Clients brief document is written in broken English and unintelligible

[darrenwall74]

Having had good communication with a client, today I accepted his job offer. However, on opening the brief document, I've discovered it is written in broken English and unintelligible.

I've done my best to pick through it, but it casts doubt on the answers he gave to the many questions I asked before accepting.  

For example, the price agreed was for a specific word count; however, the brief doubles it.  Additionally, my price did not include images, whereas the brief states that they are required.

I have reached out to the client, but do not expect a timely answer. My concern is that the work is due this coming Monday, should I cancel the contract or be patient?

[petra_r]

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Darren w wrote:

Having had good communication with a client, today I accepted his job offer. However, on opening the brief document, I've discovered it is written in broken English and unintelligible.

I've done my best to pick through it, but it casts doubt on the answers he gave to the many questions I asked before accepting.  

For example, the price agreed was for a specific word count; however, the brief doubles it.  Additionally, my price did not include images, whereas the brief states that they are required.

I have reached out to the client, but do not expect a timely answer. My concern is that the work is due this coming Monday, should I cancel the contract or be patient?

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Never accept a contract until after you have seen and examined everything.

Cancelling the contract will create a "nothing paid and no or poor feedback" contract and tank your JSS.

[darrenwall74]

Hi, Petra,

Yes, I should have known better; although it looks like the clients' friendly question answering demeanour and none, broken English had me fooled!

Hmm, I guess I must be patient and hope for a response to my questions.

Thanks for your input.

[tlbp]

The 'client' you are dealing with probably agreed to do the work for someone else and that someone else prepared the brief. So, you are in a bad place. Your 'client' won't get paid if he doesn't satisfy the actual brief which means he will be reluctant to pay you. On the other hand, you are probably already not being paid a lot and having to perform extra work is not ideal. 

At this point, because you have entered into a contract by accepting the offer, any outcome (good or bad) will affect your JSS. This leaves you stuck. Upwork won't review or adjust your feedback even if the client is wrong--it takes too much time and effort to review every feedback complaint. You can try to communicate with the client so that you are both in agreement as to what is required--maybe the client is planning to add the images later, maybe the client never even looked at the brief--but they may not answer. 

Can you produce something that is the appropriate word-count and get an image off Pixabay or another free source? 

It is a challenge to know what information to collect from a client before starting a gig. Sometimes they surprise you with added details later. A good client will understand that they are adding to the job and pay accordingly. A bad client, you just have to learn to avoid. 😞

[tlsanders]

Did you agree to the word count and such in the contract or through Upwork messaging, or did that happen offsite?

[darrenwall74]

Hi, Tiffany,

It was agreed to via Upwork Messaging.