Only Penalize Sellers for Certain Types of Cancellations

[authoreva]

Sometimes a seller isn’t left with much of a choice… They have to send a cancellation request to their buyer. Whether the buyer’s unresponsive or they ordered something you clearly don’t offer, there is no other solution.

The resolution center is great because, as the name implies, it offers solutions. You can ask your buyer to extend the delivery time or you can try to work things out instead of losing the sale. These improvements are truly great and encourage sellers to avoid cancellations and find work-arounds. And I’m sure this option has been abused as well, so I commend fiverr on looking out for buyers. I know you’re all doing everything you can to ensure buyers and sellers are respected and appreciated.

However, not all sellers abuse the cancellation feature. Like I mentioned in the first paragraph, unresponsive buyers or buyers who order the wrong thing can’t exactly be reasoned with so the cancellation is the only viable option. Yet, this will still negatively impact a seller’s account (the Order Completion rate and gig ranking in search results).

I understand there will always be ways to work around the system to avoid any consequences, but I’d like to think most of us hardworking sellers are highly competent, integrity-driven people.

In the resolution center, if I select “Buyer is not responding” or “Buyer ordered work that isn’t offered in this gig” (this option is no longer available… I just checked), then the cancellation–even if it’s not mutual, should NOT count against me in any way, shape, or form.

And I’m sure we’ve all had that one buyer who orders your gig and immediately sends you an cancellation request saying something along the lines of, “I ordered by mistake. Please cancel.” So a seller will get penalized for that as well? 😓

I just looked and now there are only four option in the resolution center as opposed to the generous list of options:
“I’m too busy for this job.”
“The buyer will order again.”
“The buyer is not responding.”
“Other.”

And unfortunately, there’s not enough room in the “Other” text area to explain what’s going on. Sometimes, it’s not a simple explanation.

I know this would be A LOT of work, but it would be nice if the fiverr team looked into cancellations under the “Other” option and see why the cancellation happened in the first place. Then it can be determined if the Order Completion rate should reflect that specific cancellation or not. And when the seller selects “The buyer will order again.” or “The buyer is not responding,” their business should not be impacted in any way. Mutual cancellations shouldn’t do anything to our accounts either because it’s, well… mutual.

No seller should have to deal with a lower spot in search results or a lower completion rate percentage for instances that are clearly out of their control.

Thanks for listening. 🙂

[blaisefaint]

Dear Eva:

Please crosspost in this thread: Fiverrcast Questions.

UPDATE:

🚑 Ooh! I forgot to advise you to phrase your response in the form of a question, like on Jeopardy!

Don’t worry, you can still edit it before Final Jeopardy…

UPDATE (after Eva phrased her response in the form of a question, like on Jeopardy): Kudos to you for pulling that off.

And thanks to Taverr for taking the “t” out of “Penalize” in the title of this thread…

Thank you,
Blaise

[misscrystal]

Dear Eva:

Please crosspost in this thread: Fiverrcast Questions.

UPDATE:

🚑 Ooh! I forgot to advise you to phrase your response in the form of a question, like on Jeopardy!

Don’t worry, you can still edit it before Final Jeopardy…

UPDATE (after Eva phrased her response in the form of a question, like on Jeopardy): Kudos to you for pulling that off.

And thanks to Taverr for taking the “t” out of “Penalize” in the title of this thread…

Thank you,

Blaise

I certainly would never cancel a sale unless there was a compelling reason why I can’t do that job. Usually the buyer is asking for a laundry list of detailed demands not offered in the gig. And at least half the time the buyer made a mistake when ordering such as last night when the buyer was having problems with his phone and ordered identical orders 3 times and then asked to cancel two of them. It happens all the time this way.

[authoreva]

I certainly would never cancel a sale unless there was a compelling reason why I can’t do that job. Usually the buyer is asking for a laundry list of detailed demands not offered in the gig. And at least half the time the buyer made a mistake when ordering such as last night when the buyer was having problems with his phone and ordered identical orders 3 times and then asked to cancel two of them. It happens all the time this way.

Exactly! It’s so frustrating.

One of the most outrageous cancellation scenarios I’ve dealt with is with a client who I chatted with for hours about my poetry editing services. She agreed to the price quote, told me to send the offer, and said she would pay soon. She accepted the 100-dollar offer and the next day she sent a cancellation request accusing me of “taking her money” and “never agreeing to any of this.” I tried to reason with her to salvage the sale, but she went ballistic! It ended up being a mutual cancellation–one that still counted against me… even if it’s in a small way.

[taverr]

@authoerva, I had edited your OP title making it “Penalize” instead of “Pentalize”.

Btw as per your question, I have seen other users have posted screenshots where they have been told by the Fiverr CS that mutual cancellations do not affect the gig rankings in any way. So, I am unsure if it does… 🙂

[authoreva]

@authoerva, I had edited your OP title making it “Penalize” instead of “Pentalize”.

Btw as per your question, I have seen other users have posted screenshots where they have been told by the Fiverr CS that mutual cancellations do not affect the gig rankings in any way. So, I am unsure if it does… 🙂

I’ve seen those screenshots, but it appears like it still does. For the time being, at least. The Order Completion rate is a relatively new thing, as is the updated Analytics feature.

Let’s say mutual cancellations don’t count… Then there’s no way I could have a 93% completion rate because my cancellations have all been mutual. I only had to ask fiverr to cancel two on their end because something fishy was going on.

Thanks for the edit! 😃 I’m an editor so that’s a bit embarrassing. 😂

[blaisefaint]

Dear Eva:

Gee whiz, I sure hope the Fiverr folks fix this!

Thank you,
Blaise

[misscrystal]

I’ve seen those screenshots, but it appears like it still does. For the time being, at least. The Order Completion rate is a relatively new thing, as is the updated Analytics feature.

Let’s say mutual cancellations don’t count… Then there’s no way I could have a 93% completion rate because my cancellations have all been mutual. I only had to ask fiverr to cancel two on their end because something fishy was going on.

Thanks for the edit! 😃 I’m an editor so that’s a bit embarrassing. 😂

Let’s say mutual cancellations don’t count… Then there’s no way I could have a 93% completion rate because my cancellations have all been mutual. I only had to ask fiverr to cancel two on their end because something fishy was going on.

They are counting mutual cancellations in that now.

[saddu_writer]

Let’s say mutual cancellations don’t count… Then there’s no way I could have a 93% completion rate because my cancellations have all been mutual. I only had to ask fiverr to cancel two on their end because something fishy was going on.

They are counting mutual cancellations in that now.

They are counting mutual cancellations in that now.

Horrible but we cant do anything for that.

[misscrystal]

I think that sellers who are in the seller success program or whatever it’s called when they have a success manager get to see these same analytics of number of total cancellations so this probably is a benefit to us if we understand it and use it as a motivating factor.

The more analytics, the better for those of us who want to improve.

[authoreva]

I think that sellers who are in the seller success program or whatever it’s called when they have a success manager get to see these same analytics of number of total cancellations so this probably is a benefit to us if we understand it and use it as a motivating factor.

The more analytics, the better for those of us who want to improve.

If it’s for the purpose of detailed Analytics, then that’s fine. However, it can be refined even further.

I don’t like the lack of transparency either way. The text when you hover over “Order Completion” states that this rate impacts your business. How? Will the search results ranking really be lowered? Can you lose your level status or not be able to attain the next one?

[misscrystal]

If it’s for the purpose of detailed Analytics, then that’s fine. However, it can be refined even further.

I don’t like the lack of transparency either way. The text when you hover over “Order Completion” states that this rate impacts your business. How? Will the search results ranking really be lowered? Can you lose your level status or not be able to attain the next one?

I’ve been assured that mutual cancellations have no impact on anything. I think they do if they reach some excessive point. I don’t know exactly what that point is. I think it would probably have to be something that really affects your income drastically.

[capitalquality]

We need to ignore the text when hovering over ‘order completion’, and we also need to forget about our obsession with 100%.

Like everyone else, I was a bit peeved when the order completion algorithm changed with no warning, but it actually is useful, and it HAS to include mutual cancellations. I know now, at a glance, that just over 1 in 10 orders I make are cancelled. I know that it’s always me that initiates the cancelation, and that they’re all mutual. So now I have something to think about why that is and I have a way to measure if that changes based on changes I make.

We’re told mutual cancellation doesn’t affect our account in any other way, including search ranking, and although there’s anecdotes that suggest otherwise, there’s no proof. No-one knows what the search algorithm is. Any number of things could be affecting ranking.

So for now I think we just take advantage of the new information to improve our services and we don’t worry about something we can’t know.

[authoreva]

We need to ignore the text when hovering over ‘order completion’, and we also need to forget about our obsession with 100%.

Like everyone else, I was a bit peeved when the order completion algorithm changed with no warning, but it actually is useful, and it HAS to include mutual cancellations. I know now, at a glance, that just over 1 in 10 orders I make are cancelled. I know that it’s always me that initiates the cancelation, and that they’re all mutual. So now I have something to think about why that is and I have a way to measure if that changes based on changes I make.

We’re told mutual cancellation doesn’t affect our account in any other way, including search ranking, and although there’s anecdotes that suggest otherwise, there’s no proof. No-one knows what the search algorithm is. Any number of things could be affecting ranking.

So for now I think we just take advantage of the new information to improve our services and we don’t worry about something we can’t know.

Good point! I like your perspective. 🙂 Thanks!

[andreapayme1]

Thank you for taking the time to explain this. It’s even worse now with the new unfair level system which is causing a loss of some very fine fiverr sellers!