Client asking for free Sample Work

[#1]

How to deal with a client who is repeatedly asking for free sample work? He said that this is the only way for evaluate freelancers. 

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Well, they can evaluate freelancers just as well when they pay them for a test. You could tell them that. 

[#3]

The client asked for free samples, I created 2 illustrations which took 4 hours. He asked for pngs, I provided to him, now he says this was just a sample, I will select a candidate then I will decide to pay or not. Please help

[#4]

That's bad. Similar thing happened to me. As far as I know, there's no way to get paid with a sample work you provided. That's why setting up a contract is important. Make sure you don't fall into similar situations in the future

[#5]

Maybe you can put some kind of watermark on image, so he can't use them.

[#6]

Watermarks can be removed.

[#7]

Client asking for free work or Freelancer providing free work is against the rules

What kind of jobs aren't allowed on Upwork? – Upwork Customer Service & Support | Upwork Help

[#8]

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Sophie A wrote:

Client asking for free work or Freelancer providing free work is against the rules

What kind of jobs aren't allowed on Upwork? – Upwork Customer Service & Support | Upwork Help

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Just to be clear: asking for free work is against the rules. Providing it is not (I'm not saying it's a good idea, just saying it's not against the rules).

[#9]

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Sophie A wrote:

Client asking for free work or Freelancer providing free work is against the rules

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This isn't true.

Client asking for free work is forbidden

Freelancer providing free work is allowed, I think you may be misinterpreting the following sentence in the article:

Free work. Asking freelancers to work for free, submit work without guaranteed payment or for a fee that's below Upwork's required minimum rate.

This means that it is forbidden to: ask freelancers to work for free, ask freelancers to submit work without guaranteed payment or ask freelancers to work for a fee that's below Upwork's required minimum rate.

The article is poorly worded and not entirely accurate. There is never "guaranteed payment" and they don't enforce that last part (fixed-rate contracts that work out as less than the minimum hourly rate) and it is not mentioned in the terms of service so it's irrelevant.

It has been confirmed repeatedly that freelancers are allowed (but not encouraged, of course) to offer free samples.

[#10]

If the CLIENT is doing the ASKING for the free sample work, then the CLIENT is in violation of the Upwork ToS.  It would be one thing if they asked you to send along 'samples' of work you've already done in the past, but if they are asking you to DO brand new work as a 'sample' for FREE, they are violating the rules and trying to get something for free.  You didn't OFFER the free work, they ASKED for the free work, and in doing so, the CLIENT broke the Upwork rules.   I would Report the client to Upwork, discontinue the conversation, and move on.   To report the client, all you have to do is go to the exact message where they REQUESTED the free work and to the LEFT of the 'time stamp', click the 'gear' icon and click REPORT.   Never do UNPAID 'evaluation' work that requires you to send 'deliverables'  the client can simply keep for themselves:  They usually aren't 'evaluating' anything.  They'll get the samples, then make up nonsense about how it doesn't match what they want, keep the samples for FREE, and not hire you.  Legitimate clients that need 'evaluation' work will PAY for that evaluation with a small milestone or a couple hours of work.

[#11]

i just want to ask if this is legit job? Client wanted me to do job via telegram 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[#12]

Hi Richie,

Thank you for your message. I checked the job post you were referring to and it seems that it's already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork TOS and action has been taken on the client account. 

Please check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[#13]

If a client asks for a free sample, I provide a piece of work that I have completed that is open-source and verifiable.

One client recently asked me to do the work, send it in and they would choose the correct freelancer to work with, I told them no, they were doing evaluation on a webservice and was asking 50 freelancers to do this, they were hoping to get 50 pieces of work, they might not pay anyone. This company was from China, I have had a some good Chinese clients and a lot that try to get free inforamtion or take payment away from Upwork, always no.

One client recently told me all his previous freelancers would be able to achieve the work in 2 hours, this is impossible, the minimum is around 3.5 hours and then checking etc, this client was basically telling the freelnacers that he wanted 4 hours work but would only pay for 2....... I told that client that we were not a good fit, he was interviewing around 25 freelancers at that time.

Another client 

[#14]

Client asking for free samples is so common here. And annoying. I never do them. I relate to my portfolio or already done work I show.

[#15]

This client is asking for a qualifying test of 60 questions, but then when provided, asked for a more involved test without initiating a contract. 

[#16]

Click on the "flag as inappropriate" link to report the client, then move on.

[#17]

If you do watermark, make sure it's overlapping a key element so it cann't be removed.

But before that, you should just decline and move on. Jobs like that don't go well, the client has issues from past, that's why they're asking you for xyz.