A buyer asked for a refund even though I did the work

[reeyky1958]

I did the work, fixed everything he wanted and answered his questions but at the end he said he want a refund, I didn’t want to argue with him because it will give me a bad rating.



I feel fooled and so angry because of it, is there anything I can do?

[reeyky1958]

Please answer quick because maybe I need to abort the cancellation and I can’t do it once he confirm the cancellation

[razajan]

U should forget and carry on 🙂

[reeyky1958]

Thank you, I did gave him the money back and politely asked for a reason, also now I told him about the rights - thank you kjblynx.



It’s a bit upsetting me up that there is nothing I can do as a seller if something like that happens but oh well…

[jeffrey_stein]

Great advice!

[goodgift]

Unfortunately, this has been happening a lot. People are trying to get something for free, and the way they do it is by ordering something, letting the seller do the work, and then demanding a refund. Not all buyers are like this (there are quite a lot of good apples out there), but there are enough that it makes selling on Fiverr frustrating, to say the least.



It is my own opinion that the star system does not help matters. I closed my gigs before stars were implemented them, but I did have a couple of buyers that tried to get away with free videos (one of my gigs was making book trailers). I could always point out that I sent them the video both as requested and as described in the gig description. If they continued to argue, I would contact Customer Support and show them what was going on. I never had to refund money doing it this way. And if the buyer tried to leave a thumbs down, again I would contact CS, and they would remove the thumbs down.



Now, however, I keep hearing about how CS doesn’t do stuff like that very much, and it is next to impossible to get them to remove any kind of buyer feedback, saying that buyer “permission” is needed to remove feedback (which is ridiculous, because of course the buyer won’t give permission for that).



Next time this happens, though, I would still go that route. If you delivered as promised and the buyer tries to demand a refund, politely explain that you’ve delivered the work as described, and that no refund is necessary. Always offer to fix whatever’s wrong with the order. Most buyers will back away, even if they’re a little disgruntled. If, however, the buyer tries to cancel, contact CS and let them know what’s going on. They may still help you. It’s always the best course of action.



And like others have said, be sure to let the buyer know that all rights to the work revert back to you once the cancellation is made, and they cannot legally use the work anywhere.



Good luck!

[landongrace]

I know it is frustrating. You feel like someone has taken something from you. I have only had a few of the mysterious unexplained cancellations. I have taken the conservative route, been extreme polite and just wrote it off. In 600 gigs delivered it’s only happened a handful of times. One happened a few weeks ago with gig extras and was half a days work. Hopefully the rates I charge can cover for those losses. If I had the choice, I would rather do 10 jobs for free than to have 1 thumbs down. It does make me never when a new client wants to place an order for more that $150.00. I usually get theme to split the work into smaller deliveries and do them 1 at a time. If they like the work, They won’t want to shut the service down. Good Luck!