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Cindy's avatar
Cindy P Community Member

Not happy with the job of my freelancer

Hi everyone,

 

I'm new on upwork and I'm not happy with the job of my freelancer. she had to find me some influencers and I told her to look about in in a specefic way because there is many fake and not good influencers.

 

I'm just checking about what she did and isnt good I have a proof because I went to pay and download some report on other website to check about the first of them who as on my list.

 

Could you please, advice me what can I do ? and also to reduce the amount I have to pay to the freelancer I hired because she didnt do her job properly.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Cindy.

17 REPLIES 17
Prashant's avatar
Prashant P Community Member

Simple.

1. Pause the contract

2. Communicate with her your unhappiness.

3. No resolution, Pay her for her efforts.

4. Fire her

5. Close the contract and leave a review.

 

Remember Upwork is not a vending machine where you plop coins and get the exact flavor of sugar water.  It is more like Box of Chocolates, you never know what you are going to get (Tom Hanks).

 

Also, remember you are also partly to blame.  You interviewed her and hired her for whatever reason. 

Cindy's avatar
Cindy P Community Member

thank you for your feedback.

 

Well of course I hired her because she had good comment. But it doesnt make sens if someone doesn't work well to pay her the fully amount.

 

 

Petra's avatar
Petra R Community Member


@Cindy P wrote:

thank you for your feedback.

 

Well of course I hired her because she had good comment. But it doesnt make sens if someone doesn't work well to pay her the fully amount.


 What kind of money are we talking about? Thousands? Hundreds?


When you communicated your dissatisfaction to your freelancer in a professional and calm manner, what was her response?

 

Rene's avatar
Rene K Community Member


@Prashant P wrote:

 

 

Also, remember you are also partly to blame.  You interviewed her and hired her for whatever reason. 


This was totally out of line. We all know that some freelancers on Upwork use bogus profiles. One can not blame a client who is hiring an expert in a field the client is not an expert.

 

If you know squat about mechanics and if you drop your car at a repair shop, it's not your fault if the mechanic does a poor job.

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
Prashant's avatar
Prashant P Community Member


@Rene K wrote:



This was totally out of line.

 

If you know squat about mechanics and if you drop your car at a repair shop, it's not your fault if the mechanic does a poor job.


 That is very true, but if you go to a reputable repair shop most likely you wouldn;t have that problem.  Would you?  Of course they may charge more.

 

But if you find a mechanic with a tool box on the street what would you expect?

 

We have incomplete picture re price, type of work, the communications, expectations and so on.  Without knowing them We can't extinguish the dazzling light of the darkness.

 

And your mechanic example is totally wrong.  Before you drive out they will MAKE YOU PAY.

Rene's avatar
Rene K Community Member


@Prashant P wrote:

We have incomplete picture


 In which case it's better not to make assumptions or blame the client.

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
John's avatar
John O Community Member

I am unhappy because they empower dishonest contractors. My partner and I each had a horrible experience with Harpreet. She gave us a story about going from fixed price to hourly so her earned hours would show up. So we chnaged both contracts to hourly and an agreed-upon cap that equaled the fixed price contract. That was all documented. Next, she charged for additional hours in violation of our agreement and made a mess of the projects.  We stopped both contracts and appealed to UpWork about overcharges. All aspects were carefully documented and presented to UpWork. They did nothing to protect us from a very dishonest person. BTW we had to hire a local [person to fix her messes. We are done working with Upwork

Preston's avatar
Preston H Community Member

Please delete duplicate post.

Jon's avatar
Jon D Community Member

What a stupid quote.
“ life’s like a box of chocolates you never know what your going to get”.

If you buy a box of chocolates you are going to get a box of chocolate!!
There’s even a label on most that tell you what it is
( round ones are coconut, triangle is Carmel so on.
There’s another label inside box as well.
It’s not like your going to open “ oh look, a apple”
Geez
Amanda's avatar
Amanda L Community Member


Jon D wrote:
What a stupid quote.
“ life’s like a box of chocolates you never know what your going to get”.

If you buy a box of chocolates you are going to get a box of chocolate!!
There’s even a label on most that tell you what it is
( round ones are coconut, triangle is Carmel so on.
There’s another label inside box as well.
It’s not like your going to open “ oh look, a apple”
Geez

Did you need help with something specific, Jon? 

Preston's avatar
Preston H Community Member

re: "and also to reduce the amount I have to pay to the freelancer I hired because she didnt do her job properly."

 

Because why?

 

Maybe you want to mentor her? You want to balance her karma, and make sure that she isn't paid more than she deserves? You're trying to help her to become a better person?

 

I advise clients to put themselves and their projects first. If the freelancer did such a bad job, she doesn't deserve your continued attention.

 

Just close the contract and work with freelancers who produce the type of results you want. If you truly put your project first, you don't need to think of ways to pay a poor-performing freelancer less. You don't need to continue thinking about such a freelancer at all.

Cindy's avatar
Cindy P Community Member

Thank you for your feedback you are right actually !

Joanna's avatar
Joanna C Community Member

So true if you have deep pockets and money to waste. But if you have a few thousand in escrow and get a poor product you can not use then no, you shouldn't have to pay the entire amount. 

Preston's avatar
Preston H Community Member

re: "So true if you have deep pockets and money to waste. But if you have a few thousand in escrow and get a poor product you can not use then no, you shouldn't have to pay the entire amount."

 

My advice isn't for clients with deep pockets. My advice is meant for clients with limited budgets.

 

A client with a very limited budget should proactively plan to never get money back from a freelancer. Never ask for a refund. Never dispute.

 

This helps the client save money.

 

Sichna client doesn't fund an escrow payment with thousands of dollars, especially not with a freelancer he isn't familiar with.

 

Successful clients don't put thousands into escrow for something that might not work. 

For a large project, the key to success is to do things in a modular, tested manner. Perhaps using fixed-price contracts, but even better using hourly contracts.

Joynul's avatar
Joynul A Community Member

There is Milion freelancer just close the contract and rehire the best person for your project. You can hire as a paid trail then you will be able to see outcome result. Thanks!

Joynul
Richard's avatar
Richard R Community Member

Sorry you had trouble with your freelancer. You've been given good feedback on what to do (close contract and find someone else). To answer your request on paying the freelancer less you can always communicate with your freelancer. Explain what you are dissatisfied with and negotiate a lesser amount. The freelancer can either agree or disagree.
Preston's avatar
Preston H Community Member

There is no way for me to know how a freelancer will work out until I hire her.

 

What if I carefully research a freelancer's profile and portfolio and interview her?

 

That may give me a lot of useful information. That may improve my chances of success. But that does not guarantee anything. What if I hire a GREAT ARTIST who turns out to be not at all inspired by my briefs? Or what if she suddenly gets sick (for real) and is bedridden for months? Ot what if she simply is so good at what she does that she is hired by a wealthy patron and is no longer interested in the relatively small project I hired her for?

None of these things are acceptable excuses for a freelancer to behave in an unprofessional manner. But such is life. Personally, I spend little or no time researching and interviewing freelancers. As a client I prefer to hire quickly and evaluate the work that a freelancer actually does for me. If the freelancer isn't right for my project, I fire them as soon as I realize that.

 

With small projects, I see no value in spending much time interviewing and screening freelancers. For creative projects such as illustration, I hire based on portfolios. For larger, long-term hires, it will make more sense to spend some time interviewing. But clients should STILL be ready to fire freelancers if they don't work out. One of the biggest mistakes I see clients make on Upwork is continuing to pay a freelancer who is very much wrong for the project. It's like they think all possible freelancers are interchangeable and they are "hiring Upwork," which isn't the case at all. If you hire Jess and Kat... for exactly the same task... Jess might be great and Kat might be terrible. Seems like an incredibly basic concept, but too often I see clients who don't apply this principle to their own project.

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