Needing Clarification for Missed Deadline

[knh55]

Hi, I hired someone for a small writing job (fixed price) with the agreement that it would be submitted by June 12 at midnight. The freelancer was communicative - first, she said she'd have it to me on the 10th. Then on the 11th she said she was working on it would have it to me that night. On the 12th, she was not responsive and hasn't submitted anything. Since she missed the deadline and I am now going to have to hire and pay someone else even more to rush the project,  I am wanting to make sure there's really no way to cancel this contract without having to pay her the funds in escrow and then requesting a refund. I feel like she will refuse the refund and tell me to wait until she has the project done since she "started" it, and then I will likely never receive anything from her - what happens then, and realistically what are my true chances of getting my money back? Thanks. 

[colettelewis]

I would try to contact the freelancer one last time (she's probably panicking), and if you still don't hear anything and the amount you funded is not too great, cut your losses and start over with someone else.  It's galling but you can leave approrpriate feedback. 

[knh55]

That is what I was thinking the process was - thanks for clarifying. I have reached out to her twice with no response, and she knew the deadline was critical. I will end the contract, ask for a refund, and hope for the best but expect to lose the money. Thank you! 

[prestonhunter]

When I have a critical deadline that I am hiring freelancers for, I hire multiple freelancers using hourly contracts.

If a freelancer does no work, then I don't need to pay anything at all. No money gets tied up in escrow.

These are group projects, in which each freelancer works independently of each other, without communicating with each other in any way.

I can end the project and end all contracts when I have received a single satisfactory result. Or I can keep the project open as results come in, and have multiple options to choose from.

Using this method, I always get the work completed by the deadline.

For example, last week I hired 10 different artists to create a single illustration, using hourly contracts using their posted hourl rate. I received 6 submissions. Then ended the project. 4 freelancers never logged time, and I didn't pay them anything. Which is fine. Hourly contracts allow for more flexibility than fixed-price contracts.

[knh55]

Thanks, Preston. I am hesitant to hire hourly for these shorter writing jobs, as I have done it before and one of the freelancers logged much, much more time than it should have taken. He kept pretending to work by toggling between Internet tabs so the "tracker" would get different screenshots, and he didnt actually start writing anything for a long time. I guess we're taking a risk either way - thankfully, most of my hourly and fixed price freelancers have been decent experiences 👍

[prestonhunter]

re: "I am hesitant to hire hourly for these shorter writing jobs, as I have done it before and one of the freelancers logged much, much more time than it should have taken."

That is an important consideration.

Both fixed-price and hourly contracts need to be handled thoughtfully.

When I hire freelancers to work on a specific, limited task, I specify how many hours I expect freelancers to work on the task, and I set a maximum number of hours per week for the contract.

[wlyonsatl]

Preston,

If a client cancels a contract before the freelancer has formally submitted any work product to the client via the project's "Submit" button, is any amount in escrow automatically returned to the client?

[prestonhunter]

re: "If a client cancels a contract before the freelancer has formally submitted any work product to the client via the project's 'Submit' button, is any amount in escrow automatically returned to the client?"

It does not matter if the freelancer clicked the Submit button or not.

When the client sets up a fixed-price contract, he funds an escrow payment.

That escrow payment is supposed to go to the freelancer.

If the client closes the contract, the client has two options:

a) release all escrow money to the freelancer

b) ask for a full or partial refund

A client can NOT unilaterally click a button and get escrow money refunded back to himself.