Fixed price contracts and time limits of edit requests

[darrenwall74]

Hi everyone, where ever you are, I hope you are safe!

I recently experienced a client trying to (in my opinion,) game the fixed price system.

An article was submitted, and thirteen days later, the client came back with a spurious reason for remove 90% of the content for that of his choosing.  The issue I had with that was, the brief was to search for and write descriptions for WordPress plugins of my choosing.

I feel that he wanted two articles for the price of one!

So, my questions are:

1) When agreeing a fixed price contract, can a freelancer stipulate a time limit on when a client can request changes?

2) Could I have refused to make the changes based on the fact that the client deviated from our agreement?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

[AveryO]

Hi Darren, 

You are the owner of your freelancing business. If you think it would benefit you to set a number of revisions that your client can ask from you, you can negotiate this on your future contracts. If you feel that you have the right to refuse the changes since it wasn't part of the initial agreement, you can discuss this further with your client. At the end of the day how you manage your freelancer business will depend on you.

Please know that you also have the option of disputing your client's non-release of milestone payment. You may read more about it here.

[darrenwall74]

Hi Avery,

What about agreeing a period of time within which a client can ask for revisions, say 7-days from submission, can a freelancer do that. Or does the client automatically get 14-days (two weeks) to decide?

[petra_r]

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Darren w wrote:

Or does the client automatically get 14-days (two weeks) to decide?

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The client has 14 days. You can agree whatever you like with the client, but Upwork will not enforce any such (privately agreed to) terms.

[darrenwall74]

I think, as a freelancer who is apparently in control of his own business, 14-days is too long.

[jr-translation · Accepted solution]

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Darren w wrote:

Hi everyone, where ever you are, I hope you are safe!

I recently experienced a client trying to (in my opinion,) game the fixed price system.

An article was submitted, and thirteen days later, the client came back with a spurious reason for remove 90% of the content for that of his choosing.  The issue I had with that was, the brief was to search for and write descriptions for WordPress plugins of my choosing.

I feel that he wanted two articles for the price of one!

So, my questions are:

1) When agreeing a fixed price contract, can a freelancer stipulate a time limit on when a client can request changes?

2) Could I have refused to make the changes based on the fact that the client deviated from our agreement?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

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1. Most writers offer 1 or 2 revisions to make sure the client does not play them.

2. Sure, if that is how you feel. But if you have not defined anything before, it could be turned into you changing the terms.

The client should not ask for a new text unless you did not deliver what you were hired for. If you deliver two different articles and the client only pays for one because the first is "useless", you still own it and use it for your portfolio or even sell it elsewhere. The client cannot use it and if he should, you can file a DMCA. So he could try to play the system but you get to leave a feedback after the contract and still own the article he did not pay for.