Difficult customer

[Bill H]

I see two potential explanations that do not presume client incompetence. First, your English is excellent and far better than my Italian; is it possible that the client's native language isn't either English or Italian? Second, I have all the visual abilities of a corpse. When requesting something visual, I tell the freelancer I have to rely on his or her visual skills. The client may not have the requisite visual skills to do any better, and he's doing the best he can.

[Giacomo U]

Hi Bill, thanks for your comment. The customer is a native English speaker, there is no misunderstanding between us. I think he's just confused and doesn't know what he wants. He just tells me he wants his logo to look like big brand names in his field. I tried to get closer to what he wanted and then offer my own alternatives, nothing to do. Another thing that makes me laugh is that sometimes customers come up with examples of big brands, asking you for something similar (costing hundreds of dollars) with ridiculous budgets : /

[Preston H]

Confused customer = hourly contract 

[Christine A]

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Bill H wrote:

When requesting something visual, I tell the freelancer I have to rely on his or her visual skills. The client may not have the requisite visual skills to do any better, and he's doing the best he can.

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The problem isn't when a client says that they'll rely on the designer's visual skills (that would be my dream client!); the problem is when clients expect you to read their minds.

If I were faced with a situation like this, I'd tell the client that I'll be happy to continue creating multiple options until they see something that they like, but they'll have to switch to an hourly contract. If that doesn't suit them, then I would apologise and politely say that it seems like I'm not the right designer for the project, and ask for a reduced payment to settle up and close the contract so that they can hire somebody else. I know that it's hard to give up, but sometimes it's necessary to save your sanity.

[Giacomo U]

Thanks for your suggestion Christine, it might just be my case. Give me an example of reduced pay that you would ask for. When do you propose the customer how he reacts?

[Christine A]

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Giacomo U wrote:

Thanks for your suggestion Christine, it might just be my case. Give me an example of reduced pay that you would ask for. When do you propose the customer how he reacts?

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Yes, it's tricky, and it would also depend on whether your client is 'merely' dissatisfied or whether he's also getting angry/irritated/frustrated as well. I would say that I'm sorry I wasn't able to come up with the right design for him, but I hope that he received some value from the process and that now at least he'll have a few ideas to discuss with the next designer. (I mean, now he knows what he DOESN'T want, right?) Then ask him what he thinks is a fair price for your time and efforts, and say that you'll refund the rest.

Obviously, this is only my opinion and I'm sure that others will jump in and say that you should hold out for the full amount and go through the dispute/arbitration process, if necessary. But personally, I would never be comfortable charging full price to an unhappy client.

For what it's worth, I think that you've got one of the best portfolios that I've ever seen on Upwork. Your client must be crazy if you've done multiple options and he doesn't like any of them! :-) 

[Giacomo U]

Christine, your advice is awesome, I don't want to charge the cost, I just want a small remuneration for not closing the contract without remuneration (it could hurt my jss). I am so sorry that the customer is not satisfied, I really care a lot to see them satisfied. Thank you very much for your compliment! I'm really glad you like my portfolio