Clients ask me work in advance and want to place the order after delivery

[filomena_silva]

Hi everyone,

It’s the third time that this is happening to me in just two months. I had three different buyers placing 2 or 3 orders first. Then, after that, they placed another order and, when I checked, I realized that they were asking much more work compared with what was ordered. I informed the clients and explained everything in detail. At all situations they agreed to pay the additional fee, but they asked me to deliver the order first and pay the rest after I deliver the files, because they needed to verify the situation with their clients first.

I explained that delivering a job done and receive the rest of the payment after is not a good practice and it’s not the way I work. I suggested to add more days to the order, so my buyers could discuss the situation with their clients. One of them accepted to add two more days at the order. Other paid the amount that was missing immediately and asked me to proceed. The other one asked me to cancel the order, with the excuse that I was not trusting him, and never placed an order again.

I’m wondering if someone here had the same type of experiences and how did you deal with the situation to get a positive outcome and not loose the client.

[cyaxrex]

Never complete work prior to an order being placed. Buyers don’t ask unless they plan not to pay.

[misscrystal]

I tell them to pay what is required before I do the job.

[codermoyej]

@filomena_silva , I have some situation after doing half of my work my buyer place the order.
Also have a situation that buyer place a order but her content was not ready in time and after extending the time. Then the buyer completed the order and I finished it later. 🙂
I think it’s depend on you, how can you handle the buyer. It’s my opinion on my cases. Please don’t take it otherwise.

[codermoyej]

I’m glad it worked out well for you, but in both scenarios you were risking your work.

1. If after you’re halfway through your work, and the buyer simply change their mind you wouldn’t be paid for the time already invested. Don’t ever work before the buyer has placed an order.

2. It doesn’t matter if your buyer agreed to this, this is considered a partial delivery and you could get you account banned by doing this. You should have extended the order instead.

I understand you’re only sharing your experience, but if new users read this they may think it’s okay, and by doing so they’d be risking their accounts too.

I mentioned that it’s happened on my situation and share my experience. It’s not giving example to new users though I am also a newbie. 😊

In first situation your opinion is correct but a trust level grow with my buyer because I already completed my buyer work before. And For this a understanding generated with us.

2nd situation was buyer told me to close the order and later we finish it.

Actually I want to tell that we can make our buyer to work in a friendly environment. Also we can grow trust level.

[benedictrm]

I mentioned that it’s happened on my situation and share my experience. It’s not giving example to new users though I am also a newbie. 😊

In first situation your opinion is correct but a trust level grow with my buyer because I already completed my buyer work before. And For this a understanding generated with us.

2nd situation was buyer told me to close the order and later we finish it.

Actually I want to tell that we can make our buyer to work in a friendly environment. Also we can grow trust level.

Take extreme care

While some people are genuinely 110% decent human beings, many (even those who are mostly decent) will try it on at least once in any transaction. Do not allow the space to be taken advantage of as while the sneaky client acts like it is altruistic trust it is about not valuing yourself and setting appropriate boundaries. Do you get to take home food from the supermarket, eat it and pay next week? No, and for good reason. This is the precedent here.

Just yesterday (off-platform) I did a mix and complete video explanation at no cost (seeing I post the video for my promo) yet after I deliver the Mix AND the Project File (both outside my normal scope and most Mix Engineers never share project files) he had the gall to ask if I could send him Stems from my mix! Not cool seeing I had already given him about 8 hours serious work. But he couldn’t help himself nonetheless, just in case I would cough up more - which I didn’t seeing he already had everything.

I know that if I put a rate on delivering those Stems, he’d suddenly lose interest in them. This tells me that it is more about the human desire to just get more than anything else.

[misscrystal]

I mentioned that it’s happened on my situation and share my experience. It’s not giving example to new users though I am also a newbie. 😊

In first situation your opinion is correct but a trust level grow with my buyer because I already completed my buyer work before. And For this a understanding generated with us.

2nd situation was buyer told me to close the order and later we finish it.

Actually I want to tell that we can make our buyer to work in a friendly environment. Also we can grow trust level.

I hope you always have honest buyers like that one.

[codermoyej]

I hope you always have honest buyers like that one.

Thanks for you wishes @misscrystal

It’s impossible to get honest buyer all time 🙂

I try to trace them and learn their behavior from past orders.

Also have a little bitter experience. 😒

[codermoyej]

Hi everyone,

It’s the third time that this is happening to me in just two months. I had three different buyers placing 2 or 3 orders first. Then, after that, they placed another order and, when I checked, I realized that they were asking much more work compared with what was ordered. I informed the clients and explained everything in detail. At all situations they agreed to pay the additional fee, but they asked me to deliver the order first and pay the rest after I deliver the files, because they needed to verify the situation with their clients first.

I explained that delivering a job done and receive the rest of the payment after is not a good practice and it’s not the way I work. I suggested to add more days to the order, so my buyers could discuss the situation with their clients. One of them accepted to add two more days at the order. Other paid the amount that was missing immediately and asked me to proceed. The other one asked me to cancel the order, with the excuse that I was not trusting him, and never placed an order again.

I’m wondering if someone here had the same type of experiences and how did you deal with the situation to get a positive outcome and not loose the client.

Thanks for sharing nice description @benedictrm & you are right. Your way of thinking is natural.

But @filomena_silva told

I’m wondering if someone here had the same type of experiences and how did you deal with the situation to get a positive outcome and not loose the client.

For this I just sharing my experience that sometime may be we need to walk some different way. But they must be your old buyer. Don’t loose them and give them some little space. Also vice-versa some time they will give you space.

Overall loosing buyer is not good for seller.

[catwriter]

Thanks for sharing nice description @benedictrm & you are right. Your way of thinking is natural.

But @filomena_silva told

I’m wondering if someone here had the same type of experiences and how did you deal with the situation to get a positive outcome and not loose the client.

For this I just sharing my experience that sometime may be we need to walk some different way. But they must be your old buyer. Don’t loose them and give them some little space. Also vice-versa some time they will give you space.

Overall loosing buyer is not good for seller.

Overall loosing buyer is not good for seller.

Overall, no. However, in some cases, losing a certain buyer is a blessing.

[misscrystal]

Thanks for you wishes @misscrystal

It’s impossible to get honest buyer all time 🙂

I try to trace them and learn their behavior from past orders.

Also have a little bitter experience. 😒

Also have a little bitter experience.

I’m so sorry you had a bad experience. It will balance out though with wonderful clients. Some days bad but more days are amazing thanks to the fantastic people you will find here.

[codermoyej]

Overall loosing buyer is not good for seller.

Overall, no. However, in some cases, losing a certain buyer is a blessing.

Overall, no. However, in some cases, losing a certain buyer is a blessing.

Right you are its happened one of my case 😀

[lenasemenkova]

Hi everyone,

It’s the third time that this is happening to me in just two months. I had three different buyers placing 2 or 3 orders first. Then, after that, they placed another order and, when I checked, I realized that they were asking much more work compared with what was ordered. I informed the clients and explained everything in detail. At all situations they agreed to pay the additional fee, but they asked me to deliver the order first and pay the rest after I deliver the files, because they needed to verify the situation with their clients first.

I explained that delivering a job done and receive the rest of the payment after is not a good practice and it’s not the way I work. I suggested to add more days to the order, so my buyers could discuss the situation with their clients. One of them accepted to add two more days at the order. Other paid the amount that was missing immediately and asked me to proceed. The other one asked me to cancel the order, with the excuse that I was not trusting him, and never placed an order again.

I’m wondering if someone here had the same type of experiences and how did you deal with the situation to get a positive outcome and not loose the client.

with the excuse that I was not trusting him

Why would someone “trust” a random person on the internet who immediately tries to scheme their way into paying less and receiving more?

It’s like buyers who promise to tip if you overdeliver. It’s not binding in any way, a buyer can’t be forced to pay after the fact.

I actually never had an experience like this. I have a strict policy of “full price before the delivery or cancel”, most people agree to pay if you’re polite but firm about it. Because then they realize they can’t dangle your stats over your head to pressure you into discounts you’ve never agreed to provide.

Your situation seems like the next level of sneaky. But I’d suggest being stricter next time. Fiverr won’t be forcing anyone to pay you after the fact.

[misscrystal]

Hi everyone,

It’s the third time that this is happening to me in just two months. I had three different buyers placing 2 or 3 orders first. Then, after that, they placed another order and, when I checked, I realized that they were asking much more work compared with what was ordered. I informed the clients and explained everything in detail. At all situations they agreed to pay the additional fee, but they asked me to deliver the order first and pay the rest after I deliver the files, because they needed to verify the situation with their clients first.

I explained that delivering a job done and receive the rest of the payment after is not a good practice and it’s not the way I work. I suggested to add more days to the order, so my buyers could discuss the situation with their clients. One of them accepted to add two more days at the order. Other paid the amount that was missing immediately and asked me to proceed. The other one asked me to cancel the order, with the excuse that I was not trusting him, and never placed an order again.

I’m wondering if someone here had the same type of experiences and how did you deal with the situation to get a positive outcome and not loose the client.

It sounds like a classic case of not charging enough and attracting cheap scheming buyers as a result.

The other one asked me to cancel the order, with the excuse that I was not trusting him, and never placed an order again.

This one wanted to cheat you. He would not have paid.

Fiverr does not work on trust. It works by the buyer placing an order, paying for it, and then the seller does the work.

[miiila]

Just send them a friendly reply and be helpful, as they apparently don’t quite know how Fiverr works, by kindly sending them the link to the Fiverr Buyer Help Center article “How Fiverr Works” https://buyers.fiverr.com/en/article/how-fiverr-works
It even has a video, no excuse to not know how it works.

“When you feel you’ve found what you need, simply proceed with placing your order.”

It’s really simple, I’ve done exactly that several times, and it worked like magic. 😉

[filomena_silva]

Take extreme care

While some people are genuinely 110% decent human beings, many (even those who are mostly decent) will try it on at least once in any transaction. Do not allow the space to be taken advantage of as while the sneaky client acts like it is altruistic trust it is about not valuing yourself and setting appropriate boundaries. Do you get to take home food from the supermarket, eat it and pay next week? No, and for good reason. This is the precedent here.

Just yesterday (off-platform) I did a mix and complete video explanation at no cost (seeing I post the video for my promo) yet after I deliver the Mix AND the Project File (both outside my normal scope and most Mix Engineers never share project files) he had the gall to ask if I could send him Stems from my mix! Not cool seeing I had already given him about 8 hours serious work. But he couldn’t help himself nonetheless, just in case I would cough up more - which I didn’t seeing he already had everything.

I know that if I put a rate on delivering those Stems, he’d suddenly lose interest in them. This tells me that it is more about the human desire to just get more than anything else.

While some people are genuinely 110% decent human beings, many (even those who are mostly decent) will try it on at least once in any transaction. Do not allow the space to be taken advantage of as while the sneaky client acts like it is altruistic trust it is about not valuing yourself and setting appropriate boundaries. Do you get to take home food from the supermarket, eat it and pay next week? No, and for good reason. This is the precedent here.

@benedictrm I totally agree. In my case there were 3 buyers asking the same. Imagine that all my buyers were asking the same… I need to put food on the table. What I usually say is that I cannot make exceptions to some clients and to others not, because that wouldn’t be fair, but they keep insisting and then I have to be more assertive. What I don’t get is, if they placed larger orders in the past, why they do this just to get a extra $10 work for free? It doesn’t make sense to me.

I have some situation after doing half of my work my buyer place the order.

@codermoyej I’m glad your client was honest to honor his compromise. When you just know a username and you don’t even know the name of the company that he represents he has all the power in his hands to decide if he is going to pay you or not. And, besides that, I believe that if you do that, they will assume that as something granted and that you have the obligation to do it all the time. Please be careful. You are risking your payment.

Overall loosing buyer is not good for seller.

@codermoyej Loosing a buyer is not good, of course. That’s why I’m asking advice about how to deal with those situations, but… imagine if everyone was asking you that and you were depending on them to put food on your table… It’s complicated. In my case, I prefer to not do it. But I want to find a better way to say “no” and not loose the client, by educating him to change his behavior because, if he asks me that, he will do it with other freelancers for sure and he will act like he has the right to demand it. And that is wrong.

Why would someone “trust” a random person on the internet who immediately tries to scheme their way into paying less and receiving more?

@lenasemenkova I totally agree with that. We just know an username and no one will force the client to pay after the job is done. When I started as a freelance, while working at other platform, I made a mistake (we all do when we start) and a client asked me the same thing. At the end, he blocked me and I never heard about him and I was unable to receive my payment. Fortunately it was not a big amount, but still… For me is not a question of trust, but method. If we give buyers a chance to do that, they will demand even more.

I’m wondering if it’s not our responsibility to educate the buyers to respect the terms and conditions and honor compromises according with the rules that were established… Because I thing we have that responsibility too. By honoring those rules and paying upfront they are respecting Fiverr rules and also freelancers.

This one wanted to cheat you. He would not have paid.

Fiverr does not work on trust. It works by the buyer placing an order, paying for it, and then the seller does the work.

@misscrystal I totally agree with you.

Just send them a friendly reply and be helpful, as they apparently don’t quite know how Fiverr works, by kindly sending them the link to the Fiverr Buyer Help Center article “How Fiverr Works” It even has a video, no excuse to not know how it works.

@miiila Thank you. I will try this method next time.

[catwriter]

While some people are genuinely 110% decent human beings, many (even those who are mostly decent) will try it on at least once in any transaction. Do not allow the space to be taken advantage of as while the sneaky client acts like it is altruistic trust it is about not valuing yourself and setting appropriate boundaries. Do you get to take home food from the supermarket, eat it and pay next week? No, and for good reason. This is the precedent here.

@benedictrm I totally agree. In my case there were 3 buyers asking the same. Imagine that all my buyers were asking the same… I need to put food on the table. What I usually say is that I cannot make exceptions to some clients and to others not, because that wouldn’t be fair, but they keep insisting and then I have to be more assertive. What I don’t get is, if they placed larger orders in the past, why they do this just to get a extra $10 work for free? It doesn’t make sense to me.

I have some situation after doing half of my work my buyer place the order.

@codermoyej I’m glad your client was honest to honor his compromise. When you just know a username and you don’t even know the name of the company that he represents he has all the power in his hands to decide if he is going to pay you or not. And, besides that, I believe that if you do that, they will assume that as something granted and that you have the obligation to do it all the time. Please be careful. You are risking your payment.

Overall loosing buyer is not good for seller.

@codermoyej Loosing a buyer is not good, of course. That’s why I’m asking advice about how to deal with those situations, but… imagine if everyone was asking you that and you were depending on them to put food on your table… It’s complicated. In my case, I prefer to not do it. But I want to find a better way to say “no” and not loose the client, by educating him to change his behavior because, if he asks me that, he will do it with other freelancers for sure and he will act like he has the right to demand it. And that is wrong.

Why would someone “trust” a random person on the internet who immediately tries to scheme their way into paying less and receiving more?

@lenasemenkova I totally agree with that. We just know an username and no one will force the client to pay after the job is done. When I started as a freelance, while working at other platform, I made a mistake (we all do when we start) and a client asked me the same thing. At the end, he blocked me and I never heard about him and I was unable to receive my payment. Fortunately it was not a big amount, but still… For me is not a question of trust, but method. If we give buyers a chance to do that, they will demand even more.

I’m wondering if it’s not our responsibility to educate the buyers to respect the terms and conditions and honor compromises according with the rules that were established… Because I thing we have that responsibility too. By honoring those rules and paying upfront they are respecting Fiverr rules and also freelancers.

This one wanted to cheat you. He would not have paid.

Fiverr does not work on trust. It works by the buyer placing an order, paying for it, and then the seller does the work.

@misscrystal I totally agree with you.

Just send them a friendly reply and be helpful, as they apparently don’t quite know how Fiverr works, by kindly sending them the link to the Fiverr Buyer Help Center article “How Fiverr Works” It even has a video, no excuse to not know how it works.

@miiila Thank you. I will try this method next time.

What I usually say is that I cannot make exceptions to some clients and to others not, because that wouldn’t be fair, but they keep insisting and then I have to be more assertive.

I usually tell them that I can’t offer discounts because it would be unfair and unprofessional to all of my repeat buyers who have paid the full price every time. After that, some disappear and never buy from me again, but most say that they understand and that they respect that, and pay the full price. What they don’t say (but possibly think) is that, just like I wouldn’t give them a discount, I wouldn’t give it to anyone else, either, so it’s not like I’m charging someone else less than what I’m charging them.

What I don’t get is, if they placed larger orders in the past, why they do this just to get a extra $10 work for free?

Some buyers believe that, if they order from you a few times, you owe them a discount or doing some of the work for free.

[filomena_silva]

What I usually say is that I cannot make exceptions to some clients and to others not, because that wouldn’t be fair, but they keep insisting and then I have to be more assertive.

I usually tell them that I can’t offer discounts because it would be unfair and unprofessional to all of my repeat buyers who have paid the full price every time. After that, some disappear and never buy from me again, but most say that they understand and that they respect that, and pay the full price. What they don’t say (but possibly think) is that, just like I wouldn’t give them a discount, I wouldn’t give it to anyone else, either, so it’s not like I’m charging someone else less than what I’m charging them.

What I don’t get is, if they placed larger orders in the past, why they do this just to get a extra $10 work for free?

Some buyers believe that, if they order from you a few times, you owe them a discount or doing some of the work for free.

I usually tell them that I can’t offer discounts because it would be unfair and unprofessional to all of my repeat buyers who have paid the full price every time. After that, some disappear and never buy from me again, but most say that they understand and that they respect that, and pay the full price. What they don’t say (but possibly think) is that, just like I wouldn’t give them a discount, I wouldn’t give it to anyone else, either, so it’s not like I’m charging someone else less than what I’m charging them.

Great technique!

Some buyers believe that, if they order from you a few times, you owe them a discount or doing some of the work for free.

That doesn’t make any sense for me. What I offer to my buyers if they order many times is the possibility to know them better in a way that they don’t need to explain everything all the time because I know what they want and I can increse the quality of my work and customer service.

[benedictrm]

I usually tell them that I can’t offer discounts because it would be unfair and unprofessional to all of my repeat buyers who have paid the full price every time. After that, some disappear and never buy from me again, but most say that they understand and that they respect that, and pay the full price. What they don’t say (but possibly think) is that, just like I wouldn’t give them a discount, I wouldn’t give it to anyone else, either, so it’s not like I’m charging someone else less than what I’m charging them.

Great technique!

Some buyers believe that, if they order from you a few times, you owe them a discount or doing some of the work for free.

That doesn’t make any sense for me. What I offer to my buyers if they order many times is the possibility to know them better in a way that they don’t need to explain everything all the time because I know what they want and I can increse the quality of my work and customer service.

What I offer to my buyers if they order many times is the possibility to know them better in a way that they don’t need to explain everything all the time because I know what they want and I can increse the quality of my work and customer service.

This is how it should be. Sadly many these days deliberately don’t want to develop relationships with others as it makes it easier to do terrible things and not feel so bad about themselves doing wrong by a colleague or friend.

Of course, to the remotely wise, relationships of mutual benefit are what make Amazing happen.

🙂

[filomena_silva]

What I offer to my buyers if they order many times is the possibility to know them better in a way that they don’t need to explain everything all the time because I know what they want and I can increse the quality of my work and customer service.

This is how it should be. Sadly many these days deliberately don’t want to develop relationships with others as it makes it easier to do terrible things and not feel so bad about themselves doing wrong by a colleague or friend.

Of course, to the remotely wise, relationships of mutual benefit are what make Amazing happen.

🙂

Of course, to the remotely wise, relationships of mutual benefit are what make Amazing happen.

I totally agree with you @benedictrm. Most of my returning customers like to work with me because they don’t even need to say anything. They just send me work to do, saying “I have another file to record. Please tell me how much it will cost.” Simply as that. They know that if for some reason they need a file one day before, I will do my best to accomplish that goal and serve my clients the best way I can. Dedication don’t have a price.

[benedictrm]

Of course, to the remotely wise, relationships of mutual benefit are what make Amazing happen.

I totally agree with you @benedictrm. Most of my returning customers like to work with me because they don’t even need to say anything. They just send me work to do, saying “I have another file to record. Please tell me how much it will cost.” Simply as that. They know that if for some reason they need a file one day before, I will do my best to accomplish that goal and serve my clients the best way I can. Dedication don’t have a price.

I used to have one of them. She totally trusted me and even asked me to let her know if her performance needed redoing. Sadly she stopped doing the work so…

[techtunerbd]

I have the same situation couple of clients but after completion, the job paid 50% of clients. So think about your clients honest or dishonest. if you think about dishonest don’t pay for this job.

[filomena_silva]

I have the same situation couple of clients but after completion, the job paid 50% of clients. So think about your clients honest or dishonest. if you think about dishonest don’t pay for this job.

I have the same situation couple of clients but after completion, the job paid 50% of clients. So think about your clients honest or dishonest. if you think about dishonest don’t pay for this job.

@techtunerbd The question is, they will only pay the rest if they want to. Personally, I will not risk my income by giving 50% of the work in advance.

[lenasemenkova]

I have the same situation couple of clients but after completion, the job paid 50% of clients. So think about your clients honest or dishonest. if you think about dishonest don’t pay for this job.

@techtunerbd The question is, they will only pay the rest if they want to. Personally, I will not risk my income by giving 50% of the work in advance.

Personally, I will not risk my income by giving 50% of the work in advance.

Exactly. “Honest” people don’t sneak in to try and avoid paying full price or paying at all. Honest people message first and ask if discount is possible if their budget is limited and they can’t afford the service.

[techtunerbd]

I have the same situation couple of clients but after completion, the job paid 50% of clients. So think about your clients honest or dishonest. if you think about dishonest don’t pay for this job.

@techtunerbd The question is, they will only pay the rest if they want to. Personally, I will not risk my income by giving 50% of the work in advance.

@filomena_silva Yes, they will only pay rest if they want