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zegois
Community Member

Aproved milestones, now try to redo all work for free

Hi everyone, 

I have developed some images for a client, I always made previews and final images for review (In PNG with transparency with a resolution of 4000 x 4000 pixels at 300dpi) and he approved all the images so far in the milestones.
But he doesn´t seem much experienced with image compression for the web and now he is making upload of the images on the Amazon platform and had some issues doing the compression of the images, and is getting images with banding and some even pixelized. 

I tried to help him and be supportive, providing him the PSD files and looking for good practices for uploading them in on-line platforms for free, I suggested to him for images that he had more issues, I can render them again in TIF with 16bits if that helps, for a symbolic price (the price that I charged is really low 5 - 10 USD per image). 


But instead of choosing the images that he needs, he started demanded me to render all the images in TIF for free (they are at least 30 images), saying that is my fault (not explicitly) sending me images of the work I developed but with low quality (screenshots, low-resolution jpg) that I didn´t do and asking me how can they be like that, and demanding me a guarantee to rebuild all the work that he approved, I am trying to make some sense to him and being polite, I am a bit desperate because I still have a milestone on this contract, and I think we might give me bad feedback just because I refuse to do it, can anybody give me an advice how can I proceed? 

Thank you all for your help! 




ACCEPTED SOLUTION
prestonhunter
Community Member

It is a violation of Upwork ToS for a client to ask a freelancer to work for free.

 

You are doing the right thing to be polite.

 

But as you already realize, being polite does not mean working for free.

 

Remember that this client needs you more than you need him.

 

I recommend that you do this:

Clearly tell him what his options are.

 

"Henry, I have now completed the original task that was agreed upon for this fixed-price contract. You now have the option to (a) release payment for the correct milestone and find the next milestone as planned. Or you may (b) release the current escrow money and create a new hourly contract which will allow more flexibility. You also have the option (c) to close the current contract and work with other members of your team for the remaining work. I will support you no matter which you choose."

 

After you send him this message, you don't do any work. You don't argue with the client. You don't negotiate with the client.

 

If the client says anything other than choosing an option and paying you money, then ignore his comments. Simply respond: "Just choose a, b or c."

 

ALTERNATIVELY:

You could simply continue to work for him without him paying you anything or releasing money to you.

 

But that doesn't seem like it would be a very satisfying option for you. There is no guarantee that you will ever be able provide him with files that he is satisfied with.

 

It is POSSIBLE that this client is one who can never be satisfied and also is a person who has no interest whatsoever on paying you fairly.

 

It is also POSSIBLE that this client has very specific needs which a different freelancer may actually understand better than you do, and that you may actually not be the right person for the job.

 

I don't know all the details of your arrangement. I don't know what the agreement actually was.

 

But I sense that this client is sincerely dissatisfied with the files he has received. And I can also sense your frustration at having to do far more work than you thought you would need to do.

 

Another option you have is to tell the client:

"Henry: I really did want to help you, but I can see that I am not the right person for this task. I am closing the contract now. I wish you well."

 

Then close the contract, releasing the funds back to the client, and be done with it.

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7 REPLIES 7
prestonhunter
Community Member

It is a violation of Upwork ToS for a client to ask a freelancer to work for free.

 

You are doing the right thing to be polite.

 

But as you already realize, being polite does not mean working for free.

 

Remember that this client needs you more than you need him.

 

I recommend that you do this:

Clearly tell him what his options are.

 

"Henry, I have now completed the original task that was agreed upon for this fixed-price contract. You now have the option to (a) release payment for the correct milestone and find the next milestone as planned. Or you may (b) release the current escrow money and create a new hourly contract which will allow more flexibility. You also have the option (c) to close the current contract and work with other members of your team for the remaining work. I will support you no matter which you choose."

 

After you send him this message, you don't do any work. You don't argue with the client. You don't negotiate with the client.

 

If the client says anything other than choosing an option and paying you money, then ignore his comments. Simply respond: "Just choose a, b or c."

 

ALTERNATIVELY:

You could simply continue to work for him without him paying you anything or releasing money to you.

 

But that doesn't seem like it would be a very satisfying option for you. There is no guarantee that you will ever be able provide him with files that he is satisfied with.

 

It is POSSIBLE that this client is one who can never be satisfied and also is a person who has no interest whatsoever on paying you fairly.

 

It is also POSSIBLE that this client has very specific needs which a different freelancer may actually understand better than you do, and that you may actually not be the right person for the job.

 

I don't know all the details of your arrangement. I don't know what the agreement actually was.

 

But I sense that this client is sincerely dissatisfied with the files he has received. And I can also sense your frustration at having to do far more work than you thought you would need to do.

 

Another option you have is to tell the client:

"Henry: I really did want to help you, but I can see that I am not the right person for this task. I am closing the contract now. I wish you well."

 

Then close the contract, releasing the funds back to the client, and be done with it.

Thank you, Preston! 

Yes, I definitely will do the first option, I am not working for free on something that doesn´t even depend on my ability to do the work, if we can´t make the correct upload settings or don´t want to pay for further development, I can´t do anything. 

My afraid is the feedback, in the end, but I think I will just leave the contract open and say to him to chose the options as you said. 

Thank you!

Understood that you don't want bad feedback.

But remember: you work for money, not stars.

 

You have finished 21 jobs.

533 hours.

You have 100% JSS.

 

I do not believe you need to be a hostage to fear about feedback.

 

IF YOU TRULY WANT to help a client, the best way to do that is to give the client clear options and make sure the client is paying you fairly.

 

Clients don't get quality, timely work from freelancers who are working for free.


Preston H wrote:

 

 

I do not believe you need to be a hostage to fear about feedback.

 


^ This is definitely true, at the very beginning within the first month on Upwork I was a lot more stressed but it's more important to get paid and stick to your guns than it is to worry about feedback. Plus, you can always "reply" to the feedback and explain the situation, which can be helpful in assisting potential clients in understanding why that person was being unfair.

Not to mention I see freelancers with TERRIBLE feedback hired all the time - with your score I think you're fine

My issue is that he is demanding something based on is own work with my images, and I already send him a few examples on how he can do that properly to upload them on the web. 

I even post those images optimized for the web (that I have made that fix for my own) on Upwork chat for him to see that they are not equal to the examples that he is sending me, but still, I can´t control the way he is doing his own work, I also said to him that is better for him to hire an expert in that field to know what are the specific formats or settings that he needs.

Of course, If he is not satisfied I can release the last milestone of the last set of images and he can find another freelancer, but the work approved and validated by him so far on the milestones I don´t feel that is fair to return that money again to him, because the work it's done properly and I already send him several ways to prepare the file to exportation and that works (and this was not even my part of the job in the first place).  

He didn´t pay me to make the upload the images on the web platform that he is using or to make that file conversion/compression for web or even gave me specifics on how he wanted the images.
I have done the images as his partner always asking me to do on other similar jobs and he was ok with it.

He definitely doesn't want to pay more because that way we will surpass his budget with is own client, I do understand that and that is why I tried to be supportive, but I will not do something that I don´t have been paid to do and that I can't even verify what is happening for real. 

Totally right!

 

I have never experienced a situation when doing any work for free actually improved my relationship with a customer. It always only makes things worse: if a person is unreasonable, caving in to his demands can make him only evern more unreasonable, not other way around.

df602768
Community Member

Listen,

 

During my short time on UpWork, I noticed many potential clients asking freelancers for free work. 

 

Every time I came across those clients, I flagged them.

 

Even when I first started with zero earnings. 

 

I still flagged them. 

 

And I will flag them again.

 

Oh, yes.

 

Every single time. 

 

Except for them, some clients want freelancers to work for the minimum available rate, even though what they ask is amounting to too much work.

 

Guess what. 

 

Sometimes I flag those too. 

 

Think of UpWork as a global market. You cannot allow outsiders to obliterate the in-market rates because some freelancers are desperate enough to take low-paid work. 

 

We need to protect this community. 

 

We need to protect our rates.

 

And as such, we say NO to free work.

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