Charging Clients to Fix Mistakes?

[madison-russell]

I'm just asking this out of pure curiousity, but do any of you guys charge clients for time spent fixing your own mistake? For instance, if I added product inventory into the wrong category, I wouldn't charge the client for the time I spent putting it into the right category. I'm sure a lot of people are going to disagree with me on this, but my philosophy is that the client is paying for the work to be done correctly, and so anything that is an issue on my end (misfiling a document, having trouble downloading a required software, fixing a font inconsistency) shouldn't have to be paid. Maybe when I develop more confidence as a freelancer, as I'm still fairly new, I might start "clocking-in" for fixing mistakes, but as of right now I just don't feel comfortable doing it. 

[petra_r]

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@Madison R wrote:

I'm just asking this out of pure curiousity, but do any of you guys charge clients for time spent fixing your own mistake?

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 Absolutely not.

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@Madison R wrote:

 Maybe when I develop more confidence as a freelancer, as I'm still fairly new, I might start "clocking-in" for fixing mistakes, but as of right now I just don't feel comfortable doing it. 

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 I would never "feel comfortable" charging a client for fixing my own mistakes. I can not even begin to imagine how anyone could possibly begin to think that's OK.

I do charge for fixing a client's mistake (like when a client sent me the wrong file and I spent 5 hours translating it before getting the right one) but never my own.

[madison-russell]

I don't think I would ever charge to fix a mistake, I just didn't know if most freelancers did it and I was somehow "out of the loop". As long as it isn't some common practice, I would never charge for my mistakes, comfortable or not.

I wasn't sure if this was going to be like the situation where a freelancer said they didn't charge to talk to a client on Skype (I don't either) and everyone jumped in and said that they did and it was common practice to. 

[petra_r]

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@Madison R wrote:

I don't think I would ever charge to fix a mistake, I just didn't know if most freelancers did it and I was somehow "out of the loop". As long as it isn't some common practice, I would never charge for my mistakes, comfortable or not.

I wasn't sure if this was going to be like the situation where a freelancer said they didn't charge to talk to a client on Skype (I don't either) and everyone jumped in and said that they did and it was common practice to. 

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 I charge clients for stuff I do for them that are part of what they hire me for, including meetings (via Skype or whatever) except for fixing my own mistakes. If conversations go off track and turn to private chitchat, I turn the tracker off but in general skype (or whatever) meetings are charged.

I don't turn the tracker on for quickly answering a mail or a message.

[sbilu131521 · Accepted solution]

Hi Madison,

You didn't ask anything. It seems you wanted to justify your true honesty! I like it. And I agree with you. This is all about transparency. So we do mistakes, means we pay (our time). Why should the client pay for our own mistakes?

Maybe there are people who will not agree with you. You shouldn't listen to them. Keep your honesty safe and go ahead!

Wish you a wonderful Upwork career!

Thanks

Sagar

[versailles]

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@Madison R wrote:

I'm just asking this out of pure curiousity, but do any of you guys charge clients for time spent fixing your own mistake? 

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Was?!?

Who would do that?

[jmlaidlaw]

@ Madison --

No.  Just... no.

The idea of charging a client to fix whatever I have gummed up is... well: never, ever, nope, non-starter, unprofessional, unethical, cheating, and (in essence) stealing from the client.

But, other than that, it would be okay  -- LOLZ!

[madison-russell]

I figured it was a no-no, and I would absolutely never do it, just wasn't sure if that was like something people did. Really glad it isn't, because that means that most freelancers are good, honest people.