So i had a woman contact me about my short story writing gig. I send her a sample of my writing and all seems well - she seems impressed by the quality of it and orders my gig. However this is where the bullying/rudeness begins.
My gig, as i quite clearly explained to her, includes around 800 words per gig. she then demands that she is going to purchase four gigs, and expects me to write 1,000 words for each gig, as well as demanding that i give her a further 1,000 words for FREE because she has purchased multiple gigs. Nowhere on my page does it state that i would give a discount for multiple gigs, although i would be willing to upon discussion, and if she hadnât previously demanded an extra 200 words per gig.
Now, not wanting to affect my sellers/cancellation rating, i complete the work. She then demands that i give her full copyright to my writing. I feel as if i have been bullied as a seller here.
My point is; when you go into a shop, you see the product and you buy it as seen. If you buy a pack of four cookies, you donât go up to the checkout and demand an extra cookie for free because you have already bought the previous four, nor do you insist that each cookie should be a quarter bigger. If a buyer is not satisfied with what i clearly told her that my gig includes, then she should look for another seller who offers more words per gig.
Now, i have priced my gig at what i call a reasonable price - 800 word stories, including research on themes, planning and editing, will take me around an hour, perhaps more, to complete. After fiverr take their commission and the remaining $4 is converted to ÂŁ (Iâm from the uk) this works out at ÂŁ3 per hour for my work - only half of what the minimum wage is in my country! All in all, i feel that is a good deal, it allows me to garner additional income whilst doing something i enjoy doing. When someone feels the need to bully me into changing my already reasonable prices, it thoroughly annoys me. Us sellers are humans too, we have to make a living as well! This has been my first adverse experience with a Fiverr buyer, and i really hope there is a way to stop things like this from happening without damaging my cancellations rating!
On what Iâve read on other blogs and forums, there are really bullying and exploiting buyers. The lesson is to avoid them the next time. Can you help me? I am looking for the âbuyer ratingâ here on Fiverr. I canât seem to find one.
Reply to @fluidmarket: Iâm not sure how you view a buyerâs rating myself, either. Unless you mean you want to rate a buyer, in which case it comes up in the âto doâ tab after an order has been marked as complete by the buyer.
Trouble is, once someone has ordered a gig, the only way you can âavoidâ it is by cancelling it, thus affecting your rating as a seller, unless the other party agrees to mutual cancellation. I really do think that there should be a better way to protect the sellers on the site.
Yes what you said is also the problem of some sellers. If there is a scammer, they can create as many new accounts as they like, and order then exploit the same seller. We might suggest that âbuyer ratingâ if it is not yet implemented.
That is what I am looking for. To counter the fake buyers who like free work.
Honestly I would report her. If she wants to be that way then you can even tell her that youâre reporting her for her bullying behavior. If you report her first then cancel the gig then contact customer support, it may take awhile but Iâm sure once they see what has happened they will correct any loss of points for you. Again that will probably take awhile but it would be worth it to me. Definitely do NOT give her the copywrite or anything else. Tell her you have something for her âa notice that sheâs been reported and a cancellationâ! Iâm sorry this happened to you and I have no tolerance for people like that⊠Obviously lol
Reply to @missashley8705: Unfortunately itâs already too late for me to do anything this time around, i didnât really know what to do about it seeing as it was my first time dealing with someone like that and didnât want my so far 100% ratings to drop. However, thanks for the suggestion for next time 
This type of buyer tactic is becoming common place. I hate to inform you, but it will happen again, especially as your gig level rises and you become more popular on fiverr.
After a while, you will become more skilled at how to handle it. The first time it happen to me, I tried my best to reason with the buyer to no avail. The 2nd time, same thing, The 3rd time, same thing. After that, I stop trying to reason with an unreasonable buyer.
I use the mutual cancellation button and tell the buyer it is in both of our interests to cancel gig. If we donât cancel, I will report it to CS to take appropriate action
I know it is a lot to ask based on how much time you already invested in the gig, but manipulative buyers like this wonât stop and worse, this buyer may come back and buy from you again after she gets what she wants from you the first time.
Good luck
Oh yes, I wanted to say this type of buyer for me is usually a buyer who is selling my work to another party. They demand more trying to profit off of your work with as low as cost as possible. Iâm fine with them selling my work but donât ask me to do more than the gig calls for without paying me for my work.
If you donât want this buyer to come back, best to get rid of them now and tell them you donât want to work with them again.
Reply to @katecarlile: As far as I know, there is currently no way to view a buyerâs rating. I have seen here on the forums, however, that Googling the username with Fiverr (like, âusername Fiverrâ) may pull up gigs where the buyer has left feedback. This may help you see what kind of buyer youâre dealing with.
Iâve had a few tense encounters with some buyers and I have to tell you, I would have put it in mutual cancellation after she told you to write more than what she bought. Especially if you guys couldnât come to an agreement that you wouldnât do that. The cancellation rating isnât shown to buyers anymore so it doesnât even matter. Fiverr is great for some small supplemental income here and there in my spare time but itâs really not worth it to do every small task especially if the customer acts like that. There are thousands upon thousands of gigs here and they can find someone else to do that work if they want.
Iâm dealing with a nightmare bad buyer scenario right now. The more you capitulate to these people, the worse they get. I have a buyer who has ordered my proofreading gig a few times, but always provides a document that is practically nonsensical and requires significant rewriting (which I state I donât provide). In the past Iâve done the gigs for them anyway to just avoid the situation, and they take about 4 times as long as the usual stuff I do. I hadnât heard from them for about a month, but received an order yesterday and it was as bad as ever, so I sent a cancellation request about an hour after the order was submitted and suggested they find a Fiverr seller who offers more in-depth editing services or rewriting services.
They sent a nasty message calling me a âcheaterâ but agreed to the cancellation. They then proceeded to go back to all the gigs Iâd done for them months ago (which, clearly they were happy with at the time) and leave 1-star feedback on all of them with comments about how I âcancel orders for no reason, everyone needs to know the truth,â etc. I sent them a message explaining why I cancelled the order, and asking them to remove the feedback. Now theyâre messaging me about how theyâre going to get my account suspended. Itâs extremely frustrating.
Sorry for venting! What Iâve learned from this, though, is donât feel obligated to go out of your way for buyers if theyâre asking for more than you offer. They could end up just expecting it and becoming vindictive, malicious assholes when you canât do them a favour at that particular moment in time.
Even though the buyer is wrong for what they did, Iâm more BLAME Fiverr for not doing something about it. It is absolutely ridiculous that a buyer can go back months and rate you or change a rating. After two weeks, ratings should be closed period so you canât change a rating or add a rating if you didnât do so within the two week period.
FIVERR ISNâT LISTENING. THEY ARE TOO CONCERN ABOUT GIVING BUYERS MORE WEAPONS LIKE ARS TO USE AGAINST SELLERS.
WHY DOESNâT FIVERR DO SOMETHING GOOD FOR BUYERS???
Reply to @steveeyes: I completely agree. Also I feel as though Fiverr only cares about the buyers feelings. In their head, as long as the person paid the money, they can treat you however they want and thats because fiverr gets a cut of the money. It used to bother me in the beginning when I first started because I needed to make a good impression to get buyers. Now, Iâve been on fiverr for nearly 4 years,(back when you actually got the whole $5 bucks for your gig), so I have done quite a lot and sacrificed time and energy adding extras to peoples gigs for free. When I saw how ungrateful buyers where, I stopped. Now I offer nothing more nothing less and if they give me one star oh well, just pay me and leave me alone.
I wouldnât have done the work! Sheâs not dumb she can read and she knew good and darn well what your requirement are and still tried to play you. I had one dude come to my page and say âI want two gigs for 5 dollars and I need it sooner than your allotted timeâ . I simply said âIf you want more work and faster turn around, you need to refer to my extrasâ. After that, if they keep going, I just donât reply. Then if they order I cancel and contact fiverr support.
I was doing a demo for a client (not even an order), when i told him that i usually donât make as many revisions ( i did about 5) as this was not a placed order and he overeacted this way calling me even an ***holeâŠi think i never disrespected the user in any way.
I hope fiverr could do something about this kind of behavior, if i as a seller call him this way i am sure i was not here anymoreâŠwe have to shut up and keep receiving insults and even i donât know if he will be using my design where i spend several hours.
I would definitely not have responded after his outburst of rudeness. Ignore him or anyone after they are rude.
When he said âany ideas on how to change that small partâ I would have sent him a custom order with a big price telling him exactly how many revisions he would get for that price and any more revisions after that would cost extra. You could have sent a custom order to him for $100 for up to 5 revisions. Each revision over 5 would cost $10 each. That way no bad feelings for you and he knows what to expect.
Reply to @kickgom: If Iâd gotten this kind of reaction from a buyer, I would have said something like this:
If you are getting a logo designed by a freelancer outside of Fiverr, your assumptions are completely correctâyouâre welcome to as many revisions as it takes in order to get something rightâŠbut youâd still have to pay for the time. You pay for the consultation, for the design work, and for the revisions.
Fiverr is a different world entirely. There are rules that the seller has to abide by and they make it much more difficult to be paid for your time when it comes to work like designing logos and it is in no way unreasonable for a seller to expect payment for continual revisions, especially when you, the buyer, ask for something but donât seem to know exactly what you need. Iâm happy to go back and make any changes that you see fit, but especially when the revisions are due to you not knowing what you want the design to look like and not because of a misunderstanding on my part, I do expect to be paid for my time, like any designer will expect to be.
Good luck with your future purchases. I didnât mean any disrespect, I simply meant to make it clear that I would not be able to accommodate further requests for revisions on a design that you had not even placed an order for. Iâm sure you, as a business owner, understand the necessity of being paid for services rendered.
Wow, that really is dreadful!
Iâve been okay (mainly) since I posted this thread, though Iâve had another recently.
Baring in mind that my rate is labeled clearly on my gig, (At a gig per 500 words, still pretty reasonable considering the time that I put in) he then messages me asking for a 35,000 word piece for $35! He then proceeds, "Oh, but your writing isnât worth that much to me so letâs negotiate. Would you do a 20,000 word piece for $20?"
Hmmm, let me think about that for a second. You want me to work for about a dollar an hour? No thanks.
Wow these persons are really something else, are they forgetting that the work is $5. I mean its not like they are asked to pay $500 in the real world I know it would have cost them more, yet they are quarreling and taking advantage of sellers for $5. How I see it if you are not satisfied with what a seller is offering move on to the next, why making it personal by bullying a seller.
Reply to @robinoo: There should be a way to rate buyers on their pages and an âacceptâ button for sellers, so that the exchange is more mutual. We could all avoid people like that until they behave better.