Client changed project Budget after I submitted my proposal

[mehranv]

I recently used 6 connects to submit a proposal for the role that had a desirable budget. Hours after my proposal was submitted I checked the job posting again and the budget was significantly reduced and the new budget is now 1% of the original advertised budget!!!  Note that the milestones that I submitted were based on the original budget and I never would have even used 6 connects to apply for a job that has such a low budget.

This kind of  bait and switch should not be allowed and it's only fair that me ( and all others who submitted proposals prior to the drastic budget reduction) get refunded for the connects that were used. Could someone please let me know how I could request a refund for the connects I unfairly lost?

[prestonhunter]

The posted budget is just an idea. It isn't binding. A job post is simply the beginning of a conversation.

The client and freelancer talk and agree to terms, regardless of what the job posting says.

I can assure you that there is no need to worry about the client changing the posted budget.

And there is no way to get connects refunded based on this.

[mehranv]

" ...there is no need to worry about the client changing the posted budget..."

How could there be no worry if the new budget is not a budget I am willing to work at and I lost my connects for no good reason because of it?

Furthermore, I understand that the connects could not be returned but have in mind that the client changed the budget from $10,000 to $100 on a fixed-price job. That is a 99% reduction in the project budget and I spend 6 full connects for this job. The 6 connect where allocated to this job based on the initial $10,000 budget not the revised $100 budget. There is no way a $100 fixed-price contract would ever be worth 6 connects!!! a $100 fixed-price project is worth 2 or maximum 4 connects, not any more. Now I don't want to make a big deal over 2 or 4 extra connects being spent but on a macro level that is a big deal because if this bait and switch in project price is allowed then hundred, thousands and even much more freelancers are frequently overpaying for the projects they bid on!!! compeltely unacceptable! 

Someone needs to do something about this.

[prestonhunter]

Mehran:

I understand what you are saying, and I don't doubt your sincerity. I can see how this genuinely seems unfair.

For what it is worth, I don't think that what you saw, with the budget being changed, is a common practice.

I suspect what happened in this situation was that the client did not actually change her mind about the nature of the project, but sincerely did not know what to put on the budget field. She may have typed in $10,000 as a placeholder, thinking that freelancers would submit proposals using a "real" number. She may have been disappointed to see that she was getting proposals quoting that amount back to her, instead of suggesting numbers in the $80 to $300 range, which was what she was expecting. So she changed the budget amount.

This is all just conjecture on my part, of course.

If it helps you for your future planning, Upwork is not planning to change how this all works.

If I may paraphrase what many experienced Upwork clients have said in the Forum over the years, what it costs to hire YOU to do a particular task is up to YOU. In a sense, it really is not the intention of Upwork or most clients that freelancers send proposals using the stated budget. Many clients have expressed frustration about that freelancer behavior.

So it is a legitimate perspective to say that all posted budgets are placeholders and this the change of the posted budget is irrelevant. That doesn't encompass the perspective of all freelancers and clients, but it represents a common perspective.

If you want to completely avoid the possibility that you will bid on a job and find the budget is changed at some point, then you can bid only on hourly contracts.

[cikatomo]

my friend, if budget is a factor in how many connects proposal costs then you need to refund the connects difference after the budget is changed. 

Period.