Graphic design sellers, BEWARE with this watermark Issue

[chatcosmique]

Let me start by saying I have contacted customer support twice to report this. So this post is for other sellers to beware and also for me to let off steam.

I don’t know if this is happening to some other sellers (in the graphic design field), but I don’t believe this is happening only to me either.

Since last year I’ve noticed some customers managed to use the work I did for them before they approved the delivery. Recently I found out 3 of my latest customers have done so and I could confirm they’re not getting the watermark on the delivered files. One of them sent me a screenshot of a delivered (but not approved) file and there was no watermark on it. I reported this to CS right after I got the screenshot but did not really receive any assistance to fix the problem. I do have the watermark activated, in fact, another customer sent me revision comments with the delivered files attached on a Word document and they did have the watermark on, while this other customer just did not have it.

Right now, I have this other order that’s been hanging for almost 3 weeks. The customer takes forever to respond and she’s one of those adorable people (*sarcasm) who wait until the last minute to reject the delivery, when the order is about to auto-complete. I did Instagram Posts for her. Today I’m checking her instagram account and found out she’s been using 5 designs since August 13th, and one of those designs have suffered major changes, the last version of it looks nothing like the first version, which is the one she used. So yeah basically I’ve been doing free additional designs for her, thank you very much.

Tomorrow the order should auto-complete, and she’s got no more revisions anyways, but something tells me she will just reject it because it seems that’s all she does, and then dissapear for another two days +23hrs after I re-deliver.

However I contacted Support to report the watermark issue with this order and a few others. I attached screenshots that prove all I have explained, and requested the Support Team to finally close and complete that order instead of waiting for the customer’s approval. Let’s see what their response is. But I already lost time and money, not only with this order but with who knows how many others. I feel used and betrayed.

It’s all very upseting. Because I’m aware the only solution by now for me to ensure it won’t happen again, is setting my own watermark, deliver the “final” designs like that, and wait for the customers to accept the delivery so I send the version with no watermark as soon as they complete the order. Like, how annoying, stressing and time consuming.

It makes me think of all the other sellers here who work on video editing, writing, voice overs and all the gigs who apparently don’t have any “watermark” or protection system for their work. I guess they’re used to do the protection themselves. All my admiration to them. But it’s very heart-breaking to trust a feature made by Fiverr and realizing it has not been working as it promises.

Anyone has gone through the same? Thoughts? Suggestions?

[fonthaunt]

I’ve had gigs with image deliveries before although I don’t know. I did not ever have trouble with the watermark system. On the other hand, the items I deliver now do not have watermarks and I still rarely have trouble with buyers taking the work and canceling. When I was selling gigs that were $5-10 each I did create my own watermarks in PDF and deliver that way until the buyer had checked things. I eventually found ways to use my gig descriptions to get most buyers to contact me prior to ordering. I “vet” buyers in the same way that they are vetting me and so far that has been more successful than watermarks of any kind.

If you think there is an actual bug with the watermark system, I would encourage you to ask Support to check on it. I can’t recall having seen other people mention it so it’s possible that you are having an isolated problem. Good luck!

[uk1000]

Because I’m aware the only solution by now for me to ensure it won’t happen again, is setting my own watermark, deliver the “final” designs like that, and wait for the customers to accept the delivery so I send the version with no watermark as soon as they complete the order.

I’d get permission from CS before doing that. I’m not sure they’d allow you to deliver a file with your own watermark on it. Of if they do allow it (after being asked) maybe they should put a notice somewhere so all sellers know it’s allowed. Hopefully they fix their automated Fiverr watermark system (for images) if it doesn’t always work.

You could post previews/samples with your own watermark but they might not be okay with it on delivered files (and if they’re not okay with it, it could get your account in trouble if you don’t get permission first). And previews on an order that’s in progress could be watermarked but would not stop the countdown timer so it could go late waiting for them to accept it before you actually delivered the unwatermarked version.

[chatcosmique]

Because I’m aware the only solution by now for me to ensure it won’t happen again, is setting my own watermark, deliver the “final” designs like that, and wait for the customers to accept the delivery so I send the version with no watermark as soon as they complete the order.

I’d get permission from CS before doing that. I’m not sure they’d allow you to deliver a file with your own watermark on it. Of if they do allow it (after being asked) maybe they should put a notice somewhere so all sellers know it’s allowed. Hopefully they fix their automated Fiverr watermark system (for images) if it doesn’t always work.

You could post previews/samples with your own watermark but they might not be okay with it on delivered files (and if they’re not okay with it, it could get your account in trouble if you don’t get permission first). And previews on an order that’s in progress could be watermarked but would not stop the countdown timer so it could go late waiting for them to accept it before you actually delivered the unwatermarked version.

That Is very helpful, the PDF technique may be faster to do than what I had in mind, thanks for the idea 🙂

I’m not afraid of this buyer cancelling, and even if she wanted I don’t think she could find a valid reason get away with it. But I trully believe she plans to accept the oder someday anyways, loI, I just want it to be asap because I’ve had more than enough.

It’s frustrating to think this has happened only to me. But I reported the bug twice to the support team.

I suspect this bug is on the Fiverr Mobile app. One customer who sent me a screenshot of the delivered file with no watermark on it, took the screenshot from the Fiverr App. There was another customer a few months ago who sent me iPad screenshots of rejected designs, and the designs did not have the watermark either. And with this current customer (the one I mention on my original post), the designs she has used on her Instagram have some kind of black edges (that are not part of the original design), like she took screenshots of them from the Fiverr App and then “cropped” them without caring too much. I know on the Mobile App the delivery preview shows against a black background. I guess that, with some designs like business cards, flyers, website banners and others that do need specific dimensions, the customers do need the original design instead of a screenshot, but with Instagram or Social media posts (which are 98% of what I sell), all they need in terms of size is that the design looks ok on screen.

And previews on an order that’s in progress could be watermarked but would not stop the countdown timer so it could go late waiting for them to accept it before you actually delivered the unwatermarked version.

Exactly, that’s what makes this whole thing frustrating. I will wait for the Support Team to respond my message about the bug, but since I don’t trust the watermark anymore and won’t trust it during a while, I guess I’ll have to ask their permission to deliver files with my own watermak. I’m definitely not going for the order chat attachments and approval, I did that all the time when I was new here and ended up with an awful delivery rate. Since last year, when Fiverr started the monthly review on our performance to keep our badges, I’m almost never using the order chat to show anything. I go straight to do the complete work and deliver it, that’s actually how it should be. It even bugs me when the clients order a lot of designs and ask to see one or some frist before I do the rest, yes sometimes it saves time, and sometimes it makes the process a lot slower and stressing.

Thanks for your suggestion ❤️

[fonthaunt]

That Is very helpful, the PDF technique may be faster to do than what I had in mind, thanks for the idea 🙂

I’m not afraid of this buyer cancelling, and even if she wanted I don’t think she could find a valid reason get away with it. But I trully believe she plans to accept the oder someday anyways, loI, I just want it to be asap because I’ve had more than enough.

It’s frustrating to think this has happened only to me. But I reported the bug twice to the support team.

I suspect this bug is on the Fiverr Mobile app. One customer who sent me a screenshot of the delivered file with no watermark on it, took the screenshot from the Fiverr App. There was another customer a few months ago who sent me iPad screenshots of rejected designs, and the designs did not have the watermark either. And with this current customer (the one I mention on my original post), the designs she has used on her Instagram have some kind of black edges (that are not part of the original design), like she took screenshots of them from the Fiverr App and then “cropped” them without caring too much. I know on the Mobile App the delivery preview shows against a black background. I guess that, with some designs like business cards, flyers, website banners and others that do need specific dimensions, the customers do need the original design instead of a screenshot, but with Instagram or Social media posts (which are 98% of what I sell), all they need in terms of size is that the design looks ok on screen.

And previews on an order that’s in progress could be watermarked but would not stop the countdown timer so it could go late waiting for them to accept it before you actually delivered the unwatermarked version.

Exactly, that’s what makes this whole thing frustrating. I will wait for the Support Team to respond my message about the bug, but since I don’t trust the watermark anymore and won’t trust it during a while, I guess I’ll have to ask their permission to deliver files with my own watermak. I’m definitely not going for the order chat attachments and approval, I did that all the time when I was new here and ended up with an awful delivery rate. Since last year, when Fiverr started the monthly review on our performance to keep our badges, I’m almost never using the order chat to show anything. I go straight to do the complete work and deliver it, that’s actually how it should be. It even bugs me when the clients order a lot of designs and ask to see one or some frist before I do the rest, yes sometimes it saves time, and sometimes it makes the process a lot slower and stressing.

Thanks for your suggestion ❤️

Just don’t forget, if you use a personal watermark or uneditable file that you created, you can send it in the order page prior to delivering and ask for approval. (This is how I did it.) You cannot deliver a seller-watermarked or protected file as your actual delivery.

ToS says that you have to send the real ready-to-go work as your delivery. It can have Fiverr’s watermark on it but otherwise needs to be ready to use. If you deliver anything else you could get a warning for partial delivery.

[chatcosmique]

Just don’t forget, if you use a personal watermark or uneditable file that you created, you can send it in the order page prior to delivering and ask for approval. (This is how I did it.) You cannot deliver a seller-watermarked or protected file as your actual delivery.

ToS says that you have to send the real ready-to-go work as your delivery. It can have Fiverr’s watermark on it but otherwise needs to be ready to use. If you deliver anything else you could get a warning for partial delivery.

Another idea: Deliver the first time with typos or things off on every image on purpose. The client will request revisions and if the designs did not get watermarked, the client won’t be able to use them unless they really don’t care mispelled words, bad cropping or things looking really off. I wouldn’t be doing anything against the ToS. Mispelling and graphic errors have happened to me in the past (but not on purpose lol). I always encourage the customers to request changes and modifications if needed, that’s what revisions are for, and actually I don’t count typos as revisions since they’re usually my bad (sometimes the client’s bad but, hey, they’re typos, we’re all humans).

So the client eventually rejects that first delivery. But I already did my part on delivering “on time”, so my delivery rate does not get affected from now on on that order. Now I can send them the designs with my own watermark through the order chat and they can take all the time in the world to respond, I won’t have to worry about delivering late and my work is safe.

That’s just an idea. What do you think?

Also most of my customers are repeat customers, many of them are amazing to work with and I have never had this watermark problem with them, or at least I never caught them using rejected or not approved work. Also there are clients who love the work I do from the first delivery and approve it right away. I’m more worried about a few others like this lady I mentioned, and the new customers that will come.

Oh and btw the Support Team has already marked the order I mentioned as completed. They also responded to my ticket with this message:

I’m sincerely sorry to hear about your experience. I completely understand your frustration and concern.

I looked into this for you and marked your order FO178F6B0F34 as completed so the order is closed now.

I can also see that we already informed our Tech Team regarding this issue and they’re doing their best to resolve this as quickly as possible.

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

Kind regards,

Thanks, Support Team, I don’t trust the watermark thing anymore but at least you responded promptly and finally completed that unfamous order.

[chatcosmique]

Just don’t forget, if you use a personal watermark or uneditable file that you created, you can send it in the order page prior to delivering and ask for approval. (This is how I did it.) You cannot deliver a seller-watermarked or protected file as your actual delivery.

ToS says that you have to send the real ready-to-go work as your delivery. It can have Fiverr’s watermark on it but otherwise needs to be ready to use. If you deliver anything else you could get a warning for partial delivery.

By the way I tried the PDF technique today on the order chat with another client and it’s great, it’s so much faster than putting a watermark on every design, saving them apart from the original version and attaching them individually. Thanks a lot for the advice. 😉

[fonthaunt]

Another idea: Deliver the first time with typos or things off on every image on purpose. The client will request revisions and if the designs did not get watermarked, the client won’t be able to use them unless they really don’t care mispelled words, bad cropping or things looking really off. I wouldn’t be doing anything against the ToS. Mispelling and graphic errors have happened to me in the past (but not on purpose lol). I always encourage the customers to request changes and modifications if needed, that’s what revisions are for, and actually I don’t count typos as revisions since they’re usually my bad (sometimes the client’s bad but, hey, they’re typos, we’re all humans).

So the client eventually rejects that first delivery. But I already did my part on delivering “on time”, so my delivery rate does not get affected from now on on that order. Now I can send them the designs with my own watermark through the order chat and they can take all the time in the world to respond, I won’t have to worry about delivering late and my work is safe.

That’s just an idea. What do you think?

Also most of my customers are repeat customers, many of them are amazing to work with and I have never had this watermark problem with them, or at least I never caught them using rejected or not approved work. Also there are clients who love the work I do from the first delivery and approve it right away. I’m more worried about a few others like this lady I mentioned, and the new customers that will come.

Oh and btw the Support Team has already marked the order I mentioned as completed. They also responded to my ticket with this message:

I’m sincerely sorry to hear about your experience. I completely understand your frustration and concern.

I looked into this for you and marked your order FO178F6B0F34 as completed so the order is closed now.

I can also see that we already informed our Tech Team regarding this issue and they’re doing their best to resolve this as quickly as possible.

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

Kind regards,

Thanks, Support Team, I don’t trust the watermark thing anymore but at least you responded promptly and finally completed that unfamous order.

Sure thing. As far as this:

Another idea: Deliver the first time with typos or things off on every image on purpose. The client will request revisions and if the designs did not get watermarked, the client won’t be able to use them unless they really don’t care

I think I’ll definitely stick to real, complete and high quality deliveries. It works for me and 99.9% of my buyers don’t take advantage of me. I’ll leave the few baddies to their own karma. Good luck and peace out!

[uk1000]

Another idea: Deliver the first time with typos or things off on every image on purpose. The client will request revisions and if the designs did not get watermarked, the client won’t be able to use them unless they really don’t care mispelled words, bad cropping or things looking really off. I wouldn’t be doing anything against the ToS. Mispelling and graphic errors have happened to me in the past (but not on purpose lol). I always encourage the customers to request changes and modifications if needed, that’s what revisions are for, and actually I don’t count typos as revisions since they’re usually my bad (sometimes the client’s bad but, hey, they’re typos, we’re all humans).

So the client eventually rejects that first delivery. But I already did my part on delivering “on time”, so my delivery rate does not get affected from now on on that order. Now I can send them the designs with my own watermark through the order chat and they can take all the time in the world to respond, I won’t have to worry about delivering late and my work is safe.

That’s just an idea. What do you think?

Also most of my customers are repeat customers, many of them are amazing to work with and I have never had this watermark problem with them, or at least I never caught them using rejected or not approved work. Also there are clients who love the work I do from the first delivery and approve it right away. I’m more worried about a few others like this lady I mentioned, and the new customers that will come.

Oh and btw the Support Team has already marked the order I mentioned as completed. They also responded to my ticket with this message:

I’m sincerely sorry to hear about your experience. I completely understand your frustration and concern.

I looked into this for you and marked your order FO178F6B0F34 as completed so the order is closed now.

I can also see that we already informed our Tech Team regarding this issue and they’re doing their best to resolve this as quickly as possible.

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

Kind regards,

Thanks, Support Team, I don’t trust the watermark thing anymore but at least you responded promptly and finally completed that unfamous order.

Another idea: Deliver the first time with typos or things off on every image on purpose. The client will request revisions

Though there there is a chance they A) won’t notice the typos etc. or B) will just leave a bad review because of them and not ask for a revision. So it would be risky (it could lead to bad work being completed or bad reviews) even if Fiverr didn’t have any issue with it.

[chatcosmique]

Thank you fonthaunt and uk1000

It’s been a while lol. Just wanted to say thanks. Eventually I just kept working and delivering the work as usual, clean and with no custom watermarks from me. Haven’t had an experience like that again (well, at least I have not found out of customers using my work without approval).

The fiverr mobile app has done some updates recently and I think the watermark thing might have been fixed too, by the way, who knows. But you’re right, almost all the time the Fiverr buyers are nice and honest people.

Happy holidays to you, hope you’re closing 2018 with great sales!