Great suggestion to lower buyer mutual cancellations. Need tips from sellers!

[hotwebideas]

Happy holidays to all!



I posted this in “seller tips”, because I’d like to hear other reasons why buyers would cancel an order.



OK, so I have had 3 buyers cancel in the last month because they changed their mind or accidentally ordered the wrong gig.



I know there are other forum threads on this complaint, but very few proposed solutions, so here is my solution:



Fiverr should provide buttons for buyers to select when they start a mutual cancellation which would protect the sellers against buyer errors such as:

1. Buyer ordered by accident and now wants to cancel.
   
2. Buyer changed their mind for stupid reasons like "this is not the gig we want"
   
   
   
   If buyers select buttons like this, sellers may not be so upset that mutual cancellations will affect their levels and it would let Customer Support know the truth: The buyer messed up and the seller’s levels should not be effected.
   
   
   
   I hate that sellers get penalized for ALL cancellations even when it is not our fault and the buyer makes a mistake. Fiverr’s customer support has not been helpful in this matter, so we something needs to be done so our seller ratings do not get ruined.
   
   
   
   Bruce

[hotwebideas]

Anyone?

[snsharma]

Good suggestions indeed. It must be communicated to fiverr team.

[hotwebideas]

Reply to @snsharma: Thanks. I am sure it has been communicated and has fallen on deaf ears.

[bernard18]

Very good idea, I agree with you. I also often impaired by the buyer to cancel the order while I was working well. Should be proposed to the Team Fiverr.

[anarchofighter]

I’m oppose to these ideas for a few reasons.



First, if there is a way for the cancellation NOT to be counted, some sellers will say, “I’ll accept the cancellation” if you “do it this way” and get them to pick one of these phrases when it’s not the real reason.



That is, this kind of system will penalize the more honest seller.



Second, I don’t believe many buyers when they say this. I think they’ve learned to say it when they have either buyer’s remorse, find a “better” deal, etc.



So, the fact is…it is a real cancellation.



Third, cancellations impacting us as sellers mean we have a motivation to be as clear as possible in our gig descriptions and customer relations process and as flexible as possible in our delivery and customer followup . Which is good for the Fiverr brand – which means it’s good for me as a fiverr seller.

[ashleebella]

As new to fiverr this issue perplexes me quite a bit.

I have no idea why fiverr support classifies a pending cancellation as a “dispute” when it is clear the buyer has not submitted the required information to complete the gig.

In the real world, a consumer can change their mind about a purchase. This is not a “dispute” just a fact of life.

To classify every cancelled gig as a “dispute” is unrealistic and a disservice to sellers who are trying to build a good rating.



Secondly, I have no idea why fiverr support penalizes a seller for a cancelled gig when it is clear the buyer is unresponsive.

This too is an unrealistic model since buyers do change their mind which has nothing to do with seller performance.



Non performance is one thing, but it seems to me a cancelled gig due to lack of buyer input, is not a poor reflection on the seller but rather a buyer who cannot articulate their needs. Support can easily see if the buyer is unresponsive.



The current grading model is more or less implying sellers ought to climb inside a buyers mind and know what they need and then deliver it without any input from the buyer.

Well do you know what that kind of assumption will do? Create a negative review from the buyer if the seller cannot read their mind correctly!



Support really ought to be more mindful of why a gig is cancelled and less about white washing every cancellation as a dispute.

It is really unfair to place this kind of delivery burden on the seller.

Just my 2 cents peeps 😉

[hotwebideas]

anarchofighter said:

Third, cancellations impacting us as sellers mean we have a motivation to be as clear as possible in our gig descriptions and customer relations process and as flexible as possible in our delivery and customer followup . Which is good for the Fiverr brand -- which means it's good for me as a fiverr seller.

 

I disagree with your third point. Most sellers ARE as clear as possible in their gig descriptions and some buyers do NOT read the gig descriptions and that is not the seller's fault.

 

A good example: I make it clear, VERY clear, to buyers in my gig description for my video testimonial that I do not read scripts. I mention this in 3 places. Most of my buyers send me 2 points like I ask, but I get a buyer sometimes who says "here is my script".

Also, in your first paragraph: "First, if there is a way for the cancellation NOT to be counted, some sellers will say, "I'll accept the cancellation" if you "do it this way" and get them to pick one of these phrases when it's not the real reason. "

 

I don't agree with that either, because sellers would not have to accept these kind of cancellations in the first place. I believe that if a buyer wants to cancel, fine, they should be able to cancel, but Fiverr should not make us sellers suffer for it.

[hotwebideas]

Reply to @ashleebella: Yes, I agree with all your points. Fiverr does have ineffective wording for a lot of activity on the website. Disputes as labeled by disputes when there clearly is not dispute. You are right about that.



Also, as far as your second point about sellers getting penalized for cancellations when a buyer changes her mind, that is an issue most sellers are upset about.



You made good points. I agree with them all.

Bruce

[anarchofighter]

hotwebideas said: Fiverr should provide buttons for buyers to select when they start a mutual cancellation which would protect the sellers against buyer errors such as:

 

1. Buyer ordered by accident and now wants to cancel.

2. Buyer changed their mind for stupid reasons like "this is not the gig we want"

 

If buyers select buttons like this, sellers may not be so upset that mutual cancellations will affect their Levels and it would let Customer Support know the truth: The buyer messed up and the seller's Levels should not be effected.

 

I'm more than a little confused you said you disagreed with my position because "sellers would not have to accept these kind of cancellations in the first place"

 

Is that even a coherent statement.

 

I'm not sure what it even means that a SELLER ...wouldn't have to accept... Wouldn't that mean a "buyer could be forced to keep the order"?

 

And, it was your suggestion above that creates two different categories for "reason" for the cancellation. And my point was, if there's a reason that hurts a seller...and a reason that doesn't, we'll see a huge swing of "reasons that don't" being used because sellers will instruct and cajole buyers into using it.

 

[hotwebideas]

Reply to @anarchofighter: What I meant is that sellers should not have the option to accept or reject a cancellation in my opinion. Buyers should be able to cancel as long as the order has not been delivered, but whatever the reason for a buyer’s cancellation, Fiverr should not penalize the seller, ever. Buyers do not need to be cajoled in a purchase if they change their mind and that is why I suggest the buttons.



To put it more clearly for you, if Fiverr is going to penalize sellers for cancellations, at least let the buyer explain that they changed their mind with buttons that tell Fiverr "I changed my mind, the seller should not be penalized. The seller did nothing wrong. I just don’t want the order."



I hope that explanation is clearer to you. I makes perfect sense to me and yes, it is coherent as far as I am concerned.

[jais5678]

This is one of those where I see both sides of the coin–Frustration from sellers getting a ding for cancellations, and Fiverr trying to keep buyers happy by discouraging cancellations.



That being said, as a seller sometimes buyers place an order without reading or fully understanding the gig–which leads to a mutual cancellation.



I’m all for a different button being added, but at the same time can understand if one is not added.

[anarchofighter]

hotwebideas said: I hope that explanation is clearer to you. I makes perfect sense to me and yes, it is coherent as far as I am concerned.

 

Yes, I totally get it now, thank you. I missed something, either in my initial reading or in the assertion of power to whom.

 

I will say I totally disagree a buyer should be able to cancel ANYTIME before delivery. Because what if the gig is a 7 day deliverable. You're working on it. And ready to deliver on day 7 and they cancel on day 6. That's a real problem.

 

Perhaps it would be fine before either INFORMATION IS SENT...or within the first HOUR before delivery.

 

But, I think because you have a lot of 24 hour delivery gigs maybe you've not considered the big package that has a few days into it?

[anarchofighter]

hotwebideas said: To put it more clearly for you, if Fiverr is going to penalize sellers for cancellations, at least let the buyer explain that they changed their mind with buttons that tell Fiverr "I changed my mind, the seller should not be penalized. The seller did nothing wrong. I just don't want the order."

 

Regarding this issue...

 

As long as the tolerance for "penalty" is large enough, it's unnecessary. While it is theoretically possible to have lots of mistaken orders go to one person through no responsibility of their own...it's just not likely to be a big enough problem for the entire community.

 

Of course, if you're the one statistical anomaly, you're screwed LOL Bad Luck on YOU. LOL

 

If you mean penalize by having the rate be public, this is also a self correcting problem. As "mistake orders" should be distributed roughly evenly. So if a buyer is looking for someone with less than 5% cancels, either that will be possible or not... but it won't be "less possible" because some of your cancels are from silly buyer errors.

[ashleebella]

Reply to @anarchofighter:

I certainly agree with this. Working on a project only to discover the buyer has cancelled midstream is counter productive for sellers. While sometimes this is the cost of doing business, too many fickle buyers can certainly hurt a seller’s rating.



The other scenario is waiting patiently for a buyer to provide information that never arrives and after several nudges…disappears. It’s odd that fiverr sees this as a dispute and marks a strike against a seller by increasing cancellation ratios which in turn lowers the pace in which sellers can achieve their levels.

Arbitrary decision making and certainly out of the sellers control.



It’s similar to raising the cost of my car insurance because someone else was a careless driver (which ironically is Ontario’s current insurance model- lets make everybody pay!).

[juliav1]

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