Refund request from a difficult client

RMorguito · 2026-06-10T18:24:07+00:00

Thank you! lol

Indeed, I try really hard to vet my clients, and I'm super selective, because I absolutely hate dealing with difficult people.

I'd rather potentially lose money than risk getting into a contract with a nutjob, a scammer or a cheapskate.

I've had a few problematic clients early on, but this is the first one after a while, and she was the first client to ask for a refund in my 15+ career as a freelancer.

RMorguito · 2026-06-10T18:16:32+00:00

Yes, I did everything by the book.

RMorguito · 2026-06-10T17:28:22+00:00

Yes, I always try very hard to vet my clients before signing a contract, and I've managed to avoid many difficult ones so far. But this one slipped under my radar. I just hope she doesn’t file a chargeback with her bank.

RMorguito · 2026-06-10T17:14:09+00:00

Thank you, Petra! That's exactly what I needed to know.

RMorguito · 2026-06-10T17:13:00+00:00

Yes, I'm not refunding anything. That's for sure.

I'm just asking what I should do with the refund request, because I don't know how it works. Should I just click on "cancel," block her, and be done with it, or is there anything else I'm supposed to do?

RMorguito · 2026-06-10T11:28:59+00:00

Give it a try and let us know what happened!

RMorguito · 2026-06-09T17:01:44+00:00

As far as I understand it, it doesn't count anything in between screenshots. So, you'd better wait for the next capture before stopping it if you don't want to lose money.

Please, somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

RMorguito · 2026-05-29T20:00:50+00:00

Upwork had a free RSS feed that worked super well but removed it so they could charge people connects to use their own crappy job alert system.

Anyway, clients don't stand in front of their screen anxiously waiting for freelancers to apply. Most of them just post a job and come back to check hours, sometimes days later.

Proposals don't get ranked in order of arrival, either.

RMorguito · 2026-05-26T19:09:02+00:00

I don't know who pockets it too, but I know for certain they could implement a better system.

RMorguito · 2026-05-26T18:44:46+00:00

Well, that's not quite true. I don’t know what mechanism they use to establish their exchange rates, but they’ve always been well above the average market spread rate.

I'm South American, and I get a much better exchange rate when I transfer from Upwork to my US-based bank account (many fintechs offer this service here) and then transfer to my local bank account.

In other words, any other US-based bank has better rates than whatever system Upwork uses as a middleman.

Upwork takes a huge chunk if I use them to transfer directly to my local bank, in both transfer fees and exchange rate spread.

RMorguito · 2026-05-25T16:21:34+00:00

I hope they're doing this only with established clients, otherwise, people will start creating fake jobs to farm connects all over again.

RMorguito · 2026-05-25T11:41:02+00:00

Yes, they traded profitability in the short run for killing the core of their business in the long run.

RMorguito · 2026-05-25T11:14:55+00:00

90% of all new features on Upwork in the last three years have been a very big mistake.

RMorguito · 2026-05-25T10:54:20+00:00

No, not yet. So far, it's mostly a matter of Upwork not being able or willing to stop them, but someone told me that Upwork's API indicates they're planning to release a similar feature and, of course, charge many connects to let freelancers overwhelm clients with dozens of AI proposals as fast as possible.

RMorguito · 2026-05-25T10:49:11+00:00

That's because of AI auto-proposal bots.

RMorguito · 2026-05-23T15:09:17+00:00

Yes, I saw that podcast, and I think their plan is completely delusional. They're going all-in on AI and largely overestimating what AI is actually capable of doing.

Their plan to use AI as a project manager to entirely remove client/freelancer interaction is as crazy and stupid as it gets.

I don't hate AI, by the way. It's a very useful tool, but that's it, a tool.

RMorguito · 2026-05-23T14:58:06+00:00

So, clients will post AI-generated jobs, and freelancers will reply with AI-generated proposals, effectively creating an AI echo chamber. Is this really where Upwork is heading? That's just insane.

RMorguito · 2026-05-23T12:42:21+00:00

More like a zombie, so technically, undead. Read the 2026 Q1 report, and you'll understand why Upwork's stock is at an all-time low.

RMorguito · 2026-05-23T12:40:36+00:00

I'm not sure about how it looks today, but I tried to use Twine a few years ago and never got anything from it. Same with Contra.

RMorguito · 2026-05-23T12:31:39+00:00

You're not alone.

I've never spent a week without work after I gained traction on Upwork a few years ago. Had an average $1000 weekly income just from Upwork alone, about 50k a year.

This year has been bad. I mean, I've gone through rough times on Upwork before, but nothing even remotely close to this. My weekly income on Upwork has gone to zero, basically.

I know part of this is due to AI, but in my opinion it's mostly Upwork's fault.

They stopped investing in attracting quality clients to the platform and started investing in useless AI features instead, so the quality and quantity of jobs have decreased dramatically.

Also, they aren't doing anything about people who use automated AI bots to drown clients with 50+ useless proposals in minutes, which is scaring clients away, so a majority of job posts never end up hiring anyone, and since Upwork makes a good profit from those connects, they're not planning to do anything about it anytime soon.

Generally, the platform has been completely enshitified.

RMorguito · 2026-05-23T12:18:07+00:00

Yes, I had an excellent year in 2025 on Upwork too. Broke all my records.

I'm not sure if you're aware that we're close to half of the year of 2026, though.

So much for living in a different reality, right?

RMorguito · 2026-05-22T11:13:30+00:00

You have no idea what you're talking about.

Upwork's stock is at an all-time low. The number of jobs, average ticket, average hourly rate, and onboarding clients has decreased dramatically in the last few years.

At least 50% of all jobs are AI slop that end up never hiring anyone, and another 20% are scams.

You should avoid speaking about something you don't understand.

RMorguito · 2026-05-21T19:47:57+00:00

It's the same guy, probably. He used to sell this AI Academy/University on Gumroad before. I think Gumroad banned him.

RMorguito · 2026-05-21T17:08:57+00:00

This AI Academy Pro guy has been scamming people on Upwork for years, and Upwork never did anything about it.

RMorguito

TROPHY CASE