client hasn’t approved milestone and used my work

[momojojena]

I submitted work for payment for a client on Aug 6th. By the 16th the milestone hadn't been approved or released yet, but she had already published 2/4 of the posts I wrote for her on her blog. I resubmitted the payment request and said hey, forgot to pay me! Last week again I contacted her as she has still not approved the milestone and now has published 4/4 of my blog posts on her blog without payment, and zero response from her. I tried contacting her again and no response. I've worked with her for a long time and never had a problem so I'm sure it's a mistake, she obviously approved my work if she's used it already! But hasn't approved the milestone to release payment and it's been 3 weeks! How do I get my money if I can't get a hold of her?! She's totally unresponsive over this whole time 😕 Thanks for any help.

[lysis10]

When you resubmit it resets the 14 day countdown timer. You are shooting yourself in the foot when you do that.

[momojojena]

what 14 day timer?

[yofazza · Accepted solution]

Once you submit your work, your client has 14 days to review and either approve the milestone or ask for changes.

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211063748-Fixed-Price-Protection#:~:text=Review%20%26%2....

[momojojena]

Ah thanks, I've been on here for years and have never not had a client approve payment, had no idea about the 14 day automatic release. I have 2 days to go then, phew! thank you 😊

[martina_plaschka]

I have lots of perfectly lovely clients who don't approve milestones. I leave them alone and wait. 

I don't contact them, complain, or resubmit. 

[colettelewis]

Jena,

As Radia says, the client has 14 days to review your work once you have submitted it.  However, if you re-submit the work you start the 14-day process all over again. So yes, you  will have to wait. Stop nagging your client and eventually, if she doesn't come back to you, Upwork will automatically process your payment. On all fixed-price contracts, there is a further five or six-day security period, before your money will be available to you.