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dchodrishvili
Community Member

Client ended the contract

So I received an invitation for a logo design, everything went good, contract budget was 50$, but the client said that first, he would propose 5$ and when approved would proceed full amount, after that, I started working and did some versions, the client liked it but said that wants some more versions different ones, I made another 2 versions and waited for the client's response, after that when I checked it he canceled the contract with no explanation at all and without saying anything, and requested a refund of 5$. I approved because I thought that this way it will not affect my JSS. Is this counts as a zero- earning contract? and will affect my JSS negatively? is there anything to fix that? in the details of a contract, it says "Client's feedback to you N/A" is that means, that client did not leave the feedback or left only private feedback? 

 

Thanks in advance!

2 REPLIES 2
dee34c02
Community Member

Wow this is a bummer! And a tight spot of a situation. The issue I have with this is that you already made designs and gave them to the client as copies. General rule is if there are digital downloads, there are no refunds because there's very little we can do to secure they won't repurpose the copyright work. And for Upwork to make it so easy for clients to bail is disrespectful to the freelance community. So with that they should implement a strict process where both the client and the contractor should be able to mutually cancel projects. And if there's a deposit and work has been done/exchanged than there's zero refunds - period - because these are time and skills we're talking about. If the client wanted a $5 design, they should have gone to Fiverr. Know your worth. 

gina-herrera
Community Member


David C wrote:

I made another 2 versions and waited for the client's response, after that when I checked it he canceled the contract with no explanation at all and without saying anything, and requested a refund of 5$. I approved because I thought that this way it will not affect my JSS.


For such a small amount, I think you did the right thing. To help you for the future, I set up my contract like this:

Milestone 1: Presentation of concepts - 65% of contract
make it VERY clear to the client that you expect to be paid for this portion as soon as the concept options are sent through - I usually tell them that after I send it, they have a day or two to get back to me with revisions but there will be no revisions done on my part until the concept payment is approved. The larger amount is on this milestone, because as a designer, I'm sure you know that this is the hardest part! Thinking of and executing new and fresh ideas.

Milestone 2: Revisions / finalization - 35% of contract
I explain exactly how many revisions they receive for the flat rate price (usually 3 rounds). NO revisions will be executed until the first milestone is paid and this second milestone is funded. once revisions are complete, then I finalize the file and release it to the client.

This method has proved absolutely foolproof for me on fixed rate contracts. Not once have I lost a dime to this process, and it will hold up in legal arbitration if you ever decide to take it that far because they do not judge the caliber of your work, only if you provided the deliverable - so if you make it VERY clear that the deliverable for the first milestone is a PRESENTATION ONLY, then you delivered the work for that milestone. Send screenshots, not working files or final files that they can steal.

Hope this helps 🙂

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