Fiverr Community Forum

Fiverr revoked my payment for a gig that was done correctly

Your Fiverr Experience The Ranting Pot
#1

Hello everyone,

It is with immense surprise and disappointment that I have seen Fiverr’s customer support canceling the payment for a completed order that I fairly delivered. This never happened to me in 7 years that I’ve been selling on Fiverr, I wasn’t even sure something like this was even possible!
This action totally destroyed my trust into working through Fiverr and has made me even more confident about my opinion that Fiver does not protect at all its sellers in front of any kind of terrible buyers.

Before starting my custom order, I promised the buyer to make an illustration of the characters that they requested and to give them 2 revisions (one during the sketch phase and 1 after the image is complete, that’s my usual process with every order).
I found myself doing more than the revisions that I promised, and the buyer was also starting to want to make drastic changes and changed their mind several times even after the illustration was complete.

I gave my buyer the work and quality I promised and I felt that they were taking advantage of that.
At the request of a 5th change, I repeated to the buyer that they had to pay in order to have extra revisions. After I told them that, they did not mark the order as complete and it was marked automatically complete by Fiverr after 3 days.

After the order was marked as complete, I was still talking with the buyer in pacific terms.
They agreed to be paying for an extra revision after I made a sketch preview of the modifications asked, and if they would have liked it they would have requested an extra revision.
The buyer has not complained in any way to me and I thought that we were going to continue working as discussed.

Now, I am so outraged to see that the payment was revoked by Fiverr’s customer support and fully refunded without consulting me, the seller, and despite no issue was raised to me by the buyer.
After doing my job, after using Fiverr for years and bringing visitors to my page to get paid through their website, that’s what I receive in return. I thought Fiverr was a “safe” platform for sellers, but it isn’t at all and I am deeply saddened by this.

Not paying for any kind of job is slavery and this type of action equals Fiverr supporting unpaid work. I exchanged hours of messages, put my experience and time into creating what was requested, was always there for support and being extra ready for the changes requested.

I never felt so disappointed, disgusted, undervalued and taken advantage of.
This is the last drop that makes me seriously want to cancel all my current orders and leave Fiverr for good.

The illustration I have done was a fanart of 2 “My Hero Academia Characters” for a child’s birthday.
The buyer has now the high-resolution image (A4, 300dpi) with no fiverr watermark and without a single penny spent for it. I imagine how nice it may feel for them to give a stolen item as a birthday gift.

Screen Shot 2020-06-07 at 01.37.41
Screen Shot 2020-06-07 at 01.37.41705×502 239 KB

I contacted customer support and will see what they will tell me… even though I feel totally helpless regarding their problem solving skills.

At least I’ve been able to share about it here to release some steam :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

10 Likes
#2

Sorry about your experience. I hope Fiverr’s customer support will rectify the issue and refund you your money.

3 Likes
#3

Thank you for your words Tricia. I seriously hope so too…
I’ve been reading similar situations like mine on the forums and they do not seem to have gone well. This made me already lose hope, even before waiting for a reply from customer support.

I rarely had issues with buyers and, if I ever had, it was while their order was still open. In that case I give full refunds (it seems I have no choice to issue partial ones) and the buyer does not get the final high res file.
Even if I dislike how these situations are handled, I prefer it in that way: I get to work for free but at least the buyer does not get the final file (which is actually theft). So both seller and buyer lose at least.

In this case though, I’ve lost it all.

I was better checking the profile of this person. They created an account in 2019 and never had a review as a buyer. It’s so sad to see how CS didn’t even raise a question before issuing a full refund behind my back.

1 Like
#4

Sorry about it. I know how it would feel.

2 Likes
#5

I just want to say that your artwork is totally immense. You’re super talented.

Sadly as sellers (and I’ve been here seven years as well), every now and then we come across situations that are unfair.

But please don’t let one bad experience put you off. You’ve got a real talent.

9 Likes
#6

Thank you so much!
Yeah definitely this won’t stop me, even though you know… it kinda sucks :sweat:

The first thing that brought me to fiverr was the feeling of being more protected towards bad buyers because “backed up” from a company (I mean we should pay 20% for a reason, right?).

But nowadays I would feel more protected by offering work outside the platform and through my own out-reach or online portfolio instead.

#7

I understand your feelings and I would say most of us have had this kind of experience. What I can say is please reserve your energy and obvious talent for the amazing buyers who come your way and find you in the sea of all the artists.

We only have so much mental energy and giving it to someone who is not deserving is a waste. Take back control and let it go.

In business there are losses and you have to plan those unfortunate times. It’s just part of your planning…plan for these types of buyers. When it happens you can say, “well I’m sorry that person has to live life that way but I planned for you so I am just going to feel happy that my plan worked. Now I can can feel empowered because I knew you were coming and had a plan to make your negative interactions just evaporate!”

Done! See how easy it is to take the bad energy and place it where it belongs.

What’s worse, you don’t want that person to affect your art and creative mind. I call it REMOTE CONTROL.

2 Likes
#8

Sorry to hear that I experienced this many times but fiverr always support buyers not sellers I am very disappointed many times but hope one day fiverr will realize this issue we work hard and buyers change their requirements at the end and get the complete refund as well it is frustrating some times but what we can do if fiverr not listen us.

#9

pound to a penny there is no birthday child either

well i hope the “buyer” is ISPbanned and you are fully compensated. what more can i say?

i love your work. the one with a woman in a red dress and a guy with a rose is lush

#10

What are the exact words of the cancellation notice at the bottom of the order?

#11

I have had a very similar experience today, I completed a job for a customer 2 months ago, The job was delivered and confirmed by the customer like any other order. The customer even left a 5 star review, detailing how I sat up until 5 am to complete his order.

Now just 3 days ago, The money for this 2 month old order was refunded, the reason given is, Failed to deliver on time. It amazes me how this is even possible? Clearly the customer got his order and was happy with it, How can they possibly claim a refund for non-delivery of a product they clearly received.

I have of course written to support about this, but now at 3 days and not even a response.

#12

That’s a standard phrase for a chargeback.
:point_down:

1 Like
#13

Thank you for the info, I am hopeful I can get my money back after reading.

#14

Seems this info is outdated, And anyone going through this should NOT expect Fiverr to return there money, This customer charged back money 2 months later, and Fiverr tell me there is nothing they can do. So Fiverr does nothing, We literally pay them to do nothing other than host some webspace.

They play middle man, and cant be bothered even disputing clearly false charge-backs. If i was dealing direct with paypal I would have the option to dispute this, However this option is removed because Fiverr handles the payments to and from paypal. Therefor this is there problem to fix. I for one will not work with Fiverr again, Not whilst it is so easy for customers to claim money back months after completion.

No matter how you look at it, This is fraud on the clearest level, Fiverr have allowed a customer to steal my files, And not pay me. Fiverr allowed this, no one else.

#15

And how is that info outdated? What exactly is outdated there?

Fiverr didn’t allow anything. However it’s a different story that they didn’t investigate it.

What exactly did they tell you?

You can always ask to escalate that matter, send it to relevant department and attach screenshots of your work, screenshots that it was delivered on time and their review and then they might be able to reply on that dispute (of course if you contacted them right away and didn’t wait for too long)

I went through that a couple of times and they did manage to get my money back even though in some cases it took up to a month.

1 Like
#16

This is seriously injustice with sellers, it happened to me 5 days back for a 280$ order for which I completed the site and the buyer was waiting for his client to review and I said fine but he wants to keep order on revision and was not agreed on extending the order. I politely said to either extend the time or let me deliver and you’ve 3 days time to come in between if there are any changes, I will fix it but yesterday I got mail from fiverr support that the order has been cancelled, I’m seriously disgusted at this stage and lost my hope with fiverr. They should have atleast heard the other side of the story but instead of having any word with seller they directly cancelled it.
I’m almost certain that support would not refund my money but how is this justified with the seller ? Now, buyer gets all the work for free without paying anything.
The funny thing is the staging site I worked was working till yesterday and they’re using it and changing content and images to real one to make the site live. I showed to support and till the time they responded (almost 15 hours) the client shifted to other server (dont know where) and support is now telling me where it is ? lol… I took the screenshot a day before for safe side and show it to them, now waiting for support to respond, another 15 hours ? they also close the ticket I generated by saying the decision will not be changed.
I know everyone here will say your best bet is contact support and convince them that I already did, I’m now feeling helpless and hopeless on this platform.

#17

your story will be the 7th same experience story I heard from the seller this past 10 days

I am worried even though I hadn’t experience the same, I think someone from Fiverr should come up and clarify this kinds of story

#18

wow !! they did? your side of the story really make a relief. I have heard the same 7 experience story from the seller this past 10 days

#19

Here is the exact response I recieved.

Zhana (Fiverr Customer Support)

Jun 11, 2020, 2:46:01 PM EDT

Hi there,

We are sorry to hear of your experience. When a payment is disputed with the payment provider, we both lose out on the sale, as the money is returned back to the payment provider in most cases.

To understand this process further, payment disputes can be opened for fraudulent purchases, and cancelling the order and returning the funds is the only way to protect you and Fiverr from further damages. This is the reality of all marketplaces and transactions handled on the internet: some payments will be disputed.

Our Trust & Safety Team reviews all buyers who file payment disputes. But due to our Privacy Policy, we do not notify other users of any actions taken against the buyer’s account (the same way we would not share what actions we would take against your account if in the same situation). Our Trust & Safety Team specializes in handling these issues, and will take care of this matter with the buyer.

If there are any other issues that we are able to resolve, please let us know.
Thanks,

We are talking about an order that WAS delivered on time, and confirmed by the customer, The customer even left a 5 star review, explaining how I sat up until 5am to complete his order. I withdrew these funds already. The money Fiverr has taken from me 2 months later is for a completely different completed gig.

#20

:point_down:

They didn’t tell you “No” actually.
Sometimes their responses are vague and those are responses I received at the beginning.
You can ask them if they are still working on it and if there is a chance to get your money back. Tell them that you are attaching all screenshots that they can send to a disputed payment provider.

1 Like