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Have the information your seller needs


fastcopywriter

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Recently, a Brit hired me to write his LinkedIn Summary and paid $20 for 24/hour delivery.

His LinkedIn Profile was almost empty, he had one job with no description, one college degree, and a list of skills. He didn’t even upload his resume (sometimes resumes have more info than LinkedIn).

I did the job, then he filled out some information in his profile and demanded a revision. I did the revision, then he gave me 3.5 stars and wrote “satisfactory.”

Seriously, this is not acceptable. A buyer must have the information his seller needs, he must also know what he’s ordering. Otherwise, why pay for 24/hour delivery?

Perhaps I should have refunded the order and told him that his profile didn’t have enough information, but I didn’t do that because I was paid to do a job.

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I didn’t. I get so many orders that sometimes by the time I get to them, it’s too late to ask for more info. However, when I delivered the job I told him his profile didn’t have enough info, that I needed to see a resume, and that if he wasn’t happy with my work, I would gladly give him a refund.

Instead, he demanded a revision, and apparently wasn’t happy with my work.

See for yourself:

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After getting a degree in Computer & Business Studies from Anonymous University, I became a Business Analyst at Big Shot Lawfirm, a position I have enjoyed for almost four years. I work in the Motor department and I’m in charge of streamlining existing processes and delivering management information to various areas of the business, including an MI-centric content management system. My top 5 technical skills are Microsoft SQL Server, Crystal Reports, Problem Solving, and Microsoft Excel and Office. In addition, I have training and MI Analysis, Performance Analysis, Data Modeling, SSIS, C#, CSS, Linux, PHP, Apache, Web Development, and other IT areas. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at JohnDoe@anonymous.com

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Is this worth 3 stars? I would have mentioned accomplishments if he had any, I don’t make things up when I write a summary.

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To be fair, that does look very light when you consider he paid $20. It’s obviously not your fault, it’s his for lack of information, but the bottom line is he paid $20 for something that he could have done himself in the time he took looking for a seller and placing an order. Again, I know its not your fault, I see why he gave the 3 stars but in the circumstances, I agree with you - nothing you could do.

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He paid for speed. I raised my 24/hour delivery rates because I don’t want to be overwhelmed everyday. He also got a revision, many times I have gotten angry and refuse to revise (I refund instead).

Honestly, he gave me crap to work with. It’s like you asking me to write the story of your life, and only giving me one event in your childhood.

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Yes, I have, Eoin!

@fastcopywriter’s essentially explained what I meant with my draconian post. Far too many extra fast people think that this entitles them to more than the whatever else they’ve paid for without realizing that no, extra fast just makes it, er, extra fast.

I have a similar buyer at the moment so you have my sympathy!

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I’m not questioning your price, I’m just saying I understand where he is coming from. He should really have sent more info, either initially or on delivery and then got a revision.
Then he would have at least got something good to put up. Instead, he got a small write-up that doesn’t tell the whole story - but only because her didn’t tell the whole story, not your fault

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I’ve just looked through your reviews, it seems that your buyers often fail to provide you with enough information, so you end up with a satisfactory review, even though you’ve done everything you were supposed to.

I’ve had buyers order book covers from me while not providing me with the book’s name and/or author. I hope we’ll have a buyer rating system in the future!

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That is shocking, I have ordered book covers and as a minimum I give them the title, subtitle, author’s name, and then maybe a design idea, maybe not.

I like your gigs, but I must warn you, that “commercial license” thing might cost you sales. Most people on Fiverr are trying to make a profit, only once I got hired by a guy who needed a name for his basement bar, a bar that’s only open to his family and friends.

Besides, suppose I hire you to design a book cover and don’t pay you the $10 for commercial use. What will you do? Report me to Amazon? Report me to Fiverr? See? I think only people that don’t know better will pay that fee.

If that’s what you want to do, it’s your business, but personally, I don’t like doing that to my buyers.

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Exactly, design idea is optional, but if you don’t provide me with a title, what do you expect me to work with?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me about the license. Right now, I’ve activated the feature as an experiment to see how buyers react to it - yes, they ignore it most of the time.

No, of course not. I completely understand your point, it doesn’t make any difference with buyers who know how things work, I was going to remove it from my Gigs, but I kept delaying it due to handling orders or replying to messages.

I like your Gigs too, creative writing has always been tough for me, so I’m easily fascinated with great copywriters, as funny as that may sound.

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Ironically, I did have one buyer ask me if I had a license I can sell him, told him I don’t do that. I suppose I could try, but then my buyers might have less money to spend on the gig extras that really matter, and I don’t want to do that to them.

Thanks for the compliment. I’ve always been fascinated by art directors, illustrators, and others with design skills. A little jealous to, an art director can create what he envisions in his head, a copywriter can describe an idea, but without the AD, there’s no ad. The only time we don’t need AD’s is when we write radio. But everything else needs art direction, even long copy ads that are boring as hell need a lot of design.

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As you’re experienced in this and the buyer may not be, it’s sometimes easy for buyers to forget things.

I generally try to just state the problem and the desired info, and o.d. on details as I imagine too much is better than not enough. Sometimes, when scoping, I probably don’t give enough. Not sure why, but lots of incomplete and MIA sellers (5 of last 7) in past fortnight. A handful? It happens but a bit surprised that with wealth of info provided and means of selecting sellers that this would happen. I noticed there are no reviews or log for cancellations which would be helpful.

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I used to have two boxes for buyers to fill in, but then I lost a $25 order because a buyer was struggling with the second box. Now I just have one box.

I don’t get MIA sellers, even if you have a full-time job, you can check Fiverr before and after work.

I’ve had issues with MIA buyers. I nudge them, they ignore me, eventually I just cancel.

The weirdest is when they buy and the write: “Can you refund me? I bought by mistake.” How is that possible? Maybe people have second thoughts.

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I once ordered by mistake. I had a notification in Gmail about a custom order for a billion FB likes. I clicked on the order now button thinking that it would take me to the inbox page where I could say “go away, you idiot”.

What actually happened was my PayPal account was drained of $10 (extra fast…) and I immediately wrote to them and explained and they then declined my cancellation request! (it got cancelled eventually)

So, it could be a mistake. Generally, if there’s less than 5 minutes between ordering and cancellation, I get it. Sometimes they say “I didn’t order right [gig extras], I wanted to order xyz, please cancel so I can start again”, which is when I just send a custom order to fill in the gaps.

Mind you, the cancel plz people are the worst. I like to know what led them to that point in case it means I can improve my gig descriptions or something!

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Some buyers do, others don’t. For example, a buyer hired me to create 10 brand names, I created 11 plus several variations. Then he demanded a revision. At that point, I no longer care, I just go ahead and refund the order.

In Las Vegas, there’s an expression called “chasing your loses.” It refers to gamblers who keep betting in the hopes they will recover all their loses. This means that instead of losing $100 or $500, they might lose $1,000+. This is how some people get ruined with gambling.

Fiverr is a bit like that, every order is a gamble, and I’ve had bad experiences chasing loses. There’s nothing more heartbreaking than revising something three times and having a buyer that still hates it and keeps demanding even more revisions, or just demands a refund after you’ve done all that work. I refuse to suffer that again. So, even if I lose $5, $15, $25, I’m still gaining precious time I can spend on buyers that will like or love my work.

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When I was looking at your reviews the other day, I’ve noticed that you reply to unreasonable reviews with an explanation and I’ve also seen you’ve been over-delivering to some buyers and they rated you with two or three stars. Refunding unhappy buyers is a way to avoid all of that, but it only works if you have a vast amount of orders and you can afford to filtrate them.

When I started working here around a year ago I used to offer unlimited revisions, which was a nightmare a few times. I’ve had buyers request huge amounts of revisions and kept orders late for 6 days.

I understand that revisions are needed in the field of graphic design, but unlimited revisions are too much. Not to everyone, but there were buyers who’ve abused the system.

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