Unresponsive client

[placido-yalistar]

Hello, I have just started working on upwork and this is my first project, which I'm going to explain in details:

The client posted that he wanted someone to input data from instagram photo posts where the accounts tagged companies, he included in the post that he had 10.000 posts in total (which is an approximation) and upon agreement from both sides he sent me 25 links to instagram profiles where I would find the posts... we agreed on a fixed payment for every amount of inputs (milestones). so after he made the offer and I accepted it I started working and 20 posts into the first account and... he says he wants to add one more thing to the search criteria which tightened and reduced the amount of inputs one could get. So I went through 8 accounts only to find 70 inputs, out of 4000 posts i got 70 inputs that fit the search critera, so i kept going and now out of 21 accounts i got 460 inputs that fit the search critera, which was barely the first milestone (400 inputs), and my client was expecting 10 milestones which is 4000 inputs. So basically it took from me 29 hours to get all of these inputs and go through almost 8000 instagram posts (images and videos) just to get 1 milestone and to make things worse this screwed up my data plan and now I'm being asked by my roommates to explain that and I also didn't keep track of time until I talked with the client and asked him if I could be paid hourly because it would be better and he agreed and said he wanted to be fair with me, he was also surprised that it took all of this time.

So to clear things out: the client thought there would be atleast 4000 inputs in his dataset so he offered a very low price, then he realized that there weren't much and nicely agreed that he would pay per hour worked but I only have 8 hours tracked. the client asked me to enter the data into a google sheet and share it with him since he expected a set amount every day, but i managed to go through all his data in 2 days and almost finish the job (we started it on friday 10pm GMT+2). However, yesterday I told him how much i expect per hour and he didn't reply (once i finished the first milestone), and then i realized i could change the amount of money per milestone when submitting work and I messaged if I should wait and request the whole amount of money we agree on but he didn't reply back either.

I'm asking for advice on what I should do right now? thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

[prestonhunter]

It does not matter if a client is "responsive" or "unresponsive."

If you set up the contract properly, you get paid automatically.

If you did not set up the contract properly, this is your fault. Not the client's fault.

If you did the work, then Submit the work using the official green "Submit Work / Request Payment" button.

If you did HALF of the work and you have no way of doing the other half, then modify the amount of money requested so that you request HALF of the money. Then use the Submit button.

Then you will get paid automatically if the client doesn't do anything.

[placido-yalistar]

I clearly mentioned that I'm asking for advice and not judgment.

[mtngigi]

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@Ahmed A wrote:

I clearly mentioned that I'm asking for advice and not judgment.

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That wasn't judgement, that was an explanation as to how to work (safely) and get paid, despite the vagaries of a client.

[placido-yalistar]

His comment was edited.

[prestonhunter]

re: "His comment was edited."

Nothing was removed from the comment.

The only "edit" was adding notes about what to do if the work was partially done.

Ahmed:

Nobody here is "judging" you. We wish you well and want you to succeed here.

[placido-yalistar]

Okay. Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience.

[placido-yalistar]

Do you think that i should stop sharing the google sheet with them until he replies back? because he is going through it now and doing comments and such, and he didn't accept the submitted work even.

[rverang]

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@Ahmed A wrote:

Do you think that i should stop sharing the google sheet with them until he replies back? because he is going through it now and doing comments and such, and he didn't accept the submitted work even.

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Don't deny him access.

Just submit the work using the "Submit Work/Request Payment" button and request an amount that you think is fair.

[placido-yalistar]

Oh thanks for replying, I have tried chatting with him on google sheets app but he immediately logged off, i sent him a mail message and yet he didn't reply. I thought i was getting scammed so I stopped sharing the file with him, though I might be sharing it back now.

[placido-yalistar]

Can you tell me though how/where to report a user?

[cylver1z]

Hello Ahmed,

To report a user, please send us a PM. Please click my name on the post and send me a message.

Thank you.