Never maltreat a freelancer, karma's a bitch ;)

My Monday didn't turn out quite well. I "studied" for about an hour and slept for the rest of the afternoon. I know that I should be freaking out because I have an exam on Thursday and I still haven't accomplished anything yet. Moving on to the bright side, I received a few emails regarding my new shop and I'm so thrilled that you guys like it! I hope you can help me spread the word around, I will be forever thankful :)

Today, I will talk about my negative experience as a freelancer. I don't know if I'm just attracting bad luck these past few days but I have come across several rude clients and it's really getting in my nerves. Don't worry, these bad clients don't belong in the Blogger community so it's not you ;) I just want to share it because I know that a lot of my friends here in the blogosphere also work from home. I hope you'll learn a little bit of something from this post :)
As most of you know, I am a Freelancer and I've signed up on different sites such as Freelancer.com and Odesk. There are many other ways on how I come across potential clients but these 2 are the most common places where I reach my target market. I offer a lot of things, I'm not really a big fan of staying under a certain niche. I write articles, academic essays, social media marketing, VA, some areas of design, etc. Normally, when you establish a "contract" on those two websites I have mentioned, you have the right to ask for a "milestone payment". Basically, clients are required to make a deposit of the agreed amount to the website to ensure that they will pay, but it will only be released to the freelacner's account once the project is done. (approved by the client) 
I've built a good reputation for myself so I'm confident enough to politely ask clients for at least a 50% deposit. The problem is, there are some clients who simply don't wanna do it. They insist that I SHOULD DO THE WORK FIRST BEFORE I GET PAID. I'm sorry, but that's just not possible. I spend a lot of time working on projects and it would just be really unfair if the payment is not secured. It does not matter whether you have good feedbacks from other freelancers, you should make a downpayment to secure the time and effort that the freelancer's allotting for you. Every time this happens, I carefully explain my terms and the reason why I need a deposit. You know what  I always get? Rude replies stating "how will I know if you will get the work done? Why do you want my money? Do the work then you'll get paid." I get really pissed off because clearly, they haven't read the website's policy that the money will only be released to my account as soon as they've approved my work. There are times when I simply don't reply anymore because I don't wanna work for someone who's rude and has no manners. 
Just to give you an example of what happened 3 weeks ago, I had this client who hired me to do his academic essay. He placed a 50% milestone so I started doing the project. I gave him the first half of the essay with no reference yet because that was our agreement, that I will only release the full, complete essay as soon as he deposits the remaining 50% milestone. He demanded to get the full essay and so, I sent it to him. Oh boy, he refused to pay the second half. I contacted Freelancer and they told me that they can't do anything about it. I got really furious because he clearly took advantage of me and I lost some money. Being the little bitch that I am, I uploaded his essay on many websites. I'm pretty sure that his essay will be submitted to Copyscape or Turnitin... and you know what happens next. Karma's a bitch ;)
So guys, if ever you'll hire a freelancer someday, make sure you treat them right. We spend a lot of time  doing our jobs and value the quality of our work, all we ask in return is for our clients not to be complete assholes and run away when it's pay time. We won't work for free, we need to eat too.
And for you who's also a freelancer, never allow yourself to be maltreated by a customer. One tip though: when you deal with a customer, especially when you don't know who you're dealing with (just a username with a fake pic ugh), establish a professional relationship and nothing else. It would be best not to befriend them because there's a very high chance that they will take advantage of you. Only befriend a customer if you truly know who you're dealing with (example: bloggers!!!)
That's it. If you have any questions, I will respond to them :) 

PS: check out my sponsor friends :) How I Dwell Now and The Brothertons 

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