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lakesh777
Community Member

Client is asking to refund even I have delivered the task successfully.

Hi

 

I have been working with a client. The job is at a fixed price. there are totals 7 tasks, I did 5 tasks and one is already done by the client himself, and others I didn't work on that task because of that takes need to debug and take extra time and budget for that. But the client didn't respond about that. I submit the process the payment after 24 days before, but the client didn't show any response. And after some days he canceled the project and ask for a refund.  No, I discuss with him why he canceled the project ?.

But after a discussion with him, he said that he will pay the payment. after 3-4 days the client said to me that there is one more task that needs to be done. I told him that I can do, but before that please let me know how much total amount that he will pay for me including the new tasks. He has no reply. 

Now I told him that if he will not pay to me then I will leave the negative feedback, And he quickly replied that he will do the same. I am a top-rated freelancer, let me know is it affect my success rate? and also affect my profile? How we can sort out this problem?

 

Thanks

Anant Thakur

ACCEPTED SOLUTION


Filip K wrote:


Really, Christine? Ever heard about milestones? 


Like I said, I'm confused about what happened. The OP said that he did 5 of 7 tasks and submitted them for payment all at once (no milestones or requests for partial payment were mentioned). It sounds to me like the OP is trying to get out of doing one of the tasks because it was going to take more time than he had expected, and that the client had completed one of the other tasks himself (perhaps not a good sign either), therefore the client wanted another task done before releasing the payment. Of course, the OP has the "right" to end the contract and ask for payment for the five tasks that he's completed, but it doesn't sound like the client is too happy about that. I would try to maybe provide good customer service and honour my commitments rather than getting into a dispute? At any rate, he doesn't need to worry about negative feedback if he's top rated and hasn't used his "perk" recently.

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8 REPLIES 8
feed_my_eyes
Community Member

I'm a bit confused about what happened here. If you're hired to do seven tasks for a fixed price, then you should do seven tasks. You're supposed to discuss the scope and price before you accept a fixed price project - not after - so unless he changed his mind about what needed to be done, you should have completed all of the tasks. It was your mistake if you underbid on the project and didn't ask for clarifications before accepting.

 

So if you only did five of the tasks and then submitted them for payment, then I don't blame the client for expecting a refund. And if the client said that he wanted you to do one more thing before paying you, then doesn't he have the right to do this, since you had originally agreed to do seven tasks, but only completed five? 

 

If I were you, I would apologize for threatening this client with bad feedback and finish the jobs that I was hired to do. Or, if the new task is completely different and much more work than you had originally agreed to, then TELL the client how much it will cost and explain why - don't ask how much he wants to pay (that may have been where you went wrong in the first place).

 

If I've misunderstood something and the client is being more unreasonable than your explanation suggests, then the next step is dispute mediation to try and get paid. And if you're worried about your JSS, as a top-rated freelancer you have the option to get a bad feedback review removed every once in awhile. 

 


Christine A wrote:

 

So if you only did five of the tasks and then submitted them for payment, then I don't blame the client for expecting a refund. And if the client said that he wanted you to do one more thing before paying you, then doesn't he have the right to do this, since you had originally agreed to do seven tasks, but only completed five? 

 

If I were you, I would apologize for threatening this client with bad feedback and finish the jobs that I was hired to do. Or, if the new task is completely different and much more work than you had originally agreed to, then TELL the client how much it will cost and explain why - don't ask how much he wants to pay (that may have been where you went wrong in the first place).

 

If I've misunderstood something and the client is being more unreasonable than your explanation suggests, then the next step is dispute mediation to try and get paid. And if you're worried about your JSS, as a top-rated freelancer you have the option to get a bad feedback review removed every once in awhile. 

 


Really, Christine? Ever heard about milestones? 

If you did 5 of 7 similar tasks, that means you have finished 5 of 7 tasks, not 0 of 7 tasks. 

So the client should pay for five tasks.

To the OP - threatening a client with a low feedback was, I'm sorry, beyond stupidity. Now, even if he pays you you can expect a terrible feedback ands a drop in your JSS.

Main point being, he is a client and he PAYS. That means he can decide to pay some other freelancer. And he WILL find freelancers to work for him EVEN if his score is 1 star. Why? Because he pays money. 

On the other side, bad feedbacks can leade to a bad JSS for freelancers until it gets to a point the freelancer WILL NOT get any more jobs. 

You decide who is hurt more with a bad feedback. 🙂


Filip K wrote:

Christine A wrote:

 

So if you only did five of the tasks and then submitted them for payment, then I don't blame the client for expecting a refund

 


Really, Christine? Ever heard about milestones? 


Really Filip? This was not 7 milestones, this was one milestone. It was accepted AS IS, and not completed.

The end.


As far as the feedback blackmail is concerned, if the client reports the OP, he will likely (and rightly) be kicked off the platform.

 

 

In that case, this is a great way for clients to get free work. 

Just ask for seven things under one milestone, and after the contractor finishes six, finish the last one yourself and cancel the contract. Awesome! 


Filip K wrote:

In that case, this is a great way for clients to get free work. 

Just ask for seven things under one milestone, and after the contractor finishes six, finish the last one yourself and cancel the contract. Awesome! 


That isn't what happened here.

 

The OP demanded more money for part of the milestone than he agreed to when accepting the contract, and threatened bad feedback if such additional money was not paid.

Game over. Indefensible.


Filip K wrote:


Really, Christine? Ever heard about milestones? 


Like I said, I'm confused about what happened. The OP said that he did 5 of 7 tasks and submitted them for payment all at once (no milestones or requests for partial payment were mentioned). It sounds to me like the OP is trying to get out of doing one of the tasks because it was going to take more time than he had expected, and that the client had completed one of the other tasks himself (perhaps not a good sign either), therefore the client wanted another task done before releasing the payment. Of course, the OP has the "right" to end the contract and ask for payment for the five tasks that he's completed, but it doesn't sound like the client is too happy about that. I would try to maybe provide good customer service and honour my commitments rather than getting into a dispute? At any rate, he doesn't need to worry about negative feedback if he's top rated and hasn't used his "perk" recently.

Thank you, Christine and community members. In the future I will keep in my mind about all this information that the community shared in the channel.

jessicasimko
Community Member


Anant T wrote:

Hi

 

I have been working with a client. The job is at a fixed price. there are totals 7 tasks, I did 5 tasks and one is already done by the client himself, and others I didn't work on that task because of that takes need to debug and take extra time and budget for that. But the client didn't respond about that. I submit the process the payment after 24 days before, but the client didn't show any response. And after some days he canceled the project and ask for a refund.  No, I discuss with him why he canceled the project ?.

But after a discussion with him, he said that he will pay the payment. after 3-4 days the client said to me that there is one more task that needs to be done. I told him that I can do, but before that please let me know how much total amount that he will pay for me including the new tasks. He has no reply. 

Now I told him that if he will not pay to me then I will leave the negative feedback, And he quickly replied that he will do the same. I am a top-rated freelancer, let me know is it affect my success rate? and also affect my profile? How we can sort out this problem?

 

Thanks

Anant Thakur


This is so unclear but if you did 5 of the 7 tasks for valid reasons, and you want to try to get paid for them, then you should have deducted the value of whatever the 2 tasks you didn't do were worth - and submitted a payment request for less than the fulll cost of the project. 

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