I got hired by a client about a month ago. The budget for the job posting was $1200 (fixed-price). During the interview, she mentioned that the salary could be paid weekly or monthly as I wish. So I said I prefer weekly payments. She agreed to that. Also, she mentioned that the project is ideally 3 - 6 months. She wanted me to work 8 hours/day Mon - Fri and 5 hours on Saturdays. Also, she didn't like me to accept any other projects but only work for her. So from the beginning, I thought $1200 is the monthly payment because I have to work more than 40 hours per week.
But she sent me the offer with milestones set to $100 per week. I thought she had a miscalculation because from the beginning she had trouble scheduling the interviews and etc. I accepted the offer and messaged her saying that it looks like you've entered the wrong amount because I expect $300 per week, not $100. Then we had a call and she said that $1200 is for 3 months not for 1 month she claimed that she mentioned that to me before but she never did even on the job posting. I explained to her that given the workload and other requirements like I cannot take on any other projects I cannot work for $400 per month because that's very cheap.
However, after the discussion, she said she will either pay me $200 per week or reduce my working hours to 20 and let me know the next day. I waited like 2 weeks, I didn't get a response. So I asked her what's her decision. She said that they have decided not to proceed with my contract. She actually wasted my time more than 5 - 6 hours for her interviews, calls, and mis-scheduled calls where I waited more than 1 hour and so on.
So my questions are:
- If I end the contract without earnings will it affect my JSS?
- Since $100 is already funded what will happen to that?
- Will there be a penalty for me because she mentioned something like if we close the contract I might need to pay the penalty?
- In general, what do you think about such clients?
- Do you think the payment is fair?
