Problem with buyer! Help please
Hi,
I recently started working for this person: https://www.peopleperhour.com/freelancer/mohamed/-/1224006?ref=buyer well ...it's been more than a week actually.
We agreed on 160$ for a translation of two documents.
one had more than 5000 words in it, and the other one had more than 9000 words.
I translated the first document, I killed myself for four days to finish translating the first document, and when I sent my work to the buyer he only said that he will read it and get back to me.
I waited and waited but there was no response from him, so i wrote him a message and said that i will only charge him for 80 bucks of the first translated document instead of 160$ of course, and that i would only continue translating if he payed me an extra 450$. still no response.
I am stuck here. What should I do? Is there a way for me to break off the deal?
Thanks for reading me.
Kind regards.
Ben Brahim yasmine
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Official comment
Hi Yasmine,
I have had a look at your account and I can see that there is a ticket open about this already so I have added this message to your ticket and someone from our customer support team will reply back to you soon.
Please let me know if I can help you with anything else.
Comment actions -
Hey Yasmine
This is a difficult one, because whilst you should be paid for what you have done, you have agreed on a price.
Buyer do not like being surprised with additional costs and rightly so. On the other hand, sellers do not like being expected to do more work than agreed.So, the question is, what did you exactly agree on? It seems to me, you agreed to translate the two documents for $160. Did you know the size of the documents before you agreed this? If so, I would say that there is nothing you can do, as you have already agreed. I know that it has taken longer than anticipated, but that is your fault, I am afraid. You need to evaluate things more accurately next time.
However, if you did not know the size of the documents, then this could be different.
Then again, you charging $450 instead of $80 is a hefty difference and it is no wonder he is not replying, because it seems so steep.
I think the best thing for you to do would be to invoice for the $80, since you agreed to charge him that... then just refund him the other $80 that's in Escrow and go your separate ways. You could give him time to respond and give him those options too.
So, just invoice him for the $80, as that is at a price he's agreed, so he should OK with that, then see what he says for the rest. However, I would not be too happy if my price increased by almost 6 times the agreed rate!
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Hello, thanks for your replay, I really appreciate it.
When I translated the first document, there was no response from the buyer as I said and I invoced him for 80$
http://puu.sh/om1nr/d1a92e91f9.pngI think this is fair for both of us, right?
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If he doesn't respond, the money will automatically be transferred into your wallet after several days. He has to reject the invoice to stop this happening. In which case, he will have responded!
It sounds reasonably fair, although he could also argue that you promised 1400 words at $160 and you have only done around 35% of it, therefore only deserve $57.
However, as a buyer, I wouldn't necessarily be that petty over a few dollars.I would just wait until he replies as you have put your invoice in now. Then, wait until he replies about the additional amount before refunding him? He may turn around and negotiate a new amount to add to Escrow, but do remember to ask him for the deposit first.
However, if he doesn't want to pay, then you should refund him and go your separate ways
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But I translated more than 5000 words for only 80$ I translated more than 5000 words not 1400, I have the document here, if you want to take a look.
Should I resend another invoice for only 57$? because it has been more than 3 weeks alredy? Or can he walk away without paying a dime even though I did half of the job.
I didn't want to continue because he was not talking to me. -
Keep the $80 invoice there, as I think it is fair, but I was just letting you know what possible defence he could come up with. It cannot have been 3 weeks, since the invoice gets automatically released after 15 days. I can see you raised it on the 9th, so if you just wait one more week, it should be settled.
Please note that I do not work for PPH, but I am just part of the community trying to help.
Is he reading your messages? Because he might be online, as in have the tab open, but not actually reading the messages. Either way, it is up to him to respond. You have raised the invoice for the work done... if he does not reply, you will get paid anyway. If he wants the second piece of work done, then he will have to reply!
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All right, thank you, for your reply, when i said three weeks, I meant that it has been three weeks since I started working for him.
I will keep the invoice as is, and hopefully I'll get paid, because I killed myself to deliver a proper job in such a short time.
Like I said I was going to continue translating, but when there were no responses from the buyer when I sent the first document, I got insecure, and didn't want to waste my time any longer if he was not going to take me seriously! ain't nobody that would translate more than 5000 words in six days for 80 dollars.
Thank you for you reply, I really appreciate it. -
Hey Yasmine
No problem - I understand that it was a lot of work to do for such a low price. I previous have misquoted on a job before and it is very frustrating. I am a professional writer and bid on a job when my work was quiet. I bid at a price which was lower than I would usually charge and the buyer just did not respect me at all. I got out of it by invoicing for a portion of the work that he was happy with and just parted ways. However, he left bad feedback on my profile as he was annoyed I didn't finish the job and he would have to pay more elsewhere! If he had shown me respect, the work would have been finished, but he was kinda annoyed at himself for ruining such a good deal he had.
Anyway, I learnt the hard way there and suffered the consequences. It's the same in web design (which I also do) and when I price myself low, they treat me badly. If I quote a decent price, they respect my skills and treat me accordingly.
Just price yourself at a price which you respect and don't try to change it too much. Best of luck
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Thank you Sabrina, you've been a great support to me, and hopefully one of PPH ninjas will look into my case as I have been trying to reach out to them for several weeks now, and still no response, while they have always been there to delete my questions on the questions board but not present when I am going through such a thing.
I always thought that I should bid for jobs with lower rates as I am new here and I kinda need reviews on my profile but now, I know for a fact that clients don't always respect sellers who low price themselves.
thanks again.
Kind regards.
Yasmine -
Hey Yasmine
I think it is a fine balance - I have also bid below my normal rates on projects to see if I can get the work, but suffered along the journey a bit. As long as you realise that this might happen, you can prepare yourself. There is no guarantee that the expensive ones will respect you either though... they might expect too much of you too. You just never know and it is a journey you have to go on.
I am glad that I could be of help - I am also somewhat disappointed with the PPH customer support of late, as the delays are really detrimental to all of us. This is why I have been more active on here lately, trying to help others who are looking for answers and PPH are not helping quick enough. I just hope I can help some others who need it too.
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Yes, the money in Escrow is with PPH - another great benefit of PPH! It has protection for both the buyer and the seller.
As you, the seller, you know that the buyer has already coughed up some funds and so has the intention of paying you (hopefully). As the buyer, you know that the seller cannot just run off with the money.
Only when you invoice and the buyer releases the funds do you get the money. If the buyer doesn't do anything, the funds will automatically be released within 15 days. If the buyer rejects the invoice, you can dispute the transaction and the dispute will go to PPH's dispute team who will evaluate the situation and decide on the division of funds. -
Thank you Sabrina, you're kind and very helpful, actually I think that you should work with PPH support team, your messages gave me hope and your words brought light in my soul, thank you thank you.
Guess, I will wait and see what happens in the next few days, hopefully both parties will get what they desrve.
I really tried to be patient and would have preferred not to use such methods, but there was noone to talk to.
This really feels way better than sai's automatic message.
Much love.
Yasmine -
Aww - you are most welcome! I am so glad I could help! I have also had that same feeling with Sai - I replied to Sai after 1 minute the other day, but still not heard anything back a couple of days later, nor has the action been done. So, maybe it is an automated bot? Hehe :)
Anyway, I am going to help out where I can because I know how upset I have gotten with things going badly here and I don't want others to go through the same.
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Thanks, and yes you have been more than helpful to me. ^^
You have a golden heart, and I would like to thank you on the behalf of all the others who might be going through the same thing, I really appreciate you for being patient with me and for answering all my questions.
Cheers!
Much love.
Yasmine
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