Buyers ordering from several sellers

[sofiasman]

Hi, I had a bit of a strange situation today.
I’ve done a lot of work with another seller here on Fiverr, who hires me when he has too much to do, which I guess technically makes him a reseller, but I don’t really mind as I get paid what I ask for and don’t have to deal with as many conversations with sellers.
A couple of days ago, he hired me for a 5day gig.
Today, another buyer contacted me to ask for a custom offer on an order. When I reviewed the files they sent me, I realized that it was the same order.
Basically, the buyer has an active order with my friend but now seems to want to make a new order for the same files.

Obviously I could’ve accepted the job and gotten paid twice for the same work, but it seemed risky to me, so I said I was too busy to do the job right now, thinking that they might have the same order out with plenty of sellers and intend to cancel everyone but one.

Why would a buyer do this?
What would you have done if this happened to you?

[catwriter]

Hi, I had a bit of a strange situation today.

I’ve done a lot of work with another seller here on Fiverr, who hires me when he has too much to do, which I guess technically makes him a reseller, but I don’t really mind as I get paid what I ask for and don’t have to deal with as many conversations with sellers.

A couple of days ago, he hired me for a 5day gig.

Today, another buyer contacted me to ask for a custom offer on an order. When I reviewed the files they sent me, I realized that it was the same order.

Basically, the buyer has an active order with my friend but now seems to want to make a new order for the same files.

Obviously I could’ve accepted the job and gotten paid twice for the same work, but it seemed risky to me, so I said I was too busy to do the job right now, thinking that they might have the same order out with plenty of sellers and intend to cancel everyone but one.

Why would a buyer do this?

What would you have done if this happened to you?

Why would a buyer do this?

Buyers sometimes hire several sellers to do the same task, compare what they get, and then choose who to hire in the future.

Or simply hire several sellers for the same task, and use the delivery they like best.

[sofiasman]

Why would a buyer do this?

Buyers sometimes hire several sellers to do the same task, compare what they get, and then choose who to hire in the future.

Or simply hire several sellers for the same task, and use the delivery they like best.

I get that, but the order in question was a translation with several files in total over 10K words.

If they wanted to compare to see who to hire, it would’ve made more sense to send one of the shorter ones, and just buy a $5-10 gig from several people, and compare that, wouldn’t it?

[hanshuber16]

I get that, but the order in question was a translation with several files in total over 10K words.

If they wanted to compare to see who to hire, it would’ve made more sense to send one of the shorter ones, and just buy a $5-10 gig from several people, and compare that, wouldn’t it?

If they wanted to compare to see who to hire, it would’ve made more sense to send one of the shorter ones, and just buy a $5-10 gig from several people, and compare that, wouldn’t it?

I believe they do that just to compare and select the best paragraphs/sentences/words from the two versions they receive. They probably intend on using portions of the documents they receive from both sellers.

If this was the case, the buyer probably had no intention of comparing and selecting just one seller. So, there was no need for them to test a seller out by first sending them a smaller “test” document.

A previous buyer of mine used to do that (proofreading/editing).

[sofiasman]

If they wanted to compare to see who to hire, it would’ve made more sense to send one of the shorter ones, and just buy a $5-10 gig from several people, and compare that, wouldn’t it?

I believe they do that just to compare and select the best paragraphs/sentences/words from the two versions they receive. They probably intend on using portions of the documents they receive from both sellers.

If this was the case, the buyer probably had no intention of comparing and selecting just one seller. So, there was no need for them to test a seller out by first sending them a smaller “test” document.

A previous buyer of mine used to do that (proofreading/editing).

I suppose that could be it.

In that case, I did the right thing in not taking the gig at least, as they would’ve received pretty much the same files anyway, even if I ended up phrasing some things differently.

[coerdelion]

Have you thought that perhaps the buyer wants to cut out your friend, buy directly from whoever is actually doing the translation (that would be you) … and save him/her self some money?

[hanshuber16]

Have you thought that perhaps the buyer wants to cut out your friend, buy directly from whoever is actually doing the translation (that would be you) … and save him/her self some money?

the buyer wants to cut out your friend

Could go either way. Is a 50/50 chance worth? IDK 😉

[sofiasman]

Have you thought that perhaps the buyer wants to cut out your friend, buy directly from whoever is actually doing the translation (that would be you) … and save him/her self some money?

well that would assume they knew, and I don’t know whether they did. It also wouldn’t do me any favours if they cancelled the order with my friend, only for my friend to have to cancel with me. I haven’t had more than 2 cancellations in close to a year on fiverr and both of those were due to buyer mistakes.

[coerdelion]

Run it past your friend … see what they say …