Freelancer having issues with client

Manxman_in_exile

If you are in business yourself, I really think you ought to have a written contract which clearly states your terms and conditions. And if you vary those by agreement with the purchaser, I'd get that in writing too.


Spoken/vocal/oral contracts are as valid as written ones, but more difficult to prove.


(PS - controversial, but I think all contracts are "verbal"!)

DoaM

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

(PS - controversial, but I think all contracts are "verbal"!)

Going by the dictionary definition, you're right

verbal
/ˈvəːb(ə)l/
adjective
1. relating to or in the form of words.
"the root of the problem is visual rather than verbal"

steampowered

sascrob wrote: »

I explained that I had already completed several rounds of revisions, but I would be happy to look through this when I had time 3-4 weeks from now.

Personally I do not think this is good enough in the service industry. This certainly would never be acceptable in my line of work.

It isn't the client's problem that you are busy on other projects. If you have to work in the evening or at the weekend to complete this project then I see that as part and parcel of being in business.

Unless you had imposed a limit on the number of revisions that you are allowed, I think you have to do this. You could try saying that this has to be the "final" set of revisions so all changes must be notified to you now.

DoaM

sascrob wrote: »

I always offer 3 stages of revisions for all clients, as people's needs vary.

From what you've described, you've done the following:

1. Original work (13/2 completed)
2. 1st revision (~17/4 completed)
3. 2nd revision (7/5 completed)

Are you including the first issue of the work as a "revision"? (A revision would typically mean a "change" or "update"). The client may think they're still entitled to the 3rd revision.

Is the problem that the client is asking you to do another revision? (i.e. it'll cost you more time than you had budgeted). Or that they're not accepting your timescale to do it?

unholyangel

steampowered wrote: »

Personally I do not think this is good enough in the service industry. This certainly would never be acceptable in my line of work.

It isn't the client's problem that you are busy on other projects. If you have to work in the evening or at the weekend to complete this project then I see that as part and parcel of being in business.

Unless you had imposed a limit on the number of revisions that you are allowed, I think you have to do this. You could try saying that this has to be the "final" set of revisions so all changes must be notified to you now.

Au contraire, it is very much the clients problem. If he had a deadline (as he has only recently claimed) then he should have at least made enquiries (if not making it a explicit term of the contract) as to how long the performance/revisions would take.

You can't order services with no timescale stated (fixed or otherwise) and then complain they can't meet your deadline. Not unless perhaps you're buying from mindreaders'r'us.

FWIW, I dont think the OP is refusing to complete the revisions. The OP's question seems to be whether the buyer is entitled to a refund if he doesn't perform the revision immediately like the buyer wants him to - despite no timescale being agreed.

The buyer can hardly argue deadline is important enough to end the contract if it wasn't important enough to mention in negotiations/at formation. Even in a consumer contract, they wouldn't have the right to treat the contract as at an end in such circumstances.

sascrob

Thanks for all the input - very helpful and interesting!


To clarify, I've never refused to do any further work on the project. The issue is simply that he is imposing an unrealistic deadline nearly 3 months after the initial work was completed (well within the original deadline). The client has seemingly cooled off now, so I will see where this ends up. As with most things, he is probably stressed out about something else!


To also expand on the timescale:


Work agreed in early January.
Initial work completed 13th Feb.
Payment made in full on 22nd Feb.
1st round of revisions submitted to me on the 3rd April and completed within 2 weeks.
2 further rounds submitted end of April, completed within 3 days.
2 further revisions submitted and completed out of good will early May.
13th May, further revisions with sudden deadline and threat of expecting a refund when I mentioned that the revisions could take 2-3 weeks to complete.



Like I mention above, the client has backed off considerably since the last contact, so will perhaps now be more cordial. We shall see!

steampowered

The basic legal position in contracts for services is that, unless a specific timeframe has been agreed, services must be performed within a 'reasonable' time.

What is reasonable will of course depend on the industry and the amount of work that needs to be done.