Toxic Client

[andyson_jae]

How do you handle toxic clients?

[6c1072e8]

When you’re asked to do something that does not form part of the original agreement, you either need to say ‘no’ or let the client know the cost implications if you take on the additional work.

In other words, always know why you are saying ‘no’ and clarify what you are there to do. This means having a thorough understanding of the contract and making sure there are no grey areas.

Sometimes, knowing when to say ‘no’ can be tricky. On the one hand, going the extra mile – within reason – may engender goodwill with the client and ensure future business dealings. In the case of toxic clients, however, agreeing to do something that does not form part of the agreement will open the door to future abuses.

[thekohser]

You need to be good at spotting them. Take a look at the worker AND client comments on this job, as an example.

[jeremiah-brown]

This is a great example of why freelancers should be able to look at a clients profile and see the reviews there.  I know the reviews show up at the bottom of the screen, but I feel that format is a bit misleading to freelancers.

[feed_my_eyes]

Why would it be easier to click on the client's profile instead of just reading the information that's right there on the job post?

[25005175]

Having dealt with a massively toxic client earlier this year, I learned this lesson: fire the client before they can hurt you further, because they almost certainly will not improve. It is a little tricky on Upwork because of the feedback system.

Practical advice:

• Move/keep all communications in the Upwork chat room
• Report them if they become threatening or otherwise violate Upwork's ToS for behavior or fraud
• Remain cool and professional, even when you are upset/hurt.
• Do not try to appease them - if you offer an inch, they will eventually take a foot.
• Even if you close the job before money is billed (and, for hourly projects, delete your work diary entries, so that they won't be billed) for the purpose of preventing public feedback, the client will very likely still provide negative private feedback (they will have 14 days to respond) and cause damage to your JSS.
• Fully refunding after the client has been billed will eventually remove the contract (and by extension, your public feedback) from your profile history, but it is unknown whether that will fully nullify private feedback. Even if private feedback is not fully nullified, the effect will be minimal because contract feedback is weighted by revenue when calculating JSS. (Note: I am unable to locate any published evidence that fully refunded contracts will be removed from your profile history, but I vouch that 2 small, related contracts that I fully refunded around a month ago were recently removed from my job history - although there was a significant delay between refund and removal).

Hope this helps! I hope some of the freelancers here with multiple years' more experience than me will provide their "customer support" tips.

ETA - moved some text out of link because truncated