Ending a contract... Did I do it the right way?

[ikfreelance]

Hello to You all fellow freelancers,

I just asked a client if they would like to end the contract, because I was feeling they were not giving me clear instructions on how to do the job... I had worked a few hours this past weekend and this week on the project, during these hours I was mainly focused on figuring out how to best do the job, as the PDF guides that were sent were not very clear, so I had a lot of questions.

I noticed that the client was impatient, so I offered her to cancel the contract. I also explained, that I would be ok with not receiving any payment for the hours, as long as I do get a positive feedback and not a negative one. Client accepted the offer and ended the contract. I am fairly new to upwork and I do not have any idea what so ever how to further proceed... I also do not have any finished projects yet and I am aware how bad a negative review would be for my account at this point. I feel like the instructions were not clear enough, so I had to ask questions. Eventhough I got 2 or 3 different manuals on how to do the job, most of the clarification was done in the upwork chat, which of course made it more difficult ot follow the procedures. Additinally, on the 2nd or 3rd day client decided to change the task/job...

I guess my first question is how you feel about what I did and whether this goes against the terms and conditions of upwork. I know I did my best, and I know I'm not stupid plus my German language is good, so I believe the fault was not at my end. However, I'd rather work for free for a few hours or days and not receive a negative feedback, than to explain to the client they are not doing their part on their end good enough. Am I wrong? Did I mess it up, or what you think?

I would appreciate your opinion/advise. Thanks a lot.

Greets,

Ivo

[petra_r · Accepted solution]

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Ivo K wrote:

I noticed that the client was impatient, so I offered her to cancel the contract. I also explained, that I would be ok with not receiving any payment for the hours, as long as I do get a positive feedback and not a negative one. Client accepted the offer and ended the contract.

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If nothing was paid no public feedback is left anyway, but a "nothing paid" contract is as bad for your profile as one with poor feedback and what you did (trade feedback for refund) is a policy violation so this was a dumb thing to do.

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Ivo K wrote:

I know I did my best, and I know I'm not stupid plus my German language is good,

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What was the job? I mean what were you hired to do?

The time to figure out whether you can do a job is before you accept it, not afterwards....

[ikfreelance]

Hi Petra,

sorry for the late reply.

This was literally my first job here, so I was eager to accept it, however will make sure in the future to check all details first. I just felt like the customer might not hire me if I request too much information... especially, if I have no jobs done and respectively no feedback... Anyway, lesson learned.

As to "what you did (trade feedback for refund) is a policy violation so this was a dumb thing to do." ... I understand now it was a dumb thing to do, and wouldn't have done it if I new better. However, I was not aware at all that it was braking the TCs of Upwork. Hopefully, I don't get penalized now.

Thank you again for your input!

Greetings,

Ivo

[hoyle_editing]

Ending the contract - or asking the client to end the contract is not a violation of Upwork terms and conditions.

ETA - as Petra points out 'trading' feedback however, IS against ToS

However, Ending a contract having never received any payment is potentially damaging to your JSS score (if you have one/when you get one) You really should avoid closing non paying contracts as much as possible (same goes for leaving idle contracts with nothing ever paid on them)

The moral is - As the freelancer it is your job to make sure you can do the work prior to accepting the contract, dont accept until you are sure you can deliver and their are clear terms set out for how to proceed with the project.

It is easy to fall into a job to quickly, especially if you are new and have not had many/any contracts yet. Just try to learn from this and move on - nothing you can do now as its already closed. Next time ask advice here prior to closing

[ikfreelance]

Hey Jonathan,

I absolutely appreciate your reply and the advice in it...

I will surely request more information in the future, before accepting a contract.

Thanks again,

Ivo