Short story first: I'm a freelancer in Korat, 28, new to posting on forums. I do web work as my main gig, solo in a shophouse room. Got a glass of water and a pen by my monitor.

Yesterday I was so annoyed, seriously. I agreed on a web design project with a client. We agreed it would be low-fi first, and I’d send a draft within 4 days. I followed that and sent it right at 1pm. Took me about 3 hours to mock it up plus a 10-minute break, so seemed fine.

At first they replied nicely and asked me to tweak two things, which I fixed and sent back.

Then out of nowhere, at like 10:20pm, they messaged saying they’d changed their idea, asked for extra features, wanted a near-finished version by tomorrow morning, and said budget is tight but expectations are at agency level. I was floored. Super annoyed, felt like my nerves were gonna snap. What do I do?

I don’t have a boss, I make decisions myself, but I’m scared of losing the job so I asked back for clarification. Got a vague reply: “we’ll talk in the meeting” but no time set. Super confusing. Working alone is exhausting, and if I say no I’m worried they’ll block me from future work or cut the payment installment T_T

Or am I just overthinking? I like to work on time but I can be flexible if things are discussed clearly. This kind of surprise is impossible to accept — my hands were shaking lol. Sometimes it feels like they just woke up wanting it immediately even though we’d already agreed.

Have you guys dealt with this? How do you set rules so you don’t ruin the client relationship but also don’t get pressured into doing crazy work? How should I reply to make time and scope clear, and if I have to cancel mid-contract how do I do it without losing credibility? P.S. If I need to ask for extra pay, how should I say it? This is so awkward and stressful.