Revisions Vs Complete Rework

[cyaxrex]

So I spent 3-4 hours the other day creating a custom video for someone. They sent me a script which wasn’t a script, just an essay about their business and 2 x promotional pictures to use. Also, this was for $35 and my gig explicitly states that I use my own animation style.

Anyway, now the buyer has come back at me 6 hours before the gig deadline asking for a ‘revision’ which includes me following their new script and completely new animation work. - Basically an entirely new video.

Now, I’m fine revising work for clients but to me, this goes way beyond a revision. In this case, do you think I should cancel, ask for more $$'s or simply say no?

From my point of view, asking for this kind of revision is just a little bit cheeky. In this case, how far do you usually go when it comes to revising work?

[writer99025]

I don’t know how much work creating videos requires, if you have time, do it, get the $35, and if he asks for another revision, call customer support.

[mae_creativity]

I had a sort of similar experience, so I’ll tell you what happened and how I solved the problem.

I’m good at what I do. But when it comes to charging a client money (everything that has to do with it)… this just makes me super anxious and nervous and I wish I was an heiress so that I could just volunteer all day.

I had accepted a buyer request for editing. It ended up taking me an entire day to complete. (Just every single line needed rewriting + the whole story did not make sense as it was + it was 7000 words). And all this for $3.50 or so that I get after fiverr + bank’s commissions.

And I didn’t care because - so what? I made a mistake by not asking to see a sample first, and had let the nervous-about-asking-to-be-paid feeling take control that day. No biggie.

But after I delivered the work, the buyer sent me oh so many messages, wanting me to give her more and more hours of my time - in depth feedback on what I had edited, plus edit the rest of her story (additional 15,000 words) and all for free.
Also, during this lengthy back and forth messaging she had still not marked the order complete. I told her how many hours I had worked on her story, and it was obvious (to me but maybe not to her), by looking at the word change tracker and all my notes.

In short, I don’t know what was going on in her head. Maybe she’s the type that has no respect for other people’s time, maybe super cheeky. Maybe none of those, but rather simply not aware, or not too bright.

Finally I wrote her a few paragraphs - a short “how to write” tutorial, along with 2 website links I thought would be helpful. And something like: “I edited the document you sent me, the work took me 8 hours to complete as you can see from the word change tracker. I … (here I explained the details of what my work involved). Please mark the order as complete. If you would like me to do more editing, I charge $5 per 1000 words, and you order my gig here (link to gig).”

I knew she was not going to spend anymore money/order my gig. But nothing in my previous messages had gotten through to her.

Within 2 minutes she marked the order complete, and left a 5 star review.

My point is to explain what you actually did, because what is obvious to me in my field, and you in your field, is not necessarily obvious to someone who doesn’t do the same type of work. This might change the client’s mind, if you’re lucky, about not wanting to pay for the work you have already done, and the work in order to remake the video.
After that, I would continue being clear in the same message, explaining that you’ve done the work that you both agreed on when he/she placed the order “and minor revisions are included in the price, and I’m happy to do them for you. In order to (explain what he/she wants you to do here, but in terms of YOUR actual work + time it takes you) means creating an entirely new video. I can do this, and the price is …”

I’ll be interested to hear from you - what ended up happening?
🙂 May.

[cyaxrex]

Well, I’ve actually just finished this by using an old video as a template and changing all the background scenes. In this case, it wasn’t a big job after all. I just hope that this version gets accepted. Fingers crossed.

[writer99025]

I love your attitude, you have the mind of a true artist 🙂

[mae_creativity]

🙂

[catwriter]

That’s why I state in my gig description that revision means small changes, not a complete redo. If they ask for a complete rework anyway, I remind them what it says in the gig description, and what I do next depends on the situation; sometimes I’ll do the rework without additional charge (if it’s not too much work, or for some repeat customers), sometimes I’ll tell them that they’ll need to make a new purchase (they usually don’t do that), and sometimes I’ll just cancel the order (when it’s someone I want to get rid off as fast as possible).