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]

Zakariae,

Try to work it out with the client and make adjustments to the work as needed. Only refund if you need to.

[#3]

i am a fraid if he gives me a bad feedback and it will be saved on my profile ? what do you think ?

[#4]

If you get a bad review, refund the money and the public review is removed.

[#5]

i dont want him to get the money i worked all day for it then he refunded them  that was bad william

[#6]

I had a contract for 40 hours. On my 30th hours it was suddenly pause by Upwork. I stopped working as soon as it on pause. I was hoping i can still get paid for the 30 hours i worked for and today i got a message saying it was refunded back to client. I would like to know why it happend and how can i get the funds back,

[#7]

If you followed all of the requirements for hourly payment protection ...

Hourly Payment Protection – Upwork Customer Service & Support | Upwork Help

..then hourly payment protection should be working for you.

Is there anything in these requirements that your job didn't fulfill or that you didn't do?

[#8]

I had a contract for 40 hours. On my 30th hours it was suddenly pause by Upwork. I stopped working as soon as it on pause. I was hoping i can still get paid for the 30 hours i worked for and today i got a message saying it was refunded back to client. I would like to know why it happend and how can i get the funds back,

[#9]

Please can anyone help me get the funds back?

[#10]

Maynard, sadly, those hours have been lost like that. Most probably your client applied a chargeback. We are seeing more and more of cases such as yours recently -- and the outcome is usually the same: no recourse.

[#11]

Can the work diary help? I've worked for 30+ hours. 

[#12]

Hey Upwork team,
I have just completed a project, it was a hourly project, I worked 27 hours in it. After that the client's account got suspended. Then i canceled the project.  then i talk to coustumer care they say you will get your payment on 22 Nov. 
But, at 21 Nov i got a mail You refunded  $412.50 to Client. but i didn't do that.
I completely angry, becouse I invest money on this project from my self.
And if the payment had to be returned then why was it deposited in my account?

[#13]

Hi Yogesh,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I can see that you already opened a support ticket regarding this issue. Please allow our team 24-28 hours to respond to your request. Feel free to also update the ticket should you have further questions or concerns.

[#14]

Hi, I've reached out to UW customer service already with no luck, so writing in the community for help.

There was an issue with payment from a Client, and UW refunded the amount back to the client. UW also asked me to verify myself so that I can benefit from the "UpWork's Payment Protection". But my profile had always been verified and I even took a screenshot of the confirmation email.

Customer service replies showing me how to get the "ID Verification Badge" but again, my profile is already verified with the badge! I respond asking if my profile is not verified from their system, but the customer agent closes the email thread. I know this because I receive an email asking how my experience with UW Support was...

Can someone from UW please message me back and confirm my profile is verified with ID? Why would UW customer agent say otherwise and then abrutply not respond to my concerns.

[#15]

Hi Ninh,

Thanks for reaching out. I checked your account and your support ticket and can confirm that the team has already informed you that you have successfully verified your identity.

They only gave you a link to a list of reasons why your hours may not be covered by the Hourly Payment Protection and having an unverified account is one of them.

If you check the initial message of the team, you'll see that the reason why your hours were reversed was because of low activity. If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to update your ticket so the team handling your case can assist you.

[#16]

Greetings,

Last November 14, I worked on an hourly contract with the client offering $50 per hour as he needed the project turned over immediately. I provided the output before the deadline and was even asked to complete another project for him. Unfortunately, as the payment for the first work week was being reviewed. Upwork labeled the contract as fraudulent and placed my payment on hold. 

A few days passed and they concluded that my client had an issue with his payment method although before agreeing to the contract, his payment method and phone number were both verified. Upwork instead refunded a total of $941.50 to the client and I still have $135 on hold. I submitted a ticket regarding this, asking for an explanation as to why I am ineligible for the Hourly Payment Protection, I even provided the necessary evidence that my work diary had no records of engagements unrelated to the contract and our agreement for the rate. Yet they could not provide an answer and made it seem as if the client's offer was too good to be true. 

I sent a follow-up message asking which criteria makes my contract unfit for the Payment Protection plan and they closed my ticket instead. 

Has anyone experienced the same? Any advice on what I can do from this point forward? 

Sincerely,
Tyrone

[#17]

Hi Tyrone,

Thank you for reaching out. I checked your account and can see that you have a support ticket where this was already addressed. Please refer to this ticket and reach out to the team if you have additional questions or concerns.

[#18]

Yes, I experienced the same issue and payments still on hold from upwork.


Regards,
Geeta

[#19]

Hi Geeta,

We’ve escalated your community post to a support ticket. One of our agents will be in touch with you soon to assist.

[#20]

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Wtf. I worked for the client for 3.40 hours. If the client is fraud, why am I being punished by not being paid. Why are you reversing the payment for client? How do you justify not paying me under the hourly protection policy? Give me a proof that I have not worked for those hours. I followed all the procedures from using the upwork desktop app to log timesheet to reporting the client to upwork when he asked to deal outside platform. What am I getting in return. 

Or is that you people are hand in gloves with this fraud client cause you allowed a fraudster to post a project on your platform and inspite of monitoring the messages and contract your let them go ahead with doing a fraud? Is the client paying you something for it?

[#21]

Most of the job in upwork is fake.Be aware my friend😀.

[#22]

I understand there are fake jobs but what is upwork doing for it? They monitor the messages & profiles yet they failed to detect the fraud. In my case, the client made clear offer of working outside the platform on upwork chat. By the time he made this offer had already worked for him for 3.4 hours and had logged timesheet through upworks desktop app which apparently took all the screenshots of my work. But upwork had not noticed client making an offer in the chat. Which I had to myself report it. 

Now instead of charging the fraud client, upwork had reversed the billed amount to client and have not paid me instead. 

[#23]

Hi Clive,

I'm sorry to hear about the unexpected refund or reversal of funds processed on your account. Please note that when the client fails to pay for hours logged by the freelancer, any hours Upwork Hourly Protection doesn't cover may be reversed.

I see that you've responded to the email notification sent by the team about the issue. You may continue coordinating with the team through that email or this page for the ticket linked to your case; they'll surely assist you accordingly. We seek your patience and utmost understanding while sorting this out for you. Thank you!

[#24]

Your upwork policy says if the client fails to pay, then hourly protection kicks in and upwork pays for the same. But in my case, upwork has denied to pay without giving a reason. Seems upwork itself is a fraud platform

[#25]

Upwork returned my payment to client due to reason that i entered the hours manually and didnt ask client to approve the method. I messaged now client. Upwork also want me to verify ID however I already completed the ID verification process as photo of my profile is attached. what else should i do to get my amount?

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[#26]

Hi Hussain,

Based on the screenshot you shared, the hours that you logged were reversed not because of your ID verification status but because you logged manual time. Please know that manual hours are not covered by Hourly Payment Protection when the client's billing method fails.

Please check out this help article for more information.