Upwork Demanding for a Refund After a Month of Project Completion

[tubaarshad25]

As someone who has been successfully working on Upwork for more than five years now, I am highly disappointed with the approach of the platform towards freelancers and their payment protection.

I completed a job (1600$) on 02 September that was approved by client.

Money got in my withdrawable wallet after the 5 day security period (07 September) set by Upwork. Now after 23 days, Upwork asked me to refund it as client asked it back from its bank and bank refunded it. Upwork placed a payment withdrawal ban on my account so that I am not able to access my hard earned money.

With this said I want to bring forward a few points:

1) 5 day Upwork security period was completed after approval, So, I am not liable to any refund. Its Upwork's system failure and they are solely responsible for it.

2) Its a dangerous precedent to set for any freelancer, where your money is not safe even after months of successful completion of the project. Upwork gives sufficient time and opportunities to the client to raise objections throughout the whole project duration.

3) Upwork charges a hefty 20% fee for handling payment and transaction related matters, claiming that the freelancers can comfortably focus on working on the project without having to worry about payment guarantees.

4) Upwork claims money is in Escrow on start of a Fixed price contract. This totally negates there argument of bank not providing funds after 30 days

I would suggest new freelancers to steer clear of a platform like Upwork that provides a freelancer with no support. It is growing worse with each passing day.

[ArjayM]

Hi Tuba,

I'm really sorry to hear about this disappointing experience you had with a client. I can confirm that your case has been escalated to the appropriate team and it looks like you've been communicating with them about the issue. Please continue doing that so that the team can assist you accordingly and more efficiently. You can access the ticket here for your reference. Thank you!