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NEED ADVICE Dealing with Difficult Buyer

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#1

Hi guys, I joined up in June and since rose to a Level 2 seller status. So far it’s been fun, challenging, rewarding, stressful, but overall a great experience! I actually have similar issues going on with 2 clients right now, and I’m really not sure how to proceed.

I offer wix website design with unlimited revisions, and I always give a clear explanation of what would be a “revision” versus a redesign and/or edit fee.

I have a client from 3 months ago who I built a site for. At the time, the person saw the site and was happy, but said there were a few things going on personally that would require more time for them to submit the “remaining content”, i.e. the revisions.

Fast forward 3 months, the person arrives out of the blue saying “I’m ready to build my website now” and sends me all the content.

Long story short, the conversation was me telling this person I already designed their site, and they are telling me it’s not exactly what they were looking for and that I need to design a new one from scratch.

Obviously they’re not going to pay for another site, as they already stated, which doesn’t even take into account that my prices are much higher now. Do I cave and build the site? (I don’t have time for this with all the paid orders coming in) or do I block this person? Can they somehow report me for this even though I built 2 websites for the client already? (One “coming soon” site, in addition to their main site).

I really don’t want to be rude or give a bad look for my business, but the customer is essentially “playing dumb” trying to say that we had a discussion about me building them a whole new site, which never happened and I triple-checked our messages and the order page.

I have another customer basically doing the same thing - and they’re taking up way too much of my time. Do I just block and forget and be immoral? Or do I try to find a way to help them?

18 Likes
#2

I meant to add - we had agreed to approve the order while I waited to receive the remaining content from her. The plot twist is when the client asked for a whole new website 3 months later, not for me to add the remaining content.

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#3

Your first mistake: unlimited revisions.

I would delete any mention of that in your Gigs from today forward.

If you don’t, you will encounter more Buyers who will take advantage of that.

As for these two Buyers, (my opinion), I would politely tell them you are unable to provide what they are looking for and suggest they look elsewhere (there are only about a million other freelancers here doing what you are doing).

I would sever ties with them so you can start fresh with Gigs that don’t offer unlimited revisions.

What if they leave you bad reviews?

No biggie.

It happens.

You’ll eventually get many good reviews and the bad ones won’t matter anymore.

Anyway, that’s how I would deal with it.

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#4

I agree wholeheartedly with this!

Good advice, but I have seen cases here where CS will back a buyer who is asking for a revision even after 3 months. You could block the buyer as @looseink suggests, but the buyer may go to CS.

Send your explanation to your buyer as to why their request does not fit into your revision policy. This is as much for the buyer as for CS in case they get involved.

Good Luck! :four_leaf_clover:

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#5

Sorry guys, I should clarify.

Both orders are already marked complete and way beyond the date to allow a review. These people bought and paid for websites, I delivered. Then they came back using language as if I am just expected to build them a whole new site.

They were polite, and I don’t think this is related to the unlimited revisions. We had already gone through the revisions process, approved the order with the (written) understanding that I was just to add the remaining bits of content when the client provides them.

It’s really a moral issue here - the orders are long completed. I am more worried about them seeing that I blocked them and trying to report me.

If CS looked into it, they’ll see I delivered each of these customers multiple websites and that the customer never mentioned a whole new site until 3 months later out of the blue.

Not sure if that changes your answers, but thought it was important to share.

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#6

Blockquote Send your explanation to your buyer as to why their request does not fit into your revision policy. This is as much for the buyer as for CS in case they get involved.

This is probably the route I’ll have to go…

My unlimited revisions are until they approve the order. We had an agreement on one final revision for adding some content at a later date (she said 10 days) and 3 months later she’s asking for a new site.

3 Likes
#7

You could add your revision policy to your gig description so they know before buying the gig. A problem is it says “unlimited revisions” multiple times in the gig, including in the title without saying the revision policy.

I agree with the suggestions to remove unlimited revisions. Though because it’s in the gig title it will always be in the URL.

I’d be careful of doing that. If you know there is remaining content left to do I wouldn’t agree or ask them to approve the order. And if you say you’ll do it later in the inbox you should do that, as long as it it’s not something not covered by the revision policy/as long they’re not asking for something new that would be a new order.

1 Like
#8

I’d be careful of doing that. If you know there is remaining content left to do I wouldn’t agree or ask them to approve the order. And if you say you’ll do it later in the inbox you should do that, as long as it it’s not something not covered by the revision policy/as long they’re not asking for something new that would be a new order.

I think that’s what I mean here. It is not something covered by the revisions policy. She’s not asking for the one remaining revision, she’s asking me for a new site from scratch. But she’s pretending we had conversations we didn’t have, or at least she believes we had the conversation. Pretending she didn’t see the first site I made for her and that she didn’t tell me she just needed to send the remaining content.

  • She bought

  • I delivered main site, made revisions as requested

  • She requested a “coming soon” site, said she would send the final content bits for the main site before we publish, about 10 days

  • She accepted delivery of the “Coming soon” site, and knew the other site was still there that we already revised, just awaiting content

  • 3 Months later she file dumps content for a new site from scratch with a “hey I’m ready to do my site now” as if we didn’t already do this

1 Like
#9

So like was suggested, explain that to the buyer. You could say that because it’s a brand new site that it would need to be a new order. You could offer to create a custom offer for it or say they could use the option on the gig page and create a new order for it.

But I’d still remove unlimited revisions from your gigs as it will be less trouble in future if you do.

#10

That’s what I’d say. And remind her (with screenshots) of all the agreements that were made, the scope of work that was discussed, the aforementioned revision policy. I don’t think it’s a controversial statement that a revision doesn’t imply receiving a brand new product.

Then remove all the mentions of unlimited revisions from your gig page.

4 Likes
#11

A slightly alternative thought, and I’d be interested in what other experienced sellers think, you could get a preemptive strike in with customer support and seek their guidance.

You could write something like “My gig offered unlimited revisions. I have a client who has come back to me requesting revisions 3 months after their order completed. I was under the impression that revisions only applied to open orders, and not orders that have completed. Can you guide whether I am obligated to provide further free revisions, or whether I am within my rights to treat this as a new order?”.

This will remove the guess work, it will give you the facts to enable you to construct an appropriate response to your buyers, should your buyers complain then customer support have a record of your conversation and the advice they gave etc.

The only word of warning I can think of, and this is where the input of others would be useful, is that you might not like the response that CS provide! In other words it might confirm your worst fears.

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#12

Your last paragraph was what I was going to say in response to your comment…until I read it.

Totally agree that it could turn out differently.

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#13

Indeed! In my opinion we see far too much conjecture displayed in the forum. Sometimes what we need is solid advice / guidance.

If customer support tell the op they are obliged to complete the requested work as a revision, then at least the op knows they have to do it.

Likewise if CS turnaround and say the op is not obliged to do the work, then the op can quote this back at the buyers.

But at least the guesswork will have been removed along with the possibility that the buyers could complain or start a chargeback via PayPal for example.

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#14

Thank you all very much. All great info. Yes, going to CS preemptively was my first thought. I always just get nervous about doing that lol. Not so much nervous that I have to do the work - more nervous they’ll find something wrong with the order or me telling the customer I’m not going to do the work and it costing me more than just time.

Thank you, I will figure out a way through this!

1 Like
#15

@mjcagency I’ve just asked fiver CS this question myself so you don’t have to. I’ll let you know what they say. Should know in a few hours… This way there’s no risk in you getting an answer you don’t like as @english_voice warned but we can all know the facts

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#16

I went to CS 4 times through the years with the same question of “Do I have to offer revisions included in my packages (2 rounds) months after the order was complete?” The answers were “yes”, “no”, “you don’t have to but we’d really appreciate it if you did”, “you have to but to a reasonable degree” (paraphrasing). They don’t seem to have an official answer.

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#17

It’s farcical if you do have to provide revisions forever- I may as well buy as many $5 unlimited revision gigs as I can. Unlimited logos for life (as long as the seller stays on fiver) for $5 sounds like a good deal to me!

1 Like
#18

just be straightforward, say that even though youd love to help them, payment is required, that they had time for revisions and that youd be glad to help if it was just a small correction, if they insist block them, theres no need to deal with them

#19

just straight block them if they cant understand you dont work for free, you dont owe them anything, more so if it was 3 months ago,its simply ridiculous, they are not being reasonable

#20

It absolutely is.

Which is why every time a buyer approaches me and asks for unlimited revisions, I run. If things go wrong, there is no guarantee that CS will have my back. Someone has posted a CS response fairly recently and it said that the revisions had to be carried out “until the buyer’s fully satisfied”. The tone of it was so enthusiastic. Don’t you love it? Don’t you want to make your buyer satisfied?

2 Likes