Should I Refund on Upwork if a Client Leaves a Bad Review?

Question

Upwork

I contacted on my own head with a not quite adequate customer, although from the very beginning there were certain bells that it was not worth working with him, i.e. bargained for every penny and conducted communication in a not very tactful manner.

As a result, with grief, the project was closed with him in half, he put 5 stars, everything is ok. And a couple of days later he proposed a new project. I agreed, and then hell began even more than before. He asked 20 times to redo different points in the design (I am a UI / UX designer), for each internal typical page I provided him with 5-10 options, but he was constantly dissatisfied, while from time to time adding points to the TOR that were not originally It was.

In the end, I tactfully asked for an increase in the budget due to a change in the scope of work. He refused, and a couple of days later he closed the project, leaving me 2.5 stars and a huge half-page review. To be honest, I didn't expect it at all. And what is surprising, in his recall is 70 percent slander, i.e. he attributed to me something that I did not do at all.

I tried to contact upwork support, providing them with screenshots of the correspondence regarding the defamation in the review, but they said that they could not interfere with the review policy.

Today, after resetting JSS, it became 79% for me. Top Rated unfortunately I lost a few weeks ago due to changes in the JSS scoring policy, I had it at 89%. If I make a Refund, will the rating drop even more? So now the dilemma is, do a return, delete a review, but be prepared for a drop to 70% and below, or try to work with this review and wait for JSS to get rid of it later.

I have more than 1000 hours on Upwork, almost all projects are 5 stars, but this half page review and rating drop really spoil the whole picture. If a chance with such a review, take new customers? I don’t quite understand, because for the first time in many years of work I encountered such an unpleasant customer.

Answer 1

Today, after resetting JSS, it became 79% for me. Top Rated unfortunately I lost a few weeks ago due to changes in the JSS scoring policy, I had it at 89%. If I make a Refund, will the rating drop even more? So now the dilemma is, do a return, delete a review, but be prepared for a drop to 70% and below, or try to work with this review and wait for JSS to get rid of it later.

As Top Rated, you can indeed delete a review, but only a public one, and you can do it in the allotted time, I don’t remember exactly, it seems like two weeks. Now you are no longer Top Rated, and if you don’t become one in the next two weeks, then you won’t have time to delete it. The very fact of the refund affects JSS, but I won't say how much. I made a full return several times and as a result there was no effect on JSS, but perhaps this is due to other reviews, I can’t presume to say here. The extent of refund's influence on JSS and how best to proceed - I would also ask those. support, they somehow explained to me which contribution is more significant. Here you still need to look at the size of the amount and the time factor is also important - maybe some old estimates will fall out of the calculation soon / new ones will come in, for example, for your first project with him.
There are always chances to work further, and over time this annoyance will disappear.
By the way, in such a case it is useful to have a couple of open long-term contracts .. and when such a fakap happens - ask them to close them .. or another option - if you are on good terms with the client, explain the situation, let him close the current contract with good feedback and immediately open another one. And so with the rest, with whom it is possible)