Canceling a fixed-priced project -- any negative consequences?

[#1]

Hello, I am "stuck" with a fixed-priced project that turned out more difficult than both the client and I thought it would be.

I am just burned out on this project at this point and it's hanging like a dark cloud over me every day because I feel I am letting the client down, who wants it done so badly. And probably, if I did nothing else for a week, with no pay, I could finish it.

But... if I count up the hours I have already spent on it, I am in wayyyy below mininum wage territory in my country. I learned to not never ever promise more than exactly what I had done successfully before, and not one bit more... and I am ready to walk away from all the hours I spent on it, lesson learned, no harm no foul.

I will write a nice letter to the client explaining my reasons, but even without reasons... people get sick, need to take care of children or relatives, change careers, there is an earthquake or a tsunami, they get juicy business opportunities... this is a hire and fire world, and the freelancer has as much a right to end a contract as the client -- I understand that.

My question is: If I cancel a contract where no money has changed hands, can the client give me bad feedback? Or will there be no feedback possible on a canceled agreement? I would prefer the latter, of course.

To my knowledge, if a client withdraws from a contract before any money changed hands, I can't give him back feedback either, can I?

In civil law, a contract that hasn't had a bi-directional exchange of value, is null and void, i.e. I can't create a contract that says, A gives B a car and B gives A nothing in return.

So I hope Upwork is designed in a way that a contract that never materialized due to no money changing hands, will just be closed and no mutual feedback is possible.

Am I wrong?

[#2]

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Jorg S wrote:

My question is: If I cancel a contract where no money has changed hands, can the client give me bad feedback

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Yes. Private feedback. Private feedback is what affect your JSS. Yours is already poor.

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Jorg S wrote:

So I hope Upwork is designed in a way that a contract that never materialized due to no money changing hands, will just be closed and no mutual feedback is possible.

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That hope is in vain and it would not be good for the platform if it worked that way.

[#3]

Thanks, speaking of my poor JSS, you probably remember the story. Well the client changed his mind and changed his public feedback to 5 stars, I assume also 10/10 private feedback (or so he says).

Still, my JSS remained poor until now.

Question: When the client revises his feedback from poor to great, will that not also increase the JSS accordingly? Maybe that takes a while to materialize? IDK if you can look it up in this particular case...

[#4 · Accepted solution]

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Jorg S wrote:

Thanks, speaking of my poor JSS, you probably remember the story. Well the client changed his mind and changed his public feedback to 5 stars, I assume also 10/10 private feedback (or so he says).

Still, my JSS remained poor until now.

Question: When the client revises his feedback from poor to great, will that not also increase the JSS accordingly? Maybe that takes a while to materialize? IDK if you can look it up in this particular case...

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The private feedback can't be changed afterwards, only the public stars, but they mean little. 

Your client probably will feel let down if you end the contract now, and who can blame him. If you just can't stand working on this any longer, don't do it, or alternatively, discuss the workload with your client and come to an understanding. 

You have a bunch or work in progress jobs, are they all still active? If not, you could ask your clients to end them and leave feedback, that could do a lot to improve your JSS. 

[#5]

Thanks for your thoughtful and empathetic response, Martina

[#6]

You cannot do so much if you aggreed a fixed price contract, but you can allocate some hours a day to an hourly contract, to get any Weekly Wage. I put it in capitals because some clients seem not to think that a freelancer do need it. They should think that one freelances as hobby, but no, some of us do that as the only income. But daily provide updates to your fixed price client. The only thing left is that if you have a bad gut feeling about accepting a contract, don't accept a contract.