Proposal

[s-zakharenko]

Hello.

I'm new here.

Recently I got a proposal. I communicated with the customer in messages. The customer promised me to pay for my work. I agreed to the task, done it, and sent him ready materials. After that customer hide and didn't pay me.

Did I have to request a contract from him? I didn't understand it from the proposal page.

Can I get my earnings from the customer? Or it's impossible?

Thank you.

[petra_r]

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Sergey Z wrote:

 I communicated with the customer in messages. The customer promised me to pay for my work. I agreed to the task, done it, and sent him ready materials. After that customer hide and didn't pay me.

Did I have to request a contract from him? 

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Too late. You unfortunately worked for free.

Please, in future, make sure you never work until you have been properly hired. That means you were sent an offer, and you accepted that offer, creating a contract between the client and yourself.

[a_nandhini]

Though even I am recently active in Upwork, in this shorter period other than genuine clients who really want to solve the problem, many clients chat a lot and sometimes ask for a solution but not willing to start a contract. Even after asking for a contract, they don't want to.  But keep insisting to give a solution so that they will start the contract.  Even for a simple work, they interview many candidates and not hiring anyone.   

[prestonhunter]

re: "...many clients chat a lot and sometimes ask for a solution but not willing to start a contract."

You're right.

Conscientious, ethical clients will not do something like that.

But there are clients who will do that. But they can only do so if you let them.

My recommendation to freelancers is to really give this some thought and come up with a strategy that works well for you. What will you say to a client who keeps talking and doesn't start a contract? How many minutes of "pre-hire" discussion to you allow? Think of how you will handle this, and start practicing.

[louisaj]

Hi Sergey, 

Basically, you have to have a contract in place before you start working if you want to be paid.

A client raises a contract and places money in Escrow, you accept the contract, you start working, you submit the work to the client when done.

If you had a fixed-price contract, the client releases the funds automatically or they will be released to you by Upwork after 14 days. If you had an hourly contract, you use the Upwork time tracker and you will be paid the hours you worked 10 days from the end of that week.

If you didn't have a contract then you cannot get any money from the client. Have a look at how it all works before you start another project. 

https://www.upwork.com/hiring/education/getting-started-for-freelancers/

[annette-design]

As above but yes also make sure the milestone or project is funded before you start. Don’t start just because you accepted the offer. I find compared to my outside upwork freelance clients I have to chase a lot more on upwork for funding etc even after contract has started.