Hi, everyone!
Sort of an odd situation and wanted your opinion.
I had a client who hired me/my agency on Christmas Day 2019. We put together a six-month proposal, they accepted and we moved ahead in late December/early January. The process started with a logo and brand style guidelines, which the client approved. We struggled with the naming -- we went back and forth quite a bit, between them leaving their existing brand name and altering/updating it a bit for their refresh.
With each creative deliverable, we'd provide a draft with their existing name and some of the names in contention so they could see how things looked, visually.
Everything was going well and the client was approving each step. They then asked if we could supply some packaging design ideas. One of my designers is a former beauty packaging designer, so we agreed. This wasn't in the contract, so we discussed billing hourly.
We had some issues with the Tracker in the 2 weeks that followed -- about 10 hours I logged didn't "stick" and Upwork wasn't able to help. My designer had a similar issue when she ran the Tracker -- Upwork said it was likely a bug and we needed to update our Trackers. The client refused to pay for those hours and refused to OK manual time. In the spirit of the larger partnership, though, we moved ahead.
We delivered the first draft of packaging designs to the client...and they HATED them. It was a bit shocking and very dramatic -- my designer spent 20+ years designing packaging for major global beauty brands...she's not some inexperienced designer with no industry insight. Of course, different people like different things, but they couldn't even provide feedback. They said it looked like she "vomited" everything they'd approved onto the package.
We offered to provide a new draft of the packaging design for free -- the only condition be that they provide feedback via email or phone. I was concerned we'd just be shooting in the dark without at least some notes. They refused -- but then said they wanted to "think about things" and would loop back.
Shortly after they accused us of overbilling, citing that we provided multiple versions of logos/creative (so they could see the various names in contention). I explained that this, maybe, took minutes -- we weren't redesigning anything, just showing them LOGO A, for example, with the original name and the proposed 2-3 names. They then claimed they'd chosen a name long ago, and that these examples were just a waste of time. When I asked what name they chose, they didn't say -- I asked a few times, but never got an answer. It's clear to me they hadn't chosen a name.
At that point, I suggested they review the timesheets and note anything they felt was "excessive" -- any time they felt was spent on swapping out names. By my estimations, it was about 20-30 minutes total.
In short, this quickly became a nightmare project. We spent about 30 hours on the project, billed 13 and, now, the client wants us to refund them for 9-10 of those hours. We haven't heard from the client in nearly four months and, randomly, they resurfaced last week.
While we offered a free round of revisions back in late Jan/early Feb, we have no interest in working with them at this point -- and they claim, while they loved the logo design, creative palette and brand book we assembled, our packaging work left them "shaken" in our abilities and understanding of the brand.
So, to be clear, for 13 hours of work they got:
- Naming options
- Custom logo
- Style guide: logo use, typography, color palette, etc.
- Brand book: mission, vision, etc.
- Draft 1 of packaging design
And, again, they waited four months to follow up after my last email.
Part of me thinks this is crazy, and I should block them and reach out to Upwork customer support. We're already running on a deficit for this project given the 18+ hours we logged and couldn't track. But I feel very uncomfortable doing that -- if they truly feel we didn't deliver good work, I hate the idea of walking away and not trying to resolve to their satisfaction. To be honest, I LOVE the work we did. I wish I could share it on our website! It's stunning and I'm proud of it.
I'm a very, very long-standing Upwork freelancer with hundreds of jobs under my belt. Typically if a client complains and wants a refund (I think it's happened twice since I started on Elance in 2012), I give it. I hate the idea of someone spending money and feeling they have nothing to show. It's not my personality and not how my agency operates.
In this case, though, there are so many extenuating circumstances -- and now to refund them for 9-10 of the 13 hours I was able to bill is a real hit.
What would you do? I believe they're well outside of the Upwork "reporting" window -- I think it's five days to dispute timesheet and 30 days for a dispute, but maybe I'm wrong. I can't gauge how far they'd take this and, again, truly feel bad about how this broke down. But without feedback, there's nothing we could do. And besides that, it was a first draft. It shouldn't be 100%.
Would love your thoughts -- and, again, please know my natural inclination is to refund their money and move on. But given we've already lost money on this project, that's tough...
Thanks, all!
