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jboazman
Community Member

Can i do anything about a false client review?

Ok so I recently did a logo for a client on here. Everything went great I finished the logo and he liked it, I sent him the files and I got paid. He asked if i wanted to do another job. An illustration for a tshirt. I told him id love to do it and asked him numerous times to start a new contract and id do it. I went ahead and did some rough drafts for him to show him what I i was thinking. I asked about starting a new contract for the job and he still didnt start one. So i didnt get on upwork for two days and when i finally did he sent me a bunch of nasty messages on here and on my private cell number. Then i just noticed he gave me a bad review on the logo job but since his bad review was about the illustration job that we never started or completely agreed on, it is a false review. To top it off he asked for a refund on the logo claiming I never sent the files which is also a lie. Is there anything i can do about this??

11 REPLIES 11
feed_my_eyes
Community Member


Jonathon B wrote:

Ok so I recently did a logo for a client on here. Everything went great I finished the logo and he liked it, I sent him the files and I got paid. He asked if i wanted to do another job. An illustration for a tshirt. I told him id love to do it and asked him numerous times to start a new contract and id do it. I went ahead and did some rough drafts for him to show him what I i was thinking. I asked about starting a new contract for the job and he still didnt start one. So i didnt get on upwork for two days and when i finally did he sent me a bunch of nasty messages on here and on my private cell number. Then i just noticed he gave me a bad review on the logo job but since his bad review was about the illustration job that we never started or completely agreed on, it is a false review. To top it off he asked for a refund on the logo claiming I never sent the files which is also a lie. Is there anything i can do about this??


It looks like his bad review was because you failed to respond to messages in a timely manner. Unless you were ignoring your texts and emails over the weekend, he does have a point. Also, why would you go ahead with a new project before the client agreed to it?

 

I wouldn't give him a refund for the logo, though (as long as you definitely did send the files in every format that was agreed to?).


Christine A wrote:


It looks like his bad review was because you failed to respond to messages in a timely manner. Unless you were ignoring your texts and emails over the weekend, he does have a point. Also, why would you go ahead with a new project before the client agreed to it?

 

 


But its a flase review. The review was for the logo which i did everything correct. He gave me a bad review on the logo job for a job that didnt excist. We never started the new job, i never agreed to the new job. We only discussedd it and i said i would discuss it more when it started. I only did a quick rough draft to show what ideas i had. He has no right to complain about me not respinding when there was no job to respond to. And yes it was over the weekend. 

Hi Jonathon,

 

Feel free to send me all of the evidence via PM (click on my name) and I will escalate it to our team to investigate it further. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork
prestonhunter
Community Member

A review by a client may seem very false to a freelancer, and yet be 100% true from the client's perspective.

 

As a practical matter, it is not possible for Upwork to remove reviews simply because a freelancer claims the review was false.

 

I have also noticed many instances in which a freelancer complained about a "bad review" or a "false review," and yet when I looked at the review it was actually a good review, or at least neutral and even-handed.

 

And even with bad reviews: if you have a body of work with positive reviews, and a few bad reviews mixed in... It means you are normal. Only very rare clients are going to think they should avoid you because of rare bad reviews.

 

Some matches between freelancer and client are not good matches. Some clients are belligerent and dishonest. And sometimes even the best freelancers make mistakes.

 

These days we all get reviews, and we all know you can't please everybody. I bet the client or his business have received their share of bad reviews, too.


Preston H wrote:

A review by a client may seem very false to a freelancer, and yet be 100% true from the client's perspective.

 

As a practical matter, it is not possible for Upwork to remove reviews simply because a freelancer claims the review was false.

 

I have also noticed many instances in which a freelancer complained about a "bad review" or a "false review," and yet when I looked at the review it was actually a good review, or at least neutral and even-handed.

 

And even with bad reviews: if you have a body of work with positive reviews, and a few bad reviews mixed in... It means you are normal. Only very rare clients are going to think they should avoid you because of rare bad reviews.

 

Some matches between freelancer and client are not good matches. Some clients are belligerent and dishonest. And sometimes even the best freelancers make mistakes.

 

These days we all get reviews, and we all know you can't please everybody. I bet the client or his business have received their share of bad reviews, too.


Adding to this, people who read reviews can tell when someone is being unreasonable and they tend to discount those reviews. Your reviews should really serve as a means to communicate with future clients--demonstrate your reasonableness and customer service skills when responding. I would probably respond by indicating that the client's review relates to a second project for which no contract was ever offered. Because the client hadn't sent a contract, you had no way of knowing whether or not he wished to proceed with the project and thus made other plans. 

The truth is, from the client's perspective, you were in negotiations and then vanished. He is writing about the overall relationship whereas you are focused on one part of it. How well did you explain that the closure of the first contract meant a new one needed to be entered into? Did you perhaps assume that the client knew more about how Upwork's contract operate than he in fact did? 


 

Definitely don't refund money on a closed contract. 

gilbert-phyllis
Community Member


Jonathon B wrote:

Ok so I recently did a logo for a client on here. Everything went great I finished the logo and he liked it, I sent him the files and I got paid. He asked if i wanted to do another job. An illustration for a tshirt. I told him id love to do it and asked him numerous times to start a new contract and id do it. I went ahead and did some rough drafts for him to show him what I i was thinking. I asked about starting a new contract for the job and he still didnt start one. So i didnt get on upwork for two days and when i finally did he sent me a bunch of nasty messages on here and on my private cell number. Then i just noticed he gave me a bad review on the logo job but since his bad review was about the illustration job that we never started or completely agreed on, it is a false review. To top it off he asked for a refund on the logo claiming I never sent the files which is also a lie. Is there anything i can do about this??


It sounds like you pestered the daylights out of the client about starting the t-shirt job and then disappeared. He got aggravated (understandably) and dinged you on feedback. Nobody's right, everybody's wrong, a perfect little tempest of unprofessionalism. UW's having to intervene in this kind of nonsense undermines the platform's profitability and reputation. 

 

From a business and economic perspective, it is not Upwork's intention that they intervene in their established process.

 

This has nothing to do with the original poster's situation.

 

If Upwork needs to intervene in squabbles between clients and freelancers, that takes manpower, resources, and money.

 

If Upwork sees small contracts as more trouble than they are worth, and as less profitable (or NOT profitable), compared to larger clients, then that could explain some of their changes, such as charging clients for more premium features.


Phyllis G wrote:

Jonathon B wrote:

Ok so I recently did a logo for a client on here. Everything went great I finished the logo and he liked it, I sent him the files and I got paid. He asked if i wanted to do another job. An illustration for a tshirt. I told him id love to do it and asked him numerous times to start a new contract and id do it. I went ahead and did some rough drafts for him to show him what I i was thinking. I asked about starting a new contract for the job and he still didnt start one. So i didnt get on upwork for two days and when i finally did he sent me a bunch of nasty messages on here and on my private cell number. Then i just noticed he gave me a bad review on the logo job but since his bad review was about the illustration job that we never started or completely agreed on, it is a false review. To top it off he asked for a refund on the logo claiming I never sent the files which is also a lie. Is there anything i can do about this??


It sounds like you pestered the daylights out of the client about starting the t-shirt job and then disappeared. He got aggravated (understandably) and dinged you on feedback. Nobody's right, everybody's wrong, a perfect little tempest of unprofessionalism. UW's having to intervene in this kind of nonsense undermines the platform's profitability and reputation. 

 


And why it is trying to move away from freelancers booking single gigs to those managing long-term contracts. 


Phyllis G wrote:


It sounds like you pestered the daylights out of the client about starting the t-shirt job and then disappeared. He got aggravated (understandably) and dinged you on feedback. Nobody's right, everybody's wrong, a perfect little tempest of unprofessionalism. UW's having to intervene in this kind of nonsense undermines the platform's profitability and reputation. 

 


I pestered the client? Am I supposed to work for free? Am I supposed to start a job without a contract or set terms of deadlines and pricing? I mentioned to him a few times that id love to start the job when we set terms and start a contract (to do otherwise would be what you call "unprofessionalism") and when I didn't reply over the weekend (which he already knew I work another job) he got mad. This community platform is here for freelancers to help other freelancers not to inflate our own egos. If you don't want to actually help. Just don't reply.


Jonathon B wrote:

Phyllis G wrote:


It sounds like you pestered the daylights out of the client about starting the t-shirt job and then disappeared. He got aggravated (understandably) and dinged you on feedback. Nobody's right, everybody's wrong, a perfect little tempest of unprofessionalism. UW's having to intervene in this kind of nonsense undermines the platform's profitability and reputation. 

 


I pestered the client? Am I supposed to work for free? Am I supposed to start a job without a contract or set terms of deadlines and pricing?

 

No. You're supposed to say "Let me know when you're ready to get started" and then go on with your life.

 

It also would have been a good idea to go ahead and wrap up the logo contract and have the client open a new one when he was ready to start the completely unrelated project. That way, the feedback would have been left before the other project ever came into play.


 

jboazman
Community Member

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the input. I think this is another lessoned learned for me and i will just try to be better with things in the future. I sent him a message saying sorry that things turned out the way they did and i wished him good luck in his new company. I dont want to purse the matter further so ill just leave it alone. I hope the bad review doesnt hurt me too much though. Again thank you all for taking the time to reply to me. Much appreciated.  

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