Does it reflect badly on my profile if I quit a contract?

[barman-elizabeth]

Hi all - I'm brand new to UpWork & am working on my 1st contract. The client didn't realize how big the project was going to be when I agreed to it & it is WAAAAY bigger than anticipated (I'm one of several people working on it) & will take a HUGE amount of time to finish. Since I'm so new on here, I'm not sure what/if might reflect negatively on my profile if I quit a contract before it's finished. I've actually been given the option to do that by the client, so I know they wouldn't give me a poor review, but I don't know if there's anything other than the potential for a client to leave a bad review (which like I said, graciously wouldn't happen in this situation) that would show up on my profile for any future clients. Can anyone give me any input on this? Thanks!

[petra_r]

Has anything been paid? Will something be paid?

[barman-elizabeth]

I have received partial payment.....

[kat303]

If you quit a project and don't get paid for it, that will reflect negatively on your JSS. Also, if I'm correct, if you quit a project and there's funds in escrow, that will be returned to the client. 

Is there funds in escrow? And if so you will need to work out with your client on how much you should get paid for the work you did.  Again a closed contract with no earnings affects your JSS.

If there's funds in escrow and you've been paid for the work you've done already, and the CLIENT closes the contract you have No way of knowing what review and feedback you'll receive (no matter what the client might tell you or promise you.)  There's public feedback, and because it's public the client may give you a good review, but there's also Private feedback, Because it's private and no one gets to see it, the client may do an about face and give you a negative feedback. 

Your profile is set to private so I don't know how many jobs, reviews or feedback you've gotten as well as what your JSS is (if you have one) If you're top rated you can use the Top Rated perk and remove both the public and private feedback. 

[barman-elizabeth]

Thanks for your input. That's good to know about the escrow situation. So, should it be needed ever, I assume the way to avoid that is for the client to end the contract? Or does it get screwed up if there's money in escrow regardless of who does the canceling? 

I'm new enough w/ UpWork that I'm not even familiar w/ some of what you're referring to .. sorry! I'll have to look up what JSS is..... Good to know about the public vs. private feedback though. Thank you. 

This is actually my 1st contract, so no reviews/feedback as of yet but I know I haven't been at this near long enough to be top rated yet..... 

Thanks again. That clears up some of the questions I had. 🙂

[data_divas]

Ideally the scope of the job and all of the details should be discussed before you enter into the contract and accept the offer. If the client doesn't know then perhaps suggest a consulting milestone to help them figure that out at whatever rate you would charge and then proceed from there.

[feed_my_eyes]

I'm curious as to why you want to quit. If the client has acknowledged that the project is going to take longer than anticipated, why not just renegotiate your fee?

[barman-elizabeth]

That's a fair question Christine. It's a bit of a long story but w/o boring you w/ all the details 🙂 I was asked by a friend to join UpWork to help w/ this project. The person doing the asking knew I'd been planning to register here anyway for content writing & thought this could be a jumpstart to my being here even though this project is not at all the type of work I'd normally contract for (it's essentially data research/entry) & also that it might be a fast, painless way for me to make some money also as a jumpstart to doing work that is more in my wheelhouse. So, as a favor both to them & to me (I thought) I agreed to help. They have actually upped the amount a bit once they started to realize how big a project this actually is, but for me it's really not paying enough to be worth it & I don't think it'd be cost-effective for them to raise the rate to something that would make it profitable for me. That's partly their fault for not understanding the scope of their own project, but I think it's also partly mine b/c my way of working/how my brain processes what it is they're wanting is making me slower at the project than one or 2 of the others involved. 

[petra_r]

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Elizabeth B wrote:

 They have actually upped the amount a bit once they started to realize how big a project this actually is, but for me it's really not paying enough to be worth it & I don't think it'd be cost-effective for them to raise the rate to something that would make it profitable for me. That's partly their fault for not understanding the scope of their own project, but I think it's also partly mine b/c my way of working/how my brain processes what it is they're wanting is making me slower at the project than one or 2 of the others involved. 

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As long as they pay you something and not leave poor (private or public) feedback it won't have any negative effect.