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6a9346f2
Community Member

Should I quit the job?

Hello Upworkers, I have been on Upwork for a couple of months but have not had experience working on many projects. I have been working on a project for 4 months for the first milestone. The project is divided into 5 milestones. It's also a fixed-price contract but I, unfortunately, have been working on the first milestone for a whole 4 months. I am developing a news aggregator system and the whole project had been budgeted for $3000 which means that each milestone costs $600. At the start of the project, the client provide an SOW document that had details of what was to be implemented for the first milestone. Later after I started working on the project it turned out that the client was not had not planned well of the final work product of the project was supposed to turn out. He started giving new suggestions and implementations that he wanted to be implemented on the project. I would create something and after it had been implemented he would come up with a suggestion that maybe we can add something else to that implementation to make it look better or he would find out that the mechanism implemented was not working as he had thought and so would request for changes. 

This has been the norm in the past 4 months and basically the reason why the project is still on the first milestone. The client also suggested that I don't take any other projects for the duration that I would be working on his project(Which I foolishly accepted). I now did request payment from the client for the first milestone but he refused to approve siting that the first milestone was not finished. I however feel I actually have done much more work than the client had initially documented on the SOW and thus am entitled to it being a greatly underpaid job. It doesn't make sense to work for 4 months to only get paid $600 for it. The cost of working on this project has actually been more than doubled its return. I have ended up having unpaid bills and I just ain't no more in a position to continue the job. In the past 2 weeks, I had to take in another contract as a means to try and stabilize my financial status, and the client wasn't so happy about it. He simply wants his work done without caring how it's to be done.

I now am on the verge of simply quitting the job, ending the contract, and accepting to swallow the tough pill that I have been in some way working on some kinda "free work". I however have filed a dispute with Upwork but I also would really appreciate any advice from anyone on the most appropriate thing to do after this. This may also be a good lesson to other freelancers out there, NOT all clients are good as they may sound or appear.  

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
crart
Community Member

File a dispute and request partial payment for your lost time, document all work done so far.

The client has no right to ask you to work exclusively for them.

The fact that they have no clue what they want is not your fault and if you genuinely followed their feedback, applied changes and they still request new changes is clear sign they are not suitable for any cooperation.

Personally I would end this contract after receiving partial payment for the lost time and nerves.

 

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10 REPLIES 10
ruj3yess
Community Member

There's always the word "KARMA". I would say it's about time to quit the job, let go of the job and move on to a new job.

You'll never know there's a new much more better opportunity awaits. Just remember to always do good for the better. Everything happens for a reason.

 

I hope you find a better opportunity soon. Godbless you!

 

Thank you very much Rouge for the great advice.

chillynguyen
Community Member

In my opinion, if you continue working, there's nothing to make sure that the client would change, which means months and years of bitter would be ahead of you.

I onced thought that the client had changed into a better client, so I agreed to work with him the second time, and it led into my first dispute. 

I hope you find a nice new project, make a large amount of money that worths your effort, and never fall into a bad client ever again.

youssefbahaa
Community Member

Hi Warorua - I am sorry to hear that you are having a bad experience with a client. At this point, the best thing that you can do is to learn from the mistakes of this experience. That being said, I will suggest something that I think would be useful to do.


Please consider requesting a meeting with the client politely inform him that you'll be responsible ONLY for the work described and initially agreed on, and ANY new suggestion or adjustments will be considered a Revision which requires approving the current milestone and creating a new one with a new fund that corresponds to the adjustments required in the revision. That's how Fixed-Price Contracts work; You do what you initially agreed to do Only. And anything new should be negotiated and added to a new milestone. Otherwise, the best option to avoid creating milestones is to switch to an hourly contract, hence, he can request as many changes as he wants since you'll be charging him for the time spent.

If you didn't reach an agreement, I think, in the worst-case scenario, giving up the rest of the contract's milestones would be much more useful than pursuing this awful experience that you can't stand.

 

Few comments:

-The client doesn't have the right to force you to work for him alone.

-You have the right to work with as many clients as you want but keep in mind that you should keep your quality of work unchanged.

-You need to deliver the tasks that you agreed on.

-Please discuss All the project details with the client and make sure that you are on the same page and everything is communicated before accepting the offer. [This will drastically reduce the probability of having a bad expierence]

-NEVER do free work against your will because this will always be taken for granted. I would do free work PURPOSELY because I want to show appreciation to a particular client or if I want to do that of my 100% Free will.

 

I believe this experience will be the reason for your future success on Upwork.

 

I, genuinely, wish you the best of luck. And I hope this helps!

crart
Community Member

File a dispute and request partial payment for your lost time, document all work done so far.

The client has no right to ask you to work exclusively for them.

The fact that they have no clue what they want is not your fault and if you genuinely followed their feedback, applied changes and they still request new changes is clear sign they are not suitable for any cooperation.

Personally I would end this contract after receiving partial payment for the lost time and nerves.

 

I kinda agree with you but I think he should discuss with the client way forward before filing for dispute

6a9346f2
Community Member

Thank you Olga for the advice. I already did file a dispute and Upwork is recommending we try and resolve the dispute. I however already tried that and the client insisted that we have to get done with the first milestone to get paid. The problem with that is the fact that there appears to be no end to the milestone. The guy is always giving suggestions of something new that we should add or says something did look like he expected and we ought to change to something else. 

2a05aa63
Community Member

Disputes will not accept partial payment. The job is either done or not. No one will make a customer pay for aa half baked cake.

2a05aa63
Community Member

You should have milestones divided so you get paid once every 2 weeks. If you fail to deliver one of of them (especially the first one) in one month, better just drop the job.
If you have finished the first milestone - yes, you can file for a dispute and I'd suggest you do it. If milestone 1 is not fully finished because you accepted the clients "new tasks" it's on you, and you should not do it in the future. Fixed priced jobs strict deliverables, otherwise the job should be hourly where the client can request infinite new tasks.

This should be an hourly contract.

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