Re: How do I request a price?

80f4fed6 · ‎07-19-2020

I've seen an artist whose work I like, I want to ask them to quote me for a specific project.

At the bottom of their profile there are a couple of "pre-packaged projects" that don't apply.

Underneath that it says, "Interested in a different project? Request pricing"

That seems ideal, so I click on it and it seems to go through setting up a job specifically for that freelancer. Strangly, it asks all the usual questions about what skills I'm looking for and who should be allowed to see it and which countries I want to hire from (which all seem irrelevant if I've already selected a specific person, but whatever) - but then I get stuck on step 7 of 8.

It won't let me continue (the next button is greyed out) unless I enter an amount in the "do you have a specifc budget" box. No, no I don't have a specific budget. But I can't say no, I can only enter a budget.

Firstly that's a stupid name for the box if the only answer allowed is to enter a budget! No I don't have a budget to why can't I skip it without entering a budget???

Secondly, the whole point of requesting a price is that I'm requesting a price! I'm not saying "this is how much I want to pay", I'm asking "how much would this cost?" - so why is it asking me to enter a budget???

Am I doing something wrong, or missing something here?

petra_r · ‎07-19-2020

Just put a random number in there and start your invite with "**PRICE IS A PLACEHOLDER, I HAVE NO IDEA!**"

🙂

prestonhunter · ‎07-19-2020

John:
MANY Upwork users - freelancers and clients alike - have been confused or frustrated by this requirement. The truth is, we often DON'T know what to put in that field.

But it is a required part of posting a fixed-price job posting.

As Petra pointed out, you can put a "placeholder" value in that field.

BUT ALSO KEEP IN MIND: A very effective way to post jobs and hire great freelancers is to post jobs as HOURLY contract jobs.

I usually hire freelancers using hourly contracts, wherein I simply hire them with their posted hourly rate. That is extremely fair and simple.

It is always possible to ask a freelancer: "How long do you think it will take to finish this task?"

Then the freelancer can tell you "about two hours."

And you can multiple 2 by their hourly rate, and get an estimated cost for the task.
Just keep in mind that hourly contracts are not fixed-price contracts.

After the freelancer actually works on the task for two hours... you might think to yourself: "Wow, this freelancer really knows her stuff!"

Then you end up asking the freelancer to do a little more, and then a lot more.
And before you know it, you have paid the freelancer for 25 hours of work, and she has completely revitalized your business. (You end up feeling a little bit guilty that you are only paying her $15/hour, because - honestly - she is worth twice that.)

On the other hand... maybe the freelancer told you it will take 2 hours... and it ends up taking her 10 hours, and the work isn't very good.

That can happen, too. (Don't continue working with that one.)

80f4fed6 · ‎07-19-2020

Preston H wrote:
John:
MANY Upwork users - freelancers and clients alike - have been confused or frustrated by this requirement. The truth is, we often DON'T know what to put in that field.

But it is a required part of posting a fixed-price job posting.

Sure. But then don't use the fixed price job posting code for price requests... They're 2 different things, needing two different types of information. So just write some different code for price requests. It's not like they're short on options for people who do website coding...

prestonhunter · ‎07-19-2020

John:
I understand what you are saying.
I understand what you are asking for.

It would be a reasonable request within some contexts.

But I don't think Upwork is going to create a tool for submitting price requests.

Because Upwork does not sell widgets.

Upwork doesn't sell blog articles. Or websites. Or illustrations. Or anything else.

Upwork provides a service that allows clients to find, hire and pay freelancers.

At its core, Upwork intends for clients to hire freelancers using hourly contracts, and then pay those freelancers for the hours that they work, and then Upwork retains a percentage of those payments, which is how it earns money as a company.

As a sort of "add-on", Upwork allows clients to hire freelancers using fixed-price contracts.

But even with the fixed-price contract model, the service that Upwork is providing is letting clients find, hire and pay freelancers.

I agree that it should be easier for freelancers to be able to post a job description WITHOUT stating a price ("budget"). But I understand why creating a "price request" tool would make Upwork uncomfortable. Such a thing makes it seem as though a client can "purchase" something from Upwork. Which isn't the case.

80f4fed6 · ‎07-19-2020

Preston H wrote:

I understand what you are asking for.

I agree that it should be easier for freelancers to be able to post a job description WITHOUT stating a price ("budget"). But I understand why creating a "price request" tool would make Upwork uncomfortable. Such a thing makes it seem as though a client can "purchase" something from Upwork. Which isn't the case.

I'm not sure that you do to be fair. Your replies seem to indicate that you think I am complaining about the job posting feature; I am not.

I'm not trying to bend the "job posting" feature to do something it wasn't intended to do, and then complaining that it doesn't allow me to do what I want.

This is a separate feature. At the bottom of (some) profiles it specifically has the feature to "request pricing", so that you can ask the spefic person "hey, this is what I want to do but I have no idea what sort of price you would want to charge for this, so please let me know how much you'd be willing to do it for". If upwork are "uncomfortable" with providing such a feature then don't provide it. If they are going to offer that feature then at least do it properly!

Anyway, it seems that I'm not doing something wrong, or missing anything. It's just a lazily implemented feature where large parts of it make no sense. In the absense of any solutions I'll go with the first answer and just fudge it...

pandoraharper · ‎07-21-2020

john m wrote:
Preston H wrote:

I understand what you are asking for.

I agree that it should be easier for freelancers to be able to post a job description WITHOUT stating a price ("budget"). But I understand why creating a "price request" tool would make Upwork uncomfortable. Such a thing makes it seem as though a client can "purchase" something from Upwork. Which isn't the case.
I'm not sure that you do to be fair. Your replies seem to indicate that you think I am complaining about the job posting feature; I am not.

I'm not trying to bend the "job posting" feature to do something it wasn't intended to do, and then complaining that it doesn't allow me to do what I want.

This is a separate feature. At the bottom of (some) profiles it specifically has the feature to "request pricing", so that you can ask the spefic person "hey, this is what I want to do but I have no idea what sort of price you would want to charge for this, so please let me know how much you'd be willing to do it for". If upwork are "uncomfortable" with providing such a feature then don't provide it. If they are going to offer that feature then at least do it properly!

Anyway, it seems that I'm not doing something wrong, or missing anything. It's just a lazily implemented feature where large parts of it make no sense. In the absense of any solutions I'll go with the first answer and just fudge it...

John,

The feature you are referring to is quite new. I would even go so far as to say that most users (on either side of the fence) havent used it. But reading your experience using said feature puts a number of things into focus. Moderators, please consider this thread as valuable feedback about this feature.