Nightmare client - freelancer

[Crapola25]

I am a freelancer in a design field and recently was taken on for a short term part time project. The head of design briefed me and set out a critical path with agreed days allocated for me to work. The scope of the brief was very much design related services in my field. She made the call on all design decisions, liaised with the factory for sample production. Fast track to now and with an impending deadline looming, the head of design has been out of office for 3 weeks and having returned is not happy with the lack of progress. She is now throwing me under the bus saying she hired me to self manage this project and is now having to step in and that I've under committed to the project because I've worked half a day less than the quota allocated (because I got through all the work in half the time). I've checked the brief and deliverables and I've met all of my design deliverables and deadlines and nowhere in my brief does it mention project management let alone project management of production/sampling, leasing with external clients and factories etc. Prior to her going away there was no handover or expectations set that I would take over from her. I want to reply and tell her that what she was expecting from me falls outside our agreed responsibilities. AIBU?

YANBU

as a freelancer, I feel your pain!

Just say you apologise but this was not included in your brief. You are happy to increase your scope of service however this will incur additional fee. Attach a fee proposal 🤣

Do it. You have your brief to refer to, don’t allow her to use you as the fall person for her own incompetence.

Been through similar as a freelancer. Given a brief - followed the brief to the letter and based my work on previous designs only to be told they did not like the final work as they preferred an outline that they had not bothered to send me - so how was I meant to know ?

Ask yourself what happens if you fight back with her and challenge her or send a revised quote. Will an adverse review impact the flow of freelance work from other sources ?

My nightmare client worked out OK as the agency who referred her to me paid me double my quote as they said she had completely changed the brief - but the experience made me realise the importance of scoping out the work from the outset and having good terms of business.

Yes I've replied now - waiting for a response. Just kept it firm and professional but said along the lines of - that as per the original agreement and brief I was brought on as designer not a project manager. I've followed the critical path and met all the deadlines and deliverables on my side, gone above and over the original scope. That managing production and sourcing, resolving any issues relating to that fall outside of my agreed responsibilities.
She was messaging me asking me where I am, if I'm working full time for other clients. Why am I emailing so late at night.......totally bonkers, so I told her I've always been transparent about my other freelance commitments and that I am committed to the project on the days allocated. I think the issue here is if it was such a high profile project then allocating a designer for 1 day per week during the critical 3 week period of production whilst also her being on holiday is an error on her part. She seems to think I should have been doing 1 day per week spread over 7 days and available to respond to any query immediately which obviously is not a thing. I have other jobs on the days I'm not working with her. She is now cherry picking which aspects of the project she wants to be involved in - mainly the fun ones like choosing designs and where problems have arose she has deflected them with "what do you want to do about it" and im like "well I'm asking you as the head of design to make a call". But she isn't willing to. It's a total joke to hire a designer, give a design brief and then expect them to do a product developer job. Also bonkers to pay a designer a freelance day rate to do admin related work.

I've sent her the email and told her next steps can either go 2 ways - either i work on the allocated days (she's trying to change them) or we can wrap things up now answer she can pay me.

I also feel your pain. I don’t know the answer other than having clear boundaries and standing up for yourself in a firm but professional manner. I have had something this week where I was sent some new work related to a previous project and immediately had the customers contacting me wanting urgent support, but when I asked the company how much time I was going to be paid for I got sent round the houses to three different people, no one answered my question and then I got a patronising email saying they understood why I was frustrated but needed to wait for them to deal direct with the customer!!! Well that’s all fine, I didn’t ask to be involved but since you asked me to be involved you could at least have the courtesy to let me know the scope of my involvement and the associated pay rather than gaslight me into making it look as if I was trying to get involved in something that was outside my scope. It’s infuriating and makes me want to step away. I have been busy doing financial calculations this morning to see if that’s possible.