Client misusing Upwork fixed-price contract by having hourly working terms

[d588850e]

I have this fixed-price contract client(**Edited for Community Guidelines**) who have terms like number of hours in the contract. 

Contracts was for $2000 and in the contract terms he mentioned 30 hrs a week for 6 weeks and 120 working hours remaing training. Being new to upwork, I fell into this trap.

He was not available for the first two weeks and he assigned someone else to schedule the work. But the assigned person also disappered and after two weeks said there was an emergency. This delayed the entire schedule but since they said its a emergency I said lets adjust the schedule timeline and try to make it work. 

After working for 6 weeks, I completed 80 hours of work (everything recorded in loom video full 80 hours) and I didn't require much of training so I did about additinonal 20 hrs of training as a work(like watching usability tester videos and giving feedback), all the work was done on clients sotware, client requested to have call daily and I did the 50% of work on call with the client.

Client asked me to have a separate contract with him outside of upwork and work with him there, I said some reason and avoid it at last.

Next day he came and said you haven't completed the works on time so either I will pay $500 outside of upwork and asked me to terminate the contract in upwork or work for another 4 weeks with 25 hrs a week(fully loom video recorded) and additional condition like "if less than 25 hrs then none of the hours is considered and I have to work a extra week". 

I feel like he is exploting me, so I said no and submitted my work proof (all loom video links) to the contract and requested for the payment. He said no, and I was even ok to compromise and go with $1000 to avoid this situation. But he is saying its all or nothing and saying "I won't give a dime and I will ask you to pay me for the delay".

This client is misusing the Fixed-Price contract by having terms of hourly work hours and saying all or nothing and demanding more and more work. 

I'm stuck with this client, I don't know what to do. Please help me with your suggestions.

Also when my submission was send back by the client for revision I'm not getting an option to "raise a dispute" please help me here.

[ericaandrews]

You agreed to this in the terms if he said you needed to do a certain number of hours for a fixed amount.  The client can set any terms they want in a fixed price contract.  It's your job to read and understand them, and determine the terms are fair and make sense.   There is nothing to 'report' here. This is a learning experience: Learn from it and don't repeat the mistake again.   You are not "stuck": A freelancer can end a contract the same way a client can.   You can go in, right now, and end the contract and stop working for them.  You are not 'stuck'.   In all likelihood, you are not going to get paid no matter what you do, if the client is demanding more and more work and trying to take you outside of Upwork.   If the client sent you a message over Upwork asking you to work outside of Upwork, you actually can report that message, because the client has violated the Upwork terms of service.   You should stop working for the client immediately and end the contract.  It's that simple.

[prestonhunter]

Murugappan:

You made a lot of mistakes.

That's okay!

Part of learning new things is making mistakes.

You accepted a big fixed-price contract without really understanding fixed-price contracts.

In the future:

Don't accept a big fixed-price contract from a stranger.

ONLY work on hourly contracts.

Or if you accept a fixed-price contract from someone you haven't worked for before, only accept a contract for one or two hours worth of work. The first step in a project. Then you do the work, and you see if the client pays you as expected. If the client plays games or asks for out-of-scope work, then you either don't work for the client again, or you only use hourly contracts with the client.

IMPORTANT: Upwork will not help you out of a bad fixed-piece situation. You need to plan to handle this YOURSELF.