Upwork refunded my "banned" client without asking me.

VenoM9078

Long story short - someone new approached me, wanted to get some work done on a website, asked me my price and I gave him my profile rate. He agreed pretty quickly and the work began. After logging 22 hours via the time tracker - I got an email that Upwork has banned the client for violating TOS and cancelled my contract.

I was under the impression that I'd still get paid for the work I did, so I waited, patiently. I didn't get paid on Friday like I do for my other contracts, I did a bit of reading and found out about the Hourly Protection coverage, so I felt relieved that I will at least still get something.

Fast forward to Tuesday, this is the email I got:

No word about hourly protection. And the wording makes it sound like I chose to refund - I was never asked, there was never a dispute and the client was banned.

What should I do next?

P.S I tried contacting chat support but it keeps taking me round & round in circles with no way to make a ticket and contact a real Upwork support agent.

Petra

VenoM9078 The client never paid. Also, in cases of outright fraud, the protection is void or people would use it to literally print money.

EpiqEDEM 😎

Story of my life! Upwork is not transparent, as they always say. A good reason could have been better, but you are left to just speculate - those that consider themselves Upwork experts.

Andrea

Yeah that messaging is unfortunate but I think the point is that if there are TOS violations involved it is not covered.

If the chatbot got stuck in a loop try starting a new conversation. If it's already confused and going in circles it probably won't be able to get out of that in the same conversation with the same information. Try starting a new conversation and addressing it differently.

rlatief

Andrea if there are TOS violations involved it is not covered

This is a rubber clause they use to deny eligibility at their sole discretion.

Chargeback is a ToS violation so chargeback protection don't actually exists.

I do agree though, that the "sole discretion" wasn't entirely bad/evil. Some people have it, some people who should have it don’t, and some people who shouldn’t have it don't. So basically we just have to not rely on it too much, work fairly and do our own protective measures.

VenoM9078

Andrea

Yup I'm ready to swallow the hard pill that I got scammed even though I did everything right - but the fact that I can't even get hold of Upwork's support despite having a Top Rated Plus account is very very disappointing. I'll try the restart convo option, thanks

Kelly_E

VenoM9078 I had this happen to me last week—a very simple error that would have been resolved in the Community Forums in days of yore, probably in minutes—I went three rounds with the bot, KO'ed every time, until I remembered that in the past I had email contact with Upwork and went searching through old emails.

Email them at: support (at) upwork (dot) com

It'll save you a lot of bot-induced headaches.

...
Oh, and my simple problem that would have been solved by the community in minutes? Took FIVE back-and-forths with non-listening, barely-human Customer Service Reps, which lasted ALL DAY, before the last person listened and solved it instantly.

But since it's the only way to get through, it's also the best I can recommend. sigh

Ravi

"Properly tracked hourly contracts have payment protection, that also covers chargebacks up to the limits"

https://www.reddit.com/r/Upwork/comments/1hnf8yk/is_it_ever_okay_to_fire_a_client_midproject/

TopRatedTroll

Ravi yeah I want to point out that they cover chargebacks. Never happened to me but happened to someone I know.

I feel kinda lucky cuz I had a contract like 6 months ago where the client hired me on Sunday and by Monday the contract was closed for a ToS violation. The guy even told me he was getting banned but I would get paid. I thought "welp, there goes that $500" but I got paid. Crazy stuff happens on Upwork sometimes.

Ravi

TopRatedTroll
I seem to remember that some people pointed out in the forums that other than the activity and memos, there were other reasons that the protection was not comlpete.
And I am not talking about the case when the freelancer's normal rate is lower (or much lower) than the rate for the contract.
But I am glad to be corrected. Makes me feel more secure.
Thanks!

TopRatedTroll

Ravi Just from what we've seen, it seems like if it's one of the common scams they don't pay out. They probably have a way to tell if it's pure fraud by the payment info. Type of card, account info, maybe client activity. We've seen people get banned for sending money, but it seems to be when it's excessive. Not sure if you remember the guy who sent $4,000 in a few transactions. His account got killed. They also seem to be coming down hard on freelancers participating in fraud.