Can't Deliver on Time Because

[hfsingers]

Hey guys! I know this is really long so bear with me and sorry for the length. This is my first post in the Fiverr forum but I look forward to becoming an active part of the community!



I’m not sure if I’m posting this in the right place, but I couldn’t find a relevant category for my question.



I’ve bought gigs on Fiverr in the past but I just started selling about a week ago. I/we have one gig so far just to test the water and see how it all works. We got our first order 3 days after posting it and everything went great! The buyer asked a question (which I promptly answered) and then ordered the gig. We completed it on time, submitted it and got a super positive review.



Our gig is “We will Sing a Personalized Happy Birthday Song Over the Phone in 4 Part Harmony for $5” and is guarantied to be completed on the persons actual birthday. There wasn’t a problem until we got our second order a few days ago. It was for a birthday almost a month from now and our est. delivery time was 3 days. (It has since been changed to 5 days) So, we obviously couldn’t deliver on time.



Here’s what I did… I sent him a message saying,

"Hi (Name),



Thanks again for ordering our gig!



Since the birthday is more then 3 days from now, we’ll have to “deliver” before then to avoid being penalized by Fiverr for late delivery.



The order will be marked as delivered but you don’t have to leave feedback until after March 11th. It’s on our calendar and we’ll send you a message after we make the call on their birthday.



Let us know if you have any questions.



Thanks,



The Hanson Family"

I didn’t get a response with any questions so I delivered it the next day with this message:

"Hi (Name),



We’re “delivering” the order now so we don’t get penalized. Thanks for understanding why we have to do it this way and be sure to let us know if you have any questions!



Thanks,



The Hanson Family"

That’s where I left it. Is that the right thing to do in this situation? We’re new to Fiverr and I’ve never done anything like this before so any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!



Also, while you’re at it, you can check out the gig and let me know if there’s anything obvious I should change or add. I know we should have a video and I’m perfectly capable of making one, so you can encourage me to do that too. 😉



http://www.fiverr.com/hfsingers/sing-a-personalized-happy-birthday-song-over-the-phone-in-4-part-harmony



Thanks SO much for your help and suggestions!



Cheers, Daniel

[thisisrealnifty]

I don’t know of any other way, but sometimes even when you submit a blank order, the counter still goes late… this just happened to me. I wish there was an on hold button, but other than increasing your lead time for the gig I haven’t got any more ideas!

[prohelper27]

I think you handled it the best you could, considering your situation.



However, to prevent this in the future, I would suggest you increase your lead time, and state it in your description that the birth date MUST fall within ___ days from the order date (however long you set your lead time for). Also, I would suggest adding this at the very beginning of your description, so people are more likely to read it. 🙂



I believe this would help.

[hfsingers]

Reply to @prohelper27: Thank you for the suggestions! I changed the lead time to the max amount (29 days) and added the new “guidelines” near the beginning of the description. We’ll see if that helps. Do you think 29 days is too long? It just looks like a “big” number. 🙂

[hdxd159]

Perhaps I think you should just take a video instead of doing it live. That would be much simpler in time management.

[twistedweb123]

Marking it as complete was the right thing to do in your situation - as long as you do remember to do it,



The delivery time of your gig, isn’t just set by you, it is set by the average time it takes you to deliver orders. So, if you did leave this open for over a month, and then delivered, your lead time would shoot up.



For example, if you set your leadtime for 5 days, and deliver all of your gigs on the 5th day, if you ever want to reduce that leadtime (say 3 days), it will still show as 5 on the front end, until your average is down.



However, the worse part, is that it would show as 3 in the backend on your order.Just something to think about 🙂

[twistedweb123]

Reply to @madmoo: It won’t show less than you have set it, as long as your average is less than your actual delivery time.



For example, if my average delivery time is 5 days, but I set it as 3, it will still show as 5 frontend, but 3 backend.



In your case, your actual delivery time is lower than what you have set - this only effects those who wish to lower their delivery time, but have a high average 🙂



For example, if you try to set one of yours to 1 day it will probably show as 1 day to you, but the actual average on your gig. However, I know you deliver very quickly, so I’m not sure how quick your average is 🙂

[prohelper27]

Reply to @twistedweb123: Where did you learn this?

[twistedweb123]

Reply to @prohelper27: through it happening first hand. For example, I have a gig with a 5 day leadtime, it is set as 5 days, yet it shows a 9 frontend and cannot be decreased due to the average, as I used to wait for users to sign off on my work - even if it went late

[prohelper27]

Reply to @twistedweb123: Hmm… that’s interesting. Didn’t know that.



How can I check if mine are different from the set lead time? Where do I see this at?

[twistedweb123]

Reply to @prohelper27: Simply look at your gig, and then look at the delivery time set in your “manage gig” section (when clicking to edit a gig).

[ozzieuk]

Reply to @prohelper27: Pretty Picture for you

[hfsingers]

Reply to @hdxd159: Thanks for the idea. That would be great except that it would defeat the uniqueness of the gig. It’s drawing point is that it’s personalized with the person’s name and delivered on their birthday. A birthday song video would have to be “dear friend” or something unless we recorded a ton of videos with different names. 🙂

[hfsingers]

Reply to @madmoo: Thanks so much for your helpful tips and suggestions! I feel honored to get a reply from the forums top contributor! Yeah, you’re right. I changed the lead time to 7 days. I’m SURE people will still order outside that time but what can you do! 😛



I’ll be making a video for the gig pretty soon and I do have a few ideas for gig extras once we level up!



Having to remember isn’t a problem at this point. I write them on our calendar and at this point, there’s definitely not to many to loose track of one. 🙂



Yep, I guess I’ll have to keep doing blank deliveries if someone orders outside the designated time. Hopefully it won’t bring us any negative feedback!

[hfsingers]

Reply to @twistedweb123: Glad I did the right thing! That’s very interesting about how the lead time really works according to your actual time. That’s good to know!