Re: Clients never ending interview

ivelin123 · ‎01-23-2019

Hello,

Here is the situation. I found a job which seemed like something I would do with pleasure.
Paid by the hour and with a requirement for perfect English communication skills. Send my portfolio to the client, requested a meeting and etc. He saw the portfolio items and contacted me asking for a further explanation and break down but no interview just written communication. He send to me a brief document without paragraphs nor elementary grammar for someone who is native in English. The brief is incomplete and without all the sources so we can evaluate. After we answered in a document for him he requested a meeting on which he made obvious he talks with few more freelancers. After some digging, we discovered the whole information needed to know what we get ourselves into and made a good breakdown of all parts the video should have to make it look up to a good standard. So far the client acts as he has a good budget.
Today, he switches and asks me for a ballpark estimate where I told him our rates and desired price. To which he asked me to even better break down of all the steps and that my upfront price of 500 $ is too much for him. (this is not even close to the full price of the project) To this, I was only able to answer that our terms and everything was explained already 3 times and if 500 is too much he can go to our previous arrangement of hourly rate but this can be more expensive. I also denied him extra information.
In my opinion, he was just fishing for more information on what he can possibly get from the other freelancers but never had the intention of hiring me.

What do you think?

Should there be a way for us the freelancers as a community to mark those people somehow?

prestonhunter · ‎01-23-2019

There is no such thing as a "never ending interview."

What you are referring to is "free consultation."

There are two guilty parties that create such a situation:

- A client, who abuses the "interview period" and is unprofessional when he uses up your time without paying you for your time.

- And a freelancer who does not use "best practices" to limit the amount of time a non-paying client uses.

I am NOT SAYING IT IS ALWAYS EASY to navigate a situation like this. But you need to think about this and develop effective strategies to defer any additional free consultation time and explain that you are ready to start working with a real Upwork contract now.

hodgesh · ‎01-23-2019

Ivelin A wrote:
Hello,

Here is the situation. I found a job which seemed like something I would do with pleasure.
Paid by the hour and with a requirement for perfect English communication skills.

You don't have perfect English communication skills. Your post and profile prove it. Please don't waste clients' time if you don't have the skills they want.

If an interview lasts too long, end it.