Buyers stop asking for free stuff when the order is completed

[thevideostore]

When you go to a seller for an order…
Don’t add things to your order after it is delivered.

Example: “Oh … the $5 video I wanted just looks too plain with the background I ordered … Why dont you just throw in my logo , a background picture for free…”

What sense does this make? A silver background $5 video is going to be plain. Thats the point. Extras add more professionalism and value to the order. How would you justify adding anything of exceptional value for a $5 price tag?

This goes for any gig , logo design , e-book covers , voiceovers , anything and everything here on fiverr.

Do you order from a restaurant and be like:

“Hey I ordered FRIES but I only got FRIES… Why dont you just add another steak and some green beans on the side for free to make up for that…”

No - it doesnt work that way in the real world!
And it doesnt work that way on fiverr!

Sellers , stand your ground.

Buyers , dont do this to any sellers…

Make sure before you hit the order button that you know what your order will contain and if you have questions , ask before hitting that button.

Lets keep fiverr a great place to work.

Be smart folks!

One way to setup proper expectations would be to outline this in your Buyer’s Reqirements boxes… Give a simple list of what to expect for $5 orders and ask buyers to cancel if they do not like what they see there. After all , that info should already be in your gig description and/or video … so it’s not really your fault if they received that inconvenience.

In my case - it was a custom order that we answered from the buyer requests section.
There was no way to set these ground rules …

To Staff:

I hope fiverr lets us simply link our normal gig to buyers for buyer requests so it can display the normal gig requirements as usual… This only confuses buyers/sellers when dealing with a custom order if the requirements for that gig still need to be relayed to the buyer. It’s extra work. Causes problems, cancellations , and bad business.

[therealsiri]

Well said.

[justmarketing00]

Exactly. But the Way to Deal such kind of Buyers is that you Should Politely Told them that this is not going to happen. Send them a Custom Extra and ask them to Accept it. (add a little extra in it as well then what you usually offer) In this way i guarantee your Order will be saved also you will End up Received a Good Amount 🙂

[aimancall]

It is not like that(FRIES) from buyer perspective.

I see image, title and price.

FRIES - $5

Awesome, yay!!! I’d like to have them but… things got compicated 🙂

I have to pay extra $10 to get them now or wait few hours. really? it sucks!
I have to pay extra for a brown bag otherwise I’m getting hot stuff directly to my pocket or hands.
I have to pay extra for High Quality FRIES even I can’t see on the image luring me to your place Low Quality Fries $5 - Long time to get them, be aware!!!
And the person is demanding tips for it 🙂

Tarantino with Monthy Pyton couldn’t make it better 🙂

[mary1979]

I have had a few buyers that I know are just trying to get completely different jobs out of me after the order with revisions. I normally cancel those that are ridiculous and obvious abuse of the modifications button but sometimes buyers are just not paying attention to the gig expectations. You just have to tell them nicely that it costs more than what they have paid and send them an offer in the sale section of the gig, there is an option to send extra add ons over in the sale page of the selected gig. That is the best way to handle it by having good customer service and just letting them know about it. If someone is just abusing that modification button, just hit cancel and move on. 🙂

[emmaki]

No wonder you’re upset about the 20% fee if you’re whacking the freebie button… abuse of the modification button is a violation of the terms and services of Fiverr, and Customer Support will support you in these cases. Of course, the review is another kettle of fish. Either way, you’ve just highlighted to plenty of unscrupulous buyers an easy way to get free work… not just from you, but also anyone else who might think this is a great strategy. I often ask for more money in these situations, and boy do they get abusive and leave bad reviews (sadly, they also violate TOS so it’s a win for me on all fronts).

[eoinfinnegan]

I like fries but this analogy only works so far.
Some sellers ask for extra to do certain things, yes, but think about it - doesn’t that happen everywhere? Buy your plane ticket and you have a plane ticket. If you want to choose your seats, board first, bring luggage, in flight snacks etc you pay extra. When you see the picture in the magazine of the perfectly happy family all enjoying their meal the airline does not point out that this family paid $1000 for their tickets and had a further $277 to pay for the “extras”. You just see the happy family on a plane. If you don’t get any of the extras, you still have a plane ticket!

On the other hand, you have some buyers who get to the flight desk with 3 big suitcases, demand to be served first and hassle the stewards to give them free food. Should they get these things for free just because they make a fuss? I don’t think so.

[eoinfinnegan]

So let me get this straight. When people repeatedly ask you to do more work for no extra money then you eventually get so annoyed that you give them the work you have already done - For Free? Yes, that will teach them a lesson all right! The lesson of what @emmaki said above!

[iamdigitizer]

you sure have a point but being polite and helpful to buyers even after order complete will surely increase your earning. Most of buyers discuss things to their friends or family so if you are being polite to them there is chance of getting more sales, I have many customers that are refereed to me by my old customers. 🙂

P.S: by being polite i am not meaning to give everything for free

[thevideostore]

This is the case many times. I finally got up the nerve to make this post as I know many of us are facing these issues.

You said it perfectly “sometimes buyers are just not paying attention to the gig expectations”

With this in mind , I keep my foreign (non-english) speaking clients in mind when writing my gig description and from over 3 years of experience here , we know what MUST be said for our gigs to eliminate 95% of the misplaced orders and things that cause problems. But still , it’s not perfect.

Thats a whole different kind of gig tip. Really putting yourself in the buyer’s shoes and looking several times … and even re-visiting it a month later… will help you tweak things… Also , noting why some orders have been cancelled from that gig and tweaking your gig to account for those mishaps will go far.

To answer @justmarketing00… We have considered simply asking the client to cover the extra costs for the extra additions and also weighed out the options of simply cancelling an order. The reality of it unfortunately is … You will either get a less than stellar rating or you can refund the client. 7/10 times that is the case… Its a risk that could leave a lasting blemish on your entire account.

In saying this , I’ll add - When a buyer leaves a bad review because they wanted those extras for free and couldnt get them… you will probably find that support will not remove the feedback. Or if they refund the order , your gig generally takes a hit… Its a mess …

---

That new feature to add to the current order was probably the best thing to hit fiverr in years.

[thevideostore]

Yes , that is good advice. We try to handle everything here with good customer service. I believe in that instance we just clicked on the resolution center link on the order to cancel it (and eliminate a risk as it was only a $10 order) … We also stated the cost for the extra and added it to the order (via that new feature) …

So the client was presented with 2 choices when he finally saw the order again.

1. Cancel it
2. Accept the extra

What the client actually ended up doing was Accidentally clicking CANCEL … and immediately following up with a message to ask us to re-make the order with the added cost and features.

So … presenting both option in this case was probably the best thing to do… And we’ll be doing this going forward for most orders perhaps.

[thevideostore]

It sounds like you’ve had a solid victory there … maybe on several occasions with this type of problematic buyer. The only way I can see us protecting ourselves is by watermarking our work… I can’t think of many things we can’t watermark in the digital world… But that means potentially a lot of watermarked looking copies will hit the gig sample line-up and look bad … but the same time it will serve it’s purpose and and the client will not be able to get a way with free stuff.

[catsquirrel]

Yes, please be clear about what your gig is offering.

Clear gig descriptions (with all the important details!) are important, for us buyers.

For example, I was seeking a transcriptionist recently. It’s the kind of job that I can “risk” on a new seller, so those are the gigs I looked at. Some of them don’t say what length of transcription is included in their basic gigs: five minutes of audio? 30 seconds? half an hour?

I avoid the problem by simply clicking away from incomplete gig descriptions, personally.

Of course, none of that solves the problem of the scammers, but having a clear description makes it more likely that legitimate buyers will buy from you instead of clicking on to the next seller.

Cheers.

[alw1nl]

I offer extra after service to selected clients and always willing to help them out, no big deal. If my buyer wants a little change after a half year I just do it for him/her and usually for free, I treat them as friends and it’s rewarding because one day they come back.