This feels like exploitation. What are my options?

[06776896]

I have a fixed-price contract with a client who is requesting 10x I signed up for. I've already spent 2 weeks trying to work with him. Upon reviewing my original contract, I now feel like the job posting was deceptive and that I'm being exploited. What are my options?

Details: 

I reviewed the original contract. It says “We are seeking someone to use our existing videos and turns (sic) them into small blogs. We have 20 videos in total and (sic) are professionally shot and need a paragraph or two for each to turn them into blogs.”

Since I started, the client has been making more requests that are outside the original scope of the project including:

• Each blog needs to be 1000 words.
• Full-scale SEO keyword research when the original posting said nothing about SEO.
• Topics and titles for these blogs, as the videos contain only yoga routines with no context.
• Original topic research, when the original job posting said “turn these videos into blogs,” which made it sound like the videos would provide at least the topic and some of the content.
• Formatting and images, which were never mentioned in the original contract.
• Revisions, including a second revision of a blog the client previously said looked good. 

I am new to this platform and that new writers sometimes need to take low-paying jobs to earn their first credentials. However, I’m a 30-year-old professional with a writing degree. I know that I provide work that is worth more than <$.01/word. I have 4 other clients who all pay $100+ for my 1000-word blogs.

When I realized what was going on, I felt trapped because I'd already signed the contract and an NDA and had put in a ton of time watching all the videos. I tried to renegotiate, taking the blame for the situation for not asking more questions. The client refused to pay more but said that they wanted this to be an ongoing thing and they'd pay more next time and leave good reviews. Naive me believed them. They said they'd take 10 2,000 word blogs instead. 

I’m now I’m a position where I’ve felt guilty that I couldn’t deliver on time, but I would have been able to do so were it not for this scope creep. What I thought was going to be one day of work has turned into a MASSIVE project. I've probably put 20 hours into the first 3 blogs.

Now the client wants the first three revised and the next three written by the end of next week, and got angry when I said I had to work around other clients.

The three revisions and three blogs will easily be 20-hours of work. I would have never signed up for this at this pay.

I would just push through and finish the project because I'm scared of my first review on Upwork to be bad, but not only does this keep me from good-paying work and time with my family, I don’t have the money for the childcare needed to do this amount of work. Frankly, I feel like I’m being exploited, and all his talk about giving me a good review feels like blackmail.

[prestonhunter]

You are under no obligation to be exploited.

You asked about what your options are.

Your options are to continue to work for this client, or to stop working for this client.

You're not actually making any money working for this client. Stop wasting your time. If you want money, go work at a physical location in your local community.

I recommend that you end the contract immediately and block the client.

Do not accept any more fixed-price contracts until you have studied how to use fixed-price contract effectively.

Until you have learned more about effective fixed-price contract management, choose one of the following:

a) do not work on Upwork at all

[or]

b) only accept hourly contracts

[prestonhunter]

re: "The client refused to pay more but said that they wanted this to be an ongoing thing and they'd pay more next time and leave good reviews."

The client is promising to make exploiting you unfairly and treating you like an indentured servant a regular thing?

No thank you.

[06776896]

I've completed several other fixed-price contracts with no issue. I've heard plenty of horror stories about Upwork and was super careful about the first 4 or 5 contracts I signed. They were all with stellar clients that have continued working with me. I just got complacent with this one and didn't heed the obvious red flags. 

I know I need to get out. I'm just looking for advice on how to do it as gracefully as possible. 

[roberty1y · Accepted solution]

My advice would be to cancel the contract and refund any money already paid to you. The client can still leave private feedback, which won't show up on your profile.

This feedback will still affect your job success score, when you get one. But that's a long way down the line, and you can minimize the impact by completing as many successful jobs as you can in the meantime. The smaller the amount this contract was for, the less impact it can have on your JSS.

I suggest you cancel the contract yourself. Whoever cancels it has to leave feedback, but the other party doesn't, so the client may not bother leaving any (even if he does, it won't show up on your profile).

[06776896]

I haven't been paid anything. I frankly don't want the hassle, though I want to be able to use the work that I did do in my portfolio. Do I need to explain why I'm canceling? 

[pudingstudio]

---

Nyasha S wrote:

I haven't been paid anything. I frankly don't want the hassle, though I want to be able to use the work that I did do in my portfolio. Do I need to explain why I'm canceling? 

---

If you weren't payed, your work belongs to you. It's client's only if they have bought it.

Use it in your Portfolio. Unless it doesn't belong to you.

You can explain yourself. You don't have to. Do YOU feel that your client need an explanation?

[the-right-writer]

I would explain briefly. Use professional language.

If the client does not pay you for the material, it is yours to do with as you see fit, and you can use it in your portfolio.

As Preston said, you need to learn how the contracts work. I would also suggest you read the Terms of Service and the advice from Wes on how to spot scams.

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Community-Blog/Top-Red-Flags-for-Scams-From-Community-Member-Wes-C/b...

Being new, scammers will target you. Knowledge is power. Please protect yourself.

[06776896]

Thanks for the link. I'm used to working with clients in person and building a relationship. I just got done with maternity leave and am trying to make freelancing work so I can stay home with my kids.

I thought I had studied all the info well. I took the quiz and everything. I'd heard about horror stories on Upwork, and even reported several jobs that were obvious scams. I secured a large project with great pay and a great client out the gate, and I have two more long-term arrangements. I feel silly for getting into this mess, but I was meeting other deadlines and had no childcare because my kids had Covid, so I didn't take the time to vet this client before I signed.

My overall experience on this platform has been quite good, honestly. This is the only snag I've hit in two months. 

[the-right-writer]

Don't feel silly; we all make mistakes, and you are in a different environment online. It is quite different than the physical world. We don't get the cues when we speak with someone or meet with them. So, you have to be even more diligent.

This is a nightmare client, and I think everyone runs into one if they are here long enough. That's why it's important to protect yourself with automatically tracked hours or to use small milestones in case of an issue.

I'm glad you have had good experiences but in many ways dealing with clients is like meeting people in a random chat room. You have no idea if they are whom they say they are or if anything is true. Read all you can but don't forget to listen to your intuition, gut feeling, or the feeling something just isn't right.

[prestonhunter]

re: "Do I need to explain why I'm canceling?"

There is no requirement to do so.

Here is my question for you:

How will it benefit you to offer an explanation?

I believe it will NOT benefit you.

My recommendation:

Immediately close the contract.

Immediately block the client.

[roberty1y]

You haven't been paid, but the client has put money in escrow. This automatically goes to the feelancer if they close the contract (subject to dispute if the client isn't happy with the work), and goes back to the client if the contract is cancelled. You should just let the client know why you can't proceed with the contract, and then cancel it.

[prestonhunter]

Nyasha:
If you close the contract, then the money in escrow will automatically go back to the client.

And the job will NOT appear on your profile page in any way, no matter what the client does.

But because YOU closed the contract, it gives the client the opportunity to not leave any feedback at all. That would be a good thing.

What you described in your original post is a situation which is so untenable that it supersedes concerns about feedback, in my opinion.

Spend some time thinking proactively about how you will handle out-of-scope requests in the future.

An important principle is:

Don't do ANYTHING that is outside of what was specifically written down in the agreed-upon contract/task description.

Here is an example:
A client hired a freelancer to draw a picture of a cat wearing a chef's hat, while cooking a steak in a kitchen.

The freelancer drew a picture of a cat wearing a chef's hat, while cookin a steak in a kitchen.

The cat had 6 whiskers.

The client asked the freelancer to draw one additional whisker.

If the client did not specifically state that he would like to pay extra, or ask the freelancer to do this new task using an hourly contratct, then THIS REQUEST WAS INAPPROPRIATE.

[06776896]

I canceled the contract. The client made requests for all the documents in the original google drive file I shared .

"Hi, would you at least give me the respect and courtesy to finalize the 3 blogs and send them my way? I have invested in you and chose to work with you and we went back and forth on many things. I think at least I deserve this courtesy."

[a_lipsey]

No, they do not deserve that courtesy since you did not get paid for anything. It doesn't work that way, and it shows that they were indeed trying to exploit you. I don't hold out much hope for clients who try to tell me they "deserve" something. You could respond politely and say "I'm very sorry. As you can see, I've cancelled the contract and refunded the entire amount in escrow. Since the entire amount is being refunded, there is no work product to be delivered. Best wishes for your endeavors." 

If they continue to bug you for free work, I would just block them. 

[roberty1y]

Now that you have cancelled the contract, all the work you have done is yours. The client has no right to use it. In case he does post it somewhere, there is some way you can have it removed from a site when it's in breach of copyright. I'm not sure how to go about that. Some other person here may be able to tell you.

[the-right-writer]

"courtesy"? No, that would be you giving your work to this person for free. That is your work for your portfolio, another client, or whatever you choose.