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Nourhan's avatar
Nourhan E Community Member

Why client did not show up

I work on translation and teaching project for a client. He did not show up for about two days and I sent him messages and also emailed him but no reply! He already created a milestone but he is a new Upwork client. 

what should I do in such a case?

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Christine's avatar
Christine A Community Member


Preston H wrote:

 

What should you do NOW?

 

You should use the "Submit Work and Request Payment" button immediately.
Calculate the percentage of the job that you have completed. If you have only done 2% of the job, and the job is for $1000 total, then EDIT the amount of money you request to $20.

 

Submit, and wait. Do NOTHING ELSE. Do NOT click the "Submit" button again. Do not contact the client again.

Wait for 14 days, and then Upwork will release the money to you AUTOMATICALLY. Then wait 5 more days until the money is in your account, after the security period.

 

Then CLOSE the contract immediately.


This is terrible advice. The OP has only been waiting TWO DAYS for the client to get back to her. Why should there be such a hurry to request payment and then close the contract? 

 

OP, give it at least a week before you do anything, and don't send any more messages. If you don't hear from the client for another week, then you can send another message saying that you're submitting the work that you've done so far and that you're ready to continue whenever the client wishes to resume the project. But there's no need for you to close the contract.

 

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11 REPLIES 11
Preston's avatar
Preston H Community Member

Nourhan:

Clients are not obligated to reply.

 

If you have a milestone to prepare a lesson, then prepare a lesson, and use the "Submit Work" button. Send the files when you do so.

 

If the client does NOTHING, then you will automatically get paid.

 

If you have a milestone to translate something, then do the translation, and use the "Submit Work" button. Send the files. You will be paid automatically if the client does nothing.

Nourhan's avatar
Nourhan E Community Member

Preston: 

Let me explain to you more; the client created a milestone for an ongoing project that will last for a month. The milestone created is for both translating emails and giving English Classes for the whole month.

So how much will I get paid as I just finished a small part of the project?

Preston's avatar
Preston H Community Member

Nourhan:
It is not tactically correct for you to accept a milestone for a task that takes a MONTH to complete.

You should do what I do as a freelancer: Accept only short-term milestone tasks, especially from new clients you are not familiar with. An initial milestone with somebody you don't know should take you only an hour or two to complete.

 

For later milestone tasks (after the client has demonstrated that he can be trusted), I make sure my milestones take only about a day to complete at most. I finish a milestone and get paid in one day. Sometimes I complete multiple milestones for the same project in one day.

 

It does not help you to agree to something that takes a LONG time and is COMPLEX and has MANY PARTS. What if the milestone has 50 parts to it, and there is 1 part that you used the color blue for, but the client prefers red? Does that mean the client pays you NOTHING for all 50 parts?

 

I prefer for the milestone to be for one part, and I do that, and I get paid, and then move onto the next one.

 

Now you know that. (For future reference.)

 

What should you do NOW?

 

You should use the "Submit Work and Request Payment" button immediately.
Calculate the percentage of the job that you have completed. If you have only done 2% of the job, and the job is for $1000 total, then EDIT the amount of money you request to $20.

 

Submit, and wait. Do NOTHING ELSE. Do NOT click the "Submit" button again. Do not contact the client again.

Wait for 14 days, and then Upwork will release the money to you AUTOMATICALLY. Then wait 5 more days until the money is in your account, after the security period.

 

Then CLOSE the contract immediately.

Christine's avatar
Christine A Community Member


Preston H wrote:

 

What should you do NOW?

 

You should use the "Submit Work and Request Payment" button immediately.
Calculate the percentage of the job that you have completed. If you have only done 2% of the job, and the job is for $1000 total, then EDIT the amount of money you request to $20.

 

Submit, and wait. Do NOTHING ELSE. Do NOT click the "Submit" button again. Do not contact the client again.

Wait for 14 days, and then Upwork will release the money to you AUTOMATICALLY. Then wait 5 more days until the money is in your account, after the security period.

 

Then CLOSE the contract immediately.


This is terrible advice. The OP has only been waiting TWO DAYS for the client to get back to her. Why should there be such a hurry to request payment and then close the contract? 

 

OP, give it at least a week before you do anything, and don't send any more messages. If you don't hear from the client for another week, then you can send another message saying that you're submitting the work that you've done so far and that you're ready to continue whenever the client wishes to resume the project. But there's no need for you to close the contract.

 

Preston's avatar
Preston H Community Member

Christine:

Generally speaking, you would be quite correct to point out that a freelancer shouldn't take such action after only two days.

 

But: This is not simply a matter of a client "not replying after two days."

The client scheduled CLASSES, and did not show up for those classes. The freelancer wasted her time showing up to these classes, and the client was not there.

 

And the entire contract is a mess.

 

If the client has abandoned this whole thing, then the sooner the client gets paid for what she has done so far, the better.

 

The freelancer should take the opportunity to submit for payment immediately. The freelancer is DOING THIS CLIENT a big favor by not charging him substantially for the missed classes. The freelancer is being courteous and gracious to not simply bill the client the full amount for every class that he doesn't show up for, and for all the work that she is supposed to be doing but isn't doing because the client has gone AWOL.

 

The freelancer should submit for payment.
If the client does NOTHING, then the freelancer will get paid a small amount and (more importantly) will be out of this very poorly-designed contract.

 

If the client DOES reply, and ask what is going on, the freelancer can tell him:

"Bob, after you stopped showing up for classes, I did not know what was wrong. I did not want you to get automatically charged for the full $1000, so I submitted to be paid just $20. Now you will receive the rest of the money as an automatic refund to your account."

 

If they want to create a new contract, then the freelancer can agree to an actual hourly contract, or a fixed-price contract that actually makes sense. But my advice would be to not pursue any further contract with such an irresponsible, unequitable client.

Christine's avatar
Christine A Community Member


Preston H wrote:

Christine:

Generally speaking, you would be quite correct to point out that a freelancer shouldn't take such action after only two days.

 

But: This is not simply a matter of a client "not replying after two days."

The client scheduled CLASSES, and did not show up for those classes. The freelancer wasted her time showing up to these classes, and the client was not there.

 

And the entire contract is a mess.

 

If the client has abandoned this whole thing, then the sooner the client gets paid for what she has done so far, the better.

 

The freelancer should take the opportunity to submit for payment immediately. The freelancer is DOING THIS CLIENT a big favor by not charging him substantially for the missed classes. The freelancer is being courteous and gracious to not simply bill the client the full amount for every class that he doesn't show up for, and for all the work that she is supposed to be doing but isn't doing because the client has gone AWOL.

 

The freelancer should submit for payment.
If the client does NOTHING, then the freelancer will get paid a small amount and (more importantly) will be out of this very poorly-designed contract.

 

If the client DOES reply, and ask what is going on, the freelancer can tell him:

"Bob, after you stopped showing up for classes, I did not know what was wrong. I did not want you to get automatically charged for the full $1000, so I submitted to be paid just $20. Now you will receive the rest of the money as an automatic refund to your account."

 

If they want to create a new contract, then the freelancer can agree to an actual hourly contract, or a fixed-price contract that actually makes sense. But my advice would be to not pursue any further contract with such an irresponsible, unequitable client.


Wow, you've spun quite a tale about this client, based on the few sentences that the OP gave us by way of an explanation. Anyway, you've given your advice and I've given mine. I'll leave it at that.

 

Nourhan's avatar
Nourhan E Community Member

So if I waited till the end of the month, will I get the whole amount of money automatically?

of course, I do not want to get money for what I did not really work on but I want know how it works here on Upwork.

Preston's avatar
Preston H Community Member

re: "So if I waited till the end of the month, will I get the whole amount of money automatically?"

 

No.

 

Upwork's automated systems have no understanding of "the end of the month." The automated systems do not understand the nature of your contract.

 

If you simply wait until the end of the month, then nothing will happen.

 

If you click on the "Submit Work and Request Payment" button, and do not edit the amount of money you request, then you will get the whole amount of money automatically.

 

You could do that today.

You could do that two months from now.

 

Whenever you click the button, that starts a count-down clock. 14 days after you click the button, you receive the amount of money you requested AUTOMATICALLY (if the client does nothing).

 

What if the client does something? What if the client clicks the "Request Changes" button on his end?

That would STOP the automatic release of money.

 

If you wait until the end of the month, and request payment, then the client has a button he can use to block payment. Keep that in mind.

Nourhan's avatar
Nourhan E Community Member

Thenks a lot. You gave me precious pieces of advice.

So now I will submit my work and wait for 14 days.

Nourhan's avatar
Nourhan E Community Member

Thanks Christine for your advice. I think I can wait some more days and then I will submit my work.

I am just thinking that may be something has happened because he wanted some files to be translated urgently the same day and then he did not reply or did not even see the message and this is really weird.
BTW, I think to each his own way when it comes to dealign with customers and I am just trying to figure out what will work better for me as a new Upwork freelancer.

Nourhan's avatar
Nourhan E Community Member

Thanks a lot for your reply.

Actually I am new to Upwork and this is my first task here. BTW, I learnt what to do with future contracts.

I like what you suggested about getting paid after finishing every single task because this will make it easier. But I really do not like to close contracts because there might be something happened especially in these challenging circumstances, who knows!

Thanks again for your your precious advice.

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