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charlene-bell
Community Member

Need to Renegotiate a Contract

My client asked for proofreading and possibly light editing. He said he had proofread the book manuscript twice so there should be minimal changes needed. I agreed to his offer and gave him two milestone dates. Instead of my milestone dates, he said he needed it by this past Monday, and it was only 14 chapters with six to seven pages each. Based on the simplicity that he represented to me, I said it was no problem (would have given me four days to accomplish it working over the weekend). He then said he hadn't completed the last three chapters. When I began working on it, I realized that it needed more than a light dusting; it needed a deep clean. So I sent him a couple of line-edited chapters. He loved everything I had done and wanted me to continue, but I should have stopped right there and not continued further. At some point, I did tell him that I would need to adjust my time and re-negotiate my fee based on the depth of editing required; however, I haven't firmed that up. I have line-edited and sent him half the book. Before I send him the rest, I need to re-negotiate. How should I handle the rest of the book that he hasn't completed so far as my milestone dates, which assumed the book was complete? I thought I saw a section in Upwork to re-negotiate a contract, but now I can't find it. Any thoughts? Thank you!

6 REPLIES 6
matt_it_grow
Community Member


Charlene B wrote:

I saw a section in Upwork to re-negotiate a contract, but now I can't find it. Any thoughts? Thank you!


Hey Charlene, for sure, renegotiate! If you have received at least 1 payment you can propose a new contract by going to My Jobs>Select the Job In Question>then on the menu of the contract page click the three dots at the right end and "Propose New Contract".

 

See Attached Image

I sure hope this helps

Matthew

petra_r
Community Member

Once you have accepted a contract, you have accepted it. Renegotiating is what you do during the interview process, after you have obtained all the info you need. (Looked at the document.)

 

NEVER accept a contract or even give a quote until you have seen the material. Never, ever, ever. It ends in tears nearly every time. (Ask me how I learned that lesson.)

 

You can ask the client to up the budget but this is risky. If the client refuses and you refuse to do it at the agreed price you will end up with a nothing-paid contract which will hurt your JSS. This is your first contract?  It is vital that it goes well, so you start your profile off on the right foot.

If the client is fair he'll be OK with upping the price for the rest, but really this was your mistake.

 

 

To be brutally honest it is your job as a business to confirm scope before accepting a contract.

If you were a builder and someone said they need their house repairing, you'd not accept until you have seen what the damage is?

Clients are not the experts that are able to tell how much editing is needed. If they were, they'd do it themselves. That is why they hire and expert and that expert needs to check what needs doing.

 

Just like the mechanic who gives you an estimate only to call and say once they got deep under the hood, they discovered they need to remove the transmission to get at the problem area - this is my situation. So are you saying I should just eat it - lesson learned?


Charlene B wrote:
Just like the mechanic who gives you an estimate only to call and say once they got deep under the hood, they discovered they need to remove the transmission to get at the problem area - this is my situation. So are you saying I should just eat it - lesson learned?

That is a bit different. You had the chance to look at it and you didn't.

 

I can't tell you what you should do. When I was in a similar situation I slapped myself because I should have known better and did what I agreed to do.

 

As I said, you can bring it up,  and possibly should, but the fact remains that you blindly accepted a contract and **IF** there would have been any re-negotiation it should have happened the second you got the material, not after it was half done. At THAT point the client would have had a chance to back out or re-negotiate.


You have already accepted payment - demanding more money now when the client can no longer start over with someone else, is somewhere between "bait and switch" and a mild form of extortion.

You have a contract. You didn't immediately say "Sorry, this is beyond scope!" - you took the client down the rabbit-hole so to speak.

 

 

 

re: "So are you saying I should just eat it - lesson learned?"

 

Yes.

Eat it this time.

 

But next time you will certainly know that you should receive and review files before accepting a fixed-price contract.


Charlene B wrote:
Just like the mechanic who gives you an estimate only to call and say once they got deep under the hood, they discovered they need to remove the transmission to get at the problem area - this is my situation. So are you saying I should just eat it - lesson learned?

This is not your situation.

 

1) You did not tell the client it was only an estimate--you entered into a contract

2) You did not stop work and await client approval for the increased price before moving forward with the work