How far out there?

[leeannmerrill]

Greetings, fellow Upworkers -

I already know the right answer on this one (run, which I did), but just wanted to get a sense of how far along on the outrageous scale you thought it was.

I have an invite for a job that was turning curriculum into video transcript. The client was asking applicants to look at two samples of curriculum and create two 800-word transcripts so he could pick the one he liked best. It was an hourly job.

I answered back and said it was against Upwork policy to solicit unpaid test work.  He wrote back and said he'd be happy to pay a "nominal fee." This time I answered back with the exact policy wording (which specifies free and nominal fee are not okay).  In reply he asked me what I thought was "a fair price" to do the two test transcripts. I said "Well....my hourly rate times how long it takes me to do it.  Otherwise it's free work."  And that was the end of that.

[prestonhunter]

You were completely right about this.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking applicants to look at curriculum samples and create transcripts based on them so that a client can pick which ones he likes best. But this needs to be done using hourly contracts set up using each freelancer's posted hourly rate.

The client was out of line.

When you ask freelancers to work, you pay them. This is not a new concept.

If a "client" doesn't want to pay people to work, then THAT IS FINE. But he needs to do that elsewhere. Not on Upwork.

It is a genuinely bizarre way of thinking demonstrated by some clients that they think they can have freelancers spend time working on their behalf and then not pay for them if they claim something isn't their "favorite", or if they say that they don't "like" it. Or if they decide not to use it.

That's not how this works.