Handling Arbitration in a Freelancing Project
Even your best efforts will make you land in an arbitration. You have to learn the tricks to avoid them and if not you should know to save your ass, so to speak. You have to carefully trade your way during the life cycle of the whole project. So lets study the pros and cons of arbitraitons here.What is an arbitration?
When you are working on a freelancing website, many times it will so happen that you and your client won’t be able to agree on a certain point. Though communication is the method of choice to resolve this difference still at times you shall have to ask the website arbitrator to intervene. A freelancing website's arbitrator is a neutral third party who shall hear the arguments of both the buyer and the provider and give his verdict. The verdict is final and binding on both the parties. At that point an arbitration starts.
First and foremost you should try to avoid an arbitration. This starts right when you bid for the project. You should :-
- Be absolutely clear of what are the deliverables
- Be clear and specific about timeline of delivery
- Be clear about the specifications of the work in question
- Document every aspect of the spec onsite if it changes during the progress of work
- Clearly mention what will happen if some situation arises which is beyond your control
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Paste the transcript of all the conversations you have offsite, maybe through an instant messenger.
Failed Timelines :
If you have failed to deliver the project within the stipulated timeframe then try to avoid arbitration at all cost. The arbitrator will not even look at your work and will determine that you have lost the arbitration if you miss your deadline even by a minute. The only thing that can save you in this scenario is if you can prove that there were circumstances beyond your control and for that you have failed to deliver on time. Still then the arbitrator might rule in favour of the buyer and ask him if he wants to continue with you and give you some more time to complete the job. If he agrees then work goes on. If he doesn’t then you might be saved from a bad rating but your money is gone for sure. You will NOT get paid..
Some specs of work unfinished :
Almost all freelancing website rules say that every freelancer will have to deliver 100% of the work within the stipulated deadline. So if you have delivered a half baked solution and if the buyer decides to arbitrate then you will be in a bad shape. So here I want to stress on 100%. Read the spec sheet properly before submitting work completion report. Double check if every aspect of the spec sheet and make sure that it has been taken care of. Be satisfied yourself before you submit your final work.
Quality of work submitted :
Quality of work is often the bone of contention for freelancers. Many freelancers take up too many jobs at a time and then struggle to complete them by deadline. This results in a loss of quality of their work. The buyer is displeased and opens an arbitration. So be sure to deliver quality work and not some hasty patch work. Delivering good quality work will help you get good ratings and customer satisfaction and this will go a long way in your freelancing career.
Be polite with the client and the arbitrator :
If you at all land up in an arbitration then make it a point to be as polite as possible to the arbitrator. It is unethical but true that most freelancing websites' arbitrators try to satisfy buyers and not coders or designers. So handle them politely. That does not mean don't be logical. Be logical yet be polite. You can even say 'no' politely. This will convey a very professional image of yours to the the arbitrator and he will start taking you seriously. This works specially if you have no ratings in the freelancing website and your first job lands in an arbitration. Lets hope this never happens.
Lastly :-
- Go by your instinct and be truthful.
- Never try to bluff the arbitrator. You will surely get caught in the end.
- Place you case well with all facts and figures and specifically state what you want.
- Make bulleted points of the facts if necessary and place it to the arbitrator. If you have not delivered something or deviated from the spec sheet for some reason mention it clearly along with the reason.
- If the client is asking for something which needs some previous coding to be changed but is not ready to pay for it then mention it to the arbitrator. If you are true to yourself you shall definitely win the arbitration. Best of luck!
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