Fiverr Community Forum

Christmas Holidays and Unsolicited Orders

Your Fiverr Experience The Ranting Pot
#1

I just finished my final order for the year, in the last 3 days I have written roughly 17 pieces so I was ecstatic! I’d already set my vacation to kick in 23rd Dec (only a couple of hours left to go) so I could spend Christmas with my family and leave work till the new year. After I finished up I did a final check of my Fiverr account to find that someone had slipped in an order without discussing it with me.

Considering that we are so close to Christmas it seems a little inconsiderate to just place orders without speaking to the seller first. Also, Fiverr should display a notification on sellers profile when they have an up and coming holiday and not just when their vacation mode is live. A feature like this would avoid mishaps occurring.

I’d also love to see a feature where we can choose to accept or reject orders instead of being at the mercy of the buyer.

  • I’ve requested an order cancellation, here’s hoping it doesn’t affect my completion rate! I seriously need a break, even if I lose a sale *
15 Likes
#2

If you’re available for taking orders then buyers are going to… place an order… This post baffles me, If you didn’t want orders then you should’ve just set the vacation time earlier. It’ isn’t “iNcOnSiDeRaTe”, your profile is just misleading.

11 Likes
#3

Last holiday season someone has placed an order minutes before I was going to turn on an out of office mode. I still had 24 hours before my flight and it was a regular buyer so I thought I could manage.

Then out of the blue he decided to be uncharacteristically difficult, made me spend first two days of my last vacation before the corona hit trying to appease him, then slapped me with 3* and that was that.

I was feeling a bit guilty because I was working on the road and maybe, maybe my deliveries weren’t my 100%. Then I returned home, opened the previous projects I’ve done for him and no, the last one he got was on par with all the previous work, better than some of it in my opinion.

So yeah, I should have cancelled.

I like this idea a lot.

8 Likes
#4

It’s the christmas holidays buyers should be wary. If you read my post properly you’d see that I had just finished up. I barely had time to put on my vacation notice. It’s about speaking with sellers and checking that they can take on work

6 Likes
#5

I’m sorry but I don’t agree. As a seller you are either available for work - or you are not. There is no middle ground.

The buyer did nothing wrong. Your profile showed that you were available. Even if there was a vague message saying something like “This seller will be unavailable for work from 23rd December” - it wouldn’t stop people from ordering. Human nature.

If you wanted to ensure that you were clear of work from the 23rd of December then you could have set your vacation mode to kick in from say the 21st of December - to ensure that you had a day or two to allow for any revisions or eleventh hour orders. This would also have avoided the cancellation request which will now impact on your stats.

I’m not attempting to be difficult, but as sellers we have to take responsibility for protecting our accounts, and on this occasion - you didn’t.

13 Likes
#6

Ouch! Sorry you experienced that. I do wish people would check in with sellers first, it would make life so much easier

2 Likes
#7

If I have an active order how can I go on vacation? I had just finalised my work and I got a new one through. My point is about speaking to seller first especially during the Christmas holiday

6 Likes
#8

I’m not trying to be difficult (honestly, I’m not!), but this is not how Fiverr works. If a gig is showing as active - then the buyer can purchase it.

As sellers we can add wording to our gigs along the lines of “please contact me before ordering” - but this means nothing. Absolutely nothing. The buyer can still purchase the gig, meaning either you have to complete the order or cancel it.

This is what I meant by there is no middle ground - as sellers we are either available for work or we’re not. We should never rely on the common sense of buyers.

11 Likes
#9

Don’t get me wrong I understand your point. It would just be nice if buyers spoke to us during holiday periods. In a normal working environment you wouldn’t reach out to someone on 22nd and expect a project to be done days before Christmas. You’re right, the buyer hasn’t done anything wrong but this is frustrating as it has affected my pristine completion rate!

4 Likes
#10

I like that idea, too, but a lot of buyers aren’t considerate enough to consider it.

5 Likes
#11

Yes, in this case you could talk to the buyer and very politely let them know. They don’t know you were going to go on vacation, just kindly leave them a message saying you are on vacation and will be able to get back to them soon!

Also, the buyer didn’t know you were about to go on vacation because you didn’t put your out of office mode. No big deal, just do what I said!

Hope this helps! :wink:

4 Likes
#12

Already done! Though I’m not mad at the buyer, just having a moan

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#13

Alright! Then enjoy your vacation!

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#14

I plan to work to the end of day on the 24th. I have a couple of projects from another source that I have spaced out to fill the 23rd and 24th. Then I plan to take a few days off.

Will I activate the “Out Of Office” feature? No. My delivery time in my Gigs is set for 7 days. If someone books a Gig on the 25th, it’ll be fine.

With the crappy year I’ve had in business (due to my health) I’m happy to do any work up to the holidays.

6 Likes
#15

That’s fair. For me personally I’m officially burnt out, strangely looking forward to my Covid xmas. In the last 3 days I’ve written over 17,000 words of content while also working on other projects. A stiff drink and a few days in bed is needed.
I hope your health and business improve

5 Likes
#16

That is a high volume, for sure. I’m usually good for 2,000 - 2,500 words per day. You NEED a break…lol

4 Likes
#17

Not to take away from your rant or anything, but another thing to keep in mind is that winter holidays dates differ across the world and cultures, so some of your buyers might not even be aware or forget that it’s the week for you.
Orthodox Christmas is not yet here, Diwali passed a while back and Lohri is yet to come, Hanukkah is over, etc., etc.
Maybe they aren’t being maliciously inconsiderate of your personal time and just have other stuff on their mind as the end of a calendar year is often associated with finishing projects, spending the remaining budgets, tight deadlines and a lot of stress for many people.

13 Likes
#18

Other sellers can learn so much from this. I offer a three day delivery for a service that will probably take me around 15 minutes per gig. In other words I have built in lots of time flexibility around each order.

When I stopped offering a 24 hour service four or five years ago, I very quickly noticed that overall the bad, demanding, scammer type buyers disappeared - and were replaced with easy going, decent buyers who often left tips.

And my stress levels, because of not offering a 24 turnaround, decreased significantly. No doubt I have lost sales along the way because it is human nature for most people to want results instantly - but I don’t care about this. For me, it’s all part of managing and protecting my seller account.

Wishing you better health for 2021.

8 Likes
#19

Very well said! :clap::clap:

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#21

Flexibility is so important!

I think sellers offer such short turnarounds because they think it will lead to more orders but most buyers don’t have super time sensitive requests and they know that quality takes time.

9 Likes