It is a fundamental goal of the ZehMizeh team to create a safe and pleasant experience on our platform. To that end, we have developed protocols for users to leave projects when the other user has become hostile, abusive, inappropriate, or otherwise violates basic expectations for civil, professional communication.
A few initial points. First and foremost, it is almost impossible for us to verify complaints about abuse that took place in communication off of the site. We are invested in preventing harassment, but we also cannot punish users without credible evidence of misbehavior. (This is one of the many reasons to try to keep all of your communication with other users on the site.)
Second, it must be clear that we are including in the realm of “inappropriateness” any behavior and language that may be considered appropriate in society at large, but would be inappropriate by the standards of the Orthodox community.
Third: users have a right to leave a project where abuse or inappropriateness is taking place, but they do not have a right to be paid for something they didn’t do or to work they didn’t pay for. Our abuse policy will help them leave a project expediently and potentially suspend or ban the offending user. It won’t grant anyone compensatory bonuses for their experience.
Inappropriate Freelancer
Hourly
This user is very empowered to exit themselves. They can pay the milestones and exit. If they take issue with the final milestone or any of the other milestones, they can open separate disputes.
Fixed-Budget
If the milestones have been completed, the client can pay them and close the project.
If the milestones have not been completed, he has three options:
The client can pay out the milestones in order to leave.
If the client can demonstrate that they’ll be leaving this project without anything tangible from a particular milestone or milestones, they could leave without paying.
There would have to be a cap on how valuable this option could be, as far as how big the milestone is.
The client can settle with the freelancer. We could give a window of three days for them to settle it before we simply split the cost.
Inappropriate Client
Hourly
If it’s worth it for the freelancer, they can abandon the milestones they did and we can simply exit them from the project.
They could also post their final milestones,we could release them from the project, and then we simply charge the value for them. The client loses the right to seek refunds and oversee the work.
Fixed-Budget
If the project is complete, they can end it themselves or we can end it for them. This includes if they can demonstrate that they have done the work according to the standards of the original posting.
Also, if the freelancer is willing to forfeit the milestones and send the money back, we can end it for them.
If they want to settle, we’ll have to suspend their communication and oversee the settlement ourselves.