What is the best offer for a photographer?

[ulkas86]

Hi there! I am a photographer and I work at a fixed rate. Yesterday a client made me an offer for an hourly rate, and to my question, he answered that he tried it, but could not find how to make an offer at a fixed rate. Can I work with him on his offer or should he make another one? I don't quite understand what the Upwork functionality looks like from the client side. His vacancy also listed the hourly rate. Thank you!

[ashrafkhan81 · Accepted solution]

The client can change the type of contract from his end. 

Please ask him to follow these steps: 

- Click on Review Proposals, this is where all freelancers who sent a bid are shown. 

- Select your name 

- On the window that opens, are the "terms" for the contract.

- On each of the contract terms there is a "Pencil" icon that will enable editing the preset offer sent by you. 

- If he clicks on the 1st item on the terms page that is "Payment Option" he will be able to choose either Hourly or Fixed Price and he has to do the same for the rest of the items if he wants to change the or else leave as is

Hope that helps. 

[ulkas86]

Thanks for your reply, I will definitely show your message to the client. I still have a question, if you will. To complete the assignment, the client must send me the product that I will use. He asks for my phone number and email. I know that personal data can be provided after the conclusion of the contract. But I'm not sure that he will be able to send me a package with this data. Perhaps there is something I don't know?

[ashrafkhan81]

You may want to be careful, as a mailing address will be needed. 

If it,is something that, can be purchased in the market, you can ask him to pay for it on Upwork, and you buy it! 

If you sense something fishy, it probably is fishy. 

Bets of luck! 

[ulkas86]

Thank you so much!

[petra_r]

You have to decline the offer (or the client has to withdraw it) before a new one can be made as a fixed rate contract. The client can change it while setting up the new offer. All they have to do is change form hourly to fixed rate and then create and fund the milestone.

[prestonhunter]

If I'm working with a legitimate client, I would rather have the client ship product directly to me, rather than ask me to purchase items. Because if I have to purchase items and get reimbursed, the standard Upwork fees (20%) are going to be taken out of the money.

So whether I eat the loss myself, or the client pays extra, one side is paying money unnecessarily.

No money is lost to fees if the client ships product directly to me, or places an order himself and has the items sent to me.

It is quite possible that a legitimate client wants a photographer to work on items that can't be purchased locally or online. The items may be unique and not for sale. Or they may be prototypes.

Of course be cautious, but providing a physical address isn't necessarily a risk. People really do ship things to other people every day. And your physical address is not a "secret." Everybody's physical address is available in databases. DataTree is just one of the places where you can obtain every physical residential address in the country.

If you have concern about providing your physical address, you can easily rent a P.O. box at a local post office or commercial alternative. Just make sure you check the rules about who can deliver to what locations. Not ALL shipping options that are available for your residential address are available at a P.O. box.

[ulkas86]

Thanks for your reply! I'm not afraid to give a physical address, but I don't understand why the client asked for an email and a phone number. I have not heard that it was possible to send a parcel with this data.

[prestonhunter]

re: " I'm not afraid to give a physical address, but I don't understand why the client asked for an email and a phone number. I have not heard that it was possible to send a parcel with this data."

I was speaking generally.

I don't know anything about your current situation.

Of course nobody can send you a physical package using only an email address and a phone number.

It is common for somebody sending a physical package to want email address and phone number in addition to physical address, for purposes such as tracking, notification, confirmation, etc.

But if anybody says they are going to send you a physical package using only your email address and phone number, then they are either a schemer up to something, or they are simply incompetent.

If a client was going to ship me physical items and didn't ask for my physical address, I would be polite, and I would ask how they are going to ship the items to me without a physical address. There may be a legitimate explanation.

If a client is going to send physical items and wants email address and phone number IN ADDITION TO physical address, that is fine.

If you have any concern at all about providing your email address and phone number, then you can provide the client with project-specific contact information. You do NOT need to give the client your prime contact information. The client doesn't care, and the client won't know anyway. You can create special-purpose or "throwaway" email addresses and phone numbers using many online tools. For example, many people use the free Google Voice service to create free phone numbers. And you can use any of your favorite email services to create an email address that is used just for this project.

[ulkas86]

I asked the client clarifying questions and have not yet received an answer from him. He has completed projects, four 5-star reviews from freelancers. I think this is some kind of mistake.

[ulkas86]

Thank you all for your help! The client resubmitted the offer at a fixed price. We also discussed everything with the address - he will send the product, the email and phone number are needed for the delivery service, in addition to the physical address.

[ulkas86]

Thanks! The client replied that he was using the advice to submit a fixed price offer another time. I see that he also hired two photographers, also on an hourly rate. Moreover, I see that these freelancers have previously worked as recipe writers and photographers at an hourly rate. Maybe I should take an hourly offer and take a closer look at the principles of working with an hourly rate.

[prestonhunter]

If it was me, personally, I would prefer an hourly rate for this type of work.

But I keep in mind that this is going to be work that is NOT done on the computer. So it means using manual time and trusting the client. The overwhelming majority of work done by freelancers using manual time has no problem. Some freelancers ONLY work using manually-logged hourly contracts. It's just important to understand that Upwork Payment Protection doesn't apply to manually-logged time.

But this client sounds legitimate. He's not asking you to spend your own money or anything. I wouldn't worry.