This is Friday and I have landed a freelance project for few articles that must be completed by Sunday, to be delivered to the buyer on Monday. I am already overloaded with lot many other commitments but the buyer is special that I don’t want to say ‘nay’. I confidently confirm that I can do the job for delivery on Monday. What I am hoping to do is to award the job to another guy so that I am not distracted from my prior commitments.
I have always depended on the most popular classified ads website Craigslist for getting jobs done in the past and I have always managed to find capable hands there. Besides, posting the hassle free posting of the small ad from my computer console is another attraction to use Craigslist. So, I don’t hesitate a second to put my ad in place hoping to get responses soon. I offer a better than normal reward to ensure that I get good responses.
By noon Saturday, surprisingly, I have few offers but none seems to be a good prospect as none of them adhered to the response requirements, where I specifically asked for a sample of previous work for review in order to cut down on work award time. The responses received were all ‘routine’ one each respondent, presumably, send out to all project posts that seem interesting to each one; not surprisingly, many of the responses did not even have any relation to the project you have posted! Obviously, most of the respondents have not read and understood the requirements, but in their eagerness to land a job, sent in their routine response as though to reserve a seat on first-come-first-serve basis!
I feel uncomfortable, but decide to wait and by evening Saturday, I have a long-winding response that seems promising for the job at hand, but again the requested previous work sample was missing! Without waiting further, I send a reply making my intentions clear to award the job and detailing the project specifications, required delivery time, reward and payment method. I ask the respondent to confirm by return mail, hoping to get a reply soon.
The provider does not respond the whole of Sunday and by now I am already trapped. I do not have time again to insert another ad and zero in on a provider nor can I devote time to do the job myself. I send in a meek apology to my project owner and request 2 days extension for submission and hope that I am not taken off their roster because of my inability to meet the delivery deadline!
My provider haughtily replies to you on Monday afternoon suggesting his own specifications for the job. I put my foot down and reply immediately asking him to refer to the original post. I ask him to confirm whether he wants to do the job or not. Surprisingly the provider comes back with a fresh demand to enhance the reward rate. By now I am pissed off with the delays and angry that fresh demands are being made and therefore promptly shoot off an immediate reply in aggressive language that everything is and will remain as per my original specifications and he should respond if he wishes to continue.
The provider presumably understands that he is in peril of losing the job, so comes back the same evening with the first article for approval as desired by me. I review the article and find it acceptable, so send out my immediate response confirming acceptance and asking the provider to continue and submit the next few articles by evening Tuesday. You tell the provider that the project is already behind schedule and therefore the provider must confirm his agreement by return mail to make sure that he is on the job. To reassure payment of reward, I try to pay him for the first article through PayPal but surprisingly the provider has no account yet. I then send another mail asking for an ID to make the payment.
I hoped that the provider will reply on Tuesday morning, but when no reply is received in the forenoon I shoot off another reminder to reiterate the delivery deadline. Again no response was received from the provider and true to the behavior of the provider the articles were also not submitted by the deadline.
On Wednesday morning I find that the provider had sent a mail on Tuesday late night asking for my contact details and followed up with another mail after 10 minutes of the first mail to say that “I have already replied”!!! I am now really angry with the delaying tactics by the provider and therefore send a warning that if the articles are not submitted in the next 4 hours time, the project will be cancelled.
Obviously the provider did not have the articles ready and therefore, as is his wont, he kept silent. Two hours after the final deadline, I decide that I have had enough and inform the provider that the project is cancelled. Despite the cancellation, in your fairness, you offer to pay him for the first article submitted and I am still awaiting a response.
Fortunately, in the meantime I have another provider writing to me as God send and find him extremely responsive and good in his work and I managed to get the work done by Thursday morning.
All the above are factual details. It is extremely important that both the provider and the project owner keep the line of communication open and respond fast so as to conclude the project successfully. If either party is a ‘once-a-day’ email response guy, he has no business to be posting jobs or offering to provide services. I have learnt my lesson and will not depend on just one provider, rather I will divide the job between couple of providers so that I am not put to ransom by one guy!
