Do I have the right to refuse an unfinished project?

Question

Freelance

Hello Freelancers!!! I got the project through word of mouth. And the project is 80% completed , the remaining 20% ​​is uploaded to the hosting and integrated with the CMS, then started. The project seemed very interesting to me, it was not just the creation of a website or a blog. It was necessary to make a costume designer for a factory or a workshop or a factory that sews costumes to order. Wagon function on one page.
At first, I put forward my conditions of 50% prepayment and 50% at the end, but the customer rejected such conditions, referring to the fact that he had already burned himself with another freelancer associated with this project, and then I offered 25% now, then when the project is 50% completed, he pays another 25% bail. The customer had only a written T3, without a designer design, and there was a link to Western competitors so that I could make something similar to theirs . At the initial stage, I did about 25% of the work and uploaded it to the hosting so that the customer could evaluate it. There were comments and corrections, the customer almost always referred to the competitor's website, what needs to be done similar to theirs. I started to fix it, redo it in some places and uploaded it to the hosting again. But the customer again did not like some places and they required alterations. The customer was not viewing the work alone, but with his colleagues in the workshop. Someone did not like this, someone else and so accumulated about a dozen edits. And for the third time, it dawned on me that the customer still does not want to be like the competitors, but still wants it to be like theirs. Completely demolished the entire project and started from scratch to redo it like competitors. I did 25% again and uploaded it to hosting. Customer reaction:

Cool !!!, So much better and more convenient. Keep going in this direction!!!

Did 50% of the project and got 25% of the pie. I sort of did the project twice at 50% and at the same time did not require an advance payment, I don’t even know why, I just swallowed it and continued on. Perhaps because I did not really need money and most of all I wanted to put this project in my portfolio. The deadline was delayed by a week. There is also guilt on my part in the fact that I did not fully understand what exactly the customer needed and just proceeded headlong, and in addition to T3, the customer threw off the archive with an image of various elements of the costume with an excel file. The excel files contained the url and the description of the costume element, and there were a lot of shortcomings and they required alterations or improvements from the illustrator. In total, the weekly project dragged on for a month. And when I'm waiting for edits from the illustrator, the customer tells me that the constructor should be adaptive. Although T3 did not have a word about adaptation and the same competitors did not have an adaptive constructor. I figured that I need to add / rewrite css, adapt html and js code to the new DOM. Adaptation rolls back 30-40% of the work back.
Summing up, the project became a headache for me and made it clear that without a clear understanding of what the customer wants, you shouldn’t even think about starting work, and because of this, “let’s do it, but let’s do it better, although not better like this” ideally, I think you need was to require a psd design constructor. I want to quit this project but I don't know if I'm doing the right thing or not.

Answer 1

All this had to be written to the customer and not to us and discussed with him

Answer 2

it was necessary to explain that adaptation is another topic and you need to pay extra 2 times

Answer 3

It's not clear why you want to quit the project. There was no adaptation in the original, so you take an additional cost, or you don’t implement it in principle. I usually bring to the final according to the initial TK, and then I switch forces to additional Wishlist. The adaptive version cannot drop the work by 40% if the work was originally done professionally (layout without tables and position: absolute).

Answer 4

Such a project could take months. No in the TOR means additional payment or require hourly payment and rewrite at least 100 times

Answer 5

Because there are no formal technical specifications and a project, then the right ones cannot be found in this situation. The first thing to decide is what each side wants to achieve in the end. If the direction is constructive, the first thing to do is to draw up a technical specification and a project for the system. Then the properties of the product that is rented under the contract will be clear. Then it will be possible to redefine the terms and possibly the budget of the project, because. in general, in such situations, there is an overrun of the budget.
In addition, in the future it is desirable to use some sort of help desk system to control the list of imperfections, separate them from additional tasks and document the work process to resolve future disputes.
It is better to divide payment for projects a little more than simple ones into stages, then after the post payment for the first stage and 50% prepayment for each next stage, the financial risks of both parties will be minimal.

Answer 6

Learn to stand your ground and say "no", otherwise another customer will come instead and the situation will repeat itself.
The fact that you did the work (i.e. approved and agreed), which is not spelled out in the TOR, is your fault, not the customer's. Before you do anything, you must indicate that this is not included in the price and you need to pay for it separately. And so you are a free slave.

Answer 7

You can refuse, just the point? Explain to the customer that everything that was not initially discussed will be done for an additional fee and name the price, there is nothing wrong with that. Don't be afraid to bargain, stand your ground. As mentioned above, it is better to work on such projects with hourly pay.

Answer 8

There were comments and corrections, the customer almost always referred to the competitors' website, what needs to be done in the likeness of theirs. I started to fix it, redo it in some places and uploaded it to the hosting again. But the customer again did not like some places and they required alterations. The customer was not viewing the work alone, but with his colleagues in the shop. Someone did not like this, someone else and so accumulated about a dozen edits. And for the third time, it dawned on me that the customer still does not want to be like the competitors, but still wants it to be like theirs. Completely demolished the entire project and started from scratch to redo it like competitors. I did 25% again and uploaded it to hosting

Absolutely normal situation.
Frequent.
And the longer the project takes, the more likely it is.
And with a large number of inspectors - even more so.
You missed your chance to prove something to them when they deviated from the TK.
In vain they redid everything from scratch.
Now if you refuse the project, you will get a huge spit in your reputation.
Of course you can refuse.
As a real solution to your problem - talk, explain that you have significantly deviated from the TK and ask for a dough separately for improvements.
Often agree to pay extra. You just need to explain.
PS:
It's great to do such things not for a fixed fee, but by the hour.
PS.:
It is not necessary to work with a crowd of decisive (and not responding at the same time) without a formal brief or TOR.

Answer 9

Such agile projects need to be done on an hourly basis.
Gather a list of grievances about what has already been redone, constantly appearing tasks, etc. and announce to the client, discuss the options:
1) You can request 100% prepayment + full fulfillment of the TOR + time for support and minor improvements (but they will rather refuse, and the option is not very good).
2) Termination of the "contract"
3) But it is best to switch to hourly work.