Solved: Buy equipment for testing

egushchin · ‎01-09-2018

Our customer doesn't able to provide necessary equipment for testing purposes, but they suggest to us to buy necessary equipment by yourself and they promise to pay for it after end of contract if we send equipment to them.
Is it possible to point equipment price in fixed price project?

prestonhunter · ‎01-09-2018

Is it possible?

Sure... anything's possible.

Without knowing any details, it sounds like the "client" you are dealing with is just a scammer, who is trying to trick you.

Professional clients who need their freelancers to use certain equipment send the equipment to the freelancer. Or they pay for the equipment themselves and have it shipped to the freelancer.

But maybe she isn't a scammer, and she just doesn't know this.

If your client is requiring you to purchase equipment, and they (for some inexplicable reason) can't send it to you directly, then they can send you money via Upwork's "reimburse expenses" or "pay bonus" feature. Make sure they send EXTRA, in order to cover the 20% fee that Upwork is going to take.

For example, if the equipment costs $100, make sure that the client sends you $125. That way after 20% is taken out, you will be left with $100, enough to cover your expenses.

AFTER the money is IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT (having been withdrawn from Upwork), then go ahead and purchase the equipment.

That's the deal. The client can agree to that, or not. If she doesn't agree, then you are not going to buy the equipment.

There is no "promise to pay for it after the contract." The client's "promise" is worth exactly zero dollars and zero cents in Magical Faerie Dollars.

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prestonhunter · ‎01-09-2018