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touseef73
Community Member

client wants a refund

hi, i just got a project from a client. After 24 hours he says i don't need it please give me refund. these are his exact words, HI Touseef we haven't talked in 24 hours. I don't really feel like i need a google map of the data anymore. I think the zestimate value provides enough info. I would like to request a refund. Sorry for your trouble. what should i do? will it affect my job success rate? 

10 REPLIES 10
lexidh
Community Member

It's not your problem that the client doesn't need what it has already paid you to do. Do NOT give a refund, and if you get any kind of bad review or grief from the client you need to report it. This just isn't acceptable behavior. This client should be thrown out of UpWork so it can't do it to others. 

prestonhunter
Community Member

Touseef:

If you have not done any work on this project yet, and have not provided anything to to the client, then it would be a generous thing to do if you granted a refund.

 

Would it affect your job success score? Yes? It will probably have a negative impact, because you have only one other job completed. So having a zero-pay contract will probably hurt JSS quite a bit.

 

You could tell the client:

"Franklin:

Thank you for contacting me quickly about this, before I actually did all the work. I would like to help you. I have not yet completed the project, and I could agree to a refund request. I want to be very honest with you, though. Because I am such a new freelancer, it would help me if I was paid SOMETHING for this contract. The agreed-upon amount was $250. I would be happy to agree right now to refunding all of this money, except for $2.00. You could pay me $2 as a token payment, and we would both win. This would be to help my profile score. Would that work for you?"


Preston H wrote:

Touseef:

If you have not done any work on this project yet, and have not provided anything to to the client, then it would be a generous thing to do if you granted a refund.

 

Would it affect your job success score? Yes? It will probably have a negative impact, because you have only one other job completed. So having a zero-pay contract will probably hurt JSS quite a bit.

 

You could tell the client:

"Franklin:

Thank you for contacting me quickly about this, before I actually did all the work. I would like to help you. I have not yet completed the project, and I could agree to a refund request. I want to be very honest with you, though. Because I am such a new freelancer, it would help me if I was paid SOMETHING for this contract. The agreed-upon amount was $250. I would be happy to agree right now to refunding all of this money, except for $2.00. You could pay me $2 as a token payment, and we would both win. This would be to help my profile score. Would that work for you?"


I wholeheartedly disagree with this approac. There is no win for the freelancer to let the client just "change their mind" and not pay for the work that was agreed upon. If the freelancer gets a bad review for standing up for himself in a contract breach, UpWork support should definitely be able to help. If not, then I'm out of here. The freelancer has done nothing wrong, and should not be punished for the client changing his mind after the fact, in any way, shape or form. 

lysis10
Community Member


Lexidh S wrote:


If the freelancer gets a bad review for standing up for himself in a contract breach, UpWork support should definitely be able to help. If not, then I'm out of here. The freelancer has done nothing wrong, and should not be punished for the client changing his mind after the fact, in any way, shape or form. 


Well, might want to pack your bags now. They don't get involved, and they shouldn't. You don't want them involved in your deals.

lexidh
Community Member


Jennifer M wrote:

Lexidh S wrote:


If the freelancer gets a bad review for standing up for himself in a contract breach, UpWork support should definitely be able to help. If not, then I'm out of here. The freelancer has done nothing wrong, and should not be punished for the client changing his mind after the fact, in any way, shape or form. 


Well, might want to pack your bags now. They don't get involved, and they shouldn't. You don't want them involved in your deals.


If a freelancer should be OK with broken contracts and having to pay back money because a client just didn't want the thing they paid for anymore, and then risk bad feedback if the freelancer refuses, then none of us should be here. You can't give a refund if a project isn't delivered and approved, so there was obviously work done and delivered. If not, I must have misunderstood the original post. 

lysis10
Community Member


Lexidh S wrote:


If a freelancer should be OK with broken contracts and having to pay back money because a client just didn't want the thing they paid for anymore, and then risk bad feedback if the freelancer refuses, then none of us should be here. You can't give a refund if a project isn't delivered and approved, so there was obviously work done and delivered. If not, I must have misunderstood the original post. 


He doesn't say if he worked or delivered anything. If you haven't worked on it, the right thing to do is give the money back. Maybe see if they will release $5 so that it's not a $0 contract. Some clients will give you something. But again it's not clear if he even worked on it because he said it was cancelled within 24 hours.

 

I'm not sure I understand why you think you can't give a refund on unworked escrow. You can give the client a refund at any time.

 

Clients can refuse to pay out the escrow, and then the mediation process starts if you refuse. But Upwork can't make a binding decision. You have to determine what you'll take (maybe that's the full amount) Only going to arbitration, which costs $291 if both parties pay.

This is a fixed price project with only one milestone $50 funded.
lysis10
Community Member

Did you do any work on it? That's not clear to me. If not, then no harm no foul but if you did work on it you could estimate how much he owes and ask for that amount.

m_sharman
Community Member


Touseef A wrote:

hi, i just got a project from a client. After 24 hours he says i don't need it please give me refund. these are his exact words, HI Touseef we haven't talked in 24 hours. I don't really feel like i need a google map of the data anymore. I think the zestimate value provides enough info. I would like to request a refund. Sorry for your trouble. what should i do? will it affect my job success rate? 


You did the work, where you paid hourly or on a fixed price?

Did you complete the full project?

 

kat303
Community Member


Touseef A wrote:

hi, i just got a project from a client. After 24 hours he says i don't need it please give me refund. these are his exact words, HI Touseef we haven't talked in 24 hours. I don't really feel like i need a google map of the data anymore. I think the zestimate value provides enough info. I would like to request a refund. Sorry for your trouble. what should i do? will it affect my job success rate? 


------------

It all depends on whether you worked on this job or not. If you worked on this job you should be paid a percentage of the total amount in relationship to the percentage of the work you did. If you didn't really do anything, then you'll need to refund what's in escrow. If you didn't do any work you can ask the client to at least release to you a few dollars ($2 or $3) and explain to him that a job with no money earned will hurt your JSS and ability to obtain future jobs. 

 

It isn't even clear whether this is a fixed rate job (which you would be paid for the work you did) or an hourly job (which you would be paid for the hours your worked)

 

 

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