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5fb01d96
Community Member

Greetings

Hi Upwork Community, 

 

I hope this message finds you well. Currently, I have a few questions in regards to the recent project/hire for my new upcoming project. I have been working with a Developer, however, I have not approved any hours work on the project nor design. I was then forced to create a contract with him to discuss the project and I am very unsatisfied. I want to continue working with this Developer however, I am hesitant to move forward with my recent experience. I under the charges that he has posted. This has become very uncomfortable. I feel as though I am being forced to pay for something I had no creative direction with nor conversation in regards to what I would like to be designed. In regards to my questions, I want to know what are my options in this situation and what steps can I take to assure that this is going to be handled and I feel safe to work forward with this Developer and Upwork. 

 

Best Regards,
Darion M.

3 REPLIES 3
AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

I'm sorry to hear about your experience, Darion. 

Please know that you are not required to create a contract yet until you have fully interviewed a freelancer, and have discussed and agreed on the project terms, and deliverables. As a client, you also have the opportunity to review the hours logged by your freelancer. For example, if your freelancer logged hours this week, you should be able to review your freelancer's hours next week starting Monday up to Friday. If you do not agree with any of the hours your freelancer logged, you can discuss it with your freelancer, or dispute the hours logged. 

Here's a help article to know how you can review your freelancer's Work Diary. You may also read this help article to know more about disputing your freelancer's logged hours.

Hopefully, these resources we have compiled here will also help you be more familiar with the processes on Upwork. 


~ Avery
Upwork


@Avery O wrote:


Please know that you are not required to create a contract yet until you have fully interviewed a freelancer, 


I would just want to add one thing to what Avery wrote. While it is true that you are under no obligation to start a contract with a prospective freelancer, it is true that sometimes, clients confuse interview with consulting. This is especially true in projects that require a lot of expertise.

 

Not saying that it was the case here, but sometimes the client wants to spend a lot of time talking about their project and they want to do this during the interview process. The provider cannot invest themselves in providing expertise to the client without being paid and without knowing if they will be hired at the end. Don't forget that providers are contacted by many clients all the time and that they also need to work on their active projects.

 

So it is important to understand that a 15 min interview and a let's say, one hour consulting are not the same thing.

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
kat303
Community Member


@Darion M wrote:

Hi Upwork Community, 

 

I hope this message finds you well. Currently, I have a few questions in regards to the recent project/hire for my new upcoming project. I have been working with a Developer, however, I have not approved any hours work on the project nor design. I was then forced to create a contract with him to discuss the project and I am very unsatisfied. I want to continue working with this Developer however, I am hesitant to move forward with my recent experience. I under the charges that he has posted. This has become very uncomfortable. I feel as though I am being forced to pay for something I had no creative direction with nor conversation in regards to what I would like to be designed. In regards to my questions, I want to know what are my options in this situation and what steps can I take to assure that this is going to be handled and I feel safe to work forward with this Developer and Upwork. 

 

Best Regards,
Darion M.


 

My first important question to you is - has this freelancer actually started working on your job or are you just discussing the job in detail?

 

If a job is complex and will take extensive details and information, a freelancer should be paid for providing that. I am NOT indicating that you would do something like this, but there are a lot of scammers who will discuss a project with a freelancer get their ideas, their scope of work to be done, iron out details etc and then take that, and hire someone else for a lot less money. The freelancer will be out of their time, effort, job and money.

 

I don't know what your job involves (beyond my skillset) but the freelancer may be right on target as to what needs to be done and the cost of that.

 

You stated above -  I was then forced to create a contract with him to discuss the project and I am very unsatisfied. I want to continue working with this Developer however, I am hesitant to move forward with my recent experience. I under the charges that he has posted. This has become very uncomfortable. I feel as though I am being forced to pay for something I had no creative direction with nor conversation in regards to what I would like to be designed

 

You weren't forced to create a contract to discuss the project, It sounds like it's a complex job and it's much better to create a contract to discuss the job in length then to have someone tell you they can do the work, and then bill you for X amount of unexpected dollars, and to provide you with work that had nothing to do with what you wanted. Then you would have had to pay much more then just pay for a consultation.

 

You are unsatisfied, hesitant to move forward, uncomfortable, but yet you say that you understand his charges, and that you want to work with this developer.  IMO if you have those unsatisfied, hesitant, uncomfortable feelings, then maybe it's best to pay this freelancer for their time, close the contract and look for another freelancer that would be a better fit for you despite the fact you want to work with this developer and that you understand their charges.

 

As to having no creative direction to the design you want - THIS should be one of the things discussed in length during this consultation. It is the freelancers job to provide what a client wants and if a clients doesn't quite know what they want, it's the freelancers job with the experience, skills and knowledge to help the client with that by working closely together.

 

This developer may be the perfect one and produce results at the end that are beyond your expectations, but I do not see this job itself going good or going smoothly with the way you are feeling now. IMO end the contract , pay the freelancer for their time and look for someone else.

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