🐈
» Forums » Freelancers » Re: Beware of this client - Edited
Page options
yodametrics
Community Member

Beware of this client - Edited

Hey there,


I took this job as it seemed simple and easy, and I really thought that I could do something for the project.

 

But after taking the project it went sideways. **Edited for Community Guidelines**, is the probably the most difficult client I had on Upwork. I clearly explained him the deliverables and the Milestones and then I delivered the first Milestone accordingly. Being a fixed-price project, I spent probably 3x more time, but I didn't complain about that. I assumed that. 

 

Nevertheless, he wanted me to deliver him the solutions in the Milestone 1, although it was pretty clear and agreed that I would have sent the solutions at the end of Milestone 2. 

 

He delayed the project, probably just to put me into a bad light. He didn't answer for weeks. Finally the payment was released automatically by Upwork as it was in Escrow. Then he told me that he would close the project as I'm not a good fit. 

 

I haven't sent a review and I regret now because I would have given him the worst possible feedback. I thought that I shouldn't even bother. Then he gave me a 2.35 feedback. 

 

I wrote to Upwork before ending that project and I complained about the unresponsive and abusive client. They didn't do anything. I have the emails. Now I'm expecting them not to do anything about this garbage client that pollutes the community. I know for a fact that he asked for a free PPC keyworks research on a different job. Later the job got removed. But he's still on Upwork. When are you going to do something about this UPWORK? When will you put the community in the first place and leave the profits on the second?

 

Elance was amazing, totally revolutionary. Then Upwork bought it. What did we receive? Nothing. We got bad support, higher fees, membership fees and connects, unresponsive abusive clients, stings etc. 

 

I'm really disappointed about the whole thing. Really! I continued to stubornly indulge all the crap, but I can't take it anymore. 

 

Bye

 

 

6 REPLIES 6
prestonhunter
Community Member

Mihnea:


I don't blame you for being disappointed.

But I urge you to keep things in perspective.

 

You have completed 34 jobs.

You have great feedback.

 

Clients have written about how much they appreciate your work.

 

ONE client - who hired you for a $150 job (much smaller dollar amount than a lot of your contracts) - left 2.35 star-average feedback. He did NOT write anything.

 

It is JUST A NUMBER.

 

It is not great feedback. It is disappointing. But this is not going to ruin things for you.

 

Clients who look at your profile are intelligent. They are looking to find people who can help them with their projects. What if they see this 2.35 star average? What will they think about it? Most will see it as feedback left by a difficult client, or they will understand it as the result of an unfortunate bad fit. VERY FEW will think of it as a reason to NOT hire you.

 

You have a great work history and a great profile page.

Hi Preston,

 

Thanks, I appreciate your support. On the other hand, what's going to happen with this kind of clients?

 

I haven't been notified about this feedback and I couldn't defend myself. I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one that has to deal with bad clients. They are allover. I'm sorry that I took the contract. UpWork should allow at least to make the information public, just to avoid other freelancers to deal with this. Instead you edit his name. I understand that he has the right to defend and I don't deny that, but I don't have that right. It's pretty clear that UpWork won't remove that rating. That's fine, I will take action elsewhere. These clients should be removed from the community.

 

Bye

Hi Mihnea,

 

I understand your frustration with this. I would like to clarify that your post was edited because of a violation of our Community Guidelines. Please keep in mind that posting private details publicly is not allowed in our Community.

In addition to Preston post. I would like to refer you to this Help Article where you can learn more how you`re protected on Fixed price contracts. If you have any additional questions let me know, thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork

re: "UpWork should allow at least to make the information public, just to avoid other freelancers to deal with this. Instead you edit his name."

 

Mihnea:

Even if Upwork allowed freelancers to post the names of clients and describe bad behavior by those clients here in the Forum, it would not matter. Not at all.


Because nobody does searches of the Community Forum to check for client names and read up on any reports about them before applying to jobs or accepting job offers.

 

Also: Job postings don't have client names.

 

So you're really not missing out on anything in terms of not being able to name clients here.

 

The way that freelancers can identify problem clients is by leaving honest, accurate, fair feedback when contracts are over.

 

AND by doing what you have done: Which is to describe the SITUATION and the BEHAVIOR and the WARNING SIGNS... in your Forum post.

 

THOSE things are far more important than names.

 

Freelancers can't check or memorize names of "good clients" and "bad clients." But freelancers CAN learn to recognize red flags and problem situations, and we CAN learn how to properly and professionally handle such situations. (No matter what the client's name is.)

kat303
Community Member

We all will get that difficult client. It happens on here, and it happens in the B&M world (not too long ago a customer physically attacked a fast food manager because she didn't get ketchup on her hamburger.) Although this was a bad client to work with, maybe you should be more positive in the fact that at least the funds in escrow was released and the client didn't ask for a refund, start a dispute or take it to arbitration. 

 

Upwork won't remove feedback unless it's racist, derogatory or contains profanity. Usually, difficult clients come with jobs that are "easy" "quick" and have a low budget. They expect the entire job to be completed for pennies. You don't need the name of the client. If enough people rate the client honestly, professionally and describe in a short statement (instead of ranting and raving because you're so worked up) not only will future freelancers see all those negative reviews for that client, but Upwork will start to look into what that is happening and take appropriate action. 

financemark
Community Member

Dont work for cheap junk clients!  Lesson learned mate. 

Latest Articles
Featured Topics
Learning Paths