Client demands work but not accepting milestones

[#1]

Hi,

I've been working with the client for the past few months, and the payment and the tasks was seamless until recently.

The client has been demanding work in a rush manner, and even outside working hours. I understand for it may seem like his customer has been demanding as well from him and pretty rattled about deadline.

The issue here is that he is not accepting the new milestone for our contract, and I'm not yet paid for the last tasks that he promised to pay after the task. Currently, we have no ongoing milestone.

I'm afraid that if this contract ended, the review of the client will affect my future work. How should I handle this gracefully? 

[#2]

re: "Client demands work but not accepting milestones"

My niece demanded I buy her a pony.

I said no.

My niece is five years old.

What is your client's excuse?

[#3]

Interesting take. I like your response, honest and concise but got me into thinking immediately.

I would want to say no but hesitant of the bad review, or is it inevitable because it'll just get bigger if I prolong it?

[#4]

It may not be inevitable. If you tell him that "I would be happy to do additional work; however, before I can take on any more tasks, I need you to pay the X we agreed on for the previous tasks. And then I need you to fund the milestone for the newly requested works. This it standard operating procedure for Upwork. Thanks." 

If he says no or asks you to do it just this once, stay firm and say "I understand you need this task done quickly, so the best thing to do is fund the previous milestones and release them and then fund the new milestone for the requested work. Unfortunately, I cannot work without a funded milestone. Thanks!"

If he flat out says "no" then "I really appreciate your business. Feel free to contact me when you are ready to fund a new milestone." Then close the contract. Hopefully closing it on your end will discourage him from leaving any feedback, since the one who closes the contract is forced to leave feedback, but the other side is not. So if he closes it, he will be forced to leave feedback, which would likely be bad. If you close it, he may not leave feedback at all. Although he still may leave feedback. 

[#5]

Simply say you cannot do any more work until he pays for the previous work done. Period. Do not take any response other than a payment being sent. If he argues, close the contract. 

[#6]

I would want to try this approach however, with the case of closing the contract.

Isn't it a bad thing if I got a bad review?

[#7]

What's worse, a bad review or continuing to work for free? 

[#8 · Accepted solution]

You can't just work for free.

I can not tell you what to do.

Here is what I would do in your situation:

I would not work for free.

I would not do anything that wasn't specified in a task agreement for a funded milestone.

If the client asked me to do something, then I would say:

"Yes, that is a good idea. I can get started on that immediately. If you release the current escrow payment, you can create a new milestone for $150 for me to do that. Or, if you prefer, you can close the current contract and create an hourly contract. That is flexible and you can use that to ask whatever you need without setting up milestones."

After that, there will not be much communication from me.

The client will pay me and I'll continue working for him. Or the client won't pay me and nothing further will get done.

I don't need to close the contract. It is not hurting me to leave it open.

[#9]

Thank you, Preston. 

This was helpful, I have set a discussion with the client this week to discuss our terms. Thank you for sharing a scenario.

[#10]

The problem with Preston's advice is that leaving the contract open leaves a possibility that the client may come back at any time and harm the freelancer's JSS. Considering the situation, it seems to me that client isn't going to just stop responding or not close the contract when he doesn't get what he wants. In this situation, it's better for the freelancer to take control and end the contract, IMO.