Buyer with Thin Skin Left Bad Review...How to Handle?

[Guest wcman1976]

I was contacted by someone for my gig to help them with their novel/screenplay/etc. What they sent was a very poorly written, disjointed story summrary. It was 3 paragraphs long, and I could not understand how paragraphs 2 and 3 related to paragraph 1.



So I wrote back with constructive criticism and gave him the best advice I could. Believe me when I say my notes were not as lame as, “Your story sucks.” In fact I never said that; I just told him it didn’t flow, he introduced characters without explaining who they were to me; etc.



Well, apparently he has very thin skin because now I have a review that says, “Look before you leap! Very weird.” (This coming from a guy who can’t even be consistent between three paragraphs.) On top of that, his private messages to me were very rude.



Is there any way I can forward his conversation to Customer Support? I don’t think my rating should be affected (and my profile have a bad review) simply because someone can’t handle being told their writing is no good.

[Guest wcman1976]

Madmoo,



Thanks for the reply. I already sent along everything you told me. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if there is any working out to be done. They already marked it as completed and insulted me not only in private, but by marking the gig as unsatisfactory and leaving a nasty comment on there as well. Judging by their response, I don’t think a refund would also result in removal.



I’m glad to read your response though. It’s good to know I’m not nuts…that this really was a case of a thin-skinned buyer. The question I would really love to have answered is: if they can’t handle my gentle letdown, how will they handle it when they send their work out there and it gets CANNIBALIZED?

[psychedelicpup]

So far CS has been great for me in removing unwarranted negative feedback. It sounds like you did what you advertised to do. I would be very surprised if they didn’t remove the negative feedback for you.

[Guest wcman1976]

Psychedelicpup,



They just responded and said they advised me to contact the buyer about it. They gave me a link to an article to read that suggested things like, “Consider your buyer’s expectations when they ordered your gig and how much money was put into it.” The only thing I could think to do is what was advised above: offer a refund for removal of the review…but what if I refund them, and they don’t remove it?

[Guest wcman1976]

If you folks could see how poor the writing was, then you’d probably say I was a saint for even writing back. Most people would have just cancelled the gig! I mean, look at the negative remark he left on the gig. “Look before you Leap? Very weird.” He can’t even be grammatically correct in a two-sentence comment! (Well, one sentence and one fragment.) Check out the question mark. Is he ASKING people to look before they leap?

[Guest wcman1976]

How do you do a refund? I see the resolution center tab on the order, but the closest resolution I can find that fits this situation is, “The buyer and I wish to cancel this order.”

[psychedelicpup]

That would be what you’d use to request a cancellation. However you did say that they were very rude in the private messages. Maybe you can bring this from TOS to customer supports attention. “Posting or sending adult, illegal, rude, abusive, improper, copyright protected, promotional, spam, violent, nonsense or any uncool stuff is strictly prohibited. Doing so will get your account blocked permanently.”

[Guest wcman1976]

Reply to @psychedelicpup:



Yes, he WAS rude. My remarks to him were always professional. He said to me, “Your second message is in effect A LOAD OF CRAP.” This was in response to me saying the story was very confusing.