Is a Cancellation or Bad Review Better?

[jameswilson709]

So, I’m currently struggling with a “bad customer” as they have requested something and upon delivery decided that this isn’t what they were asking for. After providing new specifications on the included revision (which didn’t make a whole lot of sense) these were completed and the response I received was summarized as the following;

In broken English with terrible spelling and grammar to explain that my work didn’t make sense and sentence structure was poor and they had again changed their mind about what they wanted so won’t accept delivery until the new instructions are updated.

This customer is requesting more work than was ordered and seems to be lining up to try and refuse the order while keeping the deliveries of the previously requested work.

My question is this. Is it better to just cancel this order and cut my losses and move on (which is a shame as this has been a previously good customer with repeat business) or deliver again and go through the process of them trying to get free work and most likely leaving a bad review out of spite?

Thanks

[surajrenuka]

If I were you I would give it one more chance because its repeat buyer.
if order is of larger value and you have already spend lot of time working on it I would suggest you to go with one bad review, but same time I saw you have only 24 reviews until now so this would surely give bad impression.
Same way cancellation would effect your business…not sure though but I have experienced that my self.
more like - less impressions , gig fall back on search page etc.
If its repeat buyer, give it one more try to get good review and avoid cancellation to balance both thing, thats what I would do if I were you!

[logocreator37]

Freelancing TIP:-
If there is communication barrier i.e. buyer and seller are not comfortable with the language in which they communicate then the work will take much more time than expected and revisions too.

So better cancel it.
Continuing will waste your time and will result in bad reviews.

[maddisont]

I mean, you have a handful of pretty good reviews as it is, so one bad review wouldn’t destroy your profile (you also get a chance to explain yourself when you leave the buyer review). I’d try and deliver if the project is worth a decent amount of money.

Or you could cancel. But, I’m not sure how the cancellation would affect your analytics. Though I would probably offer a mutual cancellation because I dislike stressful buyers.

[shakeelt]

If I were you then I would like to play a fair and tricky game. I apologize to the customer for my work which is not according to their expectations and then I request them to cancel the order as it is my fault and their right to do so. Always play fair and according to situations. May be this will change their mind.

[marinm_services]

The same thing happens to me the other day.
There was this one guy who wanted to really big job for 5$, i felt bad for him and wanted to help him.
It was a blog post for an affiliate link with 3500 words for 5$.
He was really uncommunicative only logging on to see my messages 30 mins a day. In the end i got a 4.3 star review which is really bad for my job since it is considered a bad review.

I’d say if they are the same type of person as my customer you should cancel it and not experience the harsh consequences .

[melissaharlowvo]

I had a wonderful manager tell me once, “past behavior predicts future behavior.”

It sums it up every time. The risk of a poor rating and your stress level is not worth the money. A cancellation will set your gig back a few weeks (that was my experience) but a poor review is on your permanent record.

I had to walk away from hundreds of dollars to cut my losses. If you have done everything in your power, including reaching out for advice, then you know what to do. In the end it’s a business and a bad review may prevent future good buyers from choosing you. You may be swapping a wonderful buyer to hang on to the disruptive buyer.

[cherboub]

Potential buyer can know that you have a negative review, but for low order completion rate he can’t.

[bumblepixco]

I would suggest to cancel it, Cancellation rates can be increased in future. And on the other hand a bad review will always a spot on your Profile.

[english_voice]

Sometimes it’s just not worth the stress or time of trying to please buyer’s like this.

If you try and service the client, language will still be a barrier, they might change their mind again, they still might try and force you to do more work, and there is still no guarantee that they will accept your delivery or leave leave good feedback.

Personally I would go straight to Customer Support, so long as you can demonstrate the buyer is being unreasonable by changing the requirements of the order. If you haven’t got the evidence you need for CS, then I would cancel the order and accept that your completion stats will take a hit for a short while.