Contract suspended, client threatens to leave bad review

[ayafernandez]

Hi,

I'm panicking a little. I was hired on hourly-basis but halfway work and two weeks later, Upwork suspended the contract and notified me to stop working. I requested the client to contact customer support to resume, however it was never resolved. It seems client's payment failed and has issues with identity. I was instead provided payment by Upwork through its hourly protection.

However, client keeps demanding additional output which, I refused because our contract is still suspended. He was not happy about that. Now he is threatening to leave me poor feedback -- which I am afraid of as I'm still building my JSS after suffering another scam work last time. 

Is there any way to protect myself from this? The contract is still open yet suspended and I'm just afraid of this impacting my JSS.

[pgiambalvo]

I'm sure somone from Upwork will reach out to you here, but given the circumstances, I can't belive that Upwork would allow this client to leave you a bad review, but if they were somehow able to, Upwork would remove it so that it does not negatively impact your JSS.

[ayafernandez]

Thanks Peter for the response. Unfortunately I've received a response from customer support that tells me that suspended clients can still leave me a bad review regardless. 

[pgiambalvo]

That's very disappointing to hear. Suspended clients should not be able to leave reviews. I wonder if suspended freelancers can?