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winstonwrites
Community Member

Worked for a Client Who is not Responding

I worked for a week for a client who hired me from a craigslist ad and insisted I go through Upwork to be paid.They then made me an offer on Upwork. So I accepted their offer to interview and did a remote job for one week. Now they are not answering my emails and I think they won't pay me. I've never had a client behave this way before. I've never worked with Upwork before and didn't realize I was supposed to technically accept the offer. Now I see the offer is listed as withdrawn. So I sent an invoice on my own...

Please advise. Thank you. 

12 REPLIES 12
prestonhunter
Community Member

Clients are not obligated to respond. As freelancers, we get paid automatically whether they respond or not.

 

You were never hired, so your choice is simple:

You may learn from your mistake and move on.

Or you may choose to dwell on something that you can do nothing about.

 

As there was never a contract, there is nothing that Upwork can do for you.

 

I need to be very clear about something: You should not try to get paid for the work that you did on this project. To get paid outside of Upwork is a very serious violation of Upwork ToS, and you could get suspended or terminated for getting paid off-platform, or even for asking to get paid off-platform.

 

It is okay if the client sets up an official Upwork contract and pays you through Upwork. But I don't if that will happen.

 

I think the most important thing you can do for your future success on Upwork is to expunge all desire to get paid for this work.

 

The positive thing that came out of this is that YOU own the work that you did. You may post it as a portfolio item, or sell it, or do whatever you want with it.


Preston H wrote:

 

I need to be very clear about something: You should not try to get paid for the work that you did on this project. To get paid outside of Upwork is a very serious violation of Upwork ToS, and you could get suspended or terminated for getting paid off-platform, or even for asking to get paid off-platform.


As first contact was not made through Upwork there shouldn't be a problem getting paid outside of the platform, I think. Maybe a mod can confirm so OP knows if she can try invoicing the client herself or not. (Not that I think they would pay anyway, as then they would just as well do it through the platform.)

________________________
Freelancing is a gamble - To win you need skill, luck and a strategy

Another careless freelancer who did not read the rules and regs before starting on Upwork. 

I am a little baffled by your rude response.

I spoke with the client who did offer me the job and was very clear about
hiring me.

So am I to understand that Upwork offers no protection for freelancers?


Danielle W wrote:


So am I to understand that Upwork offers no protection for freelancers?

No, you understand his incorrectly.

There is all sorts of protection for freelancers, to the point of Upwork paying the freelancer out of their own pocket in certain cases.

 

Protection applies when you have an active contract (which you didn't) on an hourly basis and you tracked your hours, or on a fixed rate basis and the money was funded in Escrow.

 

As neither applies, there is nothing to dispute and nothing that can be done.

 

Most people take the time to figure out the basics, such as contracts and how to get paid before jumping in head first.

 

We all learn one way or the other... the easy way before things go wrong or the hard way after they have.

 

Danielle W wrote:

 

I will go to small cliams court if need be. I understood that Upwork offered some projection to its freelancers, for the fee it takes. 


If you have the client's details you are clearly free to do so.

 

 

The situation is strange.

 

After the details were arranged, I was told that I needed to do paperwork through Upwork so that's why I accepted the offer to interview. 

 

It was a research project... and I was told I would be communicating with the clients during work. I had one response on a shared google file, after I completed the work and was told they would like me to work 10 additional hours. I didn't see this until the following week since the job had been over and I hadn't gotten an emal response (I had emailed multiple times). When I tried responding on the google chat, I didn't get an answer.

 

After completing the work I was unable to communicate with the client. And since on Upwork this is listed as an interview and the offer is now withdrawn, it now appears as though I didn't do the work, which I did.

 

I will go to small cliams court if need be. I understood that Upwork offered some projection to its freelancers, for the fee it takes. 

feed_my_eyes
Community Member


Danielle W wrote:

I worked for a week for a client who hired me from a craigslist ad and insisted I go through Upwork to be paid.They then made me an offer on Upwork. So I accepted their offer to interview and did a remote job for one week. Now they are not answering my emails and I think they won't pay me. I've never had a client behave this way before. I've never worked with Upwork before and didn't realize I was supposed to technically accept the offer. Now I see the offer is listed as withdrawn. So I sent an invoice on my own...

Please advise. Thank you. 


What a strange situation! You'd think that if the client had been planning to rip you off, they would have done so without going through Upwork. Did they tell you their reasons for wanting this?

 

Do you normally ask for deposits when people respond to your ad on Craigslist? If not, then I would advise doing so from now on. And make sure you get a full name, address and phone number and see if it checks out - look up their website, see whether they're on Linked In, that sort of thing.

 


Christine A wrote:

Danielle W wrote:

I worked for a week for a client who hired me from a craigslist ad and insisted I go through Upwork to be paid.They then made me an offer on Upwork. So I accepted their offer to interview and did a remote job for one week. Now they are not answering my emails and I think they won't pay me. I've never had a client behave this way before. I've never worked with Upwork before and didn't realize I was supposed to technically accept the offer. Now I see the offer is listed as withdrawn. So I sent an invoice on my own...

Please advise. Thank you. 


What a strange situation! You'd think that if the client had been planning to rip you off, they would have done so without going through Upwork. Did they tell you their reasons for wanting this?

 

Do you normally ask for deposits when people respond to your ad on Craigslist? If not, then I would advise doing so from now on. And make sure you get a full name, address and phone number and see if it checks out - look up their website, see whether they're on Linked In, that sort of thing.

 


I get the feeling that even a legitimate client (not a serious one) might be tempted to not pay if the freelancer makes it that easy for them. They can never get bad feedback from freelancers they ripped off and never plan to work with again. 

Thank you.

 

Please clarify: Is a client permitted to hire you privately and then ask you to go through Upwork?

 

And are they permitted to hire you and then withdraw the offer after you have worked for them?

 

 


Danielle W wrote:

 

1) Please clarify: Is a client permitted to hire you privately and then ask you to go through Upwork?

Sure

 

2) And are they permitted to hire you and then withdraw the offer after you have worked for them?

If you never accepted the contract, which WAS offered and likely just expired, there is nothing the platform can do. It's not as if you weren't offered a contract. You simply failed to accept it.  For the sake of a mouseclick this could all have been avoided.



Danielle W wrote:

Thank you.

 

Please clarify: Is a client permitted to hire you privately and then ask you to go through Upwork?

 

And are they permitted to hire you and then withdraw the offer after you have worked for them?

 

_______________________

 

If you are hired through Upwork, then you have to be paid through Upwork.

 

If a client sets up a formal contract either as an hourly tracked contract or as a fixed-rate contract, you will receive a message both on your message page in your Upwork account and a private email, informing you that your contract has started.

 

If you use the tracked hourly method of paying correctly, the client has to pay you for the hours you have worked, but can close the contract at any time. The same applies to the fixed-price method, where the client deposits the amount agreed into escrow, which will be released when he or she has reviewed your work. If the client closes a fixed-price contract before the money has been released to the freelancer, it will automatically go to the freelancer and a client may or may not dispute. 

 

Another hourly method (also a formal contract) is when you manually enter the hours worked per week, but it  is not advisable to begin with as you are not protected. 

 

If you did not have any formal contract in place, Upwork can't help you, although you can report the client. 

 

Unless you read everything there is to read about Upwork and how it operates, you are going to have a tough time getting started. 


 

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Danielle, 


I'm sorry to learn about your experience with this client. Please know that before you start working on any project on Upwork, we recommend that you make sure that an offer was sent, you have accepted it, and it's showing as an active contract on your My Jobs page, and  the client's payment method is verified.

 

I would recommend that you read up on these freelancer resources and these tips for avoiding questionable jobs, for help getting started, and for more information about working safely through Upwork. Hopefully this will help you work safely on Upwork. 


~ Avery
Upwork
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