To not be sure if I got ripped off?

[Ribrabrob]

I used a freelancing website to have a document/guide I’ve written made into a prettt brochure. A short brochure, about ten pages but mostly images rather than text.

The designer I selected agreed the price but then when I sent through my basic Word document responded ‘gee, that’s pretty lengthy’. I asked her if she felt i should pay more and she said yes. So I (perhaps stupidly?) paid more. I also asked her if I would be able to edit the document after she had put it together and she said yes.

She originally said she could do it in 24 hours but it actually took 5 days with no apology - I had to chase.

When she sent through the completed document, I didn’t like it. It looked pretty basic to me and also there were a few errors - bullet point missing here and there, some titles not bold etc. However, I paid for the work and said thank you. I also decided that I would keep the brochure she had done for now and look at having it redone in the future.

Now I have it I can’t edit the document! It’s a PDF file As well as JPEG files. So I messaged her and she says I’ll need to use either adobe illustrator or photoshop to do this.

First of all, aibu to think I’ve been ripped off a bit? And aibu to think that I should be able to edit it and she should have told me I would need a specific programmer do do this - or should I have asked?

I will admit that am not a designer and have no creative flair at all, so willing to be told I am wrong!

Oops forgot to tune votes off

Would you like more money? Yes please

-Some parts were wrong.
-It was delivered late.
-You paid more than you wanted to.
-You are unable to edit the document.

Obviously it's impossible to say without knowing the scale of the project and how much you paid, but yes, if you're not happy with the quality, you've been ripped off.

Bit flippant but I’d take it as a bit of a learning curve. Keep the document for now and get it done properly next time. Don’t pay for something until you are happy.

As far as editing goes, download PDF Escape - it's free. She probably assumed you would have access to editing software - rather silly on her part as she should have asked.

Did your job post state how many pages the document was, or hive a word/image count?

If the job was advertised with this relevant info, I would not be happy with the winning big then trying to haggle the price. In fact I believe this is in contravention of the rules of most freelancer sites.

If there was a misunderstanding about the amount of work, I would have said "Sorry, perhaps I wasn't very clear in the posting - if you don't want the job at this price, please withdraw your bid and I'll take up one of tye other offers."

I don’t think you should’ve paid until she rectified the parts you weren’t happy with. But also in theory you wouldn’t need to edit it as if you were happy with the finished product you wouldn’t need to adjust it. It does sound like you got a less than thorough designer though.

You can use xomo (google add on) to edit pdfs. There’s also a way to do it through Chrome, it changed my computer settings but was quite easy to resolve.

From my experience those type of sites are offering services cheap as chips to people who would balk at rates from people who do this for a living.

I'm sorry your experience wasn't great but you wanted a job for peanuts (I'm guessing), you didn't discuss terms and volume between you and there was a misunderstanding from both sides about expectations.

All these site do is reduce quality and increase client anxiety. I'm a freelancer and I refuse to use these sites because of their awful reputations

You should open a dispute with the freelancing website

Sorry but you asked if it could be edited and she said yes. You would of course need photoshop or indesign or illustrator to do this - she probably meant could you ask HER to edit it. Normally with graphic designers with your fee you get a certain amount of edits included (although if they are her fault then they should be free)

I don't think you have been ripped off. I work with a lot of designers, freelance, and nothing here screams rip-off but more that you had different expectations.

And did they say '24 hour turnaround' or 'the job will take 24 hours'? Because that will have a bearing on things too.

Also 10 pages is not realistic for 24 hours, at all.

Depends how much you paid tbh.

@ErickBroch 10 pages of basic layout can easily be done in a day!!

OP, the approval process would usually be that you ask for edits (this can be several times back and forth with corrections) then get the final files delivered when you are fully happy with the end result. The use of design software Photoshop / Illustrator / InDesign would be taken as a given and, yes, it is normal to then deliver the final documents in a pdf or jpeg format (that can be read by anyone). Is it too late to ask for the corrections you mentioned? If there are errors most designers would want to fix them.

I agree with ErickBroch - it sounds like you had different expectations. I wouldn’t have immediately offered a higher fee - she may have been pointing out that the amount of text you had wouldn’t fit into the number of pages you’d discussed. And I’d expect that the first proof would have a few mistakes, and that you’d probably do a few rounds of edits before you signed it off. Did you just accept the mistakes and pay, without getting them changed, or did she fix them? The Design Council has a helpful guide on how to commission a graphic designer which might be useful.

So you sent her a word file and some illustrations and she returned a pdf with errors?

1. Was she also supposed to proof-read/spell check?
2. Were the errors hers or yours?
3. What exactly was she supposed to be doing (and using which software), which you could not do yourself?
4. Had you already sent the Word file formatted as you wanted?
5. If answer to 4 is yes, why didn't you pdf yourself?
6. What is supposed to happen with the file you were sent?

EvenMoreFuriousVexation
Not sure if you can edit existing docs with the free version of PDF ESCAPE from a review I read when searching for an editor recently, but happy to be corrected if I'm wrong. The desktop version allows you to edit but that is paid for.

How much were you charged? Pro graphic designer here and your experience could be down to a number of things but the fee might be indicative of misaligned expectations on either side. At the moment it looks a bit six of one, half a dozen of the other.