How Do They Get Away So Easy? (That's Bad...)

[spxmac]

Hey!

Greetings to the whole Fiverr community.

I would like to stress something that’s extremely important for ANYONE who sells (or even buys) here on Fiverr.

I have a buyer to whom I delivered everything as promised. I did exactly what we agreed before he accepted the custom offer (which was a product description and a keyword research).

When I delivered, he requested a modification asking me to also deliver 1.Product Title 2.Product Features.

However, he hasn’t paid for any of these.

I explained that to him as politely as possible. Then he told me to cancel because “it’s too expensive”.

He knew what the price was before ordering. How come did it become too expensive afterwards?

I tried to resolve the issue and explain to him that I delivered what we have agreed.

He re-requested a modification now telling me that he changed his mind, that his existing
product description is fine and that he doesn’t need mine.

[spxmac]

Obviously, I contacted support.

They told me that “its best to settle for a mutual cancellation since it does not affect your rating and the buyer will not be able to post a bad review”.

[spxmac]

To which I replied (AND THAT’s THE IMPORTANT THING HERE)

Actually, a mutual cancellation wouldn’t really be mutual…It would be his desire fulfilled with the only difference that I would have initiated the cancellation request…

Imagine if ANYONE could come to Fiverr, order 300$ worth of services and then asked for a cancellation “because he changed his mind” AFTER the order was properly delivered.

What would that lead to?

In this particular situation I know that I am FORCED to initiate the cancellation to prevent the negative rating (it’s not really mutual), even though I delivered everything as promised…

What if anyone started doing that? Fiverr would close in a month. Sellers would leave disappointed and buyers would get their work done for free…

[spxmac]

I would love to hear your thoughts, recommendations, ideas or whatever you believe.

This isn’t only my issue. It should be important to any seller here on Fiverr.

I have no problem refunding an 25$ order. But, I am wondering - where would that action lead us?

[emmaki]

Well… if you wrote a product description that didn’t feature a title or the features of the product (or rather benefits), then I can understand why a buyer would say, “well, where are they?” For you to then say they need to pay more, well, that’s where the issues started. Generally speaking, telling unhappy customers they need to pay more is always going to end badly.

I have had people try to cancel $300 orders on me. They have not succeeded yet. Fiverr wouldn’t close in a month, because it keeps all refunds as internal credit: a neat little closed market economy. Really, you’re on your own here when confronted with a difficult situation,and how you use the resources available to you determines the outcome of any situation.

Anyway, from what I can see, it looks like you screwed this up. You should mention in your gig that your product descriptions don’t feature the product title or features so you avoid these issues in future (mainly because most people reading that will decide to look elsewhere).

You lost $25 to get rid of a negative review that (might) have highlighted an important issue with your gig. That’s how they get away with it so easily. You let them, because you wanted more $$$ in a situation where it wasn’t really warranted. Is that really so bad? It was your choice, all of it…

[emmaki]

Looking at your gig, you promise up to two revisions as well…

[spxmac]

Well, you build your whole logic on the arbitrary assumption that the product description should include title and key features (which it did include).

What the buyer asked for was Amazon’s Product Title and Product Features.

These are two EXTRA areas that Amazon asks its sellers to fill in. The product description is a SEPARATE part of Amazon’s product listing.

To help you understand, think about our gigs here.

Let’s say I offered a service to write Fiverr Gig Descriptions. Someone buys it and when he gets the work he also asks me to write his gig title, gig tags and come up with his gig extras.

All these are separate things, right? Your gig’s main title isn’t a part of your gig’s description.

So, shouldn’t he pay for things that are separate and require additional work?

Wasn’t I supposed to tell him about it? (Of course, I didn’t tell him “hey, pay more”. I was as polite and friendly as possible).

How would you handle it if someone ordered your gig and then asked why you didn’t deliver your 50$ research extra?

[spxmac]

Revisions are meant to revise the work that was already provided. Not give extra stuff for free…

[spxmac]

Imagine if I ordered your gig, paid for 300 words and then told you that I want an extra 400 or I want to cancel. Would you tell me to pay more? Would you cancel? What would you do?

[emmaki]

Well, I would really expect a gig/product whatever description to include features and benefits and a title. If you don’t want to, that’s fine, it’s your gig and you can do what you want. It’s just a few measly extra words, on Amazon, it’s presented as a whole. I just think you could avoid this kind of hassle by doing that and finding something else to tag on a gig extra.

I would offer you whatever my price was for an extra 400 words, and if you rejected that offer then got to threatening me with cancellations and bad reviews, I would then report you to Customer Service. Since I could prove I had delivered the work as per my description, I would likely keep the money and get any malicious review deleted.

As for revisions, it all depends on the buyer. I usually do whatever it is, because it’s usually reasonable. The unreasonable mods always want their money back or die anyway, so off to CS with them. Your imagined scenario is clearly unreasonable with just those details, but the real scenario seems to me to be more of a result of your idea of separation of parts, which led to buyer confusion. Miscommunication can really kill a gig, so you should consider revising your gig on this point, or at least make your thinking clear.

Nobody has ever queried my $50 research extra or questioned my research. If they did, I would have a full list of citations ready to share with them. If they still weren’t satisfied and starting with threats or other unprofessional behavior, again, CS. They pay me for my research and the improved end result. I’ve got the proof. They’re trying to run away with free $50+ work. I have NEVER lost a gig dispute. Well, I half-lost one, but Fiverr refunded both of us.

[spxmac]

“I would offer you whatever my price was for an extra 400 words”

I did exactly what you would do. It’s not a measly extra words. And separation is not my idea. It’s lots of extra work. Especially if you also conduct SEO optimization.

It’s just like your research. As you said, you would also charge it extra.

Miscommunication occurred only because the customer cannot understand English and cannot even write.

I had never had a similar problem.

[emmaki]

…and the buyer didn’t want to pay because it was too expensive, so you contact Customer Support and ignore them, end of story. Make the SEO optimization the gig extra and write a boring headline like “Arsenal FC football sports scarf”. That took me 2 seconds to write and is quite well optimized. Features and benefits aren’t that much harder. * show your support for Arsenal with this blah blah blah * 100% official merchandise made from high quality polyester–keep away from fire"

Etc. Of course, 400 work is a bit more and not so measly. Maybe your buyer is a dumb bag of non-English writing rocks and you’ve never had an issue before, but my main contention here hasn’t been about that–it’s been about your title (you should have charged yourself extra for that!) and what I think is a slightly weird gig separation. If you want to do that, be my guest, but remember that miscommunication is a two-way street. Consider revising your gig extras and descriptions so that John Q. Thicko knows exactly what he’s getting, especially if you’re really finicky about sticking to your points.

[Guest pacospain]

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