Fiverr Community Forum

Has Fiverr (or any representative) spoken on flaws within the monthly evaluation system?

Your Fiverr Experience
#21

Wouldn’t a “do you accept to work on this order” button not solve A LOT of issues?
After receiving an order, you have 12 or 24 hours to accept the order as a seller.
If not, you have to give a valid reason why not eg;

  • buyer ordered by mistake
  • buyer did not read gig description

These reasons should not work against your, but maybe if you don’t accept a lot of orders some other consequences can follow (maybe someone from CS contacts you to ask why there are so many orders you can’t work on, and helps you with an improvement plan for your Gig).
Everything to improve the experience for Sellers, Buyers, and help Fiverr to make more $$$.

After the initial 24 hours passed you automatically accept the order, if not then you cancel but it will count against you.

Please let me know the disadvantages of such a system!

3 Likes
#22

The issue with this, like so many other annoying things that affect good sellers, is that it would be abused by the unscrupulous sellers or else the monitoring of cancellations would have to skyrocket, meaning more CS people, meaning increased costs.

1 Like
#23

But how could this be abused?

#24

Well straight off, there is the people who would cancel orders because they “don’t feel like doing it” that day. If they can do so without consequence by lying then be sure that it will happen. That would drive me nuts as a buyer.
To be fair to everyone, it would need to be 24 hours to accept or reject. So for short orders, people could do their rubbish work/plagiarized writing/copied logo/non-existent SEO work etc, send it to the client, and if the client spots the issue, then the seller can just cancel without consequence.

Fiverr has been working hard to reduce the number of cancellations so I cant see this option happening any time soon.

#25

Yes, fair point.
BUT: isn’t the idea of Fiverr that we all want to work?

Maybe I am naive, but I don’t think we have to be protected against people who just don’t feel like doing a job. Being protected against abusive buyers or buyers who place orders without reading the gig is much more important than buyers receiving a refund from a lazy seller.

Then again, with this system, it should not be possible to deliver any order before the order is accepted. So there is no delivery button because you can obviously only deliver once the order is accepted. If you choose to deliver :poop: then you face the consequences: bad review or order cancelation by the buyer.

edit: also; the clock will just start ticking from the moment the order is placed. Not from the moment you accept the order. You just have a 24 hour grace period to accept the order as it is as a seller.

Or maybe you can decide as a seller that you don’t want to use this feature and just turn it off. Just thinking out loud here.

2 Likes
#26

I’m not against the idea itself, I just know it would cause issues like I have mentioned. Besides, anything that slows down the order>payment process has to be really, really worth it for all parties.

I would prefer a system that allowed sellers to choose to cancel because of those reasons you mentioned. The system would then flag a user when they did X amount of “not-my-fault” cancellations and they were checked out by a human CS person. If they were abusing the button then the option (or their account) could be removed. In this way, there are consequences for breaking the rules but also a get-out for those who have a genuine issue and the buyer isn’t affected or if they are, the seller will be dealt with.

1 Like
#27

I’m with you. The response rate and on-time delivery actually make a lot of sense. The completion rate doesn’t make much sense when buyers decide to cancel.

I honestly believe we can keep this system in place and allow for sellers to choose “buyer ordered by mistake” and the same way gigs have to be approved by Fiverr, cancellations will also have to. (An extensive process though)

#28

I totally agree and would love to see a system like this get implemented, it’s unfortunate that it will never happen.

If Fiverr is truly a freelancer platform, why should I or anyone else care if a seller just doesn’t feel like working on a particular job? I mean, I understand that Fiverr cares, it’s lost revenue- but it just doesn’t really seem like it would be an issue for anyone else. And that’s assuming that the number of sellers who would just cancel for no reason would be significant, which I wouldn’t expect to be the case. And of course, that’s all besides the main point of not penalizing sellers for things beyond their control.

At the end of the day, this is a choice between retaining as much revenue as possible at the expense of sellers who have done nothing wrong, or implementing a system that allows sellers to work comfortably. As you said, I think the latter is much more important.

I mean, we went for so long without any monthly system in place. Even if it’s only temporary, why not remove the cancellation requirement and keep the rest until we have a better solution?

1 Like
#29

Oh! So sorry to hear that.

1 Like
#30

Aw thank you! :sunny:

1 Like
#31

Those projects are very rare in my experience, and if the client insists on getting a discount, you can always send a custom offer.

The irony is that Fiverr rarely loses the money, instead they’re simply delayed in getting paid. Suppose Buyer A makes a $500 order and gets a refund. Buyer A will have a hard time withdrawing that money, and he’ll most likely spend it on another gig.

Under our new system, a seller is discouraged from refunding orders, just like I’m discouraged from using Buyers Requests. Why? Because if seems that those buyers are more likely to demand refunds if they don’t like the work.

Sometimes I can’t even bid because the buyer is unclear with what he wants. He writes “I need a Spanish translation” but doesn’t specify the number of words. I’m not translating 2,000 words for $5.

#32

Fiverr used to allow sellers to cancel orders without any penalty. Now fiverr has grown, has many more sellers than it had in the first years, and has big investors who are watching fiverr’s bottom line.

So fiverr has evolved into more of an overseer of sellers, one who puts pressure on them to complete orders rather than the previous lackadaisical attitude it had, not caring if a sale was cancelled or not.

Fiverr is no longer a little startup. And it has much more power over sellers, and more is at stake.

Some growing pains are normal. This is uncharted territory.

#33

Is Fiverr available for sale on NASDAQ, NYSE, or any of the exchanges? I think the only investors they have are angel investors, like Facebook before they went public.

You’re right in your assessment of Fiverr as an overseer of sellers. The pressures and stress I feel when it comes to keeping my level are something that didn’t exist before. I no longer feel like my own boss, I feel like an employee who can be demoted at any time.

2 Likes
#34

No it’s not a publicly traded company. It’s privately owned but it got 50 million dollars or more from investors who expect a good return probably.

#35

Most angel investors are gamblers, they understand they will lose money with most startups and only make a fortune with the next Facebook, Google, HubSpot, etc.

What influence can they have on Fiverr? Can they vote the CEO out? Can they demand changes? I doubt the investors use Fiverr.

My view is that Fiverr likes to experiment, mix things up, try different things to see if they get more sales, traffic, etc. I don’t think profit is their only motivation. I’m living proof of that, as a TRS, I used to make a lot of money which means Fiverr used to get a bigger 20%. As a level 2, I’m making a fraction.

If Fiverr only cared about profits, TRS sellers would be protected, never demoted, treated like the stars that they are.

Nowadays, nobody’s a star at Fiverr, nobody gets VIP treatment, we’re all equal. It’s like owning a car dealership, and telling all fat employees they need to lose weight or get fired.

“But Boss, last month I sold $300,000 worth of cars.”
“Doesn’t matter, everyone is expected to maintain a healthy weight.”

That’s what we have on Fiverr now. We’re all expected to be 90%/4.8. Doesn’t matter if you sell $100, $2,000, or $20,000. There are no exceptions, no appeals, either meet the standards or pay the consequences.

1 Like
#36

I think they are trying to raise the quality of the experience for buyers. They want sellers to have higher prices, so expecting orders to be completed on time to a high standard is part of that.