Unauthorized refund

[#1]

Hi, last week my contract with my client got suspended I told her and she fixed it immediately. The second time, I finished my work for her for 5 hours and got suspended again but this time I got no reply from her. This morning Upwork notified me that I refunded her without my permission. Also, the tasks were done. I feel robbed 😞 Upwork should also protect freelancers from this kind of clients having trouble with their cards etc. and double checking the work before the unauthorized refund. This is so unfair.

[#2]

Arjay,

Why are you shown as a "Community Member" when you are obviously an Upwork employee?

[#3]

Hi Will,

Thank you for pointing this out. While Arjay no longer works with us, it should still be clear to Community members that his past replies were from an Upwork team member at the time. We've updated this to reflect accordingly.

[#4]

Hi Will,

Thank you for pointing this out. While Arjay no longer works with us, it should still be clear to Community members that his past replies were from an Upwork team member at the time. We've updated this to reflect accordingly.

[#5]

Hi, Marta.

Has Upwork sorted this out for you?

[#6]

After successfully completing a project for a client on Upwork, the client has requested a full refund of the $100 payment. I am considering refunding the entire amount as per their request. Could you please provide me with information on how this refund would affect the status of the project? Specifically, I am wondering if the project will be marked with a certain status, and if the client will still have the opportunity to leave feedback for this project even after the refund has been processed. Your guidance on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[#7]

Once you have a contract with a client that client has the permanent ability to leave public and all-important private feedback for you.

Upwork will remove the client's public feedback if you eventually give the client a full refund. That refund will have no effect on the client's private feedback for you (which is a big factor in calculating your JSS).

Only if you are a Top Rated freelancer can you occasionally remove a client's public AND private feedback for you.

[#8]

Hello User: Art,

Our Trust & Safety team has recently reviewed your account in relation to a contract with a client that we have determined to be fraudulent.

We've placed restrictions on your client's account until we can get this sorted out together.
While restricted, they will not be able to submit proposals, post jobs or start any contracts.

Additionally, your client's unsuccessful payment for the week of 2023-08-13, will not be covered under Upwork's Hourly Payment Protection plan as you do not meet the criteria to be covered. We have returned the following amount to your client:
Contract ID#: ______
Client Name: _______
Amount Reversed: $ ______

Meanwhile previously Upwork has decided the dispute in my favor for same week and all of my hours were logged according to Upwork terms of services. Is there a way I can get it resolved?

[#9]

Hi Support taem,

My client approved the project at 13 august and that payment show in the pending tab and not available for withdraw. But normally payment avaailable in 5 days but now it has been going to more than 10 days. please solve this issue and make that payment available for me. because my client approved that payment in 13 august and show me that i received 822$ already but that is not show in available. i am sharing with you proof of the client approved the project and payment released.Thank you

looking forward to hearing positive response from you.

kind reegards,

safdar ali

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[#10]

Hi Safdar,

I checked your account, and it looks like our team has already reached out to you regarding this issue. Please check your email for a message from our support team and respond to it so our team can further assist you. You may also access your support tickets here.

[#11]

Upwork reinstated one of my contracts, after suspension and refund has been given to buyer. How and why is that?

[#12]

Hi Bolu,

Thank you for reaching out to us. Unfortunately, when the client fails to pay for hours logged by the freelancer, any hours not covered by Upwork Hourly Protection may be reversed. Please ask the clients to pay a bonus payment if they agree with the hours you logged.

[#13]

My client offered an hourly contract, and the payment for it is currently marked as "returned" or "reversed" as of September 2, 2023 without recieving an email and I ask my Client about it and he says that he didn't request for a refund. I thought hourly contracts were safe on Upwork and all freelancer were safe. Is there still a chance for me to get paid? Can someone help me?

[#14]

Hi Alrin,

I'm sorry to learn about this sudden reversal of your funds. I see that you've raised a support ticket about your concern, and I can also confirm that it's currently being reviewed by the team. Please allow them time to investigate your case thoroughly. Once it is done, you will get an update on your ticket here or in your email. We seek your patience and utmost understanding while sorting this out for you. Thank you!

[#15]

Hey guys! I need your help urgently! I've just received a message from Upwork that my client appeared to be a scam and they won't pay my honestly earned money for the hourly work I did because I did not meet the criteria under Upwork's Hourly Payment Protection plan. However I went through it and figured out that I meet all the criteria, including having an hourly contract, ID verification, a client who is using a verified billing method, an Upwork account in good standing, logged hours with the Upwork Desktop App, have contract-related activity in my Work Diary, memos, adequate and fair activity levels, stayed within the contract's weekly limit. You can see the screenshot for the matches. Also for some reason they have refunded the client recently with the amount, however, I'm the victim here and not vice versa and I do not understand that. It now seems that I'm not protected here on Upwork in any way at all and am just being robbed. I completed all the required work successfully, had all the original deliverables, and tracked my time and activity within the week's limit. I have accepted the contract from a client whose payment method was verified which should mean that I should be protected in such cases. I have spent 40 hours working hard on a contract. Please help me out as I'm looking for some justice here and would like to have my honestly earned money for the hard work. I have also attached screenshots for more details. Thanks!

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[#16]

Hello Stanislav,

Sorry to hear that, I have the same problem as you unfortunately, despite meeting all the criterias for the work. I was robbed for my hard working money and I would like Upwork to explain the situation to us.

Having financial problems with my bank right now, I would like Upwork to come up with a solution instead of refunding the amount from the victim to the person.

Wish you best of luck.

[#17]

Forgot. In my case money was taken off.

[#18]

Hi Stanislav and Younes,

I'm sorry to learn about your unpleasant and disappointing experience with your clients. We understand your frustration with the reversal of the payment. Please remember that when the client fails to pay for hours logged by the freelancer, any hours Upwork Hourly Protection doesn't cover may be reversed.

However, I see that you've been coordinating with the team via email, and a ticket has been set up with it. Please update your ticket on this page if you have questions or need further assistance; the team will surely assist you accordingly. We seek your patience and utmost understanding while we sort this out for you.

[#19]

Hello Arjay,

Thank you for your answer, I opened a case about my situation but it was closed as "resolved" 30 minutes after without an answer. I wanted also to know that I didn't get any answer from another case that was opened for this problem.

I hope you understand our situation and that Upwork team find a solution for us.

Thank you,

Younes.

[#20]

Hi,

Today I was so saddened to be notified via email that all the money that I had worked for the  project, **Edited for Community Guidelines** had been refunded back to the client.  I really worked hard for this project overnight and I used the time tracker to take screenshots. I fail to understand why I was told that I don't meet the hourly payment protection and yet this is not the first hourly contract that I have worked on **Edited for Community Guidelines**. His payment method was verified which gave me confidence that he was a legit client. I fail to understand when I was told that the client is fraudulent. If the client was a fraudulent, why would I not be notified immediately while I was working on the project and up to now the contract has not been paused by Upwork. I did not violate any of TOS during the contract and all the communications were conducted within Upwork message center. If later on this client was determined to be fraudulent, then why would I be punished for this and submitting the work? Actually the payment was to reflect in my account today , instead I received disappointments.

Please kindly help me how to get back the money ($500) that I worked for. I submitted the work within the agreed time and the client was even satisfied with the work. Please mediators, I seek your help. Kindly assist to get me paid back for the work done kindly as per the agreement. I would really appreciate your sincere consideration for my request. Please find the screenshot below for your review. I look forward to hearing from you.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Thank you.

Best regards,

Makenge John.

[#21]

This is absolutely ridiculous 🙄 and needs to be looked into! Who protects freelancers if we can not trust in the platform to protect us.

@upwork  @upwork support 

[#22]

Upwork you need to do better! Better for all the freelancers who trust your platform. If a client is fraudulent why would you verify them in the first place?

The freelancer above has already delivered the job who should you be refunding? Is it not the freelancer? It's you and the client who should be penalized for allowing this to happen.

[#23]

Hi Makenge,

Thank you for reaching out. 

I understand that you have concerns about your reversed payment. Upon review, I could see that you already have an open ticket for this particular issue. Our support agent will get back to you as soon as possible with an update. You can check for a response here.

Regards,

[#24]

Hi Johnabi,

Thank you for replying back. I will update you once they reply back to the ticket.

[#25]

Dear Johnabi,

I can see the ticket has been solved but nothing has been done to attend to my issue. So does this mean there is no hope of getting the payment? 

Thank you.

Regards,

Makenge John.

[#26]

Hi,

Dear Upwork moderators, please why would this consistently happen to me? Last week $500 was refunded to a client and now again another $400 has been refunded to another client just because the clients were determined to be fraudulent. All these events happen after I worked on the projects and submitted the work. I can even provide screenshots of the work done at your request. Please help me  get back the money. Loosing $900 in a row in less than a month is really frustrating. I think this should entirely be your fault instead of punishing me. Kindly intervene to refund the money back to me. I would greatly appreciate your sincere consideration.

Thank you.

Best,

Makenge John.