Belligerent Freelance Client

starrykitten

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Hi there,

In the wake of major upheaval (a fire at my apartment two days ago which has displaced me), I'm dealing with major vexation in the form of a client for whom I am editing, and I would love advice on how to protect myself and best deal with this.

A couple weeks back, a guy I don't know in person hired me to edit his manuscript. It is a lengthy manuscript and a very demanding editing job (often with 3-4 changes in a single sentence) and we agreed that he'd pay me half the total early on. He sent the payment promptly and didn't seem to have a problem with it. In fact, he generally seemed quite mild-mannered and agreeable. Until...

So the fire in my apartment started around 6 AM Sunday, and when I was unable to put it out, I fled, not taking anything at all with me. That night, a friend came to the hotel where I am to bring me a few things, including his old laptop for me to use. I emailed the client, Jim, to let him know what had happened and told him I would update him once I knew the condition of my laptop, which had his manuscript and my work on it.

He instantly started asking all kinds of questions. He wanted my cell phone number, and I told him (truthfully) that I had left it at the apartment, but I gave him the name of the hotel where I could be reached. He also asked for my room number, which I declined to give him.

Then he kept writing with more questions and issues. He asked me exactly which page of his MS I was on when the fire started. I had already told him several times also that I didn't know when I would know more, that it depended on the fire dept and my landlord, but he kept asking for definitive dates.

I tried to quell his anxiety a bit by just being direct and saying that I understand his discomfort since he doesn't know me, etc. and told him that I could not yet give the information he wanted but would try to address other concerns he had.

I left the hotel to go to therapy, and when I got back, he'd left me a voicemail here asking for an update and telling me to call him back or email him. He also told me to get a TracFone in the message he left. So I emailed, again telling him that I would let him know when I knew anything. I also told him I couldn't get a TracFone because I'd also left my wallet in the apt and the only money I have is what the Red Cross gave me for essentials.

He responded that it was a "HUGE RED FLAG" that I could only be reached at the hotel and that I emailed him instead of calling. In my reply,I tried to gently reiterate things and acknowledge his frustration and also remind him that his voicemail said to call *or* email.

He wrote me back something else nasty and irate. I went through all the ways I had proven myself (my real name, easily Googled, giving him the hotel name, etc.) and tried once again to soothe his worries while also gently pointing out that my own life had been affected by the fire. I concluded by asking "What would you like me to do?" He simply responded "I don't do business this way."

He's begun sending more emails, which I have chosen to ignore. If you have read this far, I would love any tips you have in case I need to do anything to protect myself in any way. I do not intend to return his money because I performed quite a bit of editing. I have no idea what this guy wants from me either, though I am already quite sure I don't want to give it. I don't want to salvage this relationship or keep him as a client; I just want to know that I am personally, legally, financially, emotionally safe.

Thank you for reading this far!
 

Lady Chipmunk

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I'm not a lawyer, but I would say that you either have to finish the job or refund his payment. If you completed a quarter of the editing, perhaps you could refund half the initial payment and not the rest as that constitutes work done, but I'm not sure even that is ethical.

Ideally, you should sever the contract, return his manuscript (with or without edits as you prefer), and give him a refund so that he has no further reason to contact you or complain. At least, that's what I would do in your situation.
 

William Haskins

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if you took half-payment and committed to deadlines, then he has a valid concern.

i would agree that you need to finish the job or refund payment.

ms. chipmunk is spot-on.
 

CassandraW

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I am a lawyer, and I also concur with Lady Chipmunk.

You say you don't intend to return his money because you performed quite a bit of editing. However, you don't say that the client received the edited portion of his work. I'm gathering he has not, since he demanded to know where you left off, and if my assumption is correct, that means he's received nothing at all for his money. And you aren't able to tell him when he will receive anything. (Indeed, at the moment, you aren't answering his emails.)

If you do (or hope to do) a lot of editing for other clients, you might want to ask yourself if the ill-will and poor publicity this person could potentially generate is worth his deposit. This is the age of online reviews. And he has your real, easily googled, name.

I know you're seeing this from your own standpoint as someone who has been through a fire, lost possessions, etc. (And I'm very sorry about that, by the way -- it's terrible, and I hope your insurance covers everything and you're back in your place soon.)

But from his point of view, he's dealing with someone he's never met in person, who has taken a 50% payment for work, but suddenly can't finish or return his manuscript (or say when or if she'll be able to do so), who suddenly can no longer be reached by phone, but only by email (though her computer is allegedly not available due to the fire), who will only give him the name of a hotel as an address, and who has now begun ignoring his emails.

Honestly, this would raise a few red flags for most people, and if he spills the whole story on the internet, I think you stand to lose a lot more than the deposit is worth -- even if he doesn't take you to court. (And if he's received nothing for his money, I think he'd win if he did. Indeed, if you committed to deadlines you are unable to keep, he'd likely win.)

ETA:

By the way, whatever you do, you should answer his emails.

And if it were me, I'd call him. Why not? The hotel has a phone, right? A phone call might well reassure him -- you might even convince him to give you more time. The fact that you won't call him is probably freaking him the heck out!

I can tell you this much -- if he takes you to court, the fact that you ignored his messages is going to look very, very bad. And it will also look bad in the online rants he's quite likely to publish.

ETA:

You mention that you left your wallet in your apartment and therefore have only the money the red cross gave you. I will assume you can't (or don't wish) to borrow temporarily from a friend or relative. But FYI, if you have a bank account and/or a credit card, you probably can get new credit and debit cards issued pretty much immediately. I did after mine were stolen -- if I recall correctly, Visa and my bank sent me replacements overnight (at no charge to me). I had them the very next day. In other words, unless the only money you possess was in your wallet, you should still be able to access your money in fairly short order.

I was able to arrange for the new cards by phone, and I'm sure you can also do it online.

ETA:

And depending on your cell phone company, you might even be able to borrow a cell phone temporarily if you go into one of their outlets and explain your situation.
 
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chompers

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This is just my opinion, of course, so make what you will of it...

Basically it sounds like this guy wants reassurance that you didn't scam him and will be running off with his deposit. And yet at the same time you're caught between a rock and a hard place. This is what I would do:

1) Give periodic updates.
Possibly every night, every other night, whatever. (Never had a fire, so I have no idea how long it could take to find out if your computer was a loss.) But just give him some type of schedule for updates.

2) Set a cutoff date.
Work out a date with him (a month, two weeks? whatever) for the cutoff date. If you still haven't found out yet if your computer was salvaged by this date, you refund him the full deposit amount. If you find out before this date that your computer didn't make it, you refund him the full deposit. Hopefully it won't come to either of these and you find out sooner rather than later that your computer made it out okay.

3) Tell him where you left off.
You might not know the exact page you left off on, but you probably have some recollection of the story where you left off. Maybe you can even provide him with some areas that you can remember where he needed particular improvement.

Sorry this happened to you. But at least you are safe!

ETA: Oh, just reread that you don't want to keep him as a client. In that case I think you need to refund his deposit. If you had given him edits along the way, I think you may have been able to keep a portion of the refund, but it sounds like you didn't, so unfortunately I agree you need to refund the entire deposit.
 
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Old Hack

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I agree that you have to respond to his messages, and refund his deposit if you're unable to COMPLETE the work.

But you could also offer him the work you've done so far if he agrees to let you keep a portion of the deposit he paid you.
 

starrykitten

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Thank you all for your advice. Very helpful, and it helped me to see that I had been so distraught over the fire that I hadn't been willing to see his side of things. I sent him an email a bit ago that felt right.
 

robjvargas

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For whatever it's worth, and it may not be much, I do think the client's being a bit unreasonable. Has any deadline been missed yet? Have you failed to meet ANY conditions of the contract so far? If both of those are no, then I think the client is being unreasonable. Also if you communicated your situation to him right away.

But not belligerent. Nor do I think the client is all that much unreasonable. This has all the earmarks of a guy who's been burned once already.

Others have already spoken to the legal side. From my experience in customer service, you have a duty to address his concerns. You need to set dates and times with him. "I don't know" and other open-ended responses are only going to aggravate him further.

"I'm going to call the fire department on Tuesday afternoon to see if I can get my work computer back."
"Once I have the computer back, I'll check out the data on it. If I have any trouble, I'll go to Geek Squad and tell them that I authorize you to discuss the case with them."

I'm making stuff up, so don't take me too literally. The point is that your client needs (and, really, deserves) concrete answers and a path to resolution. Even if that path is going to need a lot of revision.

If you're close to a contracted deadline, I'd start making plans to refund him and be done. If you miss that deadline, I think he's going to demand it. And both law and (I believe) ethics are on his side in that.
 

CassandraW

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I'm glad you contacted him. No matter what happens here, that's the right thing to do. Hang on to your email exchange, just in case.

By the way, do you have a written contract with the client that spells out anything relevant to the issues? E.g, how you are to be paid (by the page, by the hour, by the entire job), applicable deadlines, what happens if for whatever reason you can't complete the job? You hadn't mentioned one in your original post, but as I think of it, it seems likely that you had one.

If so:

(1) if you can come to a new agreement with him with new deadlines, etc., make sure you put the new agreement in writing so that you have evidence of it in case of another argument.

(2) if you can't/don't want to come to a new agreement with him, but you can recover the portion of the manuscript you've already edited, depending on what the contract says, you may be able to get paid for the portion you can deliver to him.

(3) if you can't/don't want to come to a new agreement with him, and can't deliver any portion of what you've edited, as I said above, I truly think you should cut your losses and return the payment, for all the reasons we've given.

I hope that helps.

If you can calm the guy down, you may be able to reach a new agreement that works for both of you. Right now I think he's probably just spooked and afraid you're trying to pull a scam on him. (And given the number of scams out there, that's not such a far-fetched fear. He probably has half a dozen friends backing him up in that fear with various horror stories.) If you can convince him you're a professional who just had something terrible and unforeseen happen, he might again become the reasonable, easy-going client it sounds like he was at the beginning.

rjv's suggestions about using whatever specifics you can give him is a very good suggestion. I think the uncertainty is probably freaking the client out as much as anything else.
 

Marta

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I can see his point, especially if you're close to a deadline and he doesn't have anything edited in hand. But there are also red flags on his side. He may just be freaking out, but he might also turn out to be a sociopath. Avoid giving out your home address. (And whether you end up at a new or old place, I hope you're settled again soon.)
 

CatchVonnegut

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Jeez. Glad you're ok! As a frequent customer of online, one-person, independent businesses (I have a music gear problem), I can say that the thing we customers most worry about is getting scammed. It happens shockingly often. Unfortunately, while obviously totally true, your story reads like a textbook "This is where I start scamming you," response from a sketchy business owner. If your client has been scammed before I'm sure this is setting off all sorts of alarms that may just be insurmountable. It sounds like they're coming into this with a bit of defensiveness. It also sounds like you've done a great job of being communicative and open in trying to arrange a mutually agreeable remedy despite your no-doubt life-changing event. At this point, I'd offer the option of either a full refund, or a partial refund with the edited section (if you still have it). As someone who also does a lot of freelance work, I can tell you that it's better to sever ties and lose out on a few dollars, than to have this eat away at your day to day life. Best of luck!
 

Angie

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You've gotten lots of great advice for handling this client. I would add, for future projects of this scope, make sure you come up with a contract that lays out milestone deadlines -- say, for each quarter of the book. That way, you're turning in work as you edit, and if some disaster happens your client isn't left having paid half the fee for zero work.

If there's one thing I've learned over the past several years as a full-time freelancer, it's NEVER WORK WITHOUT A CONTRACT. It protects both you AND the client.
 

Jamesaritchie

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When I hire someone to do a job like this, they don't get paid by the hour, or by doing half the job. Thy get paid to start and to finish.

Next time, store each day's work on the cloud.

This time, you are going to have to finish the job in a reasonable amount of time, or you are going to have to refund his money. You haven't fulfilled your promise, which was to edit the entire novel, so that money is his.