Cancel Contract and Offer Refund

[denzilotieno99]

Hello,

I have one stubborn client. Just seems I didn't screen him well before entering into a contract with him. He's become so stubborn over the past couple of days and I'm sick and tired of all that.

I was thinking about canceling that contract and offering a refund. Would this affect my JSS in any way. I once heard that such decisions could negatively affect your profile.

Please help.

Thanks.

[petra_r]

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Denzil O wrote:
Would this affect my JSS in any way. 

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That depends on the private feedback the client leaves. Poor private feedback = negative effect on the JSS.

[denzilotieno99]

I thought I could just avoid everything about the client.

[petra_r]

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Denzil O wrote:
I thought I could just avoid everything about the client.

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Nope. Once you accept a contract every outcome has the potential for consequences.

[kinector]

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Petra R wrote:

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Denzil O wrote:
I thought I could just avoid everything about the client.

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Nope. Once you accept a contract every outcome has the potential for consequences.

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Denzil, this is no different from any other part of the work here (or as a freelancer in general). How to deal with the client and make sure the person is happy.

Unhappy clients tend to produce so many issues.

My approach is usually that I just suffer it through, make sure that even a horrible client gets value for the money. I recognize this approach does not work for everyone and is risky definitely in businesses that face high competition and small budgets.

So all you need to do here is to end the contract in a way that doesn't piss of the client. Does a refund make the client happy? Or is the result critical and cancelling would ruin the client's business? You need to know (or find out) what is best for the client.

Communicate.

[feed_my_eyes]

What do you mean when you say that the client is "stubborn"? I try to give the best advice and solutions possible, but it's up to the client if they want to disagree with me - it's their project, not mine. If you can't afford to take the hit from a bad review, I would just give the client what he wants (within reason), finish the contract and never work with him again. That's the great thing about freelancing; problem clients are merely temporary.

[wlyonsatl]

Denzil O.,

I'd guess it is unlikely a difficult-to-deal-with client you expect will post negative feedback will instead post positive feedback for you if you refund their money. For some, a voluntary refund by you will be interpreted as a sign of your agreement that you've done a bad job, rather than as a conciliatory move, which, in the client's mind will justify further the client's intention to leave negative feedback for you. 

I'd suggest you not issue a refund if you don't think it's warranted, and especially so if you expect it will lead to more postive feedback from the client. In the end, it's more likely you'll end up with low or no pay on the project and STILL get negative feedback.

If you are worried about the client's feedback, keep in mind that Upwork has said, "We exclude (from the JSS calculation) clients whose freelancers report a history of unreasonable feedback so their scores won't count against you, but that may mean it takes longer to receive your initial score.”

So, the best you can likely do is wrap up the project, insist on full payment and leave honest and professional feedback for this client. This client's feedback may have no effect on your JSS.

Good luck.

[h_chander]

I have a contract of business plan writing, when I delivered the last draft before the completion of work the client said it is going good and suggested a few additions, in a couple of days client asked me again for the latest working draft, and the next day she messaged me that I have done such an unprofessional work and she wants to cancel the contact and is threatening to leave a bad review on my profile. Further, when I tried to convince her that I can do as much revision as I want but she is adamant, she is even refusing to pay some percentage of the work. She is threatening me of raising the dispute in case i do not refund her, but I have delivered the best possible work the contract is not yet finished but I send her file that is almost 90% complete, what should I do should I offer her refund or argue my stance in dispute. I am certain that she will certainly give me bad review even if i give her full refund because she categoricall told me not to expect any good review from my side.  please suggest.

[prestonhunter]

Harish:
It sounds like this client is trying to steal your work and steal your money.

How much money was this contract for?

Here is what I suggest:

You need to decide if you want to go for the money, or avoid any possibility of a bad review.

* * * * * * * *

If you don't are about the money:

If this work is of no value to her, and if you want to ENSURE that there is no negative feedback appearing on your public profile page, then you could send her a message:

"Sandra,

I am not going to to require to you pay for this work if you don't want to. This work actually would make an excelent addition to my portfolio, to demonstrate the type of work that I do. I am now planning to change the company name in the file, and use this as a portfolio piece. This work will belong to me and I will have the right to do that if you don't pay for the work. So I'm hoping that you don't want to keep this work. If that is okay with you, then you don't need to do anything else or say anything else. If you want to keep the work for yourself, then you may close the contract and release all escrow money to me. Please do that within the next 12 hours. Otherwise, I will close the contract and release the money back to you to ensure that I own the work. Thank you."

If you refund all money associated with this contract, then:

a) all of the work you did belongs to YOU

b) NO FEEDBACK can appear on your public profile page

The client thus has a choice: Pay nothing and let you keep the work. Or pay you for your work.

(Keep in mind that the client can still leave private feedback.)

* * * * * * * *

Alternatively, if you want to try to get paid as much money as possible for this, regardless of feedback, you can dispute:

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211068528-Dispute-Non-Release-of-a-Milestone-Payment

You can try to keep all of the money this way.

[h_chander]

I don't know what to do now as I am a top-rated freelancer and never had any cancellation before not have faced such a client yet. The problem is that even if I refund her I am sure she will be having a bad review on my profile so I am lost in, either way, I want your suggestions on what should I do. Should I fight my case in dispute so that Upwork can review my submission and the efforts and time that I have put. It is very sad because due to this contract I refused two other clients and now she is doing this to me. 

[h_chander]

It is a $250 project, and she even said that it would be embarrassing for her to even pay me $10, and in the last draft submission she was more than happy with the work. 

[prestonhunter]

If you DISPUTE her not releasing escow payment...

Then there is a good possibility that she will back down and release the money to you.

If a DISPUTE does not lead to a resolution, then the next step is ARBITRATION, which you should avoid in this case.

Because arbitration would cost you $291. Which is non-refundable.

So... You could go for a DISPUTE, which is free.

But if you went to arbitration, you would lose AT LEAST $41,

($291 - $250)

re: "Should I fight my case in dispute so that Upwork can review my submission and the efforts and time that I have put."

If you file a DISPUTE now, you have a good chance of getting your money.

But a dispute means that you go to "Upwork mediation." Upwork will NOT review your submission. Upwork will NOT consider the "efforts and time" you have put in.

The dispute/mediation process means that Upwork will encourage you and the client to come to an agreement about who gets the money, or how much money each side gets.

It is only the ARBITRATION process that somebody would look at your submission and consider your efforts.

[h_chander]

Currently, I havent' used work submission button for delivering the draft the files were delivered via chat, so what should I do first should I submit the 90% completed draft (because she does not want the completed work nor this one) and then wait for her reaction and as soon as she raised dispute i must go for it or any other option of raising the dispute before submission of the work. Currently, she is asking me to release her payment and refund the work, or she would raise the dispute, should I ask her to go for dispute?

[m_terrazas]

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Harish C wrote:

Currently, I havent' used work submission button for delivering the draft the files were delivered via chat, so what should I do first should I submit the 90% completed draft (because she does not want the completed work nor this one) and then wait for her reaction and as soon as she raised dispute i must go for it or any other option of raising the dispute before submission of the work. Currently, she is asking me to release her payment and refund the work, or she would raise the dispute, should I ask her to go for dispute?

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Well, you can try sending the job with the submit job button and, since you say that the job is at 90%, ask for the payment of 90% of the total.
So, wait without saying anything else to see what happens.

[prestonhunter]

re: "Currently, I havent' used work submission button for delivering the draft the files"

I don't know how sophisticated this client is in terms of her understanding of how the Upwork system works.

If you have never clicked the "Submit work for payment" button, then I recommend you do so. You can edit the amount of money to request to a partial amount, if you have completed the original agreed-upon task.

If the client then does NOTHING, the money will be released to you automatically after 14 days.

re: "Currently, she is asking me to release her payment and refund the work, or she would raise the dispute, should I ask her to go for dispute?"

She wants money.

She has no way of getting money back without your help.

If the contract has NOT YET BEEN CLOSED by either side...

Then there remains an opportunity for you to strike a deal.

For example:

"Janet:
Thank you for your note.

The contract is for $250.
If you want to use the work, you can close the contract and release $250 to me. There is nothing I can do to block that.

If you would like to receive a refund, then the system will automatically ask me to approve the refund request.

If you cloe the contract within the next hour, and edit the amount of money to be released to $125, then I will approve the refund request. The refunded money will be back in your funding account within 5 business days."

[h_chander]

Hello,

I did as you suggested, I asked for $200 against total contract worth of $250, and this is what she said to me: 

Please suggest what should I do now. 

**Edited for community guidelines**

[prestonhunter]

re: "Please suggest what should I do now."

Well, you have an offer for $50.

If you want more, then you need to get her to agree to more, or go to dispute.

[h_chander]

She will certainly not agree with my offer. If I refuse her offer she will apparently go for the dispute, In such a case, how will Upwork evaluate the case. I am confident about the work that I delivered, does Upwork support Freelancers because some other platforms like Fiverr do not support freelancers at all, and in case of dispute, they always take the side of the client. So, what do you suggest should I go for dispute, and as far as work is concerned I am 100% confident with its quality and compliance. 

[prestonhunter]

If you don't want to accept $50, then tell her:

"You may close the contract and request a $50 refund. I will accept that and you can receive that money back into your funding account within five business days."

If she does not release $200 to you, then you can file a dispute tomorrow.

[h_chander]

Today the client has approved the $50 payment and requested a refund for the $200 amount. However, I stand with my work and she is continuously making false claims that I have used all her provided information which is wrong and I have also sent you sources/references, as well as links (mentioned in the business plan document's footnotes) and I, challenged her to show me more than 10 sentences in a 5000-word document which I copied from her sources. Should I go for dispute and I demanded at least $175 for the work (which too is paltry sum and injustice with the effort and time I spent on this project), please suggest. Thank You!!

[prestonhunter]

The client has officially closed the contract while requesting $200 back, out of $250 which is in escrow.

Harish, you said that you plan to REJECT that request.

That will automatically create a dispute.

So at this point, you don't really need additional advice about what to do next.

You already told us what you are going to do next.

By rejecting her offer, you will cause an offiicial Upwork dispute. That means that the issue goes to "mediation." An Upwork representative will contact you and will contact the client.

The Upwork representative is not going to look at your evidence. The Upwork representative/mediator will not decide who is right or who gets the money. The Upwork representative will encourage the client and freelancer to come to an agreement, but the representative will act as a go-between.

The client can't get ANY money back unless you agree to something.

You can tell the Upwork representative as quickly as possible that you will not accept less than $175.