Refund & Dispute Policy

Money is held until the work is accepted. Nobody can move it unilaterally — not the client, not the freelancer, and not us outside the process described here.

Where a decision is genuinely close, we tend towards the party who did what the platform asked of them: delivered through the workspace, responded in the thread, kept the agreement on Talent Bridge. That is not a bias in anyone's favour, it is the only evidence we have.

Either party may cancel. No money has moved, no fee is charged, and the job goes back on the board.

Once money is in escrow a contract cannot simply be cancelled. If you want out, raise a dispute — that is what the process is for, and it exists so that neither party can strand the other's money or time.

Where both parties agree the work should not go ahead and no substantial work has been done, we will normally refund the client in full and take no fee.

The client has three options, and one deadline:

• Approve — payment is released to the freelancer.
• Request changes — the contract returns to in-progress with your notes attached. There is no fixed limit on rounds, but a client using this repeatedly to avoid paying for work that meets the brief will not be supported in a dispute.
• Raise a dispute — if the delivery is not what was agreed.

Not yet implemented: an automatic release after a period of client silence. Today a delivered contract waits indefinitely for the client to act, which means a freelancer can be left unpaid by inaction alone. This is the most significant gap in this policy and it should be closed before launch — see the note in section 9.

Either party may raise a dispute on a funded contract. The money freezes. Both sides can put their case, and both are asked to.

We look at:

• what the job post and the accepted proposal actually said;
• what was delivered through the contract workspace, and when;
• what the two of you said to each other on the platform.

We do not judge taste. “I do not like it” is not a ground for refund where the work matches the brief; the answer to a vague brief is a better brief next time, not a free piece of work. Equally, “I delivered something” is not a ground for payment where what was delivered is not what was agreed.

There are three outcomes:

• Refund the client — the full amount goes back. We take no fee.
• Release to the freelancer — they are paid in full, less the standard 10% fee.
• Split — where part of the work was delivered and usable. The fee is charged only on the freelancer's share, never on the refunded part.

Every decision is written to the contract's ledger and event log, with the reasoning, and both parties are sent it.

We aim to decide a dispute within five working days of both parties having put their case. Refunds are returned to the original payment method and take as long as the card networks and banks take — typically a few working days, sometimes longer.

Operational note: refunds are recorded in our ledger automatically but issued by hand through the payment provider. This is a deliberate choice while volumes are low — an automated refund path is a way to lose money quickly to a bug — but it means refunds depend on a person doing something.

We earn the 10% fee only on money that actually reaches a freelancer. A fully refunded contract costs the client nothing and earns us nothing. On a split, we charge only on the freelancer's portion.

We do not charge a dispute-handling fee. Charging people to be arbitrated by the party holding their money would be an obvious conflict of interest.

If you have a problem, raise a dispute — it is faster than a chargeback and it does not put the freelancer's payment at risk weeks after they have been paid.

A chargeback filed while a dispute is open, or after a dispute has been decided, will be contested with the evidence on the contract. Accounts that use chargebacks to avoid paying for delivered work will be suspended.

Nothing here limits your rights under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 or any other South African law. Where this policy and the law differ, the law wins.

For legal review, specifically: the CPA's section 16 cooling-off right applies to direct marketing and not, on our reading, to a freelance services contract a client sought out — but that reading needs confirming. Section 54 (quality of service) and section 19 (delivery) also bear on the dispute outcomes above. Please confirm all three before this page is treated as final.

Open the contract and use “Raise a dispute”. If you cannot reach the contract, or something has gone wrong that this policy does not cover, contact us.