Would you ever accept payments for something that actually didn't work?

hitmeasap Level X⁵

July 20, 2016, 6:09 pm

19

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Hello freelancers!
I probably already know that none of you would actually be honest enough to answer this question, even if you do or did "scam" people in the past.. But I'll ask you anyways.

Have you ever delivered something fake? Something that didn't work.. And still asked your client for payments?

Have you done this more than once? - The reason for my question is, because I would like to get answers from the people "scamming" their clients.

I don't care if you did it 5 years ago or yesterday. This is not about that at all. I simply wonder if you could be honest enough and tell me the reason you scammed your clients.. IF you've done that.

Best Regards,
hitmeasap

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TommyCarey

TommyCarey

Hmmmm, maybe not something that I knew didn't work. But I have sold something that didn't work at the time.

I had a traffic exchange in the past and people could buy their traffic if they didn't want to surf the other members websites. The system kept breaking every week and once it was down for a few days. During those days I had like 30 sales and the points weren't being transferred into the users account. So I wasn't really scamming people, but they thought of it as that because they didn't get the points right away. When I got home from my weekend trip I realized what was going on and had my programmer fix it. I manually added double points to all the people who purchased just so they wouldn't be pissed. It only took a day to fix what happened, so not too many of the users were mad.

10 years ago

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hitmeasap

hitmeasap

So... you basically got the cash, the system went nuts, the clients didn't get what they paid for right away, but they got it afterwards, and you could ease the "pain" for all of them..

That ultimately means that you didn't scammed them and didn't accept any payments for nothing you didn't delivered...

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

TommyCarey

Well they paid and didn't get what they were suppose to. On my website it said that the points would be automatically added to their account after purchase and when they didn't see the points, they started to get pissed off lol.

I didn't actually scam anyone, but a few people thought they were being taking advantage of because the system wasn't automating the points properly lol.

10 years ago

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CryptoGuru

CryptoGuru

i like that i see you that you were gone when it happened so you cant say it was an intentional thing it was an accident your only human right, it is the steps that you took after that shows you are genuine , you made sure to have your programmer come in and fix the problem as soon as you realized that some thing was going wrong and on top of all that you went out your way to manually make sure that those who paid for service were taken cared of by adding double points, lol remind me too recommend you man, thats great

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

TommyCarey

lol yeah but it was annoying having to log in and manually do everything that should have been automated with the scripts we had. It seemed like the scripts broke at least once a week and I would have to message the programmer to let him know something broke. Over time he stopped responding to me so I had to semi-abandon the website and focus my attention on other websites. I had paid around $1,500 on the design and programming of the website and at the time I couldn't afford to pay another programmer to fix what the first one was suppose to. This is one of the main reasons I won't hire people that have a language barrier. I will hire people in India some times, but only the ones that can speak and type fluent English. Right now I'm talking with another programmer and she's extremely fluent in English and has logged thousands of hours on upwork with a 100% rating. And she's from India which means I will be able to pay much less for what I need done lol. I actually put a job up for $300 and she bid $200

After she's done with my new design and programming I'm going to pay her to revamp my other website that is currently broken

10 years ago

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Cristian

Cristian

Since we are being honest, well, yes. I did do 1 scam in my lifetime. I was just starting with online marketing, something like 9 years ago, was young and naive. Got paid in advance and didn't complete the delivery. 1 year later I felt pretty ashamed for scamming that buyer and returned his money. I actually ended working for him again, this time for real, real nice guy...

10 years ago

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Lynne

Lynne

Well done on going and setting things straight. I can imagine this wasn't easy!

I've also had to make a lot of amends to people for things I have done in my life. It is not easy to do, but it really helps with being able to look in the mirror doesn't it?

10 years ago

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hitmeasap

hitmeasap

That's amazing. Thanks for sharing Cristian!

It's actually quite common in this field of work, that newcomers are doing just that. They scam people. They do whatever they can to earn money but most of these people does end their freelancer career rather quickly.

However, I'm glad you contacted him, returned the money and that you actually worked with him further on after that. That's quite inspiring actually.

10 years ago

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EliteWriter

EliteWriter

No I never did that. It is all about ethical behavior. I am a person who places a lot of importance on delivering a great service and so it actually never occurred to me if there could have been possibilities where a client could have paid me and I did not deliver what I originally promised to. I was scammed, but I never scammed anyone. I guess the negative experience I had where people did not pay me for my work made me naturally not even consider making anyone go through something similar.

10 years ago

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Lynne

Lynne

I also place a lot of importance on being ethical and doing things right. I think my 15 years of abusing drugs and alcohol and being chained like that to addiction has really set me on the straight and narrow. I can't handle even telling a white lie to anyone know. It is very important to me to be honest in everything I do now.

10 years ago

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EliteWriter

EliteWriter

It might have had an effect on you I guess. Experiences leave a mark on us and on our attitudes and behavior, and in your case, even on your work ethic. I think that honesty has a lot of benefits, but there are some cases where it could work against you. So you need to reconsider whether telling a white lie may be okay at times. Seeing the overall effect and the general picture is sometimes the best option.

10 years ago

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hitmeasap

hitmeasap

I can relate with that last part. About being scammed. I've been scammed several times during my years online and it's a learning curve. If not in business terms at least on a personal level. However, I've always been honest and I've always tried to build relations rather than destroying them for a quick buck or two, but being scammed myself has probably made me even more customer care oriented.. And that ultimately makes me trustworthy in the eyes of my clients too.

10 years ago

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Everett

Everett

This is a very interesting question, hitmeasap. Let me think back to my years of freelancing.. *thinks back to the dinosaur ages*

Nope. I do not. However, sometimes my scripts may have a bug or two or stop working completely due to PHP updates, so I'll have to fix that. If PHP discontinues a use of a certain function and the hosting uses an updated version than the script will most likely stop working which would mean that the client bought something, and after a bit of time it stopped working.. This is very bad!

I would love to know if you have ever done this before?

10 years ago

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CryptoGuru

CryptoGuru

at least you take the time to fix it man and that shows some thing in you , you know some people out there would not take that extra time or effort to go back and fix what they messed up on, and i really do think that is great, i do the exact same when something goes wrong on do know really anyone that could fully except some for of payment for a not working service, even if none of this really effects your moral as a person you know any smart free lancer knows it can always come back to bite you,

10 years ago

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hitmeasap

hitmeasap

No. Never. I have never done that and I will never do it. I even refund people even if they bought my products months back..

I am what one might call, a stupid yet trustworthy freelancer with nothing in mind besides reputation and long-term relations. Okay, you got me. If I could make, say, perhaps something around $25,000,000.. through a loophole or whatever, and a company like Microsoft lost the money.. Then I would do it.

Nah, I'm just not that type of guy. I've never been that guy, even though I've actually lost almost everything I earned at one point.. I never did any scams during those days either.. I'm too honest.

10 years ago

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Lynne

Lynne

Well I am a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. I never scammed anyone online... but I did manipulate a lot of people, including family and friends to get money and to get what I wanted.

However mostly I never sold anything to these people that didn't work, I never sold anything to them. I just told them BS to get money out of them. Does that count?

And I am actually a very honest person, that type of behaviour is not how I am normally when I am sober and clean from substances.

10 years ago

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hitmeasap

hitmeasap

Even though we are two completely different people. You a recovering alcoholic and drug addict and me none of that, we do have things in common. I believe most people do have something in common, no matter what country, gender or age you are or come from.

In this specific scenario, I would say that I've been treating people around me the same way too at least in some way. The thing is, I've never seen it like that. I've never ever believed it either. But I've heard it from my former boss, when I worked as a salesman. He called me manipulative and I call it persuasion skills.

I wouldn't say that it count in this topic Lynne, but I would recommend that you see that as a skill rather than something bad.. And I recommend that you use that skill when it comes to business.

Thanks for sharing!

10 years ago

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CryptoGuru

CryptoGuru

nah not really , i know personally i would not at least , that is how you end up with refund request lol i try to make sure i deliver properly with everything i do, i am the type of person that does not like to sell my self short and false advertising to me is the same as selling some thing that does not work, and that does not cut it, i can not sell my self short there is no way i plan on selling my customers short of what they are paying for it is bad for business

10 years ago

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ajlancer

ajlancer

Hi hitmeasap thanks for your question. It is very difficult to say. I think I never do such thing with any clients never and ever. You may think, I just try to be a dude. But, honestly I never do it even by mistaken. I always try to be a honest not only as freelancer but also as human. And I can tell you one things. Few years ago, I completed a job but when I am going to deliver order, I just checked buyer status, and I saw buyer is not found. It is meaning that buyer has banned by admin but I completed task for him, so, what I will do? I just deliver order even buyer was ban. I do not think it is any scamming.

Regards by Ajlancer

10 years ago

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