Feodosiy Marchenko

I still haven't fully recovered from the impressions I received from working on this project. I hesitated to write a review for a long time because in the first few days after the client closed the project without payment, I messaged him privately and waited for a response. For several days, I tried to provide the results of the work done and receive payment for it. There were no responses. That is, after closing the project without payment, the client logged into the platform every day for three weeks but deliberately did not read my messages.

Even when I realized that the client was simply ignoring me and had no intention of responding, I still didn't want to write a review because, firstly, it wouldn't solve my problem, and secondly, I felt extremely exhausted and disappointed. I haven't experienced such strong frustration in a long time, and I still haven't been able to accept this situation. I hope that soon I can stabilize, rid myself of the confusion, helplessness, and sense of hopelessness that overwhelmed me after I spent so much time and effort on this project, only to end up without payment and instead receive a negative review.

The project budget was only 1000 UAH. For that amount, I was supposed to write 64,000 characters of text, take over 400 screenshots for that text, and edit them. For such a volume, 1000 UAH is extremely little, but in a difficult situation, you would be grateful for even such a project. In the last couple of years, there have been very few orders in our field — mainly due to neural networks, but also because of the war. Therefore, I would have been sincerely grateful for that thousand UAH for 64,000 characters of text, seriously. If I had been paid. Or if I had been paid a little more than 800 UAH for the volume I managed to complete before the client suddenly, without warning, silently closed the project.

At that time, I had 52,000 characters ready and over 400 screenshots. The power outage schedule had finally stabilized, so in a couple of days, I would have managed to complete the remaining 12,000 characters if needed. But the client didn't even inquire about how much volume I had already completed, even though over 80% was ready.

How did it happen that I couldn't complete the project on time? Working on it coincided with that period when the power situation was very bad across Ukraine, as you may remember. It was just recently. Personally, during that period, the power was on for 1 hour and then off for 3. My laptop is old, it takes 10 minutes to boot up, I timed it. So, I had only 50 minutes of work during each 4-hour cycle. You can't get much done.

In addition, I had to perform certain offline work – my mother works as a social worker, helping elderly people; at the end of December, she had a stroke and it became much harder for her to do her job alone. If she loses her job, we would be thrown out onto the street because we are displaced persons renting from someone else. If we don't pay rent and utilities, we would simply be evicted from the apartment. Our personal home is destroyed (as is our city in general) and we have nowhere to return; we won't receive compensation for the destroyed home because it wasn't privatized. So, with a power outage schedule of 3 to 1 (and sometimes they turned it off for more than 3 hours, and often not according to the schedule), I had to do the social worker's job instead of a close person – visiting clients and helping them with daily tasks.

In such a situation, I couldn't complete the project within the initially agreed timeframe of 7 days. Realizing that I was running out of time, on about the sixth day, I messaged the client. Before the project opened, the client provided a link to a group in the messenger with instructions for completing the task. Besides the instructions, he posted a comment that it would be better to message him on his account in the messenger for quick communication because he couldn't respond quickly in private on the platform. I messaged him in the messenger, asking for additional time. At that time, they added time without any problems. Thank you.

A few days later, realizing that with all these power outages and the offline responsibilities that had fallen on me, I was not even managing to meet the new deadline, I messaged the client again. I explained the situation, that the power was off for 3 hours and on for 1 hour, that my laptop takes 10 minutes to boot, and that I still had to help a close person offline. I apologized for not being able to keep up and asked if this was a critical problem. The client responded very kindly, said he understood that the power situation was difficult for everyone right now, so he had no complaints and I could work calmly, and additional time would be provided without problems. And he wished me to hang in there. I calmed down and continued working.

That was the last time we communicated. On the platform, we didn't correspond at all; in the messenger, he silently blocked me, probably that same evening when he decided to close the project without payment and with a negative review. During all this time, neither in private on the platform nor in the messenger did he ask how much volume I had completed. And I worked silently, not saying how much I had completed either, because I thought that everything was fine, the client was treating me humanely, with understanding. We had a friendly conversation the last time, he had no new questions, nor did I, so why worry?

Thus, for a little over a week, I was torn between the need to help a close person with their work offline and somehow still manage to earn a little money for myself — completing this project with an unstable power outage schedule, just when the power was turned off for 3 hours. I put in a lot of effort to complete this task. When the work was almost finished, the client silently closed the project without payment. The next morning, when I saw this, it was simply a disaster for me. I was counting on the 1000 UAH payment; that thousand was extremely necessary for me because we had no money left by the end of the month. And I was just sure that I would receive payment in a day or two. I had no reason to think otherwise because there were no problems with the client, he communicated kindly, and didn't write anything additional.

Without exaggeration, I think that morning I was hit by some shock state and I still haven't recovered from it. I started sending him one message after another in private on the platform. There was no point in messaging him in the messenger since he had silently blocked me there. In the messages, I explained that I had 52,000 characters without spaces and over 400 screenshots ready; that I was ready to send all available materials right now, just let’s restore the project. But there was no response. I wrote to technical support. They replied that sending the results of the work to them also made no sense because the correspondence in the messenger is not taken into account, and we didn't communicate in private on the platform at all. Perhaps I should have sent the current results in private on the platform, but the trouble is, he didn't say anything about that — neither before the project opened nor after. I was convinced that the client was calmly waiting for the full result and was working calmly to prepare and send the full volume. Neither on the platform nor in the messenger did the client ask about the current results.

I hope that at least he will read my review if he doesn't want to read private messages. And if he reads the review, I hope he will agree to do something about what I proposed in private when I saw that the project was closed and there would be no payment for it. I proposed the following: to delete the negative review, to open a new project and immediately receive all the materials that exist — a volume of 52,000 characters without spaces and 400 screenshots. To open a project with a budget for this volume or for 64,000 characters (then I would complete the remaining 12,000 characters in a couple of days — now this is not a problem because the power is not turned off at all. Or at least just delete the negative review, without opening a new project. Let me have worked for free, but at least the review won't spoil my profile on the platform. This account is extremely important to me, as I currently have no other sources of income and no other confirmations that I have indeed worked as a screenwriter and copywriter for at least 10 years and that people liked my texts.