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aq_solutions
Community Member

I need to file a ticket against a client.

Hello all,

I just came up with a weird situation. I had a chat yesterday with a client. I told him everything about my background and skillsets. He gave me a test task of 12$ which I delivered shortly, he reviewed it and was satisfied. Then I asked him about a task which he posted and he was ready to give it to me. I tried to negotiate a bit about the budget and he got hyper. He threatened me about the negative rating I apologized to him for the misunderstanding but he was not ready to listen and said you have no right to bargain. He said you lied about your profile, the claim is totally wrong. At last, he rated me with 1 star for the test task which I did nicely. His point is that I have no right to negotiate and I am trying to manipulate which is totally wrong. He even involved my elders and said that you have earned fake reviews. Moreover also said that nobody cares about your degree and profile which is very humiliating. I just want to report him. He rated me for the task he didn't even award. I just want to know how can I report him and put this matter to the Upwork administration. 

ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Well, I agree with Mikko that you should give the client a full refund to get the written feedback off of your profile (and your response to it). The private feedback could still impact your JSS but at least other potential clients won't be able to read the bad review. There's no reason to contact Upwork over this - it's your word against the client's.

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9 REPLIES 9
petra_r
Community Member


Aqeel U wrote:

I just want to report him. 


You really need to manage your clients and contracts yourself. What do you think reporting the client would achieve? The worst part of the whole debacle is your response to the feedback, which is in really poor English with a bunch of mistakes, which, coming from a writer, basically verifies and validates the client's feedback.

 

Realistically, the only way to get rid of that feedback and most importantly, that absolutely terrible response, would be to refund the $12. That way the feedback will vanish after a couple of days. It will (significantly) affect your JSS though.

That was just a fast reply, not a writing task.  Is it acceptable that any client can question your integrity and threatened you with negative feedback?  How he can say that I have earned fake reviews? It's not about the feedback it's about the ethics. Isn't it? 


It's not about the feedback it's about the ethics. Isn't it? 


No. It isn't. Stop thinking about the client.That's over. Think about your future! Any client who sees that absolutely horrendous English on your response will not hire you to write a word of English. Concentrate on your career on Upwork, not a $12 client.

 

 


That was just a fast reply, not a writing task. 


Unfortunately, that is not what prospective future clients will see. They see very poor English and very unprofessional behaviour. A double-whammy "NO WAY!"

 

You're in a hole. Stop digging. Concentrate on how to get out of the hole and how to avoid such poor outcomes in future.

 

Mikko R wrote:
Refund the job to make that review vanish from your profile. Even if your JSS drops, it's far better than leaving that review in your profile.

The JSS will plummet tomorrow anyway. That ship has sailed. Refunded contracts don't make it drop any more than not refunded contracts.

 

kinector
Community Member

Aqeel, I fear you've made a tactical mistake in jumping ahead and leaving the contracts behind the logical progress of the relationship with your client.

First, you should do a test task, get paid, give and get the reviews, and close the project. Then, if things look good on both sides, you mutually agree to proceed. That's the purpose of a test project. Then both sides feel confident on the next bigger thing.

You let your client skip ahead of things and it turned into a complete mess. I feel sorry for you, but on the other hand these things are so communication-critical.

Did you talk to the client (audio / video) or just chat by text? Maybe next time, do something differently. 👍

Don't write back to the client in the review response. In case of negative feedback, the freelancer's explanations in the response ALWAYS make the profile look worse than just the client's review.

Particularly, if your English is not your strong suit yet claiming to be a writer, as Petra pointed out.

Refund the job to make that review vanish from your profile. Even if your JSS drops, it's far better than leaving that review in your profile.

Write a polite and professional apology for the mix-up when pressing the Refund button (it doesn't really matter whose fault this is at this point anymore... you're now just trying to save all that can be still saved, that being your reputation).
feed_my_eyes
Community Member


Aqeel U wrote:

He even involved my elders and said that you have earned fake reviews. 


What do you mean when you say that he involved your elders? Do you have more than one person who's working through your profile? Because it certainly sounds like the person who responded to the bad feedback doesn't speak English as well as you do (judging from your posts here), and the client also claims that you weren't the one who worked on his project. Someone who speaks fluent English might make one or two mistakes when writing quickly, but that feedback response is absolutely filled with mistakes - dozens of them. If you're sharing your profile with other people then you could really get into some serious trouble and have your account banned.

Christine, I'm fairly sure he means the "Elders of the Internet" featured in that episode of the IT Crowd, Season 3 (search on YouTube if it doesn't ring a bell).

That is the only plausible explanation. 😉

And big kudos to the original poster, the Elders of the Internet know who you are! ✌😁👍

I am not sharing my account with anyone. He claimed because I agreed on a writing task that doesn't belong to my background. Moreover, he wasn't looking for a native writer. I never ever mentioned that I am a native english speaker. I am working as technical writer in the field of engineering, science and technology and clients are satisfied with the work. Moreover, anyone can find my research profile here: 

**Edited for Community Guidelines** 

I hope this will help you guys to believe me. 

Well, I agree with Mikko that you should give the client a full refund to get the written feedback off of your profile (and your response to it). The private feedback could still impact your JSS but at least other potential clients won't be able to read the bad review. There's no reason to contact Upwork over this - it's your word against the client's.

Already did. Thank you for your kind response.

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