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bleighdesigns
Community Member

When a client asks for too much.

Hello!

 

I have been running in to an unfortunate problem. 

 

I have clients that don't know what they are looking for, or don't state it initially, and ask for too many revisions/initial designs. 

 

I know it is common for them to not know what they want, and I have gotten very lucky to have a lot of people trust my judgement. I also have a lot of people say they trust my ideas then obviously don't. 

 

Anyway....I have started stating more plainly in my proposal the amount of initial designs to choose from that I will do and the amount of revisions I will do.

 

However, I still have people ask for more. I am just wondering how everyone handles situations like this? I don't want to seem rude or argumentative if I remind them that they have asked for more than I offered. Do you request additional payment at the end? Do you state an excessive revision fee in your propsal? Do you just suck it up and give them what they ask for?

 

Thanks for the help! 

 

 

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tta192
Community Member

This is an inherent risk of fixed price work. No matter how much effort you put initially into defining the scope, you’ll never be able to prove that it’s really “done”.  So depending on context, you’ll have to be more or less assertive about it. Both ar the end AND at the start of the project.

 

Even if you have such a client from time to time, it’s not worth it to react too hard about it. As you said, not all clients are that bad – so it evens out eventually. It’s the mean level that you need to manage, not the extremes.

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14 REPLIES 14
tta192
Community Member

This is an inherent risk of fixed price work. No matter how much effort you put initially into defining the scope, you’ll never be able to prove that it’s really “done”.  So depending on context, you’ll have to be more or less assertive about it. Both ar the end AND at the start of the project.

 

Even if you have such a client from time to time, it’s not worth it to react too hard about it. As you said, not all clients are that bad – so it evens out eventually. It’s the mean level that you need to manage, not the extremes.

This is exactly why I will only do hourly projects. Every fixed price project I tried finnished badly.

I Agree with you, Andrei. Some clients will keep requesting that you do something extra which is obviously out of the scope of the initial agreement. However, depending on your relationship with the client, I would advise freelancers to extend generosity on this as it will help build a good relationship with the client. I am sure not all clients are that bad. Remember the client will always remember your helping hand when giving that much-needed review.

lysis10
Community Member

I would say if it happens a lot then you aren't being clear with them.

 

 

I take everything case by case. If it's 1 small addition or something, I'd probably just do it. If it got out of hand, I'd remind them of what I told them. 

 

I did have a nightmare client over a year ago, where I basically told him "No more. This is it."

But don't they threat you for cancelling job with negative reviews?

goldenseal
Community Member


@Britney O wrote:

 

 

Anyway....I have started stating more plainly in my proposal the amount of initial designs to choose from that I will do and the amount of revisions I will do.

 

However, I still have people ask for more. I am just wondering how everyone handles situations like this? 

 


 If you're clear as a bell as far as what they get for their fixed price budget, and they want more, and more, and more, here's what you do: bend over, take it and hope the next client is not a psycho.

 

Upwork can be a decent platform for connecting with new clients. Unfortunately, they hold ALL the power in the form of their feedback, and by extension, your future success (or failure) on the site. 

Client: " Oh, could you add 6 bells, and a whistle, and then make all that ijjeeet purple?"

 

Freelancer: "Yes, great idea, I can really see that working! The bells and whistles will be $ 62, the purple ijjeeet $ 38. Would you like to set that up as a separate contract, or a new milestone on the existing one?"

 

Learn to say "No" by saying "Yes!" in a completely non-confrontational way.

Thank you Petra, this was fantastic advice! 🙂 

RE: They hold all the power

 

Exactly. That's why about half the time, I end up giving way more time and effort than I originally agreed to. In the beginning,  I evaluate whether the job is worth it. We agree on terms, I start the work - then things start changing. The client changes the scope, or they say (as a recent one did) "Oh, did I agree to $75 an hour? No, I meant $600 fixed price for all ..."

 

And I'm uneasy that if I tell them "no" or even try to talk through it, they are going to give me a bad review. Yes, I know about the ability to have one bad review taken off my score and profile, but - seriously, I have clients start waffling on me so often. And yes, the expectations were clear in the beginning.

 

So, Upwork, is there something you can do to make this balance of power around feedback a little more balanced in favor of the freelancer? Thanks -

Hi Denise,

 

Please note that if you don't agree with the changes to the job scope or terms your client is offering, you can stop working on the contract and report them to Customer Support. Note that you as a freelancer are also rating clients, and those who are found to have a history of bad feedback and unsuccessful outcomes will have their feedback removed from impacting the freelancers' Job Success Score retroactively.

~ Vladimir
Upwork
bleighdesigns
Community Member

I think it would be helpful if we could at least see their feedback before leaving ours.

clearly communicate the number of reviews and precicely name the steps and workflow you will bring to the project for the set price.

 

don't use terms like "some reviews" or "until its done".

some clients can't decide ,simply because they don't have the knowledge they can base their decision on.

 

if a client knows how many reviews he will get for a certain amount of money, misunderstandings won't happen, you won't get trapped into an endless loop of revisions and the changes he will mention will be a lot more thought-through.

xmelody
Community Member

Best is, as my experience, to write a requirements list, number by number. This can be done by the customer or by both with your technical help. Once the requirements are filled, you can budget, then you can put it on the upwork room with your client in order to check for future disputes. Then, if your customer request you some additional thing after budget deal, that will be out of initial budget, needing to be billed apart. In example, i usually make a fixed budget and extras are billed hourly using a time tracking system that is reporting to customer at any time, so he can know how is bis is being my effort for his added "always little" new requirements.

A lot of this conversation boils down to requirement lists and project descriptions which are complex, or contain many items.

 

And my own personal practice is to never take on fixed-price contracts or milestones that are that complex.

 

If a client has a complex list of requirements, then I won't work on the project or accept the contract unless the list is broken down into simpler, manageable fixed-price contracts, or is done purely as an hourly contract.

 

When I read about what some freelancers include in a singe contract, my mind reels. If a client knows that they want and it is a big list, that's fine. But that might mean breaking it down into many, many separate fixed-price contracts. Maybe each contract is only 4 or 5 lines long. Maybe that means there are 10 contracts or milestones instead of just one. That's okay. I think that keeps everybody honest, and it means I can do some work and get paid within a reasonable time. And I won't have to worry that there are 50 different items to discuss and get approved before getting money out of a client.