Solved: Difficult Client destroyed my JSS

b6ef69a6 · ‎05-14-2023

Hi dear Upwork Talents and Community!

This January I had the most difficult and worst client in my five years of design experience.
We agreed with him that he would end up paying $120 for the entire job, but there would be 2 edits.

However, the client started throwing additional work at me, claiming that these were not edits, but, as he said, "additions". In addition to the simple painting of textures, he added the creation of the environment. T client was also replying every 4-5 days, and then disappeared, which made the work very difficult.
When I began to resent his unprofessionalism, the client began to behave appropriately and constantly abused the system of payments in the fixed price contract by clicking "make changes". Ultimately he told me he "didn't like the work" and is not going to pay me.

In the end I decided to dispute and only after that the client decided to give me my money, but left me a very bad feedback and due to that my JSS dropped from 96 to unthinkable 86! And even after completing 2 contracts with a perfect score (and a price even higher than the job from a difficult client) from long term clients my rating only went up to 88!

What should I do? Can this issue be resolved? With a rating of 88 I am invisible to clients.
And please don't advise me to write a better proposals, as I've always written ideal cover letters with a personalized approach, outlining a work plan and asking relevant questions. In fact, that's why I always managed to find a job before this client, but now it's not working.

work-fu · ‎05-14-2023

Hi Kenes,
I'm a 3d artist like yourself.

Firstly, I have to say this: why in the world had you accepted that job? I looked into your profile and found the job you're talking about. The description is very vague and it also states "maybe add some environment that's it." Maybe you dealt with the vagueness in the messages, I don't know, but "environment" (to whatever degree of complexity) was part of the deal.

Now, even for developing countries, $120 for that amount of work is peanuts. Your portfolio looks like, to me at least, allows you to at least double your hourly rate.

Also, in the future, it's best to avoid clients that put in their description or title phrasings like this:
"very easy for someone that knows what they're doing", "need [insert thing] only, that's it", "very easy, I'd do it myself, but don't have the time", etc. Basically anything that signals that they don't value the work they require. "don't value" should be read as in "they're expecting to pay very little regardless of the expertise or work amount required".

You're not invisible with 88% JSS, just keep applying, you'll get a job sooner or later, your portfolio is more than decent. But for heaven's sake, don't undertake such cheap jobs in the future.

My work philosophy is this: instead of working for nothing, I'm better off relaxing for nothing.

View solution in original post

5e4482f0 · ‎05-14-2023

First off I'm sorry that happened to to you. I'm not 100% sure but if you are top rated, you can ask Upwork to remove this awful client review and I think that will save your JSS. Hope this helps.

Best regards,

David King

b6ef69a6 · ‎05-14-2023

As far as I know deleting review doesn't save my JSS. I was also stripped from my TOP Rated badge since JSS was reduced lower than 90%.

work-fu · ‎05-14-2023

When you request a review deletion, if I recall correctly, you can ask for removal of public rating or both: public + private (which affects JSS).

Never did it myself and will probably never do. I don't care, I have nothing to hide.

tlsanders · ‎05-14-2023

You could have had the rating and the impact on your JSS removed right after the rating hit your JSS, but I believe it is too late since your JSS has updated again since.

Not to kick you when you're down, but this is the sort of unnecessary hardship freelancers often end up dealing with when they don't fully educate themselves about how Upwork works.

work-fu · ‎05-14-2023

Hi Kenes,
I'm a 3d artist like yourself.

Firstly, I have to say this: why in the world had you accepted that job? I looked into your profile and found the job you're talking about. The description is very vague and it also states "maybe add some environment that's it." Maybe you dealt with the vagueness in the messages, I don't know, but "environment" (to whatever degree of complexity) was part of the deal.

Now, even for developing countries, $120 for that amount of work is peanuts. Your portfolio looks like, to me at least, allows you to at least double your hourly rate.

Also, in the future, it's best to avoid clients that put in their description or title phrasings like this:
"very easy for someone that knows what they're doing", "need [insert thing] only, that's it", "very easy, I'd do it myself, but don't have the time", etc. Basically anything that signals that they don't value the work they require. "don't value" should be read as in "they're expecting to pay very little regardless of the expertise or work amount required".

You're not invisible with 88% JSS, just keep applying, you'll get a job sooner or later, your portfolio is more than decent. But for heaven's sake, don't undertake such cheap jobs in the future.

My work philosophy is this: instead of working for nothing, I'm better off relaxing for nothing.

b6ef69a6 · ‎05-14-2023

Thanks a lot for the feedback, reviewing my profile and couple of tips, really helped me a lot.

I'm just a little down right now, because my JSS was ruined back then and Top Rated badge was removed. Felt so disappointed that stopped working on Upwork for a while.

But thanks for the answers, I'll keep proposing and hope my JSS will be over 90 percent soon.

data_divas · ‎05-14-2023

If you were top rated before this and it has been less than 2 weeks since this feedback was left then you should be able to have it removed from your JSS.