Questions and Answers:
Q. Is it okay for a client to make changes to a fixed-price task after a contract has started?
A. No.
Q. What should a freelancer do if a client asks for changes?
A. The freelancer should thank the client for his notes and say that she would be happy to make those changes, but they are out of scope of the contract. If the client wants the freelancer to make those changes, then he may release the current escrow payment and set up a new hourly contract, a new fixed-price contract or a new milestone for $XXX.00.
Q. What if the client demurs?
A. The freelancer may explain that she wants to help, but these are Upwork's rules. Provide a link to the Community Forum and suggest that she can ask questions about those rules there.
Q. Is it acceptable for a client to proactively release all remaining escrow funds to a freelancer and then ask for changes to be made under a new contract or milestone - WITHOUT discussing this with the freelancer first?
A. Yes.
Q. Who should determine the dollar amount that needs to be paid for a new milestone or changes?
A. The freelancer
Q. What if the freelancer completes the task but the client doesn't like it?
A. The task has been completed. The client needs to release the escrow payment as agreed. If the client does not like something (for example, the client decides to change the ending of a story from "humorous" to "pensive"), the client has the option to pay the freelancer to make the changes, or hire somebody else to do that work, or do that work himself, or not do it at all.
Q. This seems inflexible.
A. It is not supposed to be flexible. The client created a fixed-price contract instead of an hourly contract because the client did NOT want a "flexible" contract. There is no "flexibility" in a fixed-price contract. An hourly contract is - by definition - flexible.
Q. If a client hires a freelancer using an hourly contract, may he ask for as many rewrites as he wants?
A. Yes.
This is how such things are done correctly:
A CLIENT hired a FREELANCER to write a story about a cat visiting its grandmother. Fixed-price contract: $100.
The freelancer wrote the story.
CLIENT: This is great. I would like to change the story so that the cat visits its grandfather instead. I have released the full escrow payment. I have closed the contract. May I hire you to change the ending so that in the story the cat visits its grandfather instead of grandmother? I can hire you using a fixed-price contract or hourly contract, whichever you prefer.
FREELANCER: Thank you for releasing payment for the project. I would be willing to make additional changes using an hourly contract. Or I can make this one change - grandmother to grandfather - for a fixed-price contract of $50.
CLIENT: Thank you. I will set up a contract now.
