Freelancer Requesting to Cancel Refund Sent to Client -
- Offer to email CL on their behalf and if they accept, use this macro for the CL - CS > Unresponsive Client > Refund Cancel Request > Please Contact Your Freelancer
- Be sure to let the FL know we’ve reached out to their CL for them and cross reference the notes in both tickets with the ticket URLs
- Both tickets can be “solved"
Freelancer Requesting to Refund FL Plus Membership Fee -
- If FL wants Plus membership fee refund and was charged from the FL available balance, escalate to Pay Ops
Client Requesting Refund from Freelancer / Contract -
- If refund processed, but CL is not seeing it: see “Refund Not Found” drop-down
- If CL is unhappy with the FL’s work: checkout **Mediation & Disputes > Client Contract Issues Best Practices drop-down as well as share info on Request a refund from your freelancer (if within 180 days of invoiced charge)
- If CL is claiming fraudulent activity: checkout the **Handling Unauthorized/Fraudulent Charge Reports page
- If CL wants a Premium Job Post charge refunded: see a TL, TL to escalate to Pay Ops
- If CL wants a Payment Processing Fee and/or CL Plan refunded: see “CL Plan Membership and Fee Refund Request” drop-down
- Read info under “Restrictions / Timeframe with Freelancer Refunds” drop-down
Process Map
Restrictions / Timeframe with Refunds
- If CL paid FL with one source, the refund will go back to the billing method the funds came from, and if multiple sources (Upwork balance + CC), funds will go on the CL Upwork account balance
- Refunds from Escrow (canceled offer, canceled funded milestone) go straight to the CL's UPM
- If a client is asking if we can refund their funds to a card that's not the one we charged we can tell them that refund will be processed back to the original billing method regardless of the situation, i.e., cancelled CC. If the refund gets reversed back to us, submit ticket to PayOps to look into processing a check, a wire transfer, or a PayPal payment.
- If FL is willing to refund, but doesn’t have the funds available in their Upwork account balance, check out the **Urgent Billing & Refund Options page. Make sure it’s clear to the freelancer that the refund should be made within Upwork platform and it’s a TOS violation if they make it outside Upwork.
- Restrictions around refunds:
- If within 180 days of invoiced payment: FL can refund within system (TLs can also process within OBO, but should only be offered to HV CLs, if necessary)
- If after 180 days of invoiced payment: TL can process refund with FL permission
- If after 365 days: escalate to Pay Ops for assistance
- FL must have the amount (available + pending) in their trx history
- Full refunds will be made available to CLs immediately and if a pending CL balance, it will be pulled from the pending balance
- Partial refunds have a 3-day security hold period and will affect the FL’s available balance
- If FL accidentally sends CL a refund: Email CL to ensure they are not looking for a refund and once confirmation is secured, reach out to TL to attempt to reverse the refund. If they cannot, then provide the CL with instructions on how to issue the FL a bonus to send the funds back to them. Explain this to the FL, as well. TLs can see “TL Only Process Maps” drop-down to view Reverse a Freelancer Refund
CL Requesting Refund of Charge to Incorrect Payment Methods
There are clients who request a refund because they forgot to update their primary method on file resulting in charges using the incorrect payment method, i.e., system auto-charged PayPal but they’d like to use their credit card instead.
Steps below should be followed in this case:
Advise CL to set the correct payment method as primary. Here’s a shareable Help Center article on editing billing method.
- For Hourly contracts, advise CL to issue a bonus using the correct card first. Then, be sure to leave detailed internal notes on the ticket and approach your TL to process the refund.
- For FP contracts, CL may ask FL to refund or end the contract refunding the escrow funds. Confirm with your TL if the refund can be processed.
TLs, please see TL-only Process drop-down below.
Refund Not Found
Process Map
CL Plan Membership and Fee Refund Request
Process Map
Refund CL Plan Membership Fee
If we are refunding CL Plan fee because the CL forgot that the "free trial" is over, have a Team Lead downgrade the plan to Basic.
Refund Processing Fee
TL Only Process Maps
Process a Refund / Refund Upwork Balance to Billing Method Reminders:
-
Can be done only if:
- within 24 hours of a miscellaneous / bonus payment (if after 24 hours, need FL approval)
- within 365 days of an hourly payment / FP milestone release, visual permission received from FL, and no chargeback
- refunding the Upwork balance back to UPM
- Refund the hourly invoice under the assignment page.
- For FP contracts, check the payment TRX refund option is available as usually we cannot refund payments trxs if there are still funds in escrow. This means the contract needs to be ended before we can initiate the refund as shown here
- For Bank Account payments,
- Refund will be processed back to the original billing method regardless of the situation i.e. canceled CC. If the refund gets reversed back to us, see PayOps to look into processing a check, a wire transfer, or PayPal payment.
- For balance that was sourced from an ACH/Wire payment, make sure the payment status is in success and not in Pending. Success to Pending would take 5 business days to complete. Then, pease send request to PayOps. PayOps will need to coordinate with T&S to ensure there are no fraud suspicions related to the refund request.
Reverse a Freelancer Refund Reminders:
- Can be done only if:
- CL states they are not expecting a refund from the FL update
- The payment is from multiple sources or the auto refund to UPM failed and there is now a credit on the CL’s AE
Refund Payment Processing Fee / Featured Job Post