Unfunded milestone

[habiba-arif326]

Hi.
I have a repeating client and she is quite nice. She has started a milestone but it is unfunded. She is saying that upwork has deducted the funds but they are not updated in the contract. Can any moderator look into my contract of 1x long form article.
Thanks

[BojanS]

Hi Habiba,

I checked this for you and the last milestone for that contract is not active currently. Your client needs to activate this milestone to get started. 

Thank you!

[habiba-arif326]

Hi Bojan,
She is saying that amount has already been deducted from her account.

[prestonhunter]

I don't care how nice someone is.

I don't care how many times I have worked for them.

No escrow?

No work.

[habiba-arif326]

Hi Preston,
I totally agree with you but she is one of those clients who would release full milestone after 25% work. That's why I'm ready to give her benefit of doubt.

[tlsanders]

---

Preston H wrote:

I don't care how nice someone is.

I don't care how many times I have worked for them.

No escrow?

No work.

---

That's a very reasonable policy and one that most freelancers should probably follow, especially with new clients and when the freelancers are new here.

That said, I work for ongoing clients without escrow all the time. It's no different from working directly with a client out in the world. 

[wescowley]

Tiffany - I agree. for established clients, I'll often let the paperwork catch up.  

Habiba - It sounds like she's just missed a step as Bojan mentioned. You have the make the call yourself, of course, but for an established client, I'd most likely ask her to activate the milestone (which I think is a separate step than funding it?) and continue on with the work in parallel.

[prestonhunter]

With an established, trusted client, I don't object to any freelancer practicing a little flexibility.

As a practical matter, the established clients I work with know how to use Upwork, and they know me. So they're not likely to be people with whom these issues come up.

In fact, in my experience, these established clients are likely to use techniques which we might discourage new clients from engaging in.

Some clients I work with, when they want me to do a new task, will quickly set up a new fixed-price contract with no real documentation in the Upwork contract itself, other than "as discussed via email."

And another thing they will do is simply pay an upfront bonus payment after I mention a price for a task. This happens when I state that they can use a regular fixed-price contract, or pay using a bonus payment.

As we all know, these could be some problematic practices if clients didn't know and trust clients, and vice versa. I wouldn't recommend freelancers who don't know a client well to be this casual either, even if the risks are ostensibly on the client's side.

I am often offered upfront payments be clients who are new to Upwork and with whom I have not previously worked. I always turn down upfront payments with them, even though theoretically there is little risk on my end, because I don't feel that is how fixed-price contracts are meant to be used, and I would prefer to not be in a position where I owe the client work for money that I have already received.