Being punished for being nice

[bryanambition]

Can someone read through this and tell me if I’m missing something?

Long story short–a buyer placed an order without any prior dialogue. All he needed was a quick revision on 200 or so words for a startup he was working on. He revealed himself to be a military veteran, which was relevant to the piece I was revising. I gladly revised the piece, and sent it back to him, telling him to cancel the order because I didn’t feel right charging him. He gave his service to our country and this was one way I could repay that service.

Days later, I noticed my delivery rate went from 100% to 97%. I enquired with fiverr customer service and here is the dialogue that went down:

Me: Hello, I would like to know why my order completion rate is 97% when I have fulfilled 100% of my orders. There was one order this week which was placed prematurely from buyer dandreamarcus. After reviewing his request, we discussed the nature of his project and it was decided he did not require the services and the buyer cancelled the order on HIS side, not mine. I don’t see why that should reflect on MY performance!
Please confirm that my 100% completion rate will be reflected and restored on my fiverr rating panel.

Sam/Fiverr: I understand where you are coming from and I am happy to help any way I can.

We can confirm that your order #FO6128CC4FA55 was canceled by mutual agreement between you and the buyer. No details regarding the effects a cancellation may have on an account may be disclosed as this information is proprietary.

We do not advise having your orders canceled in case you are providing the service. it is commendable that you helped the buyer and we hope they reach out to you again in the future. Please consider providing services free of charge on if the order has not been placed yet. We recommend charging your buyers for every service that you provide. Going the extra mile for the clients should help build your reputation and your relationship with them. They will also be able to rate your orders this way, which will allow your profile to stand out.
As each rate is calculated statistically over the period of the past 60 days, it may continue to decline in case the stats are not improved. You can do this by Submitting Offers to Buyer Requests.
I hope this helps and I am here for you if you need anything. 🙂

Me: Hey Sam–thanks for your quick response.

However, I am even more dismayed at the reasons you provided for the decline in my rating. It’s obvious from your response that you read the messages pertaining to this order and understand the reason I didn’t charge the buyer was that I felt the conscious need to commend his military service. Which means that under the guise of your “proprietary information” I’m actually being penalised for my decision to offer a free service to someone who gave his service for our country. Which is morally reprehensible.
If you would take the time to read through the other messages and 5.0 feedback I’ve received on every single other order I’ve ever completed, my commitment to quality service would be obvious. But it’s the event in which I exercised choice to, rather than make a profit, extend compassion and respect to someone that I get punished.

Is this really what fiverr has come to?

[cubittaudio]

Hey there,

First of all, overall I think what you did was really cool, and should be commended. It’s a lovely thing to offer your time at no charge to someone who you deem worthy of that time. It’s a fantastic display of human spirit, and no matter what, you did something great.

But… to play Devil’s Advocate here for a moment.

You did that good service on a platform that only exists because people perform financial transactions on it. Fiverr isn’t supposed to be a place where people work for free, because when you work for free, Fiverr doesn’t get paid. By the sounds of it, you agreed to a Mutual Cancellation, which means both you and the buyer agreed to cancel the order, and that’s ultimately why your Order Completion took a hit.

I’m not going to debate about whether Fiverr needs the money or whatever, we’ve been working here long enough and have given Fiverr so much money that I don’t feel particularly sad at the prospect of them missing out on a buck or two here or there. But I guess as a comparison, it would be like if you slipped a guy a free cheeseburger at McDonalds because he told you he was a Vet. Commendable? Sure… Against company policy? Also sure…

If I were you, I’d be proud of what you did, and view the Order Completion hit as a visual reminder of what you did. It will be back to 100% soon enough. And in the future, maybe offer a healthy discount to those who you want to perform some charitable work for rather than working for free?

[misscrystal]

Can someone read through this and tell me if I’m missing something?

Long story short–a buyer placed an order without any prior dialogue. All he needed was a quick revision on 200 or so words for a startup he was working on. He revealed himself to be a military veteran, which was relevant to the piece I was revising. I gladly revised the piece, and sent it back to him, telling him to cancel the order because I didn’t feel right charging him. He gave his service to our country and this was one way I could repay that service.

Days later, I noticed my delivery rate went from 100% to 97%. I enquired with fiverr customer service and here is the dialogue that went down:

Me: Hello, I would like to know why my order completion rate is 97% when I have fulfilled 100% of my orders. There was one order this week which was placed prematurely from buyer dandreamarcus. After reviewing his request, we discussed the nature of his project and it was decided he did not require the services and the buyer cancelled the order on HIS side, not mine. I don’t see why that should reflect on MY performance!

Please confirm that my 100% completion rate will be reflected and restored on my fiverr rating panel.

Sam/Fiverr: I understand where you are coming from and I am happy to help any way I can.

We can confirm that your order #FO6128CC4FA55 was canceled by mutual agreement between you and the buyer. No details regarding the effects a cancellation may have on an account may be disclosed as this information is proprietary.

We do not advise having your orders canceled in case you are providing the service. it is commendable that you helped the buyer and we hope they reach out to you again in the future. Please consider providing services free of charge on if the order has not been placed yet. We recommend charging your buyers for every service that you provide. Going the extra mile for the clients should help build your reputation and your relationship with them. They will also be able to rate your orders this way, which will allow your profile to stand out.

As each rate is calculated statistically over the period of the past 60 days, it may continue to decline in case the stats are not improved. You can do this by Submitting Offers to Buyer Requests.

I hope this helps and I am here for you if you need anything. 🙂

Me: Hey Sam–thanks for your quick response.

However, I am even more dismayed at the reasons you provided for the decline in my rating. It’s obvious from your response that you read the messages pertaining to this order and understand the reason I didn’t charge the buyer was that I felt the conscious need to commend his military service. Which means that under the guise of your “proprietary information” I’m actually being penalised for my decision to offer a free service to someone who gave his service for our country. Which is morally reprehensible.

If you would take the time to read through the other messages and 5.0 feedback I’ve received on every single other order I’ve ever completed, my commitment to quality service would be obvious. But it’s the event in which I exercised choice to, rather than make a profit, extend compassion and respect to someone that I get punished.

Is this really what fiverr has come to?

Hello, once an order is placed if you cancel it will cause your stats to go down.

The fact the buyer was a vet is not taken into account by the stats.

Being charitable is nice. But still you pay the price. So in addition to the free service, part of the charity you gave him was suffering the burden of your stats taking a hit.

rather than make a profit, extend compassion and respect to someone that I get punished.

Yes that’s how it works. I guess fiverr doesn’t feel the same compassion that you do. This is a business and that means we charge for our work. I’m grateful to vets too but I would still expect to be paid if I worked for them. Maybe that’s cold hearted of me, but then I’m running a business.

Theoretically, you could feel compassion for everyone who came to you for work and refund all of them for some reason. I’m sure if we know enough about all of our clients they all would deserve to not have to pay due to some type of hardship, valiant service, handicap or what have you.

[uk1000]

Can someone read through this and tell me if I’m missing something?

Long story short–a buyer placed an order without any prior dialogue. All he needed was a quick revision on 200 or so words for a startup he was working on. He revealed himself to be a military veteran, which was relevant to the piece I was revising. I gladly revised the piece, and sent it back to him, telling him to cancel the order because I didn’t feel right charging him. He gave his service to our country and this was one way I could repay that service.

Days later, I noticed my delivery rate went from 100% to 97%. I enquired with fiverr customer service and here is the dialogue that went down:

Me: Hello, I would like to know why my order completion rate is 97% when I have fulfilled 100% of my orders. There was one order this week which was placed prematurely from buyer dandreamarcus. After reviewing his request, we discussed the nature of his project and it was decided he did not require the services and the buyer cancelled the order on HIS side, not mine. I don’t see why that should reflect on MY performance!

Please confirm that my 100% completion rate will be reflected and restored on my fiverr rating panel.

Sam/Fiverr: I understand where you are coming from and I am happy to help any way I can.

We can confirm that your order #FO6128CC4FA55 was canceled by mutual agreement between you and the buyer. No details regarding the effects a cancellation may have on an account may be disclosed as this information is proprietary.

We do not advise having your orders canceled in case you are providing the service. it is commendable that you helped the buyer and we hope they reach out to you again in the future. Please consider providing services free of charge on if the order has not been placed yet. We recommend charging your buyers for every service that you provide. Going the extra mile for the clients should help build your reputation and your relationship with them. They will also be able to rate your orders this way, which will allow your profile to stand out.

As each rate is calculated statistically over the period of the past 60 days, it may continue to decline in case the stats are not improved. You can do this by Submitting Offers to Buyer Requests.

I hope this helps and I am here for you if you need anything. 🙂

Me: Hey Sam–thanks for your quick response.

However, I am even more dismayed at the reasons you provided for the decline in my rating. It’s obvious from your response that you read the messages pertaining to this order and understand the reason I didn’t charge the buyer was that I felt the conscious need to commend his military service. Which means that under the guise of your “proprietary information” I’m actually being penalised for my decision to offer a free service to someone who gave his service for our country. Which is morally reprehensible.

If you would take the time to read through the other messages and 5.0 feedback I’ve received on every single other order I’ve ever completed, my commitment to quality service would be obvious. But it’s the event in which I exercised choice to, rather than make a profit, extend compassion and respect to someone that I get punished.

Is this really what fiverr has come to?

I agree with @cubittaudio, you could give a discount next time rather than delivering free work if the buyer contacts you first.

It might have helped if you told CS exactly what happened from the start instead of:

There was one order this week which was placed prematurely from buyer X. After reviewing his request, we discussed the nature of his project and it was decided he did not require the services and the buyer cancelled the order on HIS side, not mine. I don’t see why that should reflect on MY performance!

since the above isn’t exactly what happened.I agree orders should be able to be cancelled for particular reasons without having an effect on stats (eg. ordered by mistake or orders for things the seller doesn’t do/against TOS etc.).