Refunding a job or asking for payment?

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Ryan

Hello,

I have done some 34 development projects on PPH with a rating of 99% and a cert 5 ranking to which I have worked very hard to get too and am quite proud of my level of reviews.

Now I had a bid accepted on a job which was to fix website error on a certain page. It is a magento ecommerce website which I specialise in however after hours of digging it has turned out into a much bigger server wide problem which I have now spent 12 hours trying to fix but still with no luck. The site I am editing also hosts some 40 of the clients other sites so I cannot afford to break it. Anyway I have come to the conclusion after spending 12 hours of pretty intence server management commands, this is going no where and I risk damaging other elements of his server.

Now my question is do I a.

1. Tell the buyer I am unable to complete this job although I have spent X time onit as its a server side hosting fix and puts his other sites at risk attempting to fix it. Have a refund as technically you are still in the same position and apologise.

Or

2. Tell the buyer I am unable to complete this job having spent x amount of time trying too yet I still would atleast like to paid as it is for my time.

If I choose option 1, am I right in thinking he would not be able to then leave me a bad review? also I appreciate I would loose cert points but it would not affect my reviews on my profile?

If I choose option 2, obviously I assume I would get the funds? or only if he accepted my invoice.... but he could ask for a refund as above? if he asked for a refund he couldnt then leave a bad review if it was granted either by me or the pph system? if he wasnt granted a refund/OR paid my invoice, he could then leave a 1 star bad review?

As I am a web developer, reviews are everything to me... I would rather loose 12 hours of my time, and obviously the payment I was going to get all to save my review so whichever way I should go about this I would appreciate advice on, or I guess I can just explain it like I have here too the client?

Thanks all,

Ryan

 

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3 comments

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  • Official comment
    Mohammed
    • Edited

    No invoice paid = no feedback

    You can either send full refund and put the reason, chose from the drop down list "I'm unable to do the job" or put a custom one, once I found that the job will be taking more efforts and time than what I expected and I put that as reason, - we are human beings we cannot predict everything - it will be moderated then approved within 1 up to 3 working days -

    If this is your first refund, it won't affect your ranking...(10% cancellation fee may apply read the terms page)

    Or explain the situation to the buyer and kindly ask for symbolic/rounded sum to be paid for your efforts, if the buyer accepts you can raise invoice, refund the rest of the deposit and select the reason from the list "Job Done and escrow funds left over" you will lose some points (won't affect ranking directly), the buyer will be able to leave feedback here.

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  • Ryan

    Hi Mohammed,

    Thanks for the reply,

    I have since spoke to my client, thankfully he has been very understanding. I have explained that this is out of my control to actually complete the tasks with some explanation behind it.

    He has understood why I cannot complete the work which is good, and it turns out rather than refund I will help him in purchasing another server which is more adequate.

    All in all I will hopefully turn this into a positive for the client as I have affectively rooted the problem and highlighted the need for a server switch so from the clients side it was not a waste of time. From my side it feels better to be getting paid for something I have actually done so once I have switched him over then I will send over the invoice. Bassicly we have changed the scope of the work yet kept the same agreed price in place.

    In the future I will certinally be more careful in the jobs I bid on, really I will try to drill down on the actuall issue more as to get a better understanding ofit so if its unfixable I know before the work has kicked off, lesson learnt but to be honest I am happy to be helping the client out on this now.

    Thanks for the reply.

    Ryan

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  • Mohammed

    You're welcome, I was going say...communication is key.

    Good luck with the rest bro !

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