Freelancer.com - Site took my money but the freelancer did not give me the goods asked for - Amex

tomy2shoes

Hello

I agreed to pay £280 for computer generated photos 

I released £200 to the freelancer with the balance on hand over 

£200 was released but the freelancer has gone from the site 

I paid for these funds on my credit card 

The credit card company - AMEX - is not support my chargeback requested 

Any advise would be helpful 

Nasqueron

Amex cannot "not support" your chargeback request, you tell them to do it and they take the money back

If they really want to be a pain, tell them to initiate a section 75 claim - though it will depend if you are paying £200 for 1 transaction or say 10x £20 for 10 photos 

DullGreyGuy

Nasqueron said:

Amex cannot "not support" your chargeback request, you tell them to do it and they take the money back

If they really want to be a pain, tell them to initiate a section 75 claim - though it will depend if you are paying £200 for 1 transaction or say 10x £20 for 10 photos 

S75 will not work @nasqueron as the OP paid the website not the supplier so the Debtor, Creditor, Supplier chain is broken by the introduction of the fourth party. 

There can potentially be similar issues with a chargeback, they arguably paid a website to hold money in escrow and release it upon their instruction. The website has done this as requested and so the fact that the recipient of the escrow monies didnt do what they said could be considered secondary... its more material than say paying Amazon for an Amazon Marketplace order which equally wouldn't have S75 protection but more likely to have chargeback


As to the OP, why did you release £200 up front? The whole purpose of these sites and their escrow is to reduce your risk by only paying the money in stages after work is complete. The supplier is equally protected as they know the money is being held so won't be a buyer. running off and not paying. 

tomy2shoes

It was one lot of £200 and another of £80 

Via the website they say the funds have been paid in accordance with the sites t & c 

The site acts a marketplace to provide services - the t & c on the site say once you released funds then that is it they can not be returned 

They are acting as a facilitator and not taking part directly in the supply of goods / services 

Again the terms and conditions state i've formed a contract with the freelancer for the supply of goods and not the site - although my money has been paid to the site for the services of the freelancer 

When the miles stone was released is did say "please ensure that you are satisfied with the work of the freelancer as mile stone payments cannot be returned once released - my freelancer has delivered satisfactory work" -

Being the first time I've used the site I was not aware this left me with no recourse to getting money returned if the freelancer then disappears off the site completely 

tomy2shoes

I just can't believe I can pay for something with no way of getting my money back if things do not go through and they can remove themselves from the equation 

There must be something that can be do  

JamesPeter

tomy2shoes said:

I just can't believe I can pay for something with no way of getting my money back if things do not go through and they can remove themselves from the equation 

There must be something that can be do  

Small claim via the County Court/Money Claim online against the actual seller?

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

DullGreyGuy

tomy2shoes said:

I just can't believe I can pay for something with no way of getting my money back if things do not go through and they can remove themselves from the equation 

There must be something that can be do  

As above, you take them to court but you need to check 1) which jurisdiction the contract is formed under and 2) what country they are based in. Same way as if you'd paid them cash, bank transfer or any other mechanism. 

Clearly if the contract is under NY law and the supplier is based in India then you probably just cut your losses

Next time, don't agree to an upfront release of that proportion... really shouldn't release any monies up front unless materials are involved. 

maya85

Surely Freelancer.com will take care of this. They should have all the record of the deliverables. Why aren't you opening a dispute on their platform?

tomy2shoes

They just want to wash their hands of the matter 

You have paid the money 

We told you it is non returnable 

Wam bam thank you mam 

Platforms like ebay / amazon have the option to stop this from happening 

They dont seem interested in that 

DullGreyGuy

maya85 said:

Surely Freelancer.com will take care of this. They should have all the record of the deliverables. Why aren't you opening a dispute on their platform?

Because with these platforms you agree milestones and payments associated with each milestone. Either the buyer can click the button to say to release the funds or the supplier can ask for it to be released and the buyer say yes or no. 

If the supplier thinks the milestone has been hit but the buyer doesn't thats where the platform steps in and adjudicates, like any normal escrow service. 

In this case the OP agreed to release the £200 immediately so the supplier got this. It's only the remaining £80 thats still in escrow and no one has attempted to claim this. Seeing as the OP consented to the release its no longer anything to do with the platform. The OP is now wanting to claw back the £200... the error was agreeing to release that up front... I'd have set say £100 to be released on supply of the initial drafts and £180 to be released on the final project (assuming the supplier wouldn't wait for it all at the end)

tomy2shoes

Thanks for the replies and help 

I will take this as a lesson learnt