Client refuses to make the payment.

[riyadosani]

Hello,

My name is Riya and I'm fairly new to Upwork. I recently landed a project with one of the Upwork clients and as per the contract, I'll be paid a fixed price+ commission on my work. I delivered my first milestone project, and the Client even approved it, without any changes. However, after that, the communication between me and the client was reduced to once a week. I even asked him to message me if he requires me to work on further commission based projects. To which, he replied saying "I'll let you know soon". But, I hadn't heard from him since then. The last conversation we exchanged was on 6th April. 

This week I received a notification from the said Client asking for a refund. Clueless, I asked him about his concerns and requested him to make the payment. His reply was that I was despondent and unavailable. But the truth is, I never heard from him either! He says he's hired someone else for the project, to which I'm okay. All I'm asking him is to make the payment for the project that I had initially worked on. I even messaged him, but he refuses to reply. 

Please help. What's the ideal solution to this problem? I'm quite confused and don't know how to confront this issue.

Thanks,

Riya.  

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Riya,

I'm sorry to hear about the bad experience you had. Unfortunately unfunded milestones and promised funds are not covered under our Fixed-Price Protection for Freelancers.

One of our team members will contact you directly so that you can provide us with more details and we will investigate the client further. Thank you!

[prestonhunter]

re: "Client refuses to make the payment."

What this really means is that the freelancer does not know how to use Upwork properly.

That's okay!

Part of being a new freelancer is either:

- reading the instructions

or

- trying things out and learning from your mistakes.

You chose the latter option, and that is completely valid. But it is important that you learn what you did wrong so that you can avoid doing the same thing next time.

You can not succeed on Upwork unless you let go of the past and move forward. Resolve now that you will not be paid for the work you did for that client, but that you'll use Upwork more wisely with the next client and get paid fully.

[kat303]

Riya - I second Preston's response to you. It sounds like the client funded escrow. Is there funds deposited into escrow?

It also sounds like you did not submit the completed work through the Submit Work/Request Payment button. So, if there are funds in escrow, what you need to do now is to dispute that request.

Then once that matter is settled, you need to read the help section so you'll know how to use and work on this site. If you don't, you'll have more problems and a great possibility of being scammed and having your account suspended because of that.