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romybian
Community Member

Incredibly unfair treatment by client. I just need to vent.

Let this be a lesson to all freelancers. 

 

I have been taken advantage of by a client that I suspect intended to do this from the beginning. And it was only my fault. The second I started talking to this person I KNEW he was trouble. But I accepted the offer anyways... 

 

After 10+ years in upwork and ONLY 5 star reviews... this person left me this: **edited for Community Guidelines**

 

Of course I filed for a dispute and responded to his hateful review. (there are $300 in escrow, figured I had to give it a shot). 

 

I PARTICULARLY love the fact that he gave me a 2 star review and my job success rate is still 100% XD Tried to bring me down and didn't even scratch the surface

How do these people exist?!?!

 

He pushed me into accepting although he was below budget (Lesson 1: never take a project when a client does this). 

He modified the milestones half way through.

I gave him a sample video with good enough quality that he is now using in his youtube channel (I don't even have to say what the lesson here is). 

 

When he kept pushing for extra work and after he had told me NUMEROUS times that he loved what I was doing, I had to tell him respectfully that the budget did not cover the extra work he was asking for. 

He immediately closed the project and requested the money in escrow. 

 

There is no way I will accept to release those funds to him and I will gladly take the hit in my reviews simply because he is using the footage and I can't accept the unfairness of it all. I will pay the arbitration fees, but I won't give up. 

 

 

14 REPLIES 14
lysis10
Community Member

lol this whole post was a hilarious read. Thank you for posting it.

romybian
Community Member

Haha Thanks Jennifer! All I can do at this point is laugh, right? 

Oh well. 10 years with no bad experiences was already pretty unrealistic. Had to happen at some point. 😛

petra_r
Community Member


Romina B wrote:

 

I PARTICULARLY love the fact that he gave me a 2 star review and my job success rate is still 100% XD Tried to bring me down and didn't even scratch the surface

 


The JSS updates only every 2nd Sunday.

The next update is this coming Sunday (the 12th) and until then you won't know what the impact of that contract on your JSS was.

 

romybian
Community Member

Great news. oh well. I have tried everything within my power. It's one client. 

 

 


Romina B wrote:

Great news. oh well. I have tried everything within my power. It's one client. 


___________________________
If it were me,I would take it to arbitration, or anyway call his bluff. If he is using your work and has conned you out of the amount you both agreed to at the beginning, I don't see why you should refund anything. If you do refund, your public feedback will disappear, but the private feedback will remain and will zap your JSS in any case.

 

However, if he drops the dispute, then I think your feedback will remain, which once you become top rated you will be able to remove using your perk. Not much comfort I know.  

 

 

jr-translation
Community Member


Romina B wrote:

Let this be a lesson to all freelancers. 

 

I have been taken advantage of by a client that I suspect intended to do this from the beginning. And it was only my fault. The second I started talking to this person I KNEW he was trouble. But I accepted the offer anyways... 

 

After 10+ years in upwork and ONLY 5 star reviews... this person left me this: **edited for Community Guidelines**

 

Of course I filed for a dispute and responded to his hateful review. (there are $300 in escrow, figured I had to give it a shot). 

 

I PARTICULARLY love the fact that he gave me a 2 star review and my job success rate is still 100% XD Tried to bring me down and didn't even scratch the surface

How do these people exist?!?!

 

He pushed me into accepting although he was below budget (Lesson 1: never take a project when a client does this). 

He modified the milestones half way through.

I gave him a sample video with good enough quality that he is now using in his youtube channel (I don't even have to say what the lesson here is). 

 

When he kept pushing for extra work and after he had told me NUMEROUS times that he loved what I was doing, I had to tell him respectfully that the budget did not cover the extra work he was asking for. 

He immediately closed the project and requested the money in escrow. 

 

There is no way I will accept to release those funds to him and I will gladly take the hit in my reviews simply because he is using the footage and I can't accept the unfairness of it all. I will pay the arbitration fees, but I won't give up. 


If he hasn't paid you yet and refuses to do so, just remind him that you own the work until you received full payment.

wlyonsatl
Community Member

Go get him! Pandering to client clowns like this with free work just for the sake of the flawed Job Success Score system is a bad idea.

 

Upwork has clearly said the following about excluding feedback from certain clients when calculating a freelancers' Job Success Score:

 

"We understand that some projects have bad outcomes because the client is difficult to work with. So we track freelancer feedback of clients and flag those clients with a history of poor collaboration. If one of your clients has been flagged (or has been suspended for Terms of Service violations), then the client's feedback will not count against your score."

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Upwork also excludes feedback from clients who utterly fail in arbitration without having a "history" (whatever that means) of being difficult, but we can't know that for sure. 

Thanks everyone! 

Upwork has been great so far. I have been talking to them since this whole thing started and they are gathering all the information they need for their 'investigation'. I am confident when they look at all the screenshots I have sent that they will see how unfair this all was. 

 

And even if they don't do anything, I am glad I stood up for myself. 

 

I am on track to become top rated soon and I will deal with his comment then. My success rate is 100% as it is, with 10+ years of 5 star reviews, almost 60 jobs completed and a lengthy portfolio. One crazy client won't take me down. 😄

Kutos to you. I've been on here for almost 3 years and going through a similar situation. Don't sweat it.

Thanks Tom! Good luck to you too. Don't back down. 🙂 

For those interested in the soap opera:

He came back to me today, trying to convince me that Upwork was on his side beccause allegedly he talked to them before cancelling the project and they not only recommended that he neded the contract, but they told him he should request a refund of the $200 that he had paid for the first milestone. Can anyone imagine upwork suggesting that to a client? To keep the files, use them, and take the money back from me.

 

I sure can't. And I sure hope that's a lie. 

 

I responded with a NOVEL. Respectfully calling him out on every issue in his review and explaining to him that the Arbitration fee would get me back to 0 if it ruled in my favor and that I would lose almost $300 if it didn't, and that I was absolutely fine with that because I am not about to let anybody treat me this way for the first time in 10 years. 

 

 

Stay tuned for the next episode. XD

petra_r
Community Member


Romina B wrote:

 

I responded with a NOVEL

 

Stay tuned for the next episode. XD


Save your breath for the dispute.

 

The client actually CAN dispute the initial $ 200. That much is true, but he can use no part of the work as it has not been paid for, so you could ask him to take it down, but at this stage I would not as it will be a trump up your sleeve further down the line.

 

The arbitration fee will not leave you at 0 if he is going to dispute the $ 200 already paid as well as the $ 300 in Escrow....

but i am pretty sure that client will not go for arbitration, so your best bet is to stand firm, not agree to anything, and simply state that you will go for arbitration because you did what was contractually agreed to be done.

 

kat303
Community Member


Romina B wrote:

Thanks Tom! Good luck to you too. Don't back down. 🙂 

For those interested in the soap opera:

He came back to me today, trying to convince me that Upwork was on his side beccause allegedly he talked to them before cancelling the project and they not only recommended that he neded the contract, but they told him he should request a refund of the $200 that he had paid for the first milestone. Can anyone imagine upwork suggesting that to a client? To keep the files, use them, and take the money back from me.

 

I sure can't. And I sure hope that's a lie. 

 

I responded with a NOVEL. Respectfully calling him out on every issue in his review and explaining to him that the Arbitration fee would get me back to 0 if it ruled in my favor and that I would lose almost $300 if it didn't, and that I was absolutely fine with that because I am not about to let anybody treat me this way for the first time in 10 years. 

 

 

Stay tuned for the next episode. XD


-----------------

This client may very well be telling sort of the truth. When you start a dispute there's 2 phases to it. The first is that a mediator from Upwork will suggest either to you or the client to refund what's in escrow, or to cancel/close the project etc. The word is SUGGEST. Upwork';s mediator can only make suggestions and/or give advice but at times, it sounds like a binding decision. It is not. After mediation the next phase is arbitration and that's where the $291 fee and a BINDING decision from an arbitrator not associated with Upwork is used. 

Anonymous-User
Not applicable

The "Upwork said" line is a classic = "I'm gonna tell your Mom!"

 

UW gave him options, he chose to try to box his way out of a corner because that's what they do when they're trying to get out of paying. He's flailing.

 

I would sit back and not write any more to him. Follow the mediation process, and be clear and professional. Let him become hysterical and incoherent. You'll win, and he will be gone.    

 

Thanks for all the great advice! 

Time to pop some corn and wait. 

 

 

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