Bad freelancer gives bad review - what can I do?

[59f9adc2]

I have had fairly good results from Upwork in the years I've been using it. Until now.

I posted a job for someone to remove backgrounds from images. We've hired freelancers like this in the past who have done 10+ images per hour.

This particular freelancer, after over half an hour, was just sitting in Photoshop not really doing anything and hadn't completed a single image. I got upset with him and asked what he was doing, and he gave me some excuse that he was working on it and it was very hard.

At this point I just told him I would cancel the contract but give him a 5-star review. I almost always give good reviews because I don't want to ruin someone's reputation on Upwork, especially since we tend to hire workers from poor countries.

What happened is that he left me a 1-star review and basically told everyone not to work with me and that I'm a "bad man."

Out of over 30+ reviews, this is the first review I've had that was not only negative, but a 1-star review ranting about how bad of a client I am.

Is there something I can do about this? I realize that I shouldn't have given him a 5-star review and I'm certainly not going to do that anymore, but I would like to deal with this.

[a_lipsey]

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Chris A wrote:

I have had fairly good results from Upwork in the years I've been using it. Until now.

I posted a job for someone to remove backgrounds from images. We've hired freelancers like this in the past who have done 10+ images per hour.

This particular freelancer, after over half an hour, was just sitting in Photoshop not really doing anything and hadn't completed a single image. I got upset with him and asked what he was doing, and he gave me some excuse that he was working on it and it was very hard.

At this point I just told him I would cancel the contract but give him a 5-star review. I almost always give good reviews because I don't want to ruin someone's reputation on Upwork, especially since we tend to hire workers from poor countries.

What happened is that he left me a 1-star review and basically told everyone not to work with me and that I'm a "bad man."

Out of over 30+ reviews, this is the first review I've had that was not only negative, but a 1-star review ranting about how bad of a client I am.

Is there something I can do about this? I realize that I shouldn't have given him a 5-star review and I'm certainly not going to do that anymore, but I would like to deal with this.

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Chris, if you have 30+ reviews and only one bad one as a client, I'd just let it go. There is nothing you can do to change the feedback, and you were certainly kinder to the freelancer than they were to you. If you have so many positive reviews and just this one bad one, most freelancers will realize that there was likely a problem with that freelancer. 

[abinadab-agbo]

Qstn: What to do about this?

Ans: Moving forward, confirm price before entering into a contract, not during the contract.

Don't assume there is mutual understanding as to how much a unit of work would cost.