How to raise a complaint

[a01b3859]

I am relatively new to Upwork and wondered how do you raise a complaint with Upwork if required to do so. I did have a look, but the only support i found was a member of upwork staff offering support via DM - but when you clicked on him to DM it said i didnt have the priveledge to contact him. Any advice would be apprecaited.

[prestonhunter]

I depends on what your compaint is about.

Is there something that you do not like about he Upwork user interface?

Then this Community Forum is probably the best place to discuss it or offer your suggestions.

Are you a client who hired a freelancer and you don't like that freelancer's work?

The best thing to do is to just fire the freelancer. You don't need Upwork's permission to do that.

If a client or freelancer is violating Upwork ToS, or committing some sort of reportable offense, then the best way to report that is to click on the "Flag as inappropriate" button links that appear in the top right-hand corner of every job posting and every freelancer profile page.

Did I already provide you with information about how to handle your particular complaint? If not, tell us what it is you want to discuss, and we can point you in the right direction.

[a01b3859]

Hi Preston
Thanks for the message. The complaint is regarding a freelancer, we agreed a certain amount of money to be spent on the project and was promised the work would be done on time, it wasnt, and somehow the freelancer has managed to bill me nearly double we agreed for the work, i have obviously contacted the freelancer and asked him to retract the bill request. I havent had a positive response yet and wanted to be sure where/how to complain if it was to escalates; which it may do today.

Thanks

[prestonhunter]

Stephen:

This Forum is probably the best place for you to discuss such issues.

It is here that you can pose questions and gain perspective about such things. You can receive advice about what to do.

Also, if there is something that Upwork needs to take action about, then Forum Moderators can directly intervene and put the issue in front of the right people.

Your situation does NOT require Upwork intervention.

Now that you have explained what your question is about, I believe other Forum regulars and perhaps Upwork moderators will reply here.

[sbaig2]

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

 there too many job posts with diffrent name and subject but same person

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Saleem,

If you have noticed any suspicious activities from a client you can always use our flagging options to report them. To learn more about this, check out this guide. Thank you.

[4afb5f76]

I have an issue someone accepted my proposal for his copy paste work and did the 100 pages costing 25$ each in total would be paid 2500$ finished the work when submitting and requesting for payment he said it's pending since I haven't linked my payment method to the company and I had to send my details and a linking fee of 80$  which would be refunded.....and that's where I noticed it's like they were trying to scam worst of all they were posing as **Edited for Community Guidelines** company members. It's so depressing I did the work but it was all in vain

[prestonhunter]

Abigael:
You are correct:
You did all that work in vain.

I you were scammed.

The good news is:

This was your fault.

You made many mistakes and you broke Upwork rules.

This is a good thing, because it means you can change how you act in the future and that way you will avoid this happening.

[4afb5f76]

How was it my fault while am relatively new to this

[c84359e2]

The problem happend for me also mam. The company mail id is **Edited for Community Guidelines**.All gave me thw typing job for 100 pages. After completing that they have not given my payment $3000-$30 and including this they cheated and got $12 from me and deleted the numbers and accounts. 

[NikolaS]

Hi Anitha,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I checked and it looks like you were not hired for this job and shouldn't provide any work until your client sends you an offer and a contract is created under your My Jobs tab. 

I encourage you to let us know if a TOS violation has happened by using the Flag as Inappropriate option throughout the platform. You can learn more about user reporting here.

I encourage you to check this thread and this help article to help you stay safe on Upwork. Additionally, you may want to check the Academy section and learning paths available to help you get started. 

[327679b6]

I was scammed by a freelancer for over $1000 US dollars who did NO work for me except 5 years ago. This just happened a few weeks ago. I did not even realize there was a contract since I don't remember signing one. But this freelancer aka thief, **Edited for Community Guidelines** put in work once he saw i updated my payment method since I was working with another freelancer. Upwork billed my account without checking that he did actually do work for me. When I discovered the scam I contacted him and accused him of stealing my money. He refunded $ 210 to my account and offered to do any work for me outside of upwork.  He even sent me his whatsapp number. I then contacted upwork about the scam while he continued to put in false work and upwork charged my card without any work done or proof of work done.i filed a dispute and  a moderator named Bernadette entered to get answers from both of us. She gave until Dec 17 for response. This thief, **Edited for Community Guidelines**, responded and said, "I do not agree." This was all he said to my pages of explanation. At this point I am bleeding, I have no money and I disputed it with my bank. They temporarily put the money back in my account and Bernadette the moderator said she could do no more since i disputed with the bank. The bank came back a few days later and reversed the charges back to my account because upwork "proved" that I worked with them and gave them my credit and debit cards. This was for ANOTHER FREELANCER **Edited for Community Guidelines**

Meanwhile I am out $842.95 because upwork allowed scamming of their customers. You should have access to all communication on Upwork. You will see he made all fake zoom calls that did not take place. When the moderator asked him to provide proof of his work he could not. Why have you still not refunded my money? I will not stop until i get my money back so please address this asap because I will tell the world about the scam that is allowed to go on. I believe this man has done this before and gotten away with it. I await you making this right for the customers that trust you and pay you.

[LuiggiR]

Hi Hillary,

I'm sorry to learn about your experience with the freelancer. We've escalated your Community post via a support ticket and one of our agents has contacted you directly to assist you further with this. 

[yofazza]

Not new.

While I believe it's Upwork's fault for failing to provide a safer environment for their different types of clients, they and some people might think it's your fault.

What you should do now is to find your contracts page and end or pause the freelancer's contract, and then go to the bank to provide more details if Upwork can't help you.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Stephen,

One of our team members will reach out to you via ticket as soon as possible where you can share more details with our team. Our team will assist you further directly on your ticket, thank you.

[a01b3859]

Hi Goran
Thanks i do appreciate this as i would rather speak directly to Upwork - i presume i will be sent a private message?

Thankyou
Stephen 

[AleksandarD]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for your question. I checked and it seems that one of our team members already reached out to you directly via a support ticket to assist you further with your request. 

Thank you.

[b2bsourcing]

Goran V

Kindly help 

I was in engagement with a client,  she has already gotten the contacts she was looking for when l requested her to offer me the job first since all she is requesting is part of the work am going to do for, then l just got a very shocking message from her as seen below so l wonder where l went wrong kindly help me solve this problem 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[NikolaS]

Hi Daniel,

I am sorry to hear about your experience with this client. I’ve escalated your community post to a support ticket sp that we can look into this further. One of our agents will be in touch with you soon to assist.

[90e503ce]

Exactly the same happened to us. They release the escrow against our will and pay the freelancer for no work. We lost $3800 but we'll not let it go.

[prestonhunter]

re: "Exactly the same happened to us. They release the escrow against our will and pay the freelancer for no work. We lost $3800 but we'll not let it go."

I am very sorry that you had a disappointing experience while using Upwork.

I have hired over 180 freelancers. I have never lost a significant amount of money like that. The good news for you: You have access to the same client-side tools that I have access to.

Here are two great options for you:

a) Until you understand how to use fixed-price contracts more effectively, only use hourly contracts. With an hourly contract, no money is tied up in escrow. No money is charged to your credit card up front. There are no disputes over escrow money if a freelancer does no work. If a freelancer does no work, and logs no time, then you simply close the contract and your credit card is charged ZERO dollars. Easy!

b) Hire a project manager who understands how to use Upwork's fixed-price contract model effectively.

[90e503ce]

I understand the fixed price contract. I am using Upwork since 2016. The contract has been made for fully functional website with a deadline. Because we have not received anything we cancel the contract, but the freelancer requested full payment. There was no other option for me than dispute that and we ended up in dispute mediation. The mediator ignored the fact they missed the deadline and they didn't provide us with any work because the freelancer presented how many hours they worked and what they tried, etc. Finally mediator said he recommend us to pay them $2700 (contract made for $3500/ we paid $3828 to Upwork) and we didn't agree to pay anything. The mediator said we have until February 18. To pay for arbitration and if no party will enter arbitration the money will be returned to us. I did check every day the claim discussion if I see the freelancer enter arbitration so I can do the same, but I believed because they have no work to show, they'll not spend extra $330 for nothing and they'll let it go. Nothing has been posted until Feb 20. When a message pop up saying we missed the deadline of Feb 18. for arbitration and the money has been released to freelancer. When I said this is unbelievable, they didn't informed us the freelancer enter the arbitration so we didn't have a chance to react and do the same, the mediator replied we had the same chance as the freelancer and they didn't inform anyone about anything because the freelancer paid for the arbitration in last minute on Feb 18. and they have no control over it. I think it's simple BS because if they said "if no party enter arbitration the money goes back to the customer" doesn't have any logic, unless they would like to make extra $330 for nothing, just because people are afraid to not pay for the arbitration because they're afraid the other will and they'll lose a chance to get money back. When I complained about the whole dispute process the mediator replied there are rules for everyone, they released the money and can do nothing. We end up with absolutely nothing and $3828 has been stolen from us.

[prestonhunter]

re: "I understand the fixed price contract. I am using Upwork since 2016. The contract has been made for fully functional website with a deadline."

But... That doesn't work.

If you have had that work for you in the past, or have heard about something like that working for somebody else, I would regard it as a fluke. An exception to the rule.

Successful commissioning of any project of significant size and scope entails hiring multiple freelancers to work on the project in a modular fashion.

A project manager is reponsible for a project being done on time and on budget.

It is not the client's responsibility to make sure that happens. It is not Upwork's responsibility. It is not any developer's responsibility.

These are principles of successful software engineering. Upwork can't change these.

I really don't believe that successful Upwork clients who commission complex software projects and complex websites do so using big "all-or-nothing" fixed-price contracts, disputes or arbitration.

re: "...they released the money and can do nothing. We end up with absolutely nothing and $3828 has been stolen from us."

I am very sorry that you experienced such a disappointing turn of events.

But I hope that others can learn from this.

I think that any client reading this thread would be wise to NOT use Tom's approach. I think that this approach will rarely work anywhere. This is not something that Upwork can offer, even if they want to. This is not something that a freelancer can realistically offer, even if she sincerely believes that she can.

[tlsanders]

What do you mean when you say they released the escrow "against your will"? 

Did the freelancer click the submit work/request payment button? Then, did you choose not to take any action during the 14-day review period when you can prevent escrow funds from being released if you are not satisfied with the work? 

That's the only way I can think of that escrow funds could be released to the freelancer without your consent, unless you went through arbitration and lost.

[90e503ce]

No, we cancel the contract for breach of contract - no work delivery and missing deadline. The freelancer requested payment and we refused. The freelancer opened dispute and never proved anything done. I don't understand how they can even request payment if they didn't make any work in the first place. The contract should be enough to take care of this situation, but based on Upwork the contract doesn't mean anything.

The mediator said we have until February 18. To pay for arbitration and if no party will enter arbitration the money will be returned to us. I did check every day the claim discussion if I see the freelancer enter arbitration so I can do the same, but I believed because they have no work to show, they'll not spend extra $330 for nothing and they'll let it go. Nothing has been posted until Feb 20. When a message pop up saying we missed the deadline of Feb 18. for arbitration and the money has been released to freelancer. When I said this is unbelievable, they didn't informed us the freelancer enter the arbitration so we didn't have a chance to react and do the same, the mediator replied we had the same chance as the freelancer and they didn't inform anyone about anything because the freelancer paid for the arbitration in last minute on Feb 18. and they have no control over it. I think it's simple BS because if they said "if no party enter arbitration the money goes back to the customer" doesn't have any logic, unless they would like to make extra $330 for nothing, just because people are afraid to not pay for the arbitration because they're afraid the other will and they'll lose a chance to get money back. The only party who is making extra money is again only Upwork.

[eaf64886]

The Client or Company named as **Edited for Community Guidelines** is doing scams with freelancer via Upwork they people are doing scams and I'm the one who need justice. They assigned me for converting an image text into work then change it into a pdf single file they send me 40 pages after doing and submitting there work. They was saying to give them 30$ for getting my payment..

Seriously??

What is that.??

I have all the proves and evidence

Kindly that management of Upwork contact me immediately and take this matter serious it is humble request to you all 

[eaf64886]

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[PradeepH]

Hi Wajahat,

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear about your experience. I checked the job post you were referring to and it appears that it's already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork TOS.

Please check out this course for more tips on staying safe on Upwork and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[b76aeb85]

I have face a problem is that my client don't send me payment while I delivered my work within time ,what I do to receive my payment

[prestonhunter]

re: "I have face a problem is that my client don't send me payment while I delivered my work within time ,what I do to receive my payment"

When I work on Upwork, I get paid automatically.

My clients do not need to do anything. They do not need to "send payment."

Abdur:
You need to look to see if you were actually hired.
If you see the job listed here:
Upwork -> My Jobs -> My Jobs

...Then you were hired. That is good. You can get paid.
If you do NOT see the job listed there, then you were not hired. You can NOT get paid.
If you do NOT see the job listed there, then you made a mistake by working on this job without a contract. But that's okay! You can learn from your mistake and not make the same mistake next time.

[penngrp]

Paid for what? You have no jobs.

[06cd7e90]

Hello, I did a job for £600. Now the company have sent my money plus all the other money I paid totalling 9500usd (I know I'm stupid) to swiftvest and they want another 4500usd to release it. How can I get it back

[prestonhunter]

re: "Hello, I did a job for £600. Now the company have sent my money plus all the other money I paid totalling 9500usd (I know I'm stupid) to swiftvest and they want another 4500usd to release it. How can I get it back"

You can never get that money back.

I am sorry that you participated in a scam and lost money.

I know for certain that this must be a disappointing experience for you.

There are key steps you must take now:

1) Decide that you will never get that money back, and you will no longer try to get it back or desire to get it back.

2) Learn what your mistakes were, so that you can be sure to never make those same mistakes again.

3) Move forward with power and confidence.

[sofia2008]

Your best protection for the future would be to read the Terms of Service at the bottom of this page and the ressources from the Academy at the top of this page.

[262e6d03]

Hi, We hired a company to build a website, and once they charged us the money that was discussed, they ended the project. They have have still not delivered the project in full and we keep noticing issues. They ended the project in July and we still do not have the complete website.

They keep promising to fix it, but have not delivered in full yet.

Can someone help me report them and file a complaint. I can provide all the proof and information that is required.

Thanks.

[NikolaS]

Hi Aaron,

Thank you for reaching out to us. One of our team members will reach out to you directly via a support ticket to assist you further. You can access your tickets on this page.

[e100b4de]

I have an issue with withdrawals, i need someone to look into it asap.

I heard upwork has been having issues and I doubted it now my money is stuck.

I'd really like to make my withdrawal for all my work done. i acn't afford to wait any longer.

[2e6008a1]

Hi, my name is suleman im new to this platform, i was working with a client in first contract i was working with fixed price i got 25 from first. at the end of first contract client agree to place the contract of 36 , and my client is honest and i send me invite for new contract of 36 i accept that contract becuase i already have given 2 hour consultancy but during 2nd contract i further take new consultany

so due to that i create milestone and i added 54 usd to add, but my client say i already pay to upwork in escrow. for new consultany of 3 hour he will send new contract invite so due to that i withdraw my 56 milstone but in reality it cancel all my second contract but my intension was to rollback the 56 usd milestone and now im unable to get 36 because for for 56 client had create 3rd contract that is per hour. and now guide and enable back 36 contract and remove the 56 milstone

[prestonhunter]

Aaron:
For future reference, it is really important for you to understand that it is your project manager who is responsible for making sure that a project is completed. And it is your project manager who is responsible for arranging for new work to be done. Or for fixes to be made to existing work.

When you commission freelancers to build a website, it is not Upwork's responsibility to ensure that the website gets created or completed. And it is not the client's responsibility. Nor is it the freelancer's responsibility.

It is the project manager's responsibility to ensure that the work that freelancer's are hired to gets delivered, and that if any freelancer's are hired who are not providing work as expected, that those freelancers are removed from the team.

That is the job of a project manager.

If you did not hire a project manager, then that is a problem. You need to hire an independent project manager OR do the work of a project manager. YOU may do the work of a project manager yourself if you are qualified to do so. Upwork itself will not do that for you.

July was a couple of months ago. I hope that you can be made whole somehow. But as a practical matter, if you paid money for something two months ago, then you will not be getting that money back, ever. And if you have new work that you want done, then you will need to re-hire that freelancer/agency, or hire somebody new to work on the project.

As a client, I have hired over 180 freelancers on Upwork. I usually use hourly contracts. I nearly always receive complete work BEFORE my credit card is ever charged. Let me be clear: I receive all fo the work BEFORE paying anything for it.

[prestonhunter]

re: "They have have still not delivered the project in full and we keep noticing issues. They ended the project in July and we still do not have the complete website. They keep promising to fix it, but have not delivered in full yet. Can someone help me report them and file a complaint."

Aaron:

You are putting interest in one specific freelancer/agency ahead of the needs of your project and ahead of your own needs.

Don't do that.

Put yourself and your project first.

There is nothing for you to report.

There is no complaint to be filed.

You don't need to show any proof or information to anybody.

You don't need to communicate with Upwork in any way about any of this.

Nobody who works for Upwork is going to complete your website for you.

You hired a freelancer/agency to work on your website.

They did so.

They are no longer interested in working on your project.

You owe them nothing.

You do not owe them the opportunity to continue working on your project.

They are in the past.

Hire new individual freelancers (NOT an agency) to continue working on your project.

And hire an independent project manager to oversee the work.

Communicate to your project manager what you want done next, and allow the project manager to assign work to freelancers on your team. Quicklyl fire any freelancer if you don't love their work.

If you have any questions about how to succeed in accomplishing your goals, feel free to ask your questions right here in this thread.