client does not active second milestone. Read discription

[hafizsyedhamza]

Greetings Upwork support team. I am a freelancer and a client named **Edited for Community Guidelines** posted a job that he want work on urgent basis. I sent a proposal on this job and after discussion he hired me. He created two milestones on the contract. The first milestone was for 1 hour delivery and he said to me that he need a little sample of his work so that he make sure that I am working in the exact way he wanted to be. And after the submission of sample, he will active second milestone. The second milestone will be completed when i deliver him complete project. I completed all his work in first milestone and after that he said me that his client need few changes and he will contact me after 1 day. Now, its been 3 days and he has not contact me yet. I messaged him but he is not responding. I also tried to reach him by  mail. I had completed his work in the first milestone now he disappeared and did not active second milestone. Please look into this matter.

[petra_r]

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Hafiz Syed Hamza A wrote:

I had completed his work in the first milestone now he disappeared and did not active second milestone.

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Never complete all the work unless the whole amount is funded. There is absolutely no recourse as money that isn't funded can't be disputed.

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Hafiz Syed Hamza A wrote:

 Please look into this matter.

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There is nothing to look into.

[arulprasadj]

Always request and ensure to activate milestones before submitting any works.

[hafizsyedhamza]

is there any solution now?

[wlyonsatl]

The only person who can move this project on to the next milestone is the client by releasing payment for the first milestone to you and fully fundng the next milestone.

If (s)he doesn't do these things or respond to your follow-up messages then you should consider the project complete.

It is possible this is one of those clients who doesn't communicate well, so give them some time (a month?) to respond to your follow-up messages before closing the project. They can always re-start the project at any time.

[wlyonsatl · Accepted solution]

Hafiz Syed Hamza A.,

It is not unusual for Upwork clients to disappear before a project is complete. This is just a fact of life as a freelancer here. 

For this reason, you should only work on one fully-funded milestone at a time.

When you compete work on that milestone, use the green "Submit" button for the milestone on the project page to send the work to the client. Do not submit the finished work via email or other means, as that can allow a dishonest client to take your work, cancel the project and pay you nothing for your work. You will not be paid if this happens.

After submitting the work, you will then be paid by the client telling Upwork to release payment for the milestone. If that is not done by the client within 14 days of submission, Upwork will release to you the funded amount of that milestone.

DO NOT re-submit the work hoping to encourage the client to release payment. The 14 day clock re-starts each time the work is formally submitted by you.

Don't begin work on any subsequent milestone until a) full payment for all previous milestones has been released to you and b) it has been funded.

If you don't hear back from this particular client consider the project complete and move on to other things. After a month or so of waiting to hear back from the client, you can close the project, telling the client you will be happy to work on any remaining portion of the project (if that's true). It is unlikely they will respond, but you never know.

Good luck!