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alexis-arinze
Community Member

When should I not work with a client??

Greetings fellow freelancers,

 

I'm torn. I got an invitation to interview for a ghostwriting gig. I looked through the specs and the price being offered and it seems like a project I could do. The issue is this client has several bad reviews, 8 of his reviews are really bad and its out of 36 jobs total. I guess I'm wondering if that ratio is a red flag or not. Should I accept the interview, and if hired, work with him, or am I better off declining?

 

(*thanks for your time)

 

 

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petra_r
Community Member

I'd walk away. Freelancers rarely leave poor feedback, and to have so many poor outcomes out of so few contracts overall, makes it not worth it.

 

Your JSS is 90%. You can't afford a poor outcome, not even a small one. 

 

Life's too short for bad clients.

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7 REPLIES 7
prestonhunter
Community Member

It does not need to be an all or nothing proposition. Work for him or not work for him? Those are two choices.

 

A third option is to agree to work for him, but in a limited capacity.

 

You could give this client a chance with a small contract, and see how it goes, before agreeing to increasingly larger contracts.

 

I am not saying you SHOULD do that. Only pointing out that it is an option to consider.

petra_r
Community Member

I'd walk away. Freelancers rarely leave poor feedback, and to have so many poor outcomes out of so few contracts overall, makes it not worth it.

 

Your JSS is 90%. You can't afford a poor outcome, not even a small one. 

 

Life's too short for bad clients.

kinector
Community Member


Petra R wrote:

I'd walk away. Freelancers rarely leave poor feedback, and to have so many poor outcomes out of so few contracts overall, makes it not worth it.

 

Your JSS is 90%. You can't afford a poor outcome, not even a small one. 

 

Life's too short for bad clients.


Same here.

 

One-third of all projects going wrong in some way is the reddest flag you could ever see in client stats. If that one-third was 1 out of 3, it could be an accident. But 8 out of 36... that's a pattern. 😳

 

Even if it was a big contract, I wouldn't take it. Alexis, why risk your Upwork future for just one project?

joynul33
Community Member

In many cases, when a client is new and not well-established in the industry it can be difficult to tell if they will provide value. It might seem like taking on a project with them could pose too much risk for you at first glance, but there are some signs that indicate this may work out:

 

For instance - have they provided references from other sources?

You could give this client a chance with a small contract, and see how it goes before agreeing to increasingly larger contracts.

You may be hesitant at first but there are advantages in thinking that way too!

If so then these would both be good indicators that your investment into this contract would go smoothly without any problems down the road.

Joynul
petra_r
Community Member


Joynul A wrote:

In many cases, when a client is new and not well-established in the industry it can be difficult to tell if they will provide value.


After 36 contracts the client is clearly not "new."

 


Joynul A wrote:

For instance - have they provided references from other sources?


Clients don't "provide references" and how would that help anyway?

 


Joynul A wrote:

You could give this client a chance with a small contract, and see how it goes before agreeing to increasingly larger contracts.


How does that help? If it goes wrong her JSS will drop below 90% and her top rated eligible weeks drop and her future top rated stated moves far away. At a 90% JSS there is no margin for error. At all.

byork44
Community Member

So I guess my question is, when does UpWork do something about the client? Do they have a JSS report? Do they have a standard they must also live up to so that freelancers want to work with them? Other then just being a decent human being? 🙂  Sorry I havent read that part of the rules only the freelancer side. Still trying to just keep up with my side at the moment! 🙂

kinector
Community Member


Brigot Y wrote:

So I guess my question is, when does UpWork do something about the client? 


Probably never.

 

Scammers and those only asking for refunds can be reported by freelancers. That's about it.

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