Fiverr Forum

Help! Buyer placed an order that I don't want to do

#1

Hi - image editor here! A buyer placed an order in the middle of the night and fast-tracked it for 24 hours. He wants me to edit a bank statement and I don’t feel comfortable doing it. Are requests like these against any rules?

I’m sick of people asking me to edit documents, certificates, even bank cards and I always refuse these projects but this is the first time I’ve had someone actually place an order without contacting me. I don’t want to help with something which might be illegal/immoral.

How do I go about cancelling it? I’ve only used the resolution centre once and it was a situation which was not my fault: my buyer wanted to use a voucher so I agreed to let him cancel so he could place the order again and redeem it. It still affected my completion rate and stats though which kinda sucked.

What should I do here? Is there a particular option/route that I should follow to get this cancelled?

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#2

Usually it’s best to contact support in situations like this, to get the order cancelled - sometimes without affecting your stats, and sometimes it will count against you, even if your description says you don’t accept workthat one could consider shady.

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#3

Yeah, horrible situation to be in. Our equivalent (as voice over artists) are Auto Diallers, those awful things that automatically call people pretending to be a real person to talk about an accident claim etc.

Your best bet is most likely to report the order to Customer Support as quickly as you can. Ask Customer Support to cancel the order for you. The last few times we’ve asked CS to step in, our order completion rate has not been affected (this is not guaranteed though… unfortunately your order completion might take a hit).

Also, moving forward, if you don’t already - include a Bold/Yellow highlighted note in your Gig description stating what you won’t do. It won’t stop everyone - but we found problem orders decreased when we did this.

Good luck.

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#4

Wow, thank you both for your speedy replies! :slight_smile:

I have just submitted a report to customer support but I notice it says there’s a 24-48 hour response time which worries me. Fingers crossed that somebody gets to it quicker.

#5

If you’re worried about the time left, you can use the Resolution Center and ask for a Mutual Cancellation. But this will affect your Order Completion stats.

On a separate but related note - are you using the Block function when buyers contact you about this kind of thing?

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#6

Thank you! I may need to do that :slight_smile:

Yes, I almost always block and sometimes report these messages. I had my first bank card request earlier this week which was reported! They claimed it was for “novelty” purposes but I’m not convinced. Then about 20 minutes later I had someone asking me to remove a watermark from a video. :woman_facepalming: Noooope!

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#7

It’s illegal, cancel it through CS and report the person.

These people target new/er sellers, preferably not from their own country (so there is a higher chance you won’t be able to tell what you’re editing) and are often open to paying more.

CS response to this (in my case) was: “You are in no way obligated to do the work that is illegal in your home country or elsewhere”.

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#8

It’s forgery. Forgery is illegal and can get you in prison in many countries. Of course it’s against the rules.

It’s good that you contacted support. Once they answer you (and hopefully help you), it might be a good idea to ask them to forward the case to the Trust & Safety team, because the buyer is asking you to do something illegal, and i doubt that that’s the image Fiverr wants. If it’s not possible for any reason, once the case is closed, it might be a good idea to submit another ticket, this time to the Trust & Safety team, for the single purpose of asking them to check out the buyer who places orders for forgery.

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#9

I’d contact CS and explain that you’re uncomforable with the task - it sounds like fraud.

CS will be sympathetic to this I’m sure.

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#10

If so many people have written to you asking for things like that, it’s because something in your gigs should lead them to ask for that. I recommend you add in the faqs part all these things with which you are not comfortable and that you do not do, this way when someone buys you without asking for something that you do not do, you can have support with CS to cancel the order.

But if it is not clear why you want to cancel it, then CS will not be able to do much for you.

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#11

This isn’t about being comfortable. This buyer is asking for something that’s against the law in pretty much every country.

I agree, though, it might be useful to write something like “I won’t do anything illegal, including (a brief list of things).”

EDIT: I’ve just checked, and I see that the OP has added " I do NOT accept orders which involve modifying official documents, certificates, bank details etc" in the gig description. @leannemunro, well done. Perhaps also adding, after bank details, “or anything else that’s illegal”?

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#12

Thanks for all of the replies guys! :slight_smile:

Thanks! Yeah, I tweaked it this morning but I’ve run out of characters so I’ll do some re-wording or add in some FAQs. I guess I thought it would be self-explanatory that buyers shouldn’t be requesting anything that’s illegal but clearly not if I keep getting messages! I feel that this may also be an issue with Fiverr, if people are coming here to ask for such things, maybe there’s more they could do keyword/monitoring-wise to prevent these requests being sent.

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#13

Or that they shouldn’t ask for anything obscene, considering that 13-year-olds are allowed to use the site, and that adult content and pornography are not allowed. Or that they shouldn’t ask for anything that promotes hate/discrimination. Or… And yet, they do. And some of them even offend you if you refuse to do it.

Considering the amount of stolen graphics, stolen videos, and what not, it doesn’t surprise me that people ask for shady or illegal things. And I agree that it’s up to Fiverr to monitor for any fraud activity and to take measures against it (and to take better care of its reputation, as well).

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#14

Update: I got a good response from CS, thanking me for reporting the order and for abiding by their TOS. They cancelled the order, apologised for the experience and said the buyer’s behaviour would be reviewed by their Trust and Safety team. Happy days! :+1:

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#15

Well done. Fiverr needs more people like you. Other sellers might not care and do the job just for $4.

Good luck with the next order.

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