Fraudulent Google review from angry Seller?

[dgill247]

Hi guys, So I recently hired someone to implement lazy loading images via coding into my shopify store to help with the speed as it’s quite slow and also help with fixing the speed shown on google page speed insights.

I put out a request and received numerous offers, but decided to go with this one. We discussed what I wanted doing via inbox messages and he sent me a custom order to which I paid immediately and set him up as a staff member to go in to my site and do the work and he said thats all he needed.

The work began 5th November, but 2 days later (7th) I noticed within the order that it was still waiting for me to submit requirements which the seller already had so I just added ‘as discussed’ and then the order had started.The delivery time was now the 10th which I was happy with.

On the 9th I received a message ‘wasnt easy, but I think I am managing to shave off about 60-70% of your website size’ He then said it would be done later that night which I was thought was great!

On the 11th I gave a quick message to see how it was going and he said he was having to do file conversions locally and would put it all live when done which didn’t seem to out of place.

On the 18th (a week later!) He messaged to say he had done and got my speed up… I checked myself and literally nothing had changed!

During all this time he had only logged into my site on one occasion and added a free image optimization app which I had already done previous so it did nothing!

As you can imagine I was not overly impressed with the service, but he continued to say the work was done and eventually accused me of trying to rob him after I had no choice, but to request a cancellation. He accepted the cancellation without trying to fix the situation as I’m not sure it was something he could do.

Withing 10 minutes of the cancellation and some back and fourth messages of him telling me I ripped him off, I recieved a negative 1 star review on my google business under an unknown name saying ‘Completely scammed out of my money.’ The name was dutch which is where he says he’s from(although when he logged into my shopify store, his location was showing as India!) I don’t sell outside of the UK, but it it’s clear to see what happened here so not much to investigate.

Now this is unacceptable and very unprofessional!

I now know the real name of the seller and I’m just wondering what you guys would do in this situation?

I don’t really want to make this a legal matter as it costs money, but I’m not sure what my options are?

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to give a better idea of what has happened

Cheers,
Daryl

[imagination7413]

I’m not sure, but there might be a way to appeal to Google Business about targeted malicious ratings.

[benedictrm]

Hi

Sorry to hear your frustration. There is a thing you should check before you go any further:

Did you make sure that when you visited your site to look at the site that your browser (IE, Edge Chrome etc) was pulling the site it displayed to you from the server and not the cache data?

It is highly likely that your browser pulled cache data and not the real files in the server seeing this is default and cache can persist for days or even weeks. I worked in web and this complaint was very common when asking a client to check their completed job.

Try hitting the F5 key a few times. Ctrl F5 will force a Hard Reload which tells the browser to reach to the raw server files instead of trying to save time with cached files. This can be a slower load seeing it completely starts again.

Once this has been done and you are sure that you are seeing what is really there on the server, the work delivered, then you can make decisions about whether you have been scammed or not.

🙂

[dgill247]

I’m not sure, but there might be a way to appeal to Google Business about targeted malicious ratings.

Thanks for the reply. I have flagged it with google so will see what happens!

[dgill247]

Hi

Sorry to hear your frustration. There is a thing you should check before you go any further:

Did you make sure that when you visited your site to look at the site that your browser (IE, Edge Chrome etc) was pulling the site it displayed to you from the server and not the cache data?

It is highly likely that your browser pulled cache data and not the real files in the server seeing this is default and cache can persist for days or even weeks. I worked in web and this complaint was very common when asking a client to check their completed job.

Try hitting the F5 key a few times. Ctrl F5 will force a Hard Reload which tells the browser to reach to the raw server files instead of trying to save time with cached files. This can be a slower load seeing it completely starts again.

Once this has been done and you are sure that you are seeing what is really there on the server, the work delivered, then you can make decisions about whether you have been scammed or not.

🙂

Thanks for the advice, I have tried your suggestion and I have also tried other browsers, but there is still no change, it’s as it was before he was hired.

I also understand this may get better over time and I would be happy to pay for the service, but to leave a negative review on my business page is not acceptable, that’s the problem here!

[benedictrm]

Thanks for the advice, I have tried your suggestion and I have also tried other browsers, but there is still no change, it’s as it was before he was hired.

I also understand this may get better over time and I would be happy to pay for the service, but to leave a negative review on my business page is not acceptable, that’s the problem here!

to leave a negative review on my business page is not acceptable, that’s the problem here!

Indeed it is unprofessional to do that. So my next Q would be what sort of money did this person sell themselves for, and how does that compare to “real world” professionals for the same task/s?

EG. If a real world person would be $50 and you hired a $5 “pro” I think that buyer beware applies far more than any sense of expectation that a $500 used car should be as good as a $20,000 new one.

Had you already alerted the provider that you had tried a free “plugin” with no results and therefore this job required more skill? If not, they are reasonable, esp if selling a task for $5, to do just that on the assumption that this is expected action for $5. Just as a $500 used car has paint issues and a squeaky door.

All hard things to have to contemplate but so many complaints I see here are as a result of these sorts of issues of expectation leading to lack of clear dialog clarifying the Brief for Deliverables.

🙂

[dgill247]

to leave a negative review on my business page is not acceptable, that’s the problem here!

Indeed it is unprofessional to do that. So my next Q would be what sort of money did this person sell themselves for, and how does that compare to “real world” professionals for the same task/s?

EG. If a real world person would be $50 and you hired a $5 “pro” I think that buyer beware applies far more than any sense of expectation that a $500 used car should be as good as a $20,000 new one.

Had you already alerted the provider that you had tried a free “plugin” with no results and therefore this job required more skill? If not, they are reasonable, esp if selling a task for $5, to do just that on the assumption that this is expected action for $5. Just as a $500 used car has paint issues and a squeaky door.

All hard things to have to contemplate but so many complaints I see here are as a result of these sorts of issues of expectation leading to lack of clear dialog clarifying the Brief for Deliverables.

🙂

Well I had offers ranging from $5 up to $100 and he was in between. Based on his 5 star feedback one would assume he knew what he was doing, but sadly it’s too easy for sellers to avoid feedback!

Yes the seller knew I had tried various apps, he was just unable to complete the work… you get what you pay for I guess and his reaction after shows his character.

I mean the review does not really affect my business too much as all my sales come from ads, but I think Fiverr need to take more action against people like this

[williambryan392]

This would annoy me. I’d report him to CS. Report him for what you think has happened. CS really looks after buyers so you definitely have the power. However, as this happened on google they may have a limited view of what they can do.

I would also report for lying about location and send screenshots if you have that in the chat.

Or, you can just let it go, but I understand not wanting to!

[dgill247]

This would annoy me. I’d report him to CS. Report him for what you think has happened. CS really looks after buyers so you definitely have the power. However, as this happened on google they may have a limited view of what they can do.

I would also report for lying about location and send screenshots if you have that in the chat.

Or, you can just let it go, but I understand not wanting to!

Thanks for the advice @williambryan392 , I have reported him to CS and provided screenshots.

🤥

I’m not sure what will happen next and yes it’s annoying. People like this should not be allowed to sell here, they could seriously damage a business that relies on reviews and all because they are not qualified to do the work! :roll_eyes: