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1bf36029
Community Member

Freelancer can't finish work after spending many hours already

Hi! I have hired a freelancer to continue to build my webpage. He has now spent over 50 hours and i have paid half of that. Now we reached a point where he is telling me that he dont have enough skills to finish the page. I wonder what to do now? Do i have to pay him the rest of hes hours he has put on the project even thou he can not finish the project? Now it seems i will have to start from scratch, and then i have put hours and money on something that cant be used. 

3 REPLIES 3
petra_r
Community Member


Denzil W wrote:

Hi! I have hired a freelancer to continue to build my webpage. He has now spent over 50 hours and i have paid half of that. Now we reached a point where he is telling me that he dont have enough skills to finish the page. I wonder what to do now? Do i have to pay him the rest of hes hours he has put on the project even thou he can not finish the project? Now it seems i will have to start from scratch, and then i have put hours and money on something that cant be used. 


Is it an hourly contract or a fixed rate / milestone based one?

On an hourly contract you pay for the hours worked, not a specific deliverable.

 

prestonhunter
Community Member

You are focusing way too much on one underperforming freelancer... a person who does not deserve your attention.

 

Close the contract you have with him and continue working only with the freelancers on your team who provide you with the most value.

 

Provide his work to the other team members. If they can use it, great. If they can’t, then that is how things go.

 

If you only had one freelancer working on this, then rethink that strategy. It has not proven to be a successful strategy for you. At the very least, you should have a project manager.

 

And probably multiple freelancers working on the site, so you can compare the relative value they bring to the project and continue working only with the best.

 

Hourly contracts mean you pay for a freelancer’s time, and not a specific deliverable. 

 

If you feel like you have been unsuccessful so far on this project, you are probably correct. You would benefit from hiring an independent project manager.

 

Because if you have had a freelancer work for you for fifty hours and you have nothing to show for it, then it means you are not qualified to manage this project on your own. You need help. There is nothing wrong with that!

 

Successful project owners don’t try to do everything by themselves.

 

Fortunately, I am not certain that all the time spent thus far was wasted. You may simply have reached the limits of one freelancer’s skill, and now need other people to continue the project. This is normal.

feed_my_eyes
Community Member

If it was an hourly project, take a look at the screen shots in the work diary and see whether the freelancer was actually working on your project for the entire 40 hours. If it was fixed price, and you really can't use any of it and will have to start over from scratch, then the freelancer should offer you a partial refund, IMO. Talk to them and try to work something out.

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