Client is not acknowledging the changes and asking for refund.

[hasib_dev]

Hello 
So I took on this e-commerce website development job almost a month ago. In the contract it was clearly stated the client wants ecommerce website that is mobile friendly. The client was supposed to give me further content such as images, texts etc to use on the site, but she didn't have them ready so I told her I will use dummy but relevant contents on the site which she will eventually have to replace in the future with her own contents. So I didn't pay that much attention on optimizing the dummy images such as reducing their size. But I still made sure the images are not too large in size. 

This is the website :**Edited for community guidelines**

So last week after finishing the job I delivered the work and she approved the milestone but she asked me for one change to be made which is to make the images optimized for mobile devices. She was being very vague about the changes instead of pointing out the exact changes she wants me to do. Upon asking she would go without responding. After asking again she pointed out a simple bug that was making the text overlap on her mobile device. After seeing it I immediately apologized and made the changes and notified her. Then she started saying the images( the dummy images that she will have to replace later on) are too large in size, and was very upset that I didn't optimize them. I didn't complain, I again apologized and did a thorough testing of the site and re uploaded all optimized images to ensure the website is mobile friendly and fast.  She also complained the website is very slow which is false. Even i made other people test the website and they all said the website is not slow and it's working fine. 

Today she sent me a text saying "Just a friendly reminder that this website needs to be finished in 2 days or ill request a full refund.". I'm really confused now, how can she asks for FULL refund when the job is finished already.

I will send her a full test report of the website tonight and I hope she will acknowledge the changes but incase if she refused to acknowledge the changes and still asks for refund, what should I do? I am also worried about the review she'll leave me, at this point I am not expecting good review from her even though I did everything she asked me to do. If she leaves a negative but false private or public feedback, can I do anything about it or I'll just have to accept it no matter what. 

Sorry for the long post, but I am really worried about how this will effect my journey on UpWork.
Thank you very much for your help in advance. 

Regards
Hasibullah Hasib

[petra_r]

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Hasibullah H wrote:

Today she sent me a text saying "Just a friendly reminder that this website needs to be finished in 2 days or ill request a full refund.". I'm really confused now, how can she asks for FULL refund when the job is finished already.

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She can if there is money in Escrow or if the last milestone was funded (!funded, not released) 30 days or less ago. 

After 30 days (from the date the last milestone was funded) there can be no dispute. The client can still ask for mediation, but that has no teeth (meaning you can just say "There is no basis for a refund.")

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Hasibullah H wrote:

 If she leaves a negative but false private or public feedback, can I do anything about it or I'll just have to accept it no matter what.  

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You are top rated. If you have not used your top-rated perk in the last 3 months or 10 contracts, you can use it to remove any impact of that contract on your JSS.

[hasib_dev]

Thank you so much for your response. Yes, she funded and activated the milestone on 1st May and she approved the milestone on may 26th. So it's already a month since she funded the milestone. So if I am correct, she will not be able to ask for refund?

I have not used my top rated perks yet, I never had to cause I take my work very seriously and always try to deliver more. But it's just unfortunate that I may have to use it this time.

[yitwail]

Hasibullah, I know a thing or two about WooCommerce. Your site's using a theme with its own page builder. Did you choose the theme, or did the client? If it was your choice, going forward you might want to switch to another theme. Page builders always slow down a site, but at least if you go with Elementor or Beaver Builder, you're working with something that's widely used, and is the developer's main product. I'm not going to say the site's slow, but for certain it's not fast, and gets very mediocre Pagespeed Insights scores.

[hasib_dev]

Thanks for your response, I suggested few elementor themes but the client demanded to use this particular theme as it's compatible for a third party service Zakeke which basically allows the products to have customization option. 

[petra_r · Accepted solution]

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Hasibullah H wrote:

Thank you so much for your response. Yes, she funded and activated the milestone on 1st May and she approved the milestone on may 26th. So it's already a month since she funded the milestone. 

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Not quite.

On Monday it will be....

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Hasibullah H wrote:

I have not used my top rated perks yet, I never had to cause I take my work very seriously and always try to deliver more. But it's just unfortunate that I may have to use it this time.

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That kind of situation is exactly what the perk is there for! - So whatever happens, as long as the client does not dispute before Monday, you can handle whatever happens afterwards.

For what it's worth, the site loaded not very fast on my Mac and slowly on my iPad.

[yitwail]

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Petra R wrote:

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For what it's worth, the site loaded not very fast on my Mac and slowly on my iPad.

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Petra, I think that's largely due to the theme, which the client insisted on. I suppose OP could have told the client then not to expect the site to be speedy.

[petra_r]

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John K wrote:

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Petra R wrote:

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For what it's worth, the site loaded not very fast on my Mac and slowly on my iPad.

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Petra, I think that's largely due to the theme, which the client insisted on. I suppose OP could have told the client then not to expect the site to be speedy.

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Probably. I am utterly clueless as far as stuff like that is concerned and just mentioned / provided feedback about what I experienced.

[hasib_dev]

Thank you so much for your response John, and you are right I should have warned the client before but the theme that client insisted is relevently new and I'm using it for the first time on any website. So I didn't have any experience regarding the site speed with this theme. I trusted the reviews of the theme and went for  it. 

Petra, thank you so much for your feedback. I'll do some more testing and see what I can do to reduce the site load time. 

[hasib_dev]

Hello 

I hate to come back to this thread agian but the issue with the client re-appeared. After consulting with Petra and John, I went ahead and talked with my client to work this trough. I have made some more changes to the site and updated her on the work. The client didn't complain to the changes so I thought everything is sorted out and waited for her to end the contract. Also Petra mentioned client won't be able to request for refund after a certain time has passed. So after almost a month, today, She ended the contract and few hours after ending the contract she's requested a full refund out of the blue. 

So I am really confused right now, how is this possible and also worried about how is that going to effect my JSS. I have been top rated for almost 6 months now and I would like to ask for suggestion on what can I do in this situation that will not effect my JSS.