Refund Request Advice

[hannah_kaye_]

Hi,

New to this and just looking for some advice. 

A client I worked for in October, who gave me a good review and accepted the work has now asked for a complete refund as there were apparently grammatical errors. However, I'm confused as if she had mentioned this back in October at the end of the project I would have happily gone through and corrected them for her and apologised. 

I find it strange that a whole month later she's now asked for a refund and worried this will affect my JSS. I have gave her the refund but now questioning if I should have?

Any advice for future?
Thank you,
Hannah

[petra_r]

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Hannah Kaye T wrote:

I have gave her the refund but now questioning if I should have?

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There was no reason to refund. The contract was closed, feedback was left, it is beyond the dispute deadline. I'd have offered to fix any mistakes, and that's it. Nothing the client could have done.

[hannah_kaye_]

Hi Petra,

Ah ok. I was worried that my account would be suspended so I refunded. I've never had this happen before and was quite surprised to see that it had happened as they seemed pleased about my work before. 

Will this affect my JSS even though they gave me a good review?

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

The contract was over and closed.

The client should not have asked for a refund.

It was disrespectful on her part to ask.

You worked on her behalf. She was just trying to take money from you. And she succeeded.

If she found grammatical errors in your work, then she should have fixed the errors. Or had one of the editors on her team fix the errors. Or hired an editor/proofreader to fix the errors. Or asked you to fix the errors.

If she saw that your work had errors but she found your work valuable and compelling, then she could continue to hire you in the future because she thinks you bring value to her project despite the errors. If she felt that your work isn't worth it to her - due to the errors or due to any other reason - then she could decide to never hire you again.

But to ask for a refund weeks after the contract was closed...

No, that is not the right thing to do.

And as a freelancer, you made a mistake when you issued a refund to this client. You could have offered to correct the errors. You could have told her you were sorry if she was disappointed but it is against your policy to issue refunds after a contract has been closed. You could have simply ignored her. There was nothing she could do at this point to affect your JSS.

You should DEFINITELY issue a refund to a client if you failed to actually do the work. Or if you did something wrong. But for something like this? No.

ON THE POSITIVE SIDE...

Because the client asked for a refund and you refunded her payment for the work, it means that she no longer owns the work. You do.

You may post the work as a portfolio piece. You may sell it. You may do whatever you want with it.

[hannah_kaye_]

Hi Preston,

Thank you so much for this. I'm quite annoyed at myself but I'd never had anything like this before and so thank you for explaining to me - it's good to know for future reference.