Fiverr Community Forum

Cancel order policy needs to change

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#1

You have clearly stated in your gig description that it’s best to have the buyer message you before ordering (because you can’t always guarantee satisfactory results).
They don’t do that part and straight up order. You do your thing and deliver the gig just so that they can complain that it’s not what they expected and would like to cancel the order.
You cancel it and immediately your completion rate drops, alongside the other drawbacks you get when you have an order cancelled.

Something needs to change. Why do sellers have to ‘suffer’ that much even just from one order cancellation? What if someone deliberately orders a gig from you just so that he can cancel it afterwards and practically try to destroy your career?

Something just seems too extreme. This just happened to me and I have no clue why the buyer couldn’t just send me his file to me before ordering. That way I could’ve told him that I either can’t do it or send him a small preview, which he wouldn’t like and just not order altogether, without experiencing cancellation of orders?

10 Likes
#2

If you did the work as requested, and according to the terms of your gig, don’t cancel. It’s as simple as that. Refuse to cancel work that has been completed as promised. You’ve been around for a few years, so I assume you already know the part in Fiverr’s TOS that states that orders are not eligible to be cancelled based on personal preference, if they were delivered according to the terms of your gig.

Say no, and report the questionable cancellation attempt to Fiverr. You always have a say in cancellation demands from buyers. Say, “no”, and let your “no”, be “no”.

Because it isn’t required. Fiverr is set up in such a way that everything a buyer needs to know about your service is listed on your gig packages, and in your gig description. Buyers are not required to contact you, before choosing one of your listed packages, and hiring you to complete it.

The questions that buyers have to answer before the order goes active has plenty of options to require the buyer to provide information and attachments that you would need to complete the order.

8 Likes
#3

I will keep that in mind but if I refuse to cancel, the buyer most likely will leave a negative feedback.

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#4

That is a risk you will have to take. Every business – all over the world – takes on the same risk. You can’t make everyone happy. You can only deliver top-quality work, and fulfill your side of any business contract.

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#5

Please see: Fiverr is not helping me. Client ask for refund after everything was done

#6

Yes, but you can reply to that review and tell your side of the story. Do not give up your hard earned dollars.

4 Likes
#7

Ok my question then: in which situations cancellation should affect sellers? What situations will count as sellers fault?

1 Like
#8

Decline the cancellation so long as you know that you did the work within the scope your Gig and any Portfolio examples you show.

If the client then writes a bad review, it is on you how you respond. Most bad clients will “guild the lily” in their rant and make it clear that they are at fault - whilst blaming it on you. Simply respond that you did the work based on material supplied 7 offered the opportunity to discuss. Good buyers will understand the situation.

Don’t live in fear like this or it merely hands away the power you do have.

:slight_smile:

2 Likes
#9

There would have to be a clear policy on that, like cancelling orders that are out of scope of the offering (because they’re different or extra work).

I think scope would be the best way to determine if the cancellation was the buyer’s fault.

1 Like
#10

Yep, that’s what I think. I totally agree that orders that are not covered in the gig, or people chose wrong gig package and don’t want to add more, or when buyer changed their mind couple of hours after ordering etc should not affect our stats.

But if you delivered something and your buyer didn’t like it I think that still should affect your ratio. (Like in the OP case).
I see a lot of people here on the forum complaining that they delivered as client asked but client is unsatisfied and wants to cancel and still should not affect their stats because it’s unfair.
I don’t think it’s unfair. We saw what quality some sellers deliver and not being able to deliver to the standard would be fair to affect your stats.

5 Likes
#11

Yeah I totally agree. Subjective arguments shouldn’t qualify for the “not my fault” cases.

1 Like
#12

Thanks @alpi123 and @jonbaas. Today I learn something new.

And @jonbaas, I want to know from you that there is a risk of bad reviews here, well that’s okay. But even after the order is complete, the buyer cancels the order by contacting support.
How will it be then? Because Fiverr gives more priority to the buyer.

#13

I really wish people would stop using this as a reason to either blame Fiverr (which others have done), or to stop them from taking risks. Complete your order. Don’t worry about what could happen. Fiverr doesn’t want to cancel orders. But it does happen from time to time – that’s the nature of being a seller here. Be a great seller, and give CS reasons to side with you in any future cancellation demands.

Don’t worry about future fears. Concern yourself with being a great seller, who delivers top-quality work. You can’t change what might happen… but you can influence what happens right now.

4 Likes
#14

Thank you very much :heart:

#15

You could briefly tell your side of the story by responding to the buyer’s feedback on your page. You also have the option of giving an honest review of your experience with this buyer. Your honest review about this experience will appear on the buyer’s page and will serve as a warning/guide to other sellers.

Earlier this week, I had a bad experience with a cunning buyer. I realized, after I had made the first delivery, that the buyer is hard to please and usually gives negative seller reviews. Thankfully, this buyer did not give me a review maybe because he/she realized that I could also give a review which would show on their page.

#16

Exactly the reason I was coming to the forums, which I seldom do. I don’t get the way they have it set up either and I’ve contacted them a couple of times regarding it. They always say the same thing “the system automatically tracks all cancelations the same.”

If that’s the case, what is the point of having a long list of 'Reasons for Canceling"? Why does it matter the reason if it all counts against us? If we select a reason that clearly is not our fault “i.e. buyer ordered by mistake, could not agree on a price, etc.”, why should those reasons lower our statistics?

I also ask to be contacted prior to ordering. Usually they do, but in the past 4 days I’ve had two people place an order, and within a few hours ask to cancel it, before work was even started.

  1. This person ordered a 500 word rewrite, sent 1,200 words and when I asked if they wanted the rewritten version reduced or add an extra gig I received “I didn’t know you were going to charge more, please cancel.”

  2. This one occurred earlier today. They ordered a rush delivery, an hour later after I had assigned it they asked to cancel because of a budgeting issue on their end… Gah!

Due to the lack of work the past few months with the whole COVID thing, the first cancelation dropped me 5%, from 94% to 89% :frowning:… I’m waiting to see if there’s any way to avoid canceling this 2nd one because that will drop me to 84% and my completion rating has never been that low in the 6+ years providing services here.

#17

Exactly, but I’ve had a couple instances where Fiverr support was on my side and removed the negative feedback after reviewing the order. Although, I would assume that’s rare (I think it’s happened twice in 6 years).

When it comes to canceling vs risking feedback I usually base it on two factors:

  1. How much time was spent on the order?
  2. How much is the order for?

If very little time was spent on the order, or it’s a small value order I usually just refund. Assuming we are getting a regular flow of orders, and the rareity of an unsatisifed client, the cancellation does not usually affect our stats much.

However, there has been times when my team has spent dozens of hours on an order and the client waited until we delivered all the work to complain, and continued to complain after several rounds of revisions. In this case, I said ‘no’ as alpi123 up there mentioned doing. BUT…

Saying no only dragged it out. Although we delivered as stated in our gig description, provided several rounds of revisions, and reporting it - Fiver Support took it upon themselves to cancel the order (almost a month later).

While we should have the right to say ‘no’ to a refund/cancellation, ultimately Fiverr seems to favor the buyer for some reason. :roll_eyes:

#18

Last week one customer try to cancel an order. Do you now why? Because I just suggest something to improve the jingle (even more than my Gig offer) .
I just decline this cancellation!
I told with customer and He said, ohhh sorry, I love your work but I don’t understand what you said because I have poor english…
So, after that This customer review was 5 stars.
If someone cancels an order for no reason, just decline and talk to CS.
Remember friend DO NOT CANCEL AN ORDER EVER!!!
I agree with you, I’ve been working on Fiverr by 5 years, and always click “acept” but it means that you make a mutual cancellation.
Only once in all these years a client insulted me, harassed me, told me that I had to cancel because she disgusted my “Latin music style”. So I decided to accept the cancellation because the penalty takes 3 months to resolve, but a negative evaluation REMAINS FOREVER.

So only cancel as a last resort to avoid negative evaluation.

I finally agree with you. There are clients who are acting like criminals, with bad intentions. Sellers have no way to protect ourselves from them, the only way is to “decline” and talk to CS.

#19

I imagine the purpose is for Fiverr’s records so they can keep track of trends in how their business is doing.

1 Like
#20

Hi Jon…the buyer is allowed to cancel for ANY reason. I was told this by Fiverr support just today. I just posted my experience (below) in the community forum and what I was told by Fiverr:
Had a buyer who requested numerous voice recordings with music. Order was delivered and buyer changed his mind stating he decided he wants a MALE voice instead of a Female voice (me), and wants me to deliver the recordings in a male voice. My gig is very clear that it is for a female voice, no male voices are offered. Buyer wants to cancel AND GET A REFUND because he now wants a male voice instead. This order took quite a lot of time to produce and was delivered exactly as my gig described. Recordings were very high quality and professional. I have excellent reviews from all of my previous buyers. I reached out to Fiverr customer support and brought up that this buyer is violating the Terms of Service by trying to cancel after receiving the order simply because he changed his mind and wants a male voice. The gig was delivered as described. This is like hiring a contractor to remodel your kitchen, and then wanting a refund when the work is done because you changed your mind and decided you want to remodel your bathroom instead. Fiverr support replied stating that they are “sorry” for the experience, but in essence, the buyer can cancel for ANY reason . This is what they responded with:
"While we would not cancel an order based on personal taste directly, the buyer does have the final word on how their funds are spent and any reason they want to cancel an order for is valid."
This is unacceptable to me as a seller. There is no protection for sellers who have spent a lot of time/energy on a project and makes it very easy for sellers to be taken advantage of. Time to spread the word. Anyone else have this experience?

1 Like