Payment Issue

[sabasadaf]

Hi,
I want some help. I had started my first job with a client a couple of days earlier. His payment method was not verified. He told me that he is new at upwork and his payment verification is under process. So, I got started with him and worked hard to complete his articles and then send him via inbox before time because he needed them urgently. I also did not find any work submission button on my contract page. So, I submitted the work to him through inbox. You can check my inbox, chat and files. Now, after getting the articles, he told me that articles are awesome and he will pay me after sometime. But he never replied back to me. I sent him a lot of message but he did not reply. Please help in this regard. How can I get my amount? Can you help me in getting this?
I will be thankful.

Thanks
Regards:

[petra_r]

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@Saba S wrote:

Hi,
I want some help. I had started my first job with a client a couple of days earlier. His payment method was not verified. He told me that he is new at upwork and his payment verification is under process. So, I got started with him and worked hard to complete his articles and then send him via inbox before time because he needed them urgently. I also did not find any work submission button on my contract page. So, I submitted the work to him through inbox. You can check my inbox, chat and files. Now, after getting the articles, he told me that articles are awesome and he will pay me after sometime. But he never replied back to me. I sent him a lot of message but he did not reply. Please help in this regard. How can I get my amount? Can you help me in getting this?

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 Was it an hourly or a fixed rate contract and has the client now verified their payment method?

If the client verfied the payment method you get paid either automatically what you tracked with the Upwork tracker if it was an hourly job, or what was funded in Escrow if it was a fixed price contract.

If the client does not verify their payment method, you will not get paid at all.

NEVER work, let alone hand over work, if the client's payment method is not verified.

Google your articles. If you find them anywhere you can issue a take-down-notice as you still own them.

[sabasadaf]

It was an hourly job and client's payment method is still unverified.

How to trace my articles and report them as mine?

[prestonhunter]

re: "How can I get my amount?"

From what you described, it sounds like you were dealing with a pretty smooth scammer. So it is likely you won't get paid.

Did you even have a contract with him?

You can verify this by going to: My Jobs -> My Jobs, where you will see a list of "Active Contracts." If you do not see a contract for your work with this "client" listed there, it means you were not hired. If you have no contract, there is no way to be paid.

[prestonhunter]

If you wrote articles, and end up not getting paid for them, then they belong to you.

According to the scammer "client," the articles are "awesome." Congratulations!

You may sell the articles to somebody else. Or you may include these articles in your portfolio.

[sabasadaf]

Yes, I had a contract with him.

[AveryO]

Hi Saba, 

I'm sorry to learn about your experience. Please know that hours logged on a contract where the client's payment method is unverified will not be covered by the Hourly Protection Program. If you have further questions about this contract, you can post it on the same ticket thread so that the team can assist you further.

[sabasadaf]

It means upwork is not going to do anything for me. You people are not going to help me to get my payments.

If there is no payment protection for freelancers then why you allow the clients to post jobs who have unverified payment methods?

Please make some freelancer friendly policies.

[AveryO]

I'm sorry you feel this way, Saba. Please know that we have the Upwork Payment Protection Program and there are qualifications for the Payment Protection to apply. In this case, the Client's payment method was unverified when you started working on the project. We always recommend freelancers to only start working on projects once a contract has been offerred, it was accepted by the freelancer, it is showing on your My Jobs page, and the client's payment method is verified. 

[BojanS]

Hi Saba,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I see that you have an open ticket about this. Please allow time for our team to review your request and they will update your ticket once they finish. When working on Upwork, please make sure that a client has a verified billing method so that the work you do can be covered by Upwork Payment Protection.  Check out this Post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs. Thank you for your patience!