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kalpanadixit
Community Member

My first contract is paused as client's account get suspended

Hi Guys,

 

I am new to upwork and after struggling for a few months, I finally got my first contract. I worked for a few hours also which are auto tracked by upwork app. But suddenly after working for a week, I got a message that my client has set the weekly limit from NO LIMIT to ZERO and this was not communicated to me from my client's end.

 

We had an active conversation about work on a daily basis but after this notification, I am not receiving any revert from my client and he is constantly showing as AWAY.

 

I am worried about two things: 

1. Payment of my worked hours - auto tracked by upwork desktop app

2. My Review - As this was my first project and if the client's account gets suspended, will it be bad for my opening reviews? How will I get my first review in this case?

6 REPLIES 6
prestonhunter
Community Member

Kalpana:

Welcome to Upwork, and congratulations on getting hired for your first contract.

 

Your client changed the weekly limit to zero hours. Do not take this personally. ANY client has the right to do this with an hourly contract at ANY time. This may mean little or nothing with regards to your work as a freelancer. What if this client has 10 freelancers working for him, and he has a busy Christmas vacation, with many family activities. He will be away from his office and won't have time to monitor the work that freelancers are doing. So he set them ALL to zero hours temporarily, and will unpause things after his vacation. This is a possibility.

 

re: "I am worried about two things: Payment of my worked hours - auto tracked by upwork desktop app"

 

You have nothing to worry about. You will be paid for all hours that you worked, regardless of whether or not a client (a) pauses a contract; (b) sets the maximum number of hours to zero; [or] (c) closes the contract.

 

re: "My Review - As this was my first project and if the client's account gets suspended, will it be bad for my opening reviews? How will I get my first review in this case?"

 

As far as we know, your client's account has not been suspended. Furthermore, nothing you have described indicates that anything negative will happen with your review or JSS.

Preston:

Thank you for your detailed response. It was quite insightful. 

I have one more query if you can address that too, it will be helpful. Thank you in advance!

 

I am able to communicate with my client and now he has set my weekly hours from ZERO to some figure. As per my client, my contract is still active in his knowledge. But on upwork, it is constantly showing as "On Hold". What does this imply? Once the weekly hours are set more than ZERO, shouldn't it activate the contract automatically?

 

 

lysis10
Community Member


Kalpana D wrote:

Hi Guys,

 

I am new to upwork and after struggling for a few months, I finally got my first contract. I worked for a few hours also which are auto tracked by upwork app. But suddenly after working for a week, I got a message that my client has set the weekly limit from NO LIMIT to ZERO and this was not communicated to me from my client's end.

 

We had an active conversation about work on a daily basis but after this notification, I am not receiving any revert from my client and he is constantly showing as AWAY.

 

I am worried about two things: 

1. Payment of my worked hours - auto tracked by upwork desktop app

2. My Review - As this was my first project and if the client's account gets suspended, will it be bad for my opening reviews? How will I get my first review in this case?


I think sometimes they can't figure out how to pause a contract so they set it to zero hours. 

Jennifer:

 

Thank you for your response. Is there an option to pause the contract in the state of any conflict or confusion? If yes please tell me, I would communicate that to my client also.

Just because a number of hours per week is allowed, doesn't necessarily mean you can work.

 

A client may "pause" a contract at any time, preventing hours from being logged.

 

Also, Upwork itself may put a contract on hold. Typically this happens when there is a problem with the client's payment method.





Kalpana D wrote:

Jennifer:

 

Thank you for your response. Is there an option to pause the contract in the state of any conflict or confusion? If yes please tell me, I would communicate that to my client also.


By setting hours to 0 they've essentially paused it. You say it's on hold anyway, so the client has a payment problem probably. Can't work on it regardless if where were hours available.

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