I have been a top-rated freelancer on Upwork for many years now. It has been an amazing journey so far, with only two or three occasions where I received 4+ stars from my clients, all the rest was 5 stars.
In all honesty, I'm not saying this to brag but to clarify my situation. I always go the extra mile for my clients in order to earn five-star reviews. But unfortunately, one of my recent clients appears to be manipulating me in this matter.
Please allow me to give a brief overview of the whole matter. Two months ago, I bid on a simple article writing job. The client's budget per article was $30. Considering it was a long-term project and he was a new user on Upwork, I offered him a competitive rate of $20 per article.
The client is from China. Upon completing the hiring process, he asked if I could speak Chinese and also said that he had trouble communicating in English. The job description did not mention this, so I became a little confused. Nevertheless, I decided to do my best to make his first Upwork project enjoyable for him.
During our conversation, I assured him that he can type in Chinese language if he wishes, and that I will interpret his message using Google translate. His next request was even more bizarre. His niche, he said, lacks enough information on the web. His preference was that he would write the articles in Chinese first and then I would convert them into properly written English articles (editing, proofreading included). There was no mention of it in his job description. In spite of that, I wanted to assist him. So, we decided ... after I received the Chinese texts, I would first translate them via Google Translate and then rewrite and edit them in English.
From the beginning, he displayed stubbornness. He would never listen to any of my requests, nor would he oppose them. No explanation was offered either. He would simply give orders as if he were trying to establish a master-slave relationship between himself and the freelancer he hired.
My plan was to write 10 articles for him, complete my first milestone, and then request that the contract be terminated by mutual consent.
Once I gave him the first eight articles, he stopped responding to my messages. However, my service appears to have pleased him, as he explicitly mentioned it. Additionally, I offered him unlimited revisions. Whenever I sent him a completed article, I would ask him if he needed any revisions. Never once did he ask me to do this.
After he stopped communicating with me, I sent him several messages asking if he needed anything from me or if he could give me a rough estimate of when I can expect to receive the next batch of articles from him so that we can close out the contract quickly. I eventually sent him a message telling him I would contact Upwork support if he didn't respond.
That did the trick and he eventually responded and said that he would like to pay half of what he paid for the articles before (which would be $10 per article). I was surprised by the low payment given the difficulty of the task. Due to the arduous nature of the work (translation, editing, checking technical terms, etc.) I asked for a rethink. He simply refused to do so.
Even so, I was still interested in finishing the first milestone and ultimately wrapping up the contract. Thus, I requested him to terminate the existing contract first, and create a new contract with a new payment structure. He refused to do so as well and told me I had to create the contract myself. I created a new contract and asked him to terminate the previous contract as soon as the due payment was released.
Then, to my surprise, he paid $100 for 8 articles. It does not fall under either the $20 per article or the $10 per article rates. Again, I was confused, so I politely asked how the payment rate was calculated and if a small bonus could be added just to make it more aligned with the original contract terms. After another terse refusal, he gave me the order to return to work.
This is the first time I've had a client break contract terms like this while still being so stubborn. After a few days, he did add a $20 bonus to the previous contract. Maybe out of remorse?!
On the other hand, if I wanted to maintain my 100% job success rate, I had no choice but to begin working on the new project since it was already in progress. My hope was that somehow, by the end of the next batch of articles (10 in total), I would manage to end the contract on a positive note. As of now, I have given him seven articles under the new contract. He has now stopped responding again, just like before. He may be contemplating a similar move to the one he did previously. I haven't heard from him for more than a week now.
I know Upwork's escrow and feedback system ensures quality for both clients and freelancers. But there will always be some people who will try to manipulate the system. My question now is, can Upwork help handle situations like this better? Would Upwork be able to help me get rid of this extremely cunning individual without hurting my JSS score?
