Buyer wants refund because I "threatened" them

[vallikestodraw]

I’ve been selling on Fiverr for over a year and have been having great luck with such amazing buyers until now. So this is the first time i’m having to deal with a buyer like this. I’ve delivered the finished work to them and they replied with some mentions of edits and that they would get back to me as they were busy at the moment. So I replied with my usual spiel of:

“Noted on this! Just to let you know, the gig includes 1 free major revision and up to 3 minor revisions, after which I charge extra. So I would suggest compiling all edits into a list so that I can do all of it at 1 time to avoid the extra charge. :)”

I always use this spiel as a reminder for new buyers as I have previous experiences of gigs lasting for months because of the constant micro edits (move this to the right bit, can you shrink the size, etc. etc.) So I thought there was nothing wrong with the message as almost all of previous buyers just reply with sure and make a list of all the edits they need so I can do it all at once.

But after sending this message the buyer felt that I was threatening them and suddenly wants a refund even after I sent the work and just awaiting them to list their further edits which I would gladly do for free.

I don’t know what to do. I’m apprehensive to cancel the gig as I worked for several hours.

Is there a better way I can phrase the reminder for my revision policy? English is not my first language so I’m not sure if the message sounds threatening or not.

[jonbaas]

If you did the work according to the terms of your gig and the order, as well as according to their order details, then you can decline his cancellation requests. You are entitled to be paid for the work you provide, and the buyer is not entitled to a cancellation of completed work if the work was done as promised.

As for rephrasing your refund comments, I think you were pretty clear – based upon what you wrote, and the buyer seems to have agreed that he understood. He is not entitled to a refund of completed/delivered work.

[mariashtelle1]

I think your buyer is really overreacting and it’s your choice how to go about that.

You can comfort them with the message along the lines “I’m sorry you felt that way, that was not the intention but a simple reminder to make the process easier. I’ll be happy to make revisions as per my gig description and as mentioned in my message above. Look forward receiving your comments”

Or you can be strict and say that orders can not be cancelled after the delivery and they still have revisions included that they can use.

[vallikestodraw]

I think your buyer is really overreacting and it’s your choice how to go about that.

You can comfort them with the message along the lines “I’m sorry you felt that way, that was not the intention but a simple reminder to make the process easier. I’ll be happy to make revisions as per my gig description and as mentioned in my message above. Look forward receiving your comments”

Or you can be strict and say that orders can not be cancelled after the delivery and they still have revisions included that they can use.

Thank you for this. I already apologized and even gave them more edits if needed but it seems like they really want to cancel and stop working with me. They’ve been asking me to refund them on my side and decided to stand my ground and tell them I won’t be cancelling and if they want to dispute the order, they have to do it on their side. I hope i’m going about this the right way.

[vallikestodraw]

If you did the work according to the terms of your gig and the order, as well as according to their order details, then you can decline his cancellation requests. You are entitled to be paid for the work you provide, and the buyer is not entitled to a cancellation of completed work if the work was done as promised.

As for rephrasing your refund comments, I think you were pretty clear – based upon what you wrote, and the buyer seems to have agreed that he understood. He is not entitled to a refund of completed/delivered work.

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I decided to stand my ground and refuse to give a refund as I already sent the finished work with workable illustrations. Which i’m pretty sure if they are decent enough at photoshop, they can just easily remove the watermarks on their own. I wish Fiverr would have better protections for graphics as watermarks are quite easy to work out if you know how. It kinds lowers my morale when this happened as I’m not sure if I made any mistake or not. But thank you for your advice.

[jonbaas]

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I decided to stand my ground and refuse to give a refund as I already sent the finished work with workable illustrations. Which i’m pretty sure if they are decent enough at photoshop, they can just easily remove the watermarks on their own. I wish Fiverr would have better protections for graphics as watermarks are quite easy to work out if you know how. It kinds lowers my morale when this happened as I’m not sure if I made any mistake or not. But thank you for your advice.

I wish Fiverr would have better protections for graphics as watermarks are quite easy to work out if you know how.

From one digital artist to another (i.e., me to you), thankfully, most people don’t know how. 😉

It kinds lowers my morale when this happened as I’m not sure if I made any mistake or not. But thank you for your advice.

You’re welcome. Hang in there. There will always be challenging buyers (I’ve had my fair share as well), however, the more you stand up for the quality and value of your work, the less those bad experiences will affect your morale. If you’re a good seller, the good buyers will take notice. 🙂

[miiila]

Thank you for this. I already apologized and even gave them more edits if needed but it seems like they really want to cancel and stop working with me. They’ve been asking me to refund them on my side and decided to stand my ground and tell them I won’t be cancelling and if they want to dispute the order, they have to do it on their side. I hope i’m going about this the right way.

it seems like they really want to cancel and stop working with me.

If they are that kind of sensitive, or managed to misunderstand you so much that they interpreted your standard reminder that all other buyers so far reacted to with “sure”, as a threat, and even after your apology and all don’t want to work with you on future projects, that’s probably better.

That doesn’t, however, give them the right to cancel that current order which you already finished and spent your time on, which should be obvious to anyone who has a business of doing business really. It’s absolutely reasonable of you to not cancel and keep offering modifications in a reasonable scope. Of course, this might end with a bad review then, but you have the option to reply to that review and explain things from your POV.

---

“Noted on this! Just to let you know, the gig includes 1 free major revision and up to 3 minor revisions, after which I charge extra. So I would suggest compiling all edits into a list so that I can do all of it at 1 time to avoid the extra charge. :)”

As for a perhaps more delicate way of wording your standard message to cater to even the most precious snowflakes - maybe change things like “Just to let you know”, or “So I would suggest” - while it sounds harmless enough to me, there are people who’ll see an offence, threat, or whatever, in anything.

Perhaps something “softer”, like:

“Thank you for your message! The gig includes 1 free major revision and up to 3 minor revisions. If you compile all edits into a list, I can do all of it at once to save you time and the need to buy extra revisions. Looking forward to doing the edits for you :)”

“includes …” already says that anything beyond that will incur extra charges, so I don’t think you need to say that twice (“after which I charge extra”, and “to avoid the extra charge”).

However, that might then lead to more issues with people who need big signposts, and you may end up with more of those micro edit sessions again, so YMMV, maybe you can try it out.

[vallikestodraw]

it seems like they really want to cancel and stop working with me.

If they are that kind of sensitive, or managed to misunderstand you so much that they interpreted your standard reminder that all other buyers so far reacted to with “sure”, as a threat, and even after your apology and all don’t want to work with you on future projects, that’s probably better.

That doesn’t, however, give them the right to cancel that current order which you already finished and spent your time on, which should be obvious to anyone who has a business of doing business really. It’s absolutely reasonable of you to not cancel and keep offering modifications in a reasonable scope. Of course, this might end with a bad review then, but you have the option to reply to that review and explain things from your POV.

---

“Noted on this! Just to let you know, the gig includes 1 free major revision and up to 3 minor revisions, after which I charge extra. So I would suggest compiling all edits into a list so that I can do all of it at 1 time to avoid the extra charge. :)”

As for a perhaps more delicate way of wording your standard message to cater to even the most precious snowflakes - maybe change things like “Just to let you know”, or “So I would suggest” - while it sounds harmless enough to me, there are people who’ll see an offence, threat, or whatever, in anything.

Perhaps something “softer”, like:

“Thank you for your message! The gig includes 1 free major revision and up to 3 minor revisions. If you compile all edits into a list, I can do all of it at once to save you time and the need to buy extra revisions. Looking forward to doing the edits for you :)”

“includes …” already says that anything beyond that will incur extra charges, so I don’t think you need to say that twice (“after which I charge extra”, and “to avoid the extra charge”).

However, that might then lead to more issues with people who need big signposts, and you may end up with more of those micro edit sessions again, so YMMV, maybe you can try it out.

Thank you so much for your suggestion! It’s very helpful and sounds very friendy! I will probably be using this for future interactions. 🙂

[mrhumptygrump]

What happens if the seller threatens to drive bots to your link and do promotions that will drive bad business to my Twitch account? I know this is probably off topic, but the person didn’t deliver what they said they would.

[visualstudios]

What happens if the seller threatens to drive bots to your link and do promotions that will drive bad business to my Twitch account? I know this is probably off topic, but the person didn’t deliver what they said they would.

Contact support with proof of that and he will be banned.

[lenasemenkova]

In my experience, native English speakers don’t like it when you say “I would suggest…” to them. Same with “I’d appreciate…” but to a lesser degree. I had to learn it the hard way because the expression doesn’t really have a negative/patronizing/threatening connotation in my native language, yet it’d trigger this defensive response from certain buyers. I just eliminated the phrase from my vocabulary and that was that.

As for the buyers getting triggered by figures of speech, people just tend to forget that fiverr is an international platform and it’d be a bit naive to expect Oxford English levels from every seller. The worst of it is when your English is good but not great. Then people would just assume you’re being rude on purpose while if your English is kind of meh, they’ll be more understanding and sympathetic while you’re trying to just string the words together.

I don’t remind buyers about my revision policy unless I have a feeling that it’s going to be abused in some fashion. Then I add: “This package includes 2 rounds of revisions” somewhere.

[mrhumptygrump]

I just agreed to the terms and gave a good rating. He said if anything happened to him or his account he would put some bots on my stream and account to drive people away.

[juanitataylor]

I just agreed to the terms and gave a good rating. He said if anything happened to him or his account he would put some bots on my stream and account to drive people away.

Definitely report to Customer Service with screenshots.