Client's unrealistic expectations

[emmafontenot]

I am new to Upwork and working on my second job. I think my client doesn't quite understand how much information he is asking for.  He wants recycling information about every state and county in the United States, which the EPA doesn't track.  The contract is for 10/hr a week at $20/hr for 1 to 3 months. I've been on the project for four (4) days and he keeps hounding me for all of the information now and wants daily updates--which I don't mind doing. I keep reminding him that no two states or counties record, track, or keep information in the same place and that some of the information he is seeking is proprietary and it may not be publically available. I'm a professional researcher and work with fed, state, and local gov't information/data pretty regularly, so it's not that I don't know what I'm doing that is taking time. It's mostly a matter of the information being so disparate. I think his expectations differ from his posting and the work contract and I believe what he's wanting is unrealistic. I'm a professional researcher and work with fed, state, and local gov't information pretty regularly, so I know what I'm doing. I don't want to let the client down, but he'd need a team of professional researchers to get this done in a short amount of time.

[lysis10]

So what have you decided to do?

[emmafontenot]

I decided to end the contract, give him what content I had, and told him he didn't have to pay for the 7hrs worked thus far. I probably should have tried to negotiate or explain things more, but his expectations were interfering with my daily job--which he was made aware of.  

[lysis10]

Well that was very nice. 👽

[yitwail]

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Emma F wrote:

I decided to end the contract, give him what content I had, and told him he didn't have to pay for the 7hrs worked thus far. I probably should have tried to negotiate or explain things more, but his expectations were interfering with my daily job--which he was made aware of.  

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Emma, if you used timetracker, the client will still be billed, so you need to delete all hours from your work diary.

[kat303]

I just fail to understand why freelancers are SO eager to give back funds that they worked for. If you worked, put in your time and effort for those 7 hours, and produced usable work, why shouldn't you get paid for that? 

Even though you feel the amount of work is too much for one person and/or the client expects more, shouldn't you be paid for the work you did? On hourly contracts you're paid for the HOURS you put in not the amount of work you did, or how you did the work. By deleting the hours billed, you are not only doing a disservice to yourself, you're under valuating the work and research you've done, and you are indicating that the content you've found so far is shoddy, full of errors and not up to par. You are also doing a disservice to this site by giving away free work. A job completed with no money earned will affect your JSS. 

I sure hope you rethink that refind. 

[colettelewis]

Emma, 

Take control. You know what research entails. Take the time to spell it out to the client - even if you have to tabulate it. If he or she still does not get it, close the contract. Yes, your JSS will probably take a hit, but your integrity (and your sanity) will remain intact. 

(I am sick to death of certain clients, who think that, because they are obliged to pay some risible sum to a qualified freelancer, they own the freelancer they hire. They don't.)

[emmafontenot]

Thank you. I definitely don't want to leave anyone hanging, but the client was a bit much for me at this point in my freelancing endeavors.  I even went down on my hourly price for him, but oh well... c'est la vie... 

[wlyonsatl]

If your client's expectations are unrealistic, your first priority should be to make them realistic.

You know more than your client about what he's hired you to do, so educate him as to what exactly he has hired you to do.

Managing expectations is a big part of having happy clients. Show him you're the expect he expects you to be and set him straight about reasonable delivery times and deliverables. 

If he's a reasonable person, he'll accept your instructions and become a person you can work with. If he's too much of a flake and won't listen to reason, finsh your work at a good break point and tell him you don't think you're the right freelancer to complete the work. Some situations can't be salvaged.

[emmafontenot]

I like your take, Will. I definitely need to learn how to manage client expectations. It's an entirely new skillset that I need to develop. I did make it known to him that I don't think I'm the right person for the job. I haven't heard anything from him yet, though...

[prestonhunter]

Just because a client wants a freelancer to do something in a given amount of time... doesn't mean it is actually possible.

Unrealistic expectations doom a project to failure.

That's not the freelancer's fault.

In the original poster's situation, the task requested by the client IS doable.

But it is not doable by this freelancer - working alone - within the timeframe that the client was hoping for.

[fbceffd8]

I agree. To not sugar coat it, many clients on Upwork sometimes just don't know what they're asking for. You can't ask a developer to produce a good quality website in less than a week and then expect to pay peanuts for it. Same goes for any kind of freelance work

[prestonhunter]