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jcmaximo
Community Member

Dispute with Client

Hello Upwork.

 

About a week ago, I was hired to be a VA in a web developing agency. The process of onboarding took a little while about a week or so. Last night, the client messaged in the platform he gave his VAs to communicate (Wickr Pro APP). He then told me that I was not working, he was blaming me that for not working. I have not clocked my time yet. I was waiting for a job assignment/task. I thought I was not on board yet. I was shocked and confused. No one told me to start or even the process of onboarding is done. He is threatening to report me on Upwork because now I am uncooperative and combative.

 

More said I refuse to work with him anymore because of the situation and his attitude and I stood my ground if that's what he mean by "uncooperative and combative".

 

Hoping for your advice on this matter.

 

Regards,

Jeff

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
a_lipsey
Community Member


Jeffrey M wrote:

Hello Upwork.

 

About a week ago, I was hired to be a VA in a web developing agency. The process of onboarding took a little while about a week or so. Last night, the client messaged in the platform he gave his VAs to communicate (Wickr Pro APP). He then told me that I was not working, he was blaming me that for not working. I have not clocked my time yet. I was waiting for a job assignment/task. I thought I was not on board yet. I was shocked and confused. No one told me to start or even the process of onboarding is done. He is threatening to report me on Upwork because now I am uncooperative and combative.

 

More said I refuse to work with him anymore because of the situation and his attitude and I stood my ground if that's what he mean by "uncooperative and combative".

 

Hoping for your advice on this matter.

 

Regards,

Jeff


He can report you all he wants, you haven't even logged any time for any thing. Upwork is going to do what? Suspend you for not logging any time yet? Not charging him any money yet? 

 

Did you go through all that onboarding on your own time or did you log hours while doing that? If there is substantial onboarding I charge for it (And as a client, I pay for it). 

 

Just end the contract and walk away. Whatever is going on with that client, he's just not a fit for you. 

View solution in original post

8 REPLIES 8
JoanneP
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Jeffrey,

 

I'm really sorry to hear about your experience with your client. I can understand how disappointing this experience can be. I can see that you have also submitted a support ticket to our team and one of our agents has replied with more information. Please check your ticket by going here. The same message was also sent to the email address associated with your Upwork account. 

~ Joanne
Upwork
jcmaximo
Community Member

Hi Joanne,

 

Thank you for replying to this thread. Yes, I already received the email from your support team and I am taking the necessary actions on this issue.

 

Thank you,

Jeff

prestonhunter
Community Member

Jeffrey:

You were hired by a client who is blaming YOU for his incompetence?

 

Let me ask you a simple question:

If YOU hired somebody to work for you, and then you never gave that worker an assignment... you never told that worker what to do...

 

Would YOU fly off the handle and blame and threaten that worker?

 

Do you know ANYONE in your circle of friends and family who would behave that way?

Hi Preston,

 

Thank you for this message. That's exactly my point. No job assignment no work for me. I cannot decide when to step up. All the decisions should be coming from him or the management or team leaders or project leaders.

 

I would never blame anyone because of my incompetencies.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, here in our country the hierarchy of a management or a team is from the boss > managers > supervisors > team members. The boss would assign a project to the managers which will be relayed to the supervisors and then the supervisors will assign a specific task to the team members. When the task is completed, the team members will create a report for the supervisors and will be submitted to the managers and the boss. 

 

Again, I want to thank you for replying to my concern.

 

Regards,

Jeff


Jeffrey M wrote:

Correct me if I'm wrong, here in our country the hierarchy of a management or a team is from the boss > managers > supervisors > team members. The boss would assign a project to the managers which will be relayed to the supervisors and then the supervisors will assign a specific task to the team members. When the task is completed, the team members will create a report for the supervisors and will be submitted to the managers and the boss. 


Freelancers don't have bosses, managers or supervisors - we have clients. YOU are your own boss.

 

If a client wants to hire me and they don't provide enough details, I ask them questions like when would they like me to get started and what their deadline is, and I tell them what files I'll need from them. If they have me go through an onboarding process and then go silent, I send at least one follow up message. It doesn't hurt to be proactive.

 

Hi Christine.

 

Thank you for taking time on this matter.

 

I understand the point clearly and learned that during my first months on Upwork.

Maybe what's confusing me is I was hired by an agency and a part of a team consisting of VAs and developers, that is why I am expecting some guidance from experienced team members or from the client himself when and where to step up since I am new to the team.

 

And when I got proactive during the onboarding he just shuts me down. 

 

Thank you. I will keep in mind what you said here. This is very helpful with my success here on Upwork.

 

Kind Regards,

Jeff

 

a_lipsey
Community Member


Jeffrey M wrote:

Hello Upwork.

 

About a week ago, I was hired to be a VA in a web developing agency. The process of onboarding took a little while about a week or so. Last night, the client messaged in the platform he gave his VAs to communicate (Wickr Pro APP). He then told me that I was not working, he was blaming me that for not working. I have not clocked my time yet. I was waiting for a job assignment/task. I thought I was not on board yet. I was shocked and confused. No one told me to start or even the process of onboarding is done. He is threatening to report me on Upwork because now I am uncooperative and combative.

 

More said I refuse to work with him anymore because of the situation and his attitude and I stood my ground if that's what he mean by "uncooperative and combative".

 

Hoping for your advice on this matter.

 

Regards,

Jeff


He can report you all he wants, you haven't even logged any time for any thing. Upwork is going to do what? Suspend you for not logging any time yet? Not charging him any money yet? 

 

Did you go through all that onboarding on your own time or did you log hours while doing that? If there is substantial onboarding I charge for it (And as a client, I pay for it). 

 

Just end the contract and walk away. Whatever is going on with that client, he's just not a fit for you. 

Hi Amanda,
Thank you for taking the time for answering my concern.

He can report you all he wants, you haven't even logged any time for anything. Upwork is going to do what? Suspend you for not logging any time yet? Not charging him any money yet?

 

- Thank you for your clarifications. This is what I am trying to find out. If I broke any terms and conditions of Upwork.

 

Did you go through all that onboarding on your own time or did you log hours while doing that? If there is substantial onboarding I charge for it (And as a client, I pay for it). 

 

-I did not log my hours while taking the onboarding process. I just waited for his further instructions cause he is too busy to attend to all the tasks at hand as he stated in his messages.

 

Thank you. This clarifies a lot of things for me. As a new freelancer and a rising talent, I don't want to disappoint any client or anyone in the Upwork community.

 

Kind Regards,

Jeff

 

 
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