Fiverr Community Forum

Had to cancel order because buyer asked for things completely unrelated to gig :'(

Your Fiverr Experience The Ranting Pot
#1

I just need to vent a little! :stuck_out_tongue: For the third time in two months I’ve had to cancel an order because the buyer wants something that is not covered by my gig, and they aren’t communicating this before ordering! Cancelling obviously affects my stats negatively and hurts my full time business :frowning:

Today it was someone who ordered a very small $5 translation. To be fair she did send the document to me first — it was instructions on how to download and test 5 different VPN services, a topic I’ve translated on multiple times before — but she didn’t say anything about wanting me to actually do the VPN test, not a translation of the instructions. I even confirmed the word count with her when sending a custom offer which read “I will translate the agreed document (157 words) in 24 hours or less”.

She accepts, I start working. Then she messages me again, saying that she doesn’t want me to translate the document, she wants me to follow the instructions in it!

Ehm, excuse me?

I could of course do just that — download the 5 VPN services, sign up for the free trials including adding my payment details, run the tests she asked for, cancel the free trials before I am charged, and uninstall the VPN services. But I have work to do (which I’m now neglecting as I’m angrily typing this instead :stuck_out_tongue: ) and have at no point agreed to do any of the things she now asked of me :frowning:

I really wish Fiverr would have a way out in situations like this that does not affect badly on search rankings, order completion stats, etc. At least the requirements for Level 1 and Level 2 are “only” a 90% completion rate, so a few cancellations here and there won’t hurt the seller level…

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#2

That sucks. I don’t think buyers realise how it messes with your cancellation rate. Your situation sounds super frustrating.

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#3

I would just reply that you will translate the instructions and she can find someone else to do the testing.
If she wants a refund then simply refuse. She can go to CS if she wants to and explain to them that she wants you to do a service you don’t provide.

Maybe CS cancels it maybe not, but you don’t have to deal with this.

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#4

I considered this, but if I deliver something she doesn’t want I fear she might leave a bad review. I have never received anything less than a 5 star rating and would rather damage my completion rate (which goes back up after 2 months) than my perfect review history :stuck_out_tongue:

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#5

That’s a fair point.
You can absorb the negative review, but it’s true that it will stay on your profile while completion rate won’t be visible :slight_smile:

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#6

The same thing just happened to me also. I clearly state in the gig’s requirements, please contact me via inbox before ordering. And they order things that are more appropiate to custom orders than what I clearly state in the gig’s package. Afterwards, he wants to cancel. I will not accept cancellations anymore, they can go through CS. I do not see any normal reason why to be affected by people who do not even read the gig. It’s their fault, not mine. I have good response time, you can contact me and I will provide you feedback, so you know what you will receive from me after ordering, but I am sick and tired of being affected by cancellation rates because they do not implement in the system simple mechanisms for spammers, or bad intentionned people, or people who want to pay 10 $ for one day’s work. It’s unacceptable so I won’t accept cancellations anymore.

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#7

If I were in your position, I would have translated the instructions and sent it back to her. If she gave you a negative review, so be it; the ToS was on your side in the situation.

I’ve read your Gig’s description. Nowhere does it say that you offer VPN tests.

You are not to blame for the fact that the Buyer was unable or disinclined to read your Gig’s description before placing an order.

Quite frankly, this is something I have been noticing both on and off Fiverr recently: hardly anyone reads anymore.

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#8

Have you contacted CS about this? When I still had my book trailer gig going, a guy asked me to do a certain effect in his video that the software I had at the time wouldn’t allow me to do. There was just no way I could do it. He wouldn’t take no for an answer and even went so far as to tell me I was being belligerent and just refused to do it, and that it was a “simple” request and I should be able to do it. He kept refusing my cancellation requests, so I finally had to contact CS. They looked over the conversation and ended up cancelling the project with no penalty to me.

It sounds like you’re having a similar issue, so I suggest contacting CS and seeing if they can intervene.

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#9

That’s wonderful to hear. Not too many stories of sellers being supported in cancelations. Did it impact your rating?

#10

Even if CS cancels it, it still counts against your completion % …

#11

I love that! :smiley: I too want to know if it really didn’t affect your completion rate at all? :open_mouth:

#12

Yes, every cancellation affects completion rate, but the point is that if you have no control over it then there’s no need to waste your time on it. If you can’t reason with the buyer then it’s a waste of time.

If a buyer would ask a refund from me then I would refuse and send them to CS. I simply don’t have the time to send message back and forth. If CS sees that buyer is eligible for a refund then so be it. By that time I’m already working on another project.

#13

No, it did not affect my rating. :slight_smile:

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#14

LOL No, it really did not affect my completion rate. It was a legitimate issue with no fault on my part, and I was in great standing, so I’m sure those things helped. :slight_smile:

#15

Things may have changed since my experience with CS removing a problem customer, but they were able at that time to resolve the issue without a hit to my completion rate. It’s always worth a shot to at least ask, IMO.

#16

Yes they have. Now every cancellation impacts you.

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#17

But in the eyes of Fiverr.com you are to blame and it counts against you. This has been the beef people have with Fiverr’s metrics lately.

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#18

I have to rant a bit again about this, I really, really wish that there was a way to cancel without penalty to the buyer! :stuck_out_tongue: Something happened again today! :frowning:

This one is partly my fault because I didn’t double check the information provided by the buyer. I do translations and the buyer specified 10485 words. Great, I gave him my price and sent a custom offer (in which I clearly specified the agreed word count). He accepts, I get to work.

The project included 8 PDF documents. Of course I skimmed through them before sending my offer, but I didn’t run a word count.

As I finished the first document, I thought to myself, “that already felt like ten thousand words… this feels wrong”. So I did a word count and discovered that all 8 documents together were many times more than ten thousand words!

I politely asked the buyer if his word count was correct, or if perhaps he sent me the wrong files by mistake. He confessed that when running the word count, he used a program that does not count words that are repeated! So if multiple sentences included the word “we”, for example, that word was only counted once.

I told him that I simply cannot do a project that is this much bigger than what was agreed, at such a low rate. He offered $30 extra which is nothing for the project size. We eventually agreed to a mutual cancellation, and I sent him the one document that I did do to him free of charge.

Hours of work wasted today (now even more because I feel the need to rant about it here :stuck_out_tongue: ), and my good mood was ruined :frowning:

And on top of that, I get a penalty from Fiverr for failing to deliver an order :frowning:

#19

ARGH… I am so sorry that happened to you. I, too, have taken on projects that were way beyond the scope of what was discussed with the customer - while also missing a red flag that could have saved me the trouble. It’s so frustrating! At least it’s a mistake you’ll never make again. I end up rewriting my gigs for clarification everytime that happens so I can make sure I am up front with customers AND with myself.

#20

Yeah, I suddenly understand all those gig descriptions that read “PLEASE MESSAGE ME BEFORE PLACING AN ORDER” in big bold and highlighted letters :stuck_out_tongue: I’ve included that too, but I’ve seen some gigs that go overboard to the point where it sounds rude to normal buyers who do pay attention and are easy to deal with :slight_smile: I can only imagine that they’ve had some bad experiences that have caused them to add so much information about what not to do as a buyer in their gig descriptions…

I will never make this mistake again, but it really annoys me that I have to be “suspicious” about every new buyer who gets in touch :frowning: Fiverr could easily help ease the burden for us by allowing cancellations without penalty in special cases!

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