A dispute is not a complaint and not a fight somebody wins. It is an order state in which the money stops where it is until the platform sorts things out. Here is what actually happens, who sees what, and how it ends.
What the «Open a dispute» button does
The button sits on the order page in the customer's cabinet, next to «Accept the work». Pressing it asks you to describe the reason — the platform requires the text, and without it no dispute is opened.
Exactly one thing then changes: the order state becomes disputed and escrow freezes. The money goes neither to the contractor nor back to you. You get a confirmation that the dispute is open and under review; the contractor receives a notification that a dispute has been opened.
What a dispute does not do, contrary to a common expectation: it does not cancel the order, does not refund anything automatically, and does not block the contractor. It also does not claw back milestones already credited — what was paid for them stays paid, and the review is about the remainder.
Who sees it, and what they see
A marketplace arbiter reviews the dispute. They look at an order card assembled from what already exists — neither side fills in anything new:
- Parties and money — who the customer is, who the contractor is, which shop, how much has been released from escrow and how much remains.
- The dispute reason — your text from the moment it was opened, verbatim.
- The brief and the proposal side by side — what was agreed against what the contractor promised.
- The message thread — the whole history with dates, system events included: when a milestone was submitted, when it was credited.
Hence the practical conclusion that matters more than anything else here: the arbiter sees only what is inside the order. An agreement made in a messenger, on a call or by email does not exist for the review — not because nobody believes it, but because there is nowhere to look at it.
What each side does
Neither the customer nor the contractor has a separate «dispute action», and that is deliberate. The arbiter decides; the parties explain. Both have the same single instrument — the order's message thread.
The customer should state the claim concretely: not «the work is bad», but which item of the agreed scope was not delivered, or was delivered differently from the brief. The scope of work acts as the specification here — which is exactly why it is worth writing precisely at the start.
The contractor should answer that specific claim and show what has already been accepted. A credited milestone is visible in the history with its date — a strong argument that needs no words to prove.
Both should attach artefacts. The thread accepts attachments: a screenshot, a log or a link to a commit convinces better than a description.
How it ends
The arbiter has two decisions, and both are final: release to the contractor or refund the buyer. There is no «split it down the middle» in the mechanics — which is precisely why splitting work into milestones pays off: the dispute is then about the uncredited remainder, not the whole sum.
Once the decision is made both sides are notified that the dispute is resolved, and escrow unfreezes in the corresponding direction.
How to avoid getting there
Three things remove most disputes before they can start.
A concrete scope of work in the brief. A list of checkable items instead of a description of a mood. An item that cannot be checked can neither be delivered nor challenged.
Milestones instead of «everything at the end». Each credited milestone is a recorded acceptance. It lowers the risk and shrinks the possible subject of a dispute at the same time.
Communication inside the order. The cheapest insurance there is: what is written in the thread exists for the arbiter; what is in a messenger does not.