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thepunkrockhobo
Community Member

Client requesting changes after payment auto-released.

Hey,
I am just looking for some help on how to deal with one of my current clients.
I completed the work on July 30th and requested payment. The client never got back to me, so on August 2nd, I sent him a message asking if he'd had time to review the article I'd written which he replied with a very short, "I have not.".

Then, I never heard back until the day that the payment auto-released. Now, he has sent me a message saying that he is not satisfied with the work. 

 

My question is whether I'm justified in asking for an additional milestone for changes to my article. ?

14 REPLIES 14
petra_r
Community Member


@Joel L wrote:


I am just looking for some help on how to deal with one of my current clients.
I completed the work on July 30th and requested payment. The client never got back to me, so on August 2nd, I sent him a message asking if he'd had time to review the article I'd written which he replied with a very short, "I have not.".

Then, I never heard back until the day that the payment auto-released. Now, he has sent me a message saying that he is not satisfied with the work. 

 

My question is whether I'm justified in asking for an additional milestone for changes to my article. ?


 Depends what kind of changes. If there are actual issues, I would say No. 

 

The client can still dispute, too.


Your feedback history is a bit... well... it is what it is, and your JSS is low.  You can ill afford more poor outcomes.

 

Unless you know the work is flawless, I personally would be inclined to at least speak to the client and come to an amicable resolution.

wlyonsatl
Community Member

I let clients know I'll make a limited number of minor changes to work after a project is complete. I rarely get a request to actually do so.

 

It's really a question of scope. Within limits, if you would have made the changes without additional payment before the milestone was paid, why not make them now at no additional cost to the client?

 

You never know when a happy client will come back to you with additional work. I've had it happen more than a year after completing a project. 

It is always good to keep clients happy.

 

But let's turn this question around a little bit:

 

If YOU were the client... And YOU wanted a change made to a project for which the contract has already been closed...

 

Wouldn't you OFFER to pay the freelancer when you requested a change. You could let the freelancer decline if he wants to. But your first impulse would be to OFFER money when you ask the client to do something, right?


For two reasons:

1) It's the right thing to do.

2) You want the work done as quickly as possible, and you want it done well.

 

As a wise, responsible client, you don't think that the best way to get things done is to ask people to do them for free. Your project is important to you. The quality is important to you. So the thing you always try to avoid is letting people work on it who aren't being paid or adequately compensated. This isn't a college homework assignment, after all. This is business.

re: "Now, he has sent me a message saying that he is not satisfied with the work."

 

Why would a businessperson who is NOT satisfied with your work want you to do MORE work for him?

 

It sounds like the sensible thing to do would be to hire somebody whose work he appreciates.

 

If I read a John Grisham novel and hated it, I'm not going to try another John Grisham novel because maybe the next one will be better. I'll ready something by Sue Grafton instead.

A reasonable person could ask for revisions to work they are otherwise satisfied with. Only someone new to the real world would expect every first submission of any piece of work to be perfect.

 

 

There is nothing wrong with asking for revisions.


There's a big difference between asking for revisions during the review period while a contract is still open...

 

...and asking for revisions after the contract has concluded and the money has been paid out.

Not for my good clients. But a bad clilent knows better than to ask me for any favors.


@Preston H wrote:

There is nothing wrong with asking for revisions.


There's a big difference between asking for revisions during the review period while a contract is still open...

 

...and asking for revisions after the contract has concluded and the money has been paid out.


 Is the contract closed?

 

If there are genuine reasons to ask for a revision a professional freelancer will fix their own mistakes, no matter if the contract is open or closed. 

 

As we don't know if this situation involves a client who is simply notpicking or whether there are genuine quality issues we can't decide whether it's fair or not, and in any case, it's irrelevant because it's still within the 30 days and the client has the right to dispute.

re: "If there are genuine reasons to ask for a revision a professional freelancer will fix their own mistakes, no matter if the contract is open or closed."

 

I agree.

 

This is an example of the many situations in which my advice to a freelancer is different than my advice to a client.

 

A professional freelancer should be willing to fix their own mistakes, regardless of if the contract is open or closed.

 

A professional client should offer to pay a freelancer for her time, even if the freelancer is likely to decline the offer of additional payment.


Let me be very clear about my recommended order of things, which is how things work with me and the clients I work with:

 

A client found an error in the freelancer's work during the review period of a fixed-price contract. The client asks the freelancer to fix the error. She fixes the error. The client then releases payment and closes the contract.

 

[OR]

 

A client found an error in the freelancer's work AFTER a contract has been closed. The client contacts the freelancer to ask if she could fix the error, pointing out that she can create a new contract to pay her for the work if necessary, or pay using a bonus. The freelancer thanks the client for the offer of additional payment, but declines, and fixes the error.

 

[OR]

 

After receiving the work and closing the contract, a client finds that the project could use an additional piece that had not been discussed before. The client contacts the freelancer to ask if she could add this piece, and offers to set up a new contract in order ot pay her for doing so. The freelancer tells the client how much money to fund for a new fixed-price contract, or provides an estimated amount of time the work will take while working an hourly contract. The freelancer accepts the hire offer for the new contract and does the new work.

"A client found an error in the freelancer's work AFTER a contract has been closed. The client contacts the freelancer to ask if she could fix the error, pointing out that she can create a new contract to pay her for the work if necessary, or pay using a bonus. The freelancer thanks the client for the offer of additional payment, but declines, and fixes the error."

I find the notion of expecting any particular behavior from a client—let alone a ceremonial offer of payment which I am expected to ceremonially refuse—bizarre. That way madness lies.

re: "I find the notion of expecting any particular behavior from a client... bizarre."

 

Douglas:
I agree with you.

 

It is not sensible or helpful to expect any particular behavior from a client.

 

These are the things that I do as a client and as a freelancer.

 

These are my recommendations for others.

 

But we can't "expect" clients to act in this way or be shocked if they don't.

 

Every freelancer should determine what they will do and what they will require of clients. Do this before the questions arise, and state it as a matter of personal policy when faced with this issues.


@Preston H wrote:

It is always good to keep clients happy.

 

But let's turn this question around a little bit:

 

If YOU were the client... And YOU wanted a change made to a project for which the contract has already been closed...

 

Wouldn't you OFFER to pay the freelancer when you requested a change. You could let the freelancer decline if he wants to. But your first impulse would be to OFFER money when you ask the client to do something, right?


For two reasons:

1) It's the right thing to do.

2) You want the work done as quickly as possible, and you want it done well.

 

As a wise, responsible client, you don't think that the best way to get things done is to ask people to do them for free. Your project is important to you. The quality is important to you. So the thing you always try to avoid is letting people work on it who aren't being paid or adequately compensated. This isn't a college homework assignment, after all. This is business.


This is crazy. This happens to me all the time. The contract isn't closed out, it's just paid out.  There's a difference. All my clients get the chance to ask for edits. If it's 3 weeks later, after Upwork paid it out, then it is... but I still do them just like I would for any other client who asks for edits. I would NEVER expect a client to offer me extra money for the first or even second round of edits.

datasciencewonk
Community Member

For fixed-rate contracts: I notify clients that I only perform a single copy-edit per milestone via the scope of work I send to them (by explicitly defining in-scope versus out of scope work). No adding content -- that requires additional milestones.  If it's an error on my end (hey, we're all fallible), then I'll make the changes without charging the client. But, I avoid these types of misunderstandings through the detailed scope of work.

That's probably one of the biggest mistakes new Upwork freelancers make - not being more specific in defining the parameters of a project.

 

This is particularly important for fixed price projects, which I rarely do because a) my clients often don't understand the full scope of work required for their finished project and b) I don't know the project well enough initially to set up what would in hindsight turn out to be reasonable milestones.