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af792128
Community Member

Clients who do not end contracts

Hello folks,

What do you do when clients pay but never ends contract? Do you end it yourself or?

Just want to know what experienced freelancers would do.

Kind regards.

5 REPLIES 5
petra_r
Community Member


Kanan I wrote:

What do you do when clients pay but never ends contract? Do you end it yourself or?


End it myself or leave it alone.

af792128
Community Member

Thank you, Petra! 

wlyonsatl
Community Member

Kanan I.,

 

I just yesterday sent a message to 7 idle clients asking them to either pause (if they will want me to work for them in the near future) or close their contracts on Upwork, as it is difficult to get new contracts if prospective clients think I am too busy to work for them.

 

Two have already closed their projects with very positive public feedback. (Fingers crossed their private feedback is the same.)

 

For those who don't respond by Saturday afternoon I'll close their contracts myself late that day. I will also send each of them a follow-up note thanking them for their business and, if I had a good experience with them, encouraging them to let me know if they need any further help with their project in the future. 

 

I have been doing this for years and never got a single negative response from a client. Most don't know they need to close a project at all, a few forget they even have an open Upwork project and some just don't care how Upwork works.

 

Now that the calculation of the JSS does not ding a freelancer for projects without feedback, there is no reason to leave long-time idle contracts open.


Will L wrote:

I just yesterday sent a message to 7 idle clients asking them to either pause (if they will want me to work for them in the near future) r close their contracts on Upwork, as it is difficult to get new contracts if prospective clients think I am too busy to work for them.


What difference does pausing the contracts make? Paused contracts show exactly the same on your profile... The only difference pausing an hourly contract makes is that you can't track time. That's all.

Five of the seven clients left feedback last week on the projects I closed and my updated JSS didn't budget.

 

I only close idle projects in the hour before each bi-weekly JSS calculation update is made. I wasn't able to do that in this case, so I'll close at least one of them in two weeks' time if the clients still haven't responded.

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