Awkward

[alysmcdonough]

Sellers, just a hypothetical here. cough



Say you got say a few $5 orders in your inbox and say they were from all different usernames who were allegedly from different places in the world - but when you went to check the dropbox files they turned out to be all the same person (ie the name to the right of your file where it says the owner of the file)



You may or may not have contacted customer support.



You may have also already completed one of their orders.



Another order may be almost due to be delivered.



Would you a/ cancel them all 'cause it doesn’t seem right (including the completed $5 gig) b/ leave them there till customer support checks them c/ something else?

[theratypist]

cough has one of the funds of one of their orders, cleared in peace? (e.g. it appeared in your Fiverr account, without any whatsoevers happening? Paypal dispute, etc…)

You can always confront them about your concern, I have this feeling they will tell whatever is going on… or if they don’t, you’ll know by the way they answer… By then, you’ll know how to deal with it.

OR…

You can also wait for Customer Support and work on it… But this also might turn out (let’s hope not) that you wasted your time working on this buyer’s work just to find out you won’t get paid because of whatever reason.

OR

you won’t work on it and wait til Customer Support replies to you, you might end up delivering late?

…gahh hahaha mind boggling haha! Hope it turns out well for you though. 🙂

[alysmcdonough]

Thank you. With regards to boggling one’s mind my suspicions are that it may possibly be abuse of the “refer a friend.” system. Hence why the HYPOTHETICAL orders are kept to $5 are all HYPOTHETICALLY 10 minutes long. (quite unusual really)

[alysmcdonough]

I ended up cancelling the remaining orders and the buyer mutually agreed (but said nothing). Then today I get another suspicious looking one so have canceled that also. The file was attached to the order rather then to their dropbox though so not 100% sure. All 5 accounts were made in either Sept or Oct this year. I can’t risk doing work if I’m going to lose the payment due to something suspicious going on. Haven’t heard from customer support yet, but hoping they will get back to me soon.

[sincere18]

I say trust your gut, it’s best to cancel like you did if you are suspicious of something.

Way too many sellers come to the forum with stories of difficult buyers or buyers who scammed them, and sometimes the seller could have avoided that if they looked at the signs from the beginning.

[alysmcdonough]

I just wonder how many other transcribers they have done the same thing to. The content of the files is incredibly variable so it’s like they’re a transcription service themselves and outsourcing it. And they are good quality files so it’s something that I’d normally jump at the chance of doing. argh Quite frustrating really!

[sincere18]

Reply to @alysmcdonough: if the files are so valuable you should raise your prices, just be clear in your gig about what you offer for only $5 and what you offer for more than that with extras.

[alysmcdonough]

variable, not valuable 😉

$5 gigs that are 10 minutes exactly of audio don’t necessarily work well for me, but I have a pricing structure that I am happy with that depends on the days they want the files delivered in and the quality of the file etc. No one is going to get a long file done for $5 PER EACH 10 minutes unless they’re prepared to wait for it 😉 That’s where express/priority charges come in. Amongst all the other things this person may be up to, they were also trying to bypass the fact that you can’t get anything over 20 minutes delivered in 3 days or less by sending 5 separate 10 minute files. $5 for a file that’s like 3 minutes or 7 minutes etc I’m fine with that. But the one person sending multiple 10 minute files not so much particularly when it’s clearly another transcription agency of some sort going by the wildly variable content of the files.

[sincere18]

Reply to @alysmcdonough: but your gig says $5 for up to 10 min. of audio/video and your gig says 3 days.

But what if you do genuinely start to create a lot of sales and get 15 orders in one day? You cannot stop that, that is where the problem is. I get that if one person tries to come and order 5 times to avoid paying extra or something that is different, but what if 10 different legit people call came and ordered a basic $5 gig for 10 min. of audio, can you have them all done in 3 days?

[alysmcdonough]

I’m not entirely sure what you’re getting at?

This post was about a scammer making multiple orders, not me having problems with sales or completing my orders on time. My issue here was doing these gigs and possibly not getting paid. Plus I mentioned my disappointment as the sound quality of the files were so good and it was a shame I wasn’t going to do them based on the above. Fiverr are yet to get back to me, so I will continue to cancel any suspicious orders in the meantime. The fact the person came back after I’d canceled their other orders certainly says something. Yes it could have been a legitimate customer, but I’m not risking that.

But anyway… since you ask…

I’ve been here about a year and a half now. My sales are fine, my orders are delivered on time (or if they take longer, by negotiation with customer) I am exceptionally busy and I do fiverr and work I’ve secured on other freelance sites full time. This is my full time job. This is how I pay my rent, my food and my dogs vet bills and fund my addiction to chocolate.

My gig says under 3 days for under 20 min only. If a “genuine” person tried to do the same thing (ie order multiple gigs for delivery within 3 days) I’d cancel their orders and send them a custom quote.

And why is it set to 3 days? Well when I first started, I’d change my delivery time based on how busy I was. I was busting my guts for peanuts. Plus I figured out in that search box to the side of the page, who’s going to find me when I’ve got a delivery time of 14 days? Hence why it’s 3 days and there’s some changes with regards to how I charge versus how long delivery takes/sound quality etc.

I get stacks of small orders of 10 minutes or less of good, clear audio done fast and accurately in no time (ie about 30 min per each 10 minutes of audio/video) That is certainly no issue for me at all. Please however understand I have hours and hours and hours of stuff in my queue at the same time. I am certainly not busting my guts to get a 60 minute order who’s paid $30 (of which i get $24) delivered in 3 days, particularly when someone could come along with a 2 hour express 24 hour order - ie that would be $60 + $80 for good quality audio. Anything that makes a file more difficult to do costs more as per the listing.

Any seller can cancel an order also, the reason of why they do it is irrelevant unless it’s breaking fiverr’s TOS.

And if 10 people came along all at the one time with 10 minute segments that were obviously cut from longer audio, that would be suspicious to me, yes. That’s not how the orders roll in for me. That reeks of a transcription service outsourcing their work and trying to get around the rules. Happy to do outsourced work of course, but on my own terms which are all outlined in the listing.

I hope that explains it, and I also hope fiverr take care of these people asap.

[sincere18]

Well, it sounds like you do the proper thing and just cancel when someone comes along that does not conform to the way you work or the way you charge, so it sounds like it is ok. And as for the spammers when that happens you simply need to contact Customer Support to report it.

[alysmcdonough]

Reply to @sincere18: As mentioned, it was reported approximately 48 hours ago and nothing’s yet been done. I hope I get no more orders from these people.

[sincere18]

Reply to @alysmcdonough: Well, I’ve read from many people that sometimes it takes CS a few days to respond. Not sure what else you can do right now about it.