Refunds
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While we hope that you will never need to give or receive a refund, we do offer providers the option to grant refunds on all their assignments.
You can give a full or partial refund on any assignment at any time. If you give a full refund, the assignment will disappear from your work (and feedback) history.
- Go to My Jobs > Assignments. Select the Active or Ended tab as appropriate.
- Find the correct assignment in the list. Click the Title in the Assignment column.
- Click the give refund link in the Hours Worked or Payments Made section of the assignment details page.
- Enter the Hours or Amount to refund. The form will calculate and display the fee that oDesk will credit to the buyer on top of the amount you are refunding. Adjust the amount you entered as needed.
- Enter a comment. The buyer will see this comment. You can also enter an optional, private note for your own records.
- When you're ready, click the Give Refund button. This cannot be undone! Your financial account will reflect this refund immediately.
Make sure you understand how refunds are processed. Refunds are generally taken from your available balance (even if you have pending transactions) and could cause a negative balance.
Affiliated contractors do not have the ability to give refunds. A staffing manager will need to do it for them.
You, the buyer, are responsible for managing your assignments. Therefore, you'll need to speak with your provider about issuing a refund.
- Providers can choose to give a refund for any assignment (active or ended) at any time.
- Refunding to less than $1 net earnings will hide the assignment (and feedback) from both users' work histories.
- oDesk offers a dispute system for hourly jobs only. You must file your dispute during the review period.
- oDesk does not offer escrow or arbitration systems.
- All payments are final. Hours properly disputed through oDesk and awarded back to the buyer will be automatically refunded; oDesk cannot force a provider to issue a refund in any other case. That said, please contact Customer Support if you feel the provider has violated any oDesk policies. We will investigate and may take action against the provider.
For information on refunding the small charges used for payment method verification see the Payment Methods page.
Hourly Assignments - If the refund is less than or equal to the current week's hourly invoice:
- oDesk immediately adds an adjustment that reverses part or all of the week's invoice. The amount of this adjustment reduces the amount due for the buyer and reduces the pending amount for the provider.
- This allows the provider to cancel out a payment before the buyer is charged.
Bob hires Sue and Sue works for 20 hours. During the review period, Bob and Sue agree that Sue should refund 11 hours of work. Sue submits the refund on Tuesday, creating adjustments on both accounts so Bob will only pay for 9 hours of work and that Sue will only be paid for 9 hours of work as part of the normal payment schedule.
Hourly Assignments - If the refund is more than the current week's hourly invoice:
- oDesk immediately adds an adjustment that reverses all of the week's invoice.
- oDesk creates a credit on the buyer's account and a debit on the provider's account for the balance of the refund.
- The credit will become available on the buyer's account after the usual holding period. If the provider's account doesn't have enough to cover the full refund, this credit will remain pending until fully funded.
- The debit is immediately subtracted from the provider's available balance.
Bob hires Sue and Sue works for 10 hours the first week and 5 hours the second week. During the review period after the second week, Bob and Sue agree that Sue should refund 11 hours of work. When Sue submits the refund on Tuesday, the 5 pending hours are cancelled out by adjustments to both users. In addition, 6 hours are credited back to Bob's account and debited against Sue's available balance.
Sue's balance went negative because the 10 hours are still pending on her account. When that payment becomes available, the first 6 hours will pay back her negative balance. Sue will then be free to withdrawal the remaining 4 hours.
Fixed-Price Assignments - For all refunds:
Sue's balance went negative because the 10 hours are still pending on her account. When that payment becomes available, the first 6 hours will pay back her negative balance. Sue will then be free to withdrawal the remaining 4 hours.
- oDesk creates a credit on the buyer's account and a debit on the provider's account for the entire amount refund.
- The credit will become available on the buyer's account after the usual holding period. If the provider's account doesn't have enough to cover the full refund, this credit will remain pending until fully funded.
- The debit is immediately subtracted from the provider's available balance.
Bob hires Sue and pays her $100 upfront. A few days later, Bob tell Sue there's a problem on his end and he has to end the assignment. Sue agrees to refund half the upfront payment - she'd started working, but didn't feel she'd earned the full $100. Bob's account is credited for $50 and Sue's account is debited for $50.
If the provider's account has a negative balance at the end of the day, it will be charged to the billing method on file (if one is available). Otherwise, the provider's financial account will be suspended until the negative balance has been paid with future oDesk earnings (including your pending balance, when it becomes available).
If this happens to you, don't panic. You can continue to apply to jobs, work and get paid as usual. Your earnings will be used to pay back your negative balance (or contact Customer Support for assistance paying the amount due directly). Just keep in mind the credit on the buyer's account will remain pending until you've fully funded your refund.
If this happens to you, don't panic. You can continue to apply to jobs, work and get paid as usual. Your earnings will be used to pay back your negative balance (or contact Customer Support for assistance paying the amount due directly). Just keep in mind the credit on the buyer's account will remain pending until you've fully funded your refund.
