should I offer to refund before or after assignment ends to protect feedback rating????
I posted this under an ongoing thread, but thought maybe I needed to start a new one here to be sure it gets seen more quickly:
breinlinger wrote:
and my 'last words' - you can always refund all of the money on a
project if you want to just completely part ways with a bad buyer. If
it was a small job and didn't work out, refunding the money will mean
that the total charge on the job = $0 and therefore feedback scores
don't factor in and the job doesn't show in the assignment history.
PLEASE help Tamara
Thanks for the quick response!
Ashraf,
Thank you so much for your quick response. I sent a very polite letter requesting we end the assignment, with over 1300 hours, but was not sure about timing the refund, if necessary. Bummed because this is my first non-productive/non-positive assignment and am hoping it will end on a good note. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Thanks for the timely answer!
Kol Tov (All the Best),
Tamara 
Tamara, You're very much
Tamara,
You're very much welcome. It's a very good sign that you haven't refunded buyers before. Hopefully, this assignment will turn out just fine, and you won't have to refund him either.
I stopped caring way too much about the feedback a while ago. I am a perfectionist (or maybe I have OCD!), and I used to worry too much about whether the buyer will give me a 5-star feedback or not when ending an assignment. It's too much pressure to be perfect at all times. Out of 18 feedbacks I received, only 2 are not 5s. That's good enough for me.
Just thought of sharing this!
Ashraf
maybe I'm OCD too :)
I feel much better after reading your responses. I too am a perfectionist, but unlike you, I haven't learned to ease up yet. Maybe now is the time. Just this minor hiccup made it difficult for me to concentrate the rest of the afternoon. Thanks for the encouraging words.
Kol Tov, (All the Best)
Tamara:)
PS the community responses here are wonderful! The support and help is greatly appreciated - I've posted several times
Don't Give Up
Hi Tamara,
I personally wouldn't give up, if I've crossed 1000 hours with a perfect 5/5 feedback. Unfortunately, I couldn't cross such a milestone with that perfection.
Cheers!
Pothi
Doesn't matter either way...
Hi Tamara,
It doesn't matter either way. So either fully refund the buyer and then end the assignment or end the assignment and then refund him. I would suggest that you refund him after you see the feedback he gave you. He may give you a 5-star feedback after all (some do).
If you do refund him, you have to make sure that you refund him in full. An assignment in which you earned $0.01 will still show up on your profile along with its feedback.
I fully refunded buyers 3 times before, so I'm speaking of experience!
Hope that helps,
Ashraf