I took the first order for UpWORK from an Indian. How to solve problems?

Question

Upwork

Good afternoon!
The day before yesterday I took the first order for UpWORK - 2 years after registering the profile. Previously, it did not work, then the hands did not reach. A client from India, he had to download a database dump and optimize the database for $10, reduce its size. Optimize page loading speed. Deadline was 1 day.
Troubles:
1) The work has sharply gone beyond the deadline of 1 day, because. the database is huge and the scripts are slow. At first, he suffered with importing a 2 GB database dump, his dedicated server was constantly buggy. At first I tried to load via PHP scripts like Syphex Dumper, after 7-12 hours the script gave an error. As a result, I loaded it through MySQL commands, but I lost a day.
Further, optimization consists primarily of cleaning 80,000 WooCommerce products along with all images and attachments. The process is very slow, about 10-20 items per second are deleted, the script has been plowing for a day and there is no end in sight. Through quick SQL commands, the wrong thing is constantly deleted, so I trusted the WooCommerce Store Toolkit plugin for this task. He slows down.
2) The client uses his email as a password from the site admin panel (!), he wrote it to me 2 times in correspondence - and UpWORK immediately reacted to this, highlighting the mail in red in the correspondence and issuing a message with threats.
3) The Indian client started endless nit-picking that there was functionality - and it broke (the picture disappeared, the color deteriorated, the layout moved out), let's roll back your repair to the original large base, but I remember that initially there was nothing in the breakdown that came to me nitpicking. According to the previous accusations, he managed to prove that this is not due to repairs, but periodically puts forward something new. It feels like he wants to hang more work on me within the same $ 10.
4) Now the UpWORK administration suspects me of something and demands a video interview for "profile confirmation". How to behave in this case?
I feel fear that either I will be banned there soon, or this client will sit on my neck for these damned $ 10 for a month and will demand to correspond with him all day to the detriment of all other work and hang some more nit-picking and demand to repair them. The third day I sit at the computer for 10 hours due to the fact that he constantly pesters me in correspondence, not calming down by the fact that there is an automatic process of cleaning the database. Now again it requires to roll everything back to its original positions and start again, again some functionality allegedly broke (I don’t remember specifically about this one, was it or not?).
How to get out of this story? Thanks for support!

Answer 1

A sad situation, apparently caused primarily by a lack of experience in such improvements and in general, therefore, there are a few rules for the future:
1) do not mess with the Indians (well, only if there is not enough bread and there are no jobs / orders except Indians).
2) find out in advance the maximum details of the order before accepting it (here, obviously, this hell could have been foreseen in advance)
3) do not immediately go to the production servers (production), if the client only has a combat server or he offers to do it right away on it - then considering p. 2) send by forest.
According to the options for getting out of the situation - if the initial dump remains, then try to return everything back, including these $ 10, i.e. cancel the order altogether so that the Indian does not have the opportunity to leave another bad review (they love to do this).
If there is no dump and you can’t return it - well, you’ll have to try to restore it back as he wants as much as possible, but then still cancel this penny order, tk. in a private review, it is unlikely that an Indian will put everything well, even if everything can be repaired.

Answer 2

In such cases, I acted somewhat differently. Perhaps it looks strange, but I was in no hurry to open the project. I wrote an application, then offered to get acquainted with the front of the work and even tried something without opening the work on the upwork. The order is fixed, so in any case you will receive the agreed amount, but you will get the opportunity to assess the scale of the disaster)))) and, in which case, do not get involved.
However, this approach did not insure me against a similar situation...)))) Alas. ))

Answer 3

I'm almost done - the WooCommerce plugin has removed almost all unnecessary products; managed to speed up the site up to 2 sec. But the client again clung to the fact that "the layout in the functionality of the main page broke a little, this is because of your actions" and offered to roll back the database again to the original 1.8 GB and start all over again.
I got angry and wrote:
I will not do this job again. let's close the contract and you'll hire yourself another specialist. Or I can try recovery functional of site with this database which was optimized. How the right functional on home page should be looked?
The client did not want to work with the base that I cleaned for him, and terminated the contract, I returned the funds to him. Specified:
Reason contract ended: Job not as described.
What will happen to me now? (Perhaps I wrote Job not as described in vain - there was a lot of work on the topic, I just clung to "you broke me ..." along the way).
How now to make amends to the exchange, not to get banned? (The interview has not yet passed).

Answer 4

Congratulations on your first experience! I once had something similar.
In your case, I would write to the Indian, either increase the budget or send a return request. Then I stop all work. Since you have the first order, and JSS is calculated only after 5-6 orders, it’s clearly not worth being afraid that something that doesn’t exist yet will fall.
Of course, this is bad, of course, if you set to work it must be completed at all costs, of course, you need to satisfy the client, however, you need to understand when the client sits on your neck and not allow it.
In general, the situation is such that the guys from India as customers want too much. The advantage of such orders is that they are quite easy to take, you can fill yourself with the first rating on them, type in the history of work. When I first started I worked with such orders. Of the 13 first 4 I canceled due to inadequacy. JSS fluctuated from 97% to 69%. Then, having typed in the history of work, I found normal guys from Western Europe, leveled JSS to 94%, and got Top Rated.
I note that Upwork highlights any emails at all. Just check the "ignore the next 30 days" box and don't worry about it. By the way, with phone numbers, mine, the same thing.
Verification or confirmation of the profile is a standard procedure. When I went through it, the operator threw me a link to a video chat, I opened it. I was looking at some Ahmen straight from India, and he was looking at me. This went on for about 30 seconds. Then, realizing that one of us had problems with sound, he asked me a couple of questions in the chat, after which my profile was unblocked.

Answer 5

but if you cancel the order, won't it leave a bad review?

No. Reviews can only be left after payment. Feel free to cancel and go through the forest. Well, in an amicable way, return everything as it was and just say goodbye.
An interview is a normal practice to verify an account. If you have all the data real, then you have nothing to fear. The main thing is to be able to explain yourself in English normally)
Here you have learned a few good lessons:
- no Indians (from India; Indians from the USA are not those Indians anymore).
- with a fixed price, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the scope of work before starting work
- with a fixed price, write clearly in a separate message with an explicit indication "I do 1, 2 and 3 and after that there is payment, ok?". The client says "ok" and it will be difficult for him to delay payment if you have clearly fulfilled the agreed points.

Answer 6

Okay, is that a problem?
You can:
1. Close the contract yourself. The payment will be = 0, which means that JSS will not be affected and the review will not be displayed
2. After the contract is closed by the Indian, make a refund. Payment is again 0 with all the consequences.
And never, ever, ever mess with any Indians. Here they wrote above that Indians from the USA are already different. Believe it or not, Indians are Indians. Upwork is full of normal customers.

Answer 7

I love India very much. But I do not advise anyone to work with Indians. And I will object to one of the previous commentators: Indians from the USA are the same Indians with the same principles and attitudes.
My experience of working with Indians over 12 years of freelancing has always ended sadly. They will try to squeeze as much work out of you as possible (porridge from an ax: they will ask you to do a simple task for a penny, which they will gradually grow and acquire requirements within the initial budget). If an Indian sees an opportunity to scam with payment, they will definitely scam (in 99% of cases they will try to persuade them to work bypassing Upwok, which threatens with a ban on Upwork and the fact that in the end they simply won’t pay, and the bribes will be smooth).
They are great people, India is an interesting country. But when it comes to work, everything turns upside down.

Answer 8

Cho something laugh)
My advice is to send it to the ass, close the order. First off, $10 bucks isn't worth it. Second, just give them back to him. Works worth less than $5 do not appear in your history and he will not write a review for you. So it will not affect the reputation in any way.
Work with western customers.
Upwork's desire to communicate is normal and most likely has nothing to do with the order. Get in touch, there's nothing wrong with that. Usually the same freelancers hired by Upwork communicate.

Answer 9

We send a Hindu, we forget everything like a bad dream :)

Answer 10

As they said, numbers 2 and 4 are not a problem at all, upwork always highlights emails in red, just forget it. A video interview is a standard procedure, it has nothing to do with the order and suspicions.
On the first order - if I were you, I would very politely work everything out with the Indian, spend extra time and do whatever he wants. Well, within reason. The first few orders are your portfolio, consider that earnings are not very important there.
Try to deal with him politely and calmly, I think everything will be fine.

Answer 11

A lot has already been written, from myself I’ll just add that you ALWAYS need to make a backup before starting work.

Answer 12

Calm down, all is not lost.
1.
>this client will sit on my neck for a month for these damned $10 and
that's exactly what will happen. A project with an Indian should be rounded off as quickly as possible.
And later, do not take projects from "eastern comrades" - Pakistan, India, Thailand, our near abroad (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan), etc.
There is no discrimination based on culture/nationality, it's just that in those countries there is a different order of prices: in the opinion of the customer, he pays you money on which his village can live for a month. Hence the additional requirements and nit-picking.
2.
Your feedback on this order will be 100% negative.
While we just started working, jss will not be shown to you. We urgently need to dial a few other orders to straighten the profile rating. So that as jss starts to be considered, it becomes higher.
The only option is dumping. Take orders with a budget of $500, offer to make them for $300 or less. The customer can be motivated to give you at a suspiciously low price by the fact that "I have already made such an order, you can take it for your old code with minor alterations."
Although you will work on these orders at a loss, you will need to try not to adjust and do everything on time and with high quality.
3.
Learn the tools.
For this task, I would try to put WP-CLI on his server.
Offhand, without even making any custom code - you could try to speed up the WooCommerce Store Toolkit by disabling unnecessary plugins / theme when running this plugin through WP-CLI

Answer 13

> 2) The client uses his email as a password from the site admin panel (!), he wrote it to me 2 times in correspondence - and UpWORK immediately reacted to this, highlighting the mail in red in the correspondence and issuing a message with threats.
He reacts to all the details and even the word Skype and Paypal in such a way, just as a reminder to users that you can’t pay for work outside the site. Don't worry.
> 4) Now UpWORK's administration suspects me of something and demands a video interview for "profile confirmation". How to behave in this case?
This is a common practice, required of all. Will take 2 minutes.
General recommendation: if you see that you can finish and can agree - negotiate, finish and get money. If you see that the situation is hopeless - apologize and make a refund, but as for the first project, this is undesirable (it may affect the success story, it may not).
If you are sure that other glitches are not related to your actions, and the client is worried, explain this to the client again and again.
Don't worry, everything will be fine, no one will just ban you. Try to find a couple more small projects, search constantly and apply for everything you can. If along the way you successfully close one or two other projects, the success story will definitely not suffer.

Answer 14

contact the support and close the contract through the support

Answer 15

It's better to start using the genymotion emulator right away. It's smarter and has more features. On the off site there are detailed instructions on how to install and connect to the compiler.

Answer 16

when you start the emulator, it has its own IP address and port on which it can be contacted. try to ping this host or force adb to it with the command
If this does not happen, then see why it is not possible to contact.