I have wasted my time trying to get things done on Fiverr.
-The quotes mentioned by most sellers are just click bait.
Welcome to the Fiverr forums.
Sorry to hear you’re having troubles, though depending on your brief and budget, you might be simply getting exactly what you pay for. What service are you looking for, if I may ask?
I am looking for scenario analysis for steel structure problem. 2-4 hours of work depending on expertise level. I’ve had a structural engineer agree to do the work and thereafter ghosted. All of them want to understand the problem, which is quite tedious using chat …hence wasting a lot of my time!! Thereafter, they throw me a quote for detailed design on a per square foot basis. I don’t really need that. I would not come to fiverr for that.
Maybe ask for a line-item quote? That way you can know what they’re charging for what parts, and you can clearly list which items you want based on that quote.
As for outlining the problem, you could put the information in a text doc, or a PDF, and send that, rather than individual messages in chat.
Lastly, this sounds loosely like homework. The engineer who ghosted you might have thought as such and dropped communication as both asking for and/or providing academic work is a bannable offence, and they didn’t want to risk it.
Thanks for your suggestions. Asking for a line-item quote would probably help.
I did consolidate the request in a doc after a laborious experience with the first seller.
It was not homework…:). I needed an output design after some engineering load calculations.
I did not need detailed design, since this was being done by my vendor anyways.
I wanted to double-check/validate the same independently with a ball-park/reference.
The engineer who ghosted me was rude and did not really care that he was not going to deliver.
I presume he promised a deliverable without intending to do it anyways. Also, listed price by sellers is just click bait.
Overall, pretty awful experience trying to get things done on fiverr 
Bait-and-switch is against the Fiverr ToS, so you could report the sellers. I don’t know anything about engineering, but there’s probably a few good sellers, it might just take some hunting. Have you read these by chance? https://forum.fiverr.com/c/fiverr-vid/42 Each of the spotlights have a few tips to help other buyers.
Thanks for the link. It helped. I did hunt a lot, that’s why I’m pretty disappointed. I would’nt want to play the role of a recruiting agent though…for a gig. I would expect the platform to have already done the same. Fiverr is probably not the place to goto for niche stuff. It probably works for “commodity” gigs like developing a website…
That, somewhat, yes. The biggest problem with Fiverr is that there’s no barrier to entry, and thus no way nor need to prove competence or skill prior to getting an order. This opens opportunity for anyone to make claims, true or false, and there are many who take advantage of that, for both attempts at honest work and deceptive schemes, at skill levels that are both beginner and professional.
As you said, Fiverr is best for one-shot projects, or lower skill/education work. Sturgeons Law applies. There are genuine skilled workers, but they take work to find. I’m sorry Fiverr isn’t what you’re looking for, but there are other freelancing platforms out there, that do have better/stricter vetting processes in place.