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lila63
Community Member

Clients

Hi,

 

How do you deal with difficult clients? One of them, I apologized that I could not do the job for reasons out of my control, he didn't take it badly from his response. I asked him nicely to close the contract, he is online every day but he didn't reply or close the contract. The second is a new client, we started a discussion about work, he disappeared in the middle of the discussion and then apologized and said he had to do other things, then we had an appointment today to start work. He is 30 min late, or not showing up at all. He does not seem to value freelancers' time. The third one pays me when we discuss the work but expect me to do work for him for free outside the time-frame of the discussion.  

How do you advise me to proceed with the 3 of them, please?

Thank you taking the time to read and answer my questions

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
petra_r
Community Member


Lila T wrote:

How do you deal with difficult clients? One of them, I apologized that I could not do the job for reasons out of my control, he didn't take it badly from his response. I asked him nicely to close the contract,How do you advise me to proceed with the 3 of them, please?


That is not a "difficult" client, that is a very kind client who is avoiding giving you poor feedback. Close the contract yourself! Why would you want the client to close the contract and leave you honest feedback? You already said you didn't do the job? The LAST thing you want is the client to close the contract!

 


Lila T wrote:

The second is a new client, we started a discussion about work, he disappeared in the middle of the discussion and then apologized and said he had to do other things, then we had an appointment today to start work. He is 20 min late. He does not seem to value freelancers' time.


That is not a client. That is a prospect. If you don't like the way this prospective client behaves, don't work with that prospective client.

 


Lila T wrote:

The third one pays me when we discuss the work but expect me to do work for him for free outside the time-frame of the discussion.  


Sorry, what?

If a client asks for work that differs from what was discussed, you tell the client youre perfectly happy to do the extra work and you tell the client how much you will charge for that extra work and when you will be able to deliver. 

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4 REPLIES 4
petra_r
Community Member


Lila T wrote:

How do you deal with difficult clients? One of them, I apologized that I could not do the job for reasons out of my control, he didn't take it badly from his response. I asked him nicely to close the contract,How do you advise me to proceed with the 3 of them, please?


That is not a "difficult" client, that is a very kind client who is avoiding giving you poor feedback. Close the contract yourself! Why would you want the client to close the contract and leave you honest feedback? You already said you didn't do the job? The LAST thing you want is the client to close the contract!

 


Lila T wrote:

The second is a new client, we started a discussion about work, he disappeared in the middle of the discussion and then apologized and said he had to do other things, then we had an appointment today to start work. He is 20 min late. He does not seem to value freelancers' time.


That is not a client. That is a prospect. If you don't like the way this prospective client behaves, don't work with that prospective client.

 


Lila T wrote:

The third one pays me when we discuss the work but expect me to do work for him for free outside the time-frame of the discussion.  


Sorry, what?

If a client asks for work that differs from what was discussed, you tell the client youre perfectly happy to do the extra work and you tell the client how much you will charge for that extra work and when you will be able to deliver. 

lila63
Community Member

Thank you for your reply. How do I close the contract myself?

 

petra_r
Community Member


Lila T wrote:

Thank you for your reply. How do I close the contract myself?


Navigate to the contract, click on the three dots on the right and choose "End Contract"

 

end contract.png

lila63
Community Member

Thank you very much, I didn't know I can do it myself. 

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