Client Cancelled Contract & Requesting Escrow Refund of 1st Milestone

[curiouslondon]

Hello,

My client & I agreed to cancel the contract as the work I was submitting was apparently not what she wanted.

Fixed Price Contract.

The 1st milestone was for "FIRST 3 CONCEPTS"

I provided 6 to begin with, and she asked for revisions of 2 of them, plus a few more options. I complied.

After submitting 15 drafts, she opted to end the contract as my designs were not what she had in mind...

I assumed I would be paid for the 1st milstone, as I delivered multiple concepts. I did not expect her to request a refund.

Suggestions?

Many Thanks!

Jennifer

[petra_r]

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Manveen M wrote:
I'm sorry but who is an OP

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That's you (original poster)

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and what is it that is making sense to you?

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the client canceling the contract.

[manveen_dua]

That's supportive.

[feed_my_eyes]

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Manveen M wrote:
That's supportive.

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You've actually received a lot of support in the form of some very wise and detailed advice from some of Upwork's most experienced freelancers. It's their opinion that if you go to arbitration, you will lose (and I agree, for the record). But you are free to ignore this advice and learn the hard way, if that's what you really want.

[manveen_dua]

Every piece of advice is truly appreciated and valued.

I realise some extremely wise people have invested time in being truly
supportive by offering unbiased advice.

I'm grateful to each of them.

[colettelewis]

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Manveen M wrote:
Every piece of advice is truly appreciated and valued.

I realise some extremely wise people have invested time in being truly
supportive by offering unbiased advice.

I'm grateful to each of them.

_______________

Manveen,

It is not a question of what you feel is morally right or wrong but damage limitation.

As I see it you have two choices and neither are particularly good. You can refund or go to arbitration. Arbitration is lengthy, expensive, and stressful. Apart from which you may not win. If you refund, future clients will not see your client's public feedback, which will give a chance to recover from this situation. 

No writer is above criticism and it is a dangerous attitude to assume perfection on a site where the competition is more than fierce. You would be well advised to get another set of eyes to scan your profile and your portfolio.  

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[petra_r]

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Nichola L wrote:

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As I see it you have two choices and neither are particularly good. You can refund or go to arbitration.

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Why is everyone talking about arbitration? There is a step between disputing and arbitration: mediation, and most cases are sorted more or less happily at that stage.

As feedback has already been left, that damage is done, so she might as well dispute, and accept whatever best deal she can get in mediation.

I would not suggest arbitration either as that would be where the whole "native English" thing would come into play.

[manveen_dua]

Thank you for this feedback. Client hasn't left a feedback yet but I'm not optimistic.

[manveen_dua]

I appreciate the clarity you've given me.
This helps.

[tlbp]

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Manveen M wrote:

If I refuse to accept a compensation and she does close the contract,

what happens to my payment?
Does Escrow release it to me for back to the client.

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Then you have to dispute and the outcome of that is highly unpredictable. If you don't dispute, the money goes back to the client.

Take a look at the situation from the client's perspective. She may really not like you work, at all. So you are asking her to pay nearly the full amount for something she can't use. Yes, you invested time but that may have been because she thought the right thing to do was to continue to give you extra chances to make something she did like. It is possible that what should have happened was for the two of you to part ways much earlier in the process, with a much smaller payment. 

So when you consider fair, consider it from both sides. If you want to be paid for every hour of work regardless of the client's satisfaction with the final product--then you must do hourly contracts. Fixed price contracts are risky. 

[gilbert-phyllis]

What Tonya said, plus... When you are first starting out on UW, money is not the only valuable thing you need from clients. You also need for contracts to be closed with the best feedback possible. It's always important to know your own worth and not under-sell yourself and your capabilities BUT at the same time, pride and ego and your feelings about what's fair are luxuries you can't afford until you get established with a strong track record and JSS. In a situation like this, it can be well worth your while to compromise with the client: accept less money than you feel is due, if it enables the client to feel like she is getting a fair deal, so she will not leave bad feedback (and may leave very good feedback, if she likes you but just didn't like your work).

[manveen_dua]

I'm guessing my JSS is already jeopardized irrespective of how this might end.

[manveen_dua]

I've learnt a hard lesson.
Thank you for your time.

[manveen_dua]

I've submitted and completed the single milestone.
She's requested for changes and I'v complied only to have her request for changes again and activate the 'RESUBMIT FOR PAYMENT' button again.

Now after all this, she wants to close the contract and is in discussions with me to settle at a 'fair' compensation before she closes the contract.

I'm not sure what to do. Part of me says 'take the lesser amount' part of me says 'its unfair.'

[prestonhunter]

re: "She's not closing the contract. She wants to compensate me 'fairly' and is waiting for me to come up with a figure. I'm not sure if I want to raise a dispute here or if will help me in any
way."

If she is WAITING for YOU to tell her a number, then ask for $600.

Don't raise a dispute when somebody is offering to pay you money immediately.

[wlyonsatl]

Manveen,

If your client was unhappy with your work she could have / should have told you much earlier in the project.

Agree to accept an amount that you think is fair and reflects the amount of work you did for this hard-to-please client, or maybe a bit (20%?)  less if the client agrees and this resolves your dispute. 

You didn't ask, but I hope you will split your future fixed price contracts of this value into multiple milestones in the future. And don't start work on any milestone before a) payment on all previous milestones has been releaed by the client and b) Upwork tells you the next milestone is fully funded. 

Good luck!

[manveen_dua]

Noted.
Thank you for your time

[colettelewis]

Manveen,

You haven't got a JSS yet and it may not be too drastically hit by this one job. It depends on the sort of private feedback you have received on the others. What you should try to do now is to get a few quick jobs (not long-term) that will boost your feedback and therefore, your JSS when eventually it shows. This may be costly in terms of connects, but is worth doing. 

[manveen_dua]

Noted.
Thank you very much.

[f29c75dd]

Hi Kathy,

I agree to your comment. In fact, I'm new to Upwork and unfortunately my first contract got cancelled by the client after I submitted my work for the first milestone. The reason for cancellation was 'We dont need the email copies anymore'. The client kept asking for revisions till a day before she cancelled the contract and so I disputed. After a week I recieved an email from HubSpot (screenshot attached) which says I will get a courtesy credit. Today when I checked my contract, I noticed that the amount is already refunded to the client. I tired searching for a way to talk to someone at Upwork and understand what a courtesy credit means, but can't find any thing. Can you help?

**Edited for community guidelines**

Regards,

Parthavi

[petra_r]

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Parthvi P wrote:

Today when I checked my contract, I noticed that the amount is already refunded to the client. I tired searching for a way to talk to someone at Upwork and understand what a courtesy credit means, but can't find any thing.

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It means the client gets their $ 25 back and you also get $ 25.

[prestonhunter]

For a fixed-price contract of $25...

Upwork has the potential to earn around $5 (20% of the freelancer's earnings).

Five dollars is not a lot of money.

Five dollars is great when everybody is behaving as they should behave, and both client and freelancer are using the software tools that are in place, and they don't require Upwork employees to intervene on their behalf.

Once Upwork employees get involved, then all profit goes out the window.

So it can be expedient for Upwork just to "pay off" everybody involved to make this go away.

Obviously if everybody did this sort of thing, it would be a disaster.

I get it that $25 may be a serious amount of money to a freelancer and a client, depending on their circumstances. But this does not negate the fact that Upwork does NOT WANT to get personally involved in anybody's contracts. They want people to use the tools at hand without requiring paid employee assistance.

As envisioned by Upwork, nobody files a dispute over a $25 contact.
People should work things out for themselves.
If a client hires a freelancer for a $25 task, and then the freelancer disapoints the client for any reason, what Upwork would want a client to do is to leave appropriate feedback and not hire that freelancer again. Not file a dispute.