I don't even use that word.

If the client does NOTHING, then all of the money in escrow will be released to me AUTOMATICALLY after 14 days.

 

re: "The agreement was that all freelancers would be paid based on the amount of hours they did. It was not posted as an hours contract, but a fixed price one."

 

This is an example of MIXING elements of a fixed-price contract with an hourly contract.

I do NOT approve of this.

This is what I call a "recipe for disaster."

I also refer to this as a "scheme."

Typically such "mixing schemes" end up badly for a freelancer.

 

re: "We agreed to submit our payment requests each week in accordance with the amount of call minutes we did."

 

Well... That's just goofy. Why doesn't the client simply hire freelancers using an hourly contract? Like he is supposed to do.

 

re: "he client agreed that we would add milestones as we go. My payment was short for the first milestone and we agreed that I'd add the missing funds onto the next milestone. However, they client is yet to approve this second milestone and has become unresponsive altogether."

 

That is between you and the client.

Upwork isn't going to get involved in that.

 

re: "When the group of freelancers on this projects noticed a delay in payment, he said he would put $25 in escrow while we waited for our full payment but this never happened. Given that no set amount was in escrow for this second milestone, how do I go about resolving this issue for the group of freelancers who worked with me on this project?"

 

It was your decision to use the Upwork system incorrectly.

How do you go about resolving this issue?

You can send a message to the client asking him to pay you what you think he owes you.

This is on the honor system, though. This is between you and the client.

You may not ask Upwork to intervene or help you out with this. They will not.

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4 REPLIES 4
prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "The client has gone unresponsive and did not approve the milestone we agreed to add and had not paid"

 

There is nothing wrong with that.

 

I clicked the green "Submit Work for Payment" button.

I don't care if the client is "unresponsive." I don't even use that word.

If the client does NOTHING, then all of the money in escrow will be released to me AUTOMATICALLY after 14 days.

 

re: "The agreement was that all freelancers would be paid based on the amount of hours they did. It was not posted as an hours contract, but a fixed price one."

 

This is an example of MIXING elements of a fixed-price contract with an hourly contract.

I do NOT approve of this.

This is what I call a "recipe for disaster."

I also refer to this as a "scheme."

Typically such "mixing schemes" end up badly for a freelancer.

 

re: "We agreed to submit our payment requests each week in accordance with the amount of call minutes we did."

 

Well... That's just goofy. Why doesn't the client simply hire freelancers using an hourly contract? Like he is supposed to do.

 

re: "he client agreed that we would add milestones as we go. My payment was short for the first milestone and we agreed that I'd add the missing funds onto the next milestone. However, they client is yet to approve this second milestone and has become unresponsive altogether."

 

That is between you and the client.

Upwork isn't going to get involved in that.

 

re: "When the group of freelancers on this projects noticed a delay in payment, he said he would put $25 in escrow while we waited for our full payment but this never happened. Given that no set amount was in escrow for this second milestone, how do I go about resolving this issue for the group of freelancers who worked with me on this project?"

 

It was your decision to use the Upwork system incorrectly.

How do you go about resolving this issue?

You can send a message to the client asking him to pay you what you think he owes you.

This is on the honor system, though. This is between you and the client.

You may not ask Upwork to intervene or help you out with this. They will not.

tlbp
Community Member

When a milestone isn't funded, there's no money to collect or argue about. It's possible that this client was using all of you to run a scam on someone else (e.g. pretending to provide call servcies). You are unlikely to be paid for the additional time. Just leave the contract open and hope the client keeps their promise.

 

But, going forward, always remember, promises don't pay the bills. 

alexandernovikov
Community Member

I wonder what is the purpose of a job like that.

I believe it could have been to improve AI to understand speech in a noisy background.
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