website creation question

[07453c21]

Hi people,...i have someone in upwork preparing for me a dificult i think project...he asked me 10 days but i gave him 25 since i know that it will be difficult...he gave me also a much better price than others...my question is....after the 25 days if he dont succeed i take my money back and hire another freelancer?what about that persons work untill then?what will happend there?can i give him even a small amount for his job or since he didnt deliver everything went back so i must not give nothing?thank you on advance

[prestonhunter]

Paul: It is not Upwork's intention that you ever get money back from freelancers.

Just think about this logically: Upwork's revenue comes from clients paying freelancers. When freelancers send money back to clients, Upwork loses the money generated from the fees it collects on those payments.

But really, that's not what is important for you. The important thing for you to know is that refund thinking hurts clients.

Usually clients CAN NOT get money back from freelancers.

So... planning to get money back from freelancers can cause a lot of unnecessary expense and disappointment for clients.

MAYBE you can get money back. Maybe not. 

What is BETTER for clients to do is to plan to NEVER get money back. Don't even think about asking for money back. Instead, thoughtfully decide who to hire. And STOP sending money to underperforming freelancers. If a freelancer is doing a bad job for you, then stop sending money to him and assign those tasks to another freelancer.

To address a question that you specifically asked about: Upwork ToS specifically states that a client OWN the work when he pays what was agreed for it.

If you pay $50 as originally agreed to a freelancer to write an article, then you own the rights to the article. If you don't pay that amount, then you don't own the article and the freelancer owns it. He might sell that article to someone else or do whatever he wants with it.

What if you pay him one dollar? Technically he still owns the article, but if you use the article... MAYBE he doesn't care and doesn't do anything about it. Or maybe he does do something about it. Maybe he issues a takedown notice. Upwork TOS states that a client must pay fully for the freelancer's work in order to own the work. But in practice, freelancers sometimes refund some money to clients and the client still owns the work in a practical sense. Because the freelancer regards the client as being paid in full.

[07453c21]

hi my friend and thank you for the reply.i am sorry my question maybe was not clear..if my job is not done and i decline the escrow acount to give the money to the freelancer because of that....and i will need another freelancer..can i use the money from the escrow account to pay the other freelancer since the other freelancer didnt delivered what was suposed to?i dont want my money back i want my job to be done

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

Mostly what we see is that if a fixed-price milestone payment is REFUNDED to the client, the money goes back to the funding source. For example if you paid $20 by credit card, and the freelancer ended up NOT doing the work at all and refunded the money back to you, the money would automatically show up on your credit card within five business days.

BUT: It is ALSO possible for the refund to go back your Upwork account as credit available to use to hire other people. I do not know the details about HOW that decision is made, whether it is a specific setting, or based on conditions. But I know that if money goes back to the Upwork account and doesn't go back to your credit card, you can ask Customer Supoprt to send it back to the funding source, and they will do so.

The best practice for you as a client is to understand that any time you fund any money in an escrow payment for a fixed-price contract... The system intends for that money to go to the freelancer. As a client, you don't have a button to unilaterally get that money back. You may ASK the freelancer to refund that money back to you. What if the freelancer doesn't want to refund the money back to you? You might not be able to get it back. So you should not fund any escrow payments that are more than you can afford to lose. If you have a project that you anticipate will cost $3000....You should not fund a $3000 payment. Instead, you could fund a $50 payment for the first step. Then receive and review the first step. If you like their work, then create new milestones. If you don't like their work, the simplest and fastest thing to do is to release the $50 payment and close the contract.