.

[AveryO]

Hi Soumya, 

I'm sorry to learn about your experience. I can see that two teams are assisting you with the issue - the Customer Support Team, and the Technical Team are looking into your access to the Disputes page on your account, and the Mediation Team is currently assisting you with your open dispute with your client. 

I can see that you have also filed a chat-support ticket where our agent has explained to you why arbitration is being recommended by your Dispute Specialist. As she has noted - 

"If your client fails to respond to mediation after two contact attempts, the dispute will be resolved in your favor and all funds will be released to you. Users can usually come to an agreement among themselves, but if the parties are unable to agree in a reasonable period of time, the dispute specialist will make a non-binding recommendation. If that recommendation is rejected, the final option is to proceed to arbitration."

Since this is a public forum, I am unable to comment about your current dispute, but would recommend that you read up on this thread for more information about disputes.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Soumya,

I wanted to double check if you can access your dispute from your ticket section Here? If yes, feel free to post any additional questions on your ticket and our team will assist you as soon as possible. Thank you.

[g_vasilevski · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the follow up Somuya,

I will share the details with our team and one of our team members will assist you directly on your ticket as soon as possible.

[lysis10]

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Soumya N wrote:

Hi,

For those freelancers who currently and unfortunately have an open dispute, are you'll experiencing the issue of not being able to access the dispute under My Disputes? Screenshot attached. I've tried multiple browsers, devices, deleted cache and cookies, and there's still nothing showing up.

Luckily, I have the email thread that's generated through the ticket in my personal inbox and I'm able to communicate with my Dispute Specialist through it for now. They took a lot of time getting back to me about the dispute stating "We have implemented some changes with the dispute center and apologize for the delay in responding to you."

Assistance with 2 more things if you don't mind please:

a. My client has been uncommunicative except for ending the contract with an Escrow balance in it 7 days after I submitted the work. I've tried communicating to settle the issue, gave up and decided to seek Dispute Assistance. However, my Dispute Specialist is sending me information about arbitration with no non-binding recommendation. Is this usual or is there some new change I'm not aware of? 

b. Apparently, the client communicated with the Specialist, but that's all I know. I'm super confused about what's going on. How do we come to a mutual agreement with one party being unresponsive and the other copy pasting entire sections of the Upwork T&Cs? Where is the Dispute Assistance in all of this?

Thank you for your time. Any suggestions/inputs/feedback will be appreciated.

Best,

Soumya

---

a) Yes, it is normal. Unless you're like me and tell the mediator what you want and what you will and won't do, they try to make suggestions. Usually, it's the suggestion for the client to give you some payment for your time, and for you it's usually some suggestion in the form of revisions or trying to make the client happy. IMO, doing more work is a bad idea, so I always so "no" it has to be a payment settlement.

b) Yes, they always reiterate that they cannot make a decision and if something can't be settled without arbitration, then the only way to make a binding decision is through arbitration because mediators cannot decide who gets the money.

The best way to handle this is to decide how much money you will take as a settlement and then threaten arbitration if you don't get it. Arbitration is $300, but if the client doesn't pay then you auto win along with the fee back.

eta: do not believe the people in this forum who claim mediators decided. They didn't.

[lysis10]

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Soumya N wrote:
Hi Jennifer,

Thank you for your response. It has been more than 10 days now and the only communication from the Dispute Specialist is about giving the unresponsive client more time followed by sending me the copy pasted section of the Arbitration T&Cs. Zero communication regarding anything I ask or put across like I already stated.

Where is the question of getting my requirements/wants/needs across when all I receive are bot-sounding automated responses from them explaining what a "business day" means. They haven't even acknowledged receiving all the factual information about the dispute, including project related screenshots, messages and communication.

Best,
Soumya

---

I believe they specify now that it's business days, so no weekends or holidays. So, the client gets 3 business IIRC, and then yes, if they don't respond then they are given another 48 hours. I wonder if freelancers would get the same buffer, but that's always how it is. Mediation is always about 2 weeks I'd say from start to finish unless they tell you that you have to do a phone call, and then it's however long you have to wait for the phone call. Then, if you can't agree within the hour during the phone call, it's arbitration.

The screenshots and communication with the client don't matter to the mediator, because again they cannot decide. The way to approach this is not to try to defend yourself or prove anything. This is where a lot of freelancers make mistakes and get frustrated. It's useless. The way to approach it is to decided what you will settle for and if you don't get it, you threaten arbitration and be ready to pay the fee.

[lysis10]

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Soumya N wrote:
The Dispute Specialist gave the client an extension beyond 5 business days. Had it been the freelancer who was unresponsive, I'm sure they would have released the funds to the client by the 47th hour...lol

I was merely stating the fact that I sent them all the information they needed in response to their templated email asking for the same, but like you said they couldn't care less, Jennifer. I'm still waiting to hear from the agent, so that I can decide whether to proceed with arbitration or not.

---

Well, IME the client will probably lowball a settlement offer. The mediator might suggest that you do revisions, but IMO nothing you do will make a client happy at this point and you're opening yourself to lost time and more arguments from the client, so IMO you should decide in your mind what is the lowest you'll go. Stick to your guns and anything less than what you will accept as a minimum tell them it's arbitration. There is a good chance the client will fold. 

Mediator will come back and charge you, but then the client gets more time to pay unless they've just totally disappeared. Never had one disappear totally without offering a settlement, but had one disappear after I paid arbitration.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Soumya,

Sorry you've had a negative experience with a client and with the dispute process. I understand that it's frustrating to wait for updates on the dispute ticket. We checked with the team and see that the timeline was correct in this case. The client did respond before the normal deadlines that were given to them as weekends aren't counted as business days.

Your ticket has been updated with more information and the team will continue assisting you and your client with the dispute.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Soumya,

Rest assured our Dispute team has received your most recent updates and is reviewing the information. Your responses via email on the dispute ticket are delivered to the team and you will also be notified about the updates via email. Since we aren't able to discuss the details of a dispute case here in the Community, it's best to communicate with the team via the email. I've followed up with them as well. 

We appreciate your patience.

[AveryO]

Hi Soumya, 

I understand how this can be frustrating on your end, and I apologise for the inconvenience. I can see that the team has escalated this to our Technical Support Team so that it can be investigate further. 

The Customer Support Team will reach out to you on your tickets with more information.