Swiss freelancer Al Anany complained on his website about the Upwork platform, which is trying to charge him $ 12.5 thousand for the work performed. As Al Anany explained, he received this money for two years from a customer who used someone else's credit card to pay. The real owner of the card requested a refund, and Upwork was not satisfied with the proof of the completed and transferred work provided by the freelancer.
Al Anany's article points out that there are two ways to confirm a job at Upwork on an hourly basis. The first requires special software that monitors the work of the freelancer and sends the recorded data to the server. The second option implies manual entry of hours worked by agreement with the customer. The freelance client never asked for confirmation of hours worked through the Upwork program and always paid for the work on time, as a result of which he and Al Anany developed a relationship of trust. In addition, as part of the work on the projects, there were personal meetings that could not be confirmed through the software of the platform.
Work with the customer, identified as Robin (the real name of the representative and the name of the company were not disclosed), began in 2018 and lasted until September 2020. The customer reported that he had problems with Upwork related to the card, and so far he cannot pay for orders. Al Anany indicated that in order to continue working, this point needs to be resolved - it will not work for free or bypassing Upwork's rules.
In May 2021, Al Anany received a letter from Upwork notifying that the customer had requested a refund for work done on several transactions in the amount of about $ 12.5 thousand. The freelancer immediately called Robin, who replied that he had never asked for a refund. He also admitted that the card belongs to another person, which he had never talked about before.
The freelancer refused to return the funds and contacted the Upwork support service, which asked him for confirmation of the work done, and then they will try to convince the bank to cancel the return. He sent them projects in two years. After 40 days, Al Anany replied that it was not possible to convince the bank and it still had to return $ 12.5 thousand to the cardholder. Until he does, Upwork will not allow him to withdraw money from his account. As the freelancer points out, that's about 230 hours of work at his rate.
Al Anany assures that he should not return this money. The direct customer has no complaints about his work. According to him, only Upwork is to blame for this situation, which does not check its clients. At the moment, the platform insists on a refund. The freelancer, in turn, will continue to challenge this decision. Plus, Al Anany's colleagues at Upwork are complaining about the exact same problem.
bbabo.Net