Payment Reversal

[a24a0a49]

Hi, Upworkers! My name is Marielle and have been with Upwork since 2019 but just got active last August of this year. I had a client that wouldn't pay me for the hours I've worked with him. His account got suspended and now I've received an email informing me that I have sent a refund to him for a HUGE amount of money. That's insane since he's the one who owes me and now I'm gonna be paying him instead? Upwork emailed and said there's a payment reversal for my contract to this client. This one just isn't clear to me. I hope you could enlighten me and help me understand the situation. I can't pay someone who owes me. Because if this is the case, the refund money will be taken out from the other funds I received from my other good-paying clients here and that's just too sad for me. Pleas help me out. 

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

You misinterpreted what you read.

You DO NOT NEED to send any money to this client.

This "refund" simply means that Upwork was unable to successfully charge the client's credit card, so Upwork is not paying you for those hours.

If this happened to me, Upwork would have paid me put of their own pocket, so I would've have lost money. Because I follow the rules for Upwork Payment Protection.

Was there a specific reason why you did not utilize Upwork Payment Protection?

[a24a0a49]

Oh, well if this is the case, then it's good to jear that I won't be paying anyone anything. For the Upwork Payment Protection, I'm not yet well familiar with this. If you could help me understand this then that's also a great help for me. Thanks for the response, Preston!

[prestonhunter]

Basically:
If a client doesn't pay, or a client's card can't be charged, then Upwork will pay you for your hours worked. But you need to follow basic rules:

- use Upwork's desktop time-tracker

- write memos

- have sufficient keyboard/mouse activity (you didn't just leave the computer idle)

- work on the client's project (you're not playing video games)

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211068288-Hourly-Protection

[59fba77d]

Hi Everyone,

I'm posting on behalf of my friend Pervaiz Ahmed, whose Upwork account has been suspended, preventing him from posting in the community. He's in a tough spot because he completed a job, tracked all his hours using the Upwork tracker, and received client approval. However, his payment for the week of 2024-04-14 was reversed due to a "Terms of Use Violation." His Contract ID is 36952461.

This isn't the first time he's faced issues on Upwork. Previously, his account was suspended due to a misunderstanding, and it was reinstated after Upwork realized the error. Now, his payment has been reversed, and he's not even sure what terms he supposedly violated.

@Upwork Support Team, can you explain what went wrong and why his payment was reversed? He works hard and relies on Upwork to support himself as a university student. If there was a violation, he wants to know what it was to avoid it in the future, but he needs his payment released. He can't continue like this, especially with no clear explanation.

If anyone in the community has experienced something similar or has advice on how to resolve this, we'd really appreciate it.

Thanks.