How To Deal With Unresponsive Customers (What's Your Experience?)

[spxmac]

If you are on Fiverr for a long time, you should certainly have dealt with this type of buyer.

You know, the type of buyer that places an order, you happily work on it and deliver it as promised

But then…he hits the modification or the cancellation button with a comment like:

“I want a refund”

“I don’t like this”

“That’s not what I wanted”

And that’s the moment when you start grabbing your hair trying to figure out what you did wrong, because the buyer didn’t even took the time to write 2 more sentences and explain the issue.

Right?

It must have happened to you as well.

I bet I know what you did next!!

You politely contacted the customer offering your help. And here is what happened next:

1. He didn’t reply.

2. He clicked on the modification/cancellation button again paraphrasing the same words he used the last time. No explanation or additional comment that could help you understand what’s the problem.

3. He posted a beautiful negative review.

BUT WAIT, because I know what happened next!

You tried to reach out again, being as polite as you can humanly be and trying to figure out a solution.

Guess what?

If he already posted a review, he will probably not even reply.

If he hadn’t posted a review yet, he will probably click the cancellation button again.

You are FORCED to either 1) give him his money back 2) keep playing the same game risking to get a negative review.

In both cases, YOU are screwed.

Of course, support cannot help with forcing the buyer to accept the order and won’t likely remove the feedback unless it’s a clear TOS violation.

So, you either lose your money, or get crappy feedback.

EVEN IF you were polite, kind and helpful. Even if the buyer never took time to communicate. You are the one who loses.

So, fellow Fiverr sellers, my question is: How Do You Handle Situations Like This?

Let me know what you think below!

Daniel
Spxmac’s Team Chief

[kingland]

Hello Respected Seller,
I think you are doing well:). For your Topix, My suggestion is talk with them carefully and try to make them understand about what you did and about your hard work. Dont give pressure to him and dont force him to accept the delivery because he can give you a bad review. if you can do then offer him extra service for making him fully satisfy. if it doesn’t work then refund him by sending Mutually cancellation. it would be best for your account and for your reputation. Mutually cancellation is okay

Hope it helps and Thank You 🙂

Kind Regards
King Land

[spxmac]

Hey kingland,

Do you think it’s a good idea to offer extra services, let alone a full refund to customers who refuse to communicate or even provide you a reason why they were not satisfied?

In both cases, they take advantage of your services as a seller.

Note that I am not talking about situations that the customer has tangible reasons to be unhappy. But for situations when the customer 1) doesn’t communicate 2) mentions no solid reason for being unsatisfied.

[kingland]

Most Respected,
I suggested you to refund way because if you dont want to get bad rating then you should refund and cancel the order. I have completed over 280 orders and i cancelled 18 orders for the reason of buyer unsatisfied. Even i offered extra service but the result is unsatisfaction after redoing the work/offering extra service. I want good reputation for my profile so i did what i had to do. I know redoing work is too hard but if you want to give exceptional service and if you want your buyers full satisfaction then you should do that.

Remember, Every sellers not bad. I can assume 2.5% buyers react badly and want to take advantage of your services again and again. So, You have to be polite, make attention about what type of service “that 2.5%” buyers want, Pleas don’t be angry with your buyers.
(Note: Customers are always right).

Thank You:)

Kind Regard
King Land

[roxitheatre]

I am having a problem with certain customers not answering all of my requirement questions. I write letters for people. When they answer a couple of questions, Fiverr considers that my requirements have been met. But without more information, it is impossible for me to fully address a situation. So Fiverr marks me as being late. 😦 Any suggestions?

[emmaki]

Deliver with placeholders where the needed information should go and remind the client that they need to provide you with the information and that they should get back to you.

90% of the time they never say anything. The 10% that get MAD can usually be dealt with through Customer Support. Just make sure all your bases are covered and they’re being unresponsive and unreasonable.

[roxitheatre]

When you say “placeholders” do you mean the requirements list or something else? I will make sure to include the reminder in my response message. Thanks for your help!

[webchief]

This is actually some of good moments, you actually got the work done.

My problem are seller that make order, and say something like this:
My site haves some issues please fix them.

—They dont sent access to site, they dont EVEN send link to site.
and I have 24 hours to deliver gig, where buyer goes offline for next 5 days.

[emmaki]

Oh, like [Company] for company name and stuff like that. Of course it really depends on what the details are. This won’t work if they’ve told you nearly nothing at all, of course, and you can’t even get started. That’s just a cancellation…

[spxmac]

I agree with you. Being polite, helpful and supportive is the right way to go.

[spxmac]

Hey,

I would recommend ensuring that your instructions are

1. 100% clear and definite

2. Easy to understand

3. Not hard to answer

If your instructions succeed in these three aspects, then you could probably send a follow-up message to customers who didn’t provide you adequate information.

[spxmac]

That’s exactly what I was talking about.

In extreme cases like this, you just use the resolution center to cancel the order as the buyer was unresponsive.

Also, it’s good to send them a message in the inbox and explain the situation.

Regards,
Daniel
Spxmac’s Team Chief

[andaluzia]

It usually depends. Some buyers purchase big packages on which I work a lot since they are so complex and when I get a “I don’t like it” I usually try to ask the client by giving more options.

I make t-shirt designs and if they seem unresponsive I sent messages like: " Could you please be more specific about what you don’t like? You don’t like the style, color, layout etc." (giving options, you know?) They usually respond, by letting me know exactly what they don’t like, but if they don’t reply for 24 hours straight I usually give up and I cancel it. I don’t think it’s worth it to work with someone who is not interested in helping me to make something better for them and their business because in the end they will come back and hit the redeliver button or they will simply give a nasty review.

As for contacting the buyer after they leave a negative review, I indeed noticed that they don’t answer at all. Even if I offer to rework on their design since they already paid. They just don’t care.

[zealot6]

>(Note: Customers are always right).

That saying has to do with trends, it’s not a excuse for anyone to treat you badly. I think every seller should count on the fact that there will be bad buyers from time to time and decide in advance how they’ll react to it.

[graphic_wiz]

Just started January this year, only 1 cancellation. Though at first, he gave some genuine reasons why he wanted the logo reviewed. But after putting extra hard work, just to satisfy him, he still canceled the order.

My question is, when you deliver an order and the order is later cancelled mutually, dont the person still have copy of the work delivered? Can he not still make use of the work delivered even though it was later canclled?

Thank you.

[kingland]

Most Respected, so, what can you do?? oO. I suggest you to be polite, helpful and supportive as much as possible!!

[kingland]

Without this way we cannot do anything. Be polite, helpful and supportive as much as possible!!. if those unresponsive customers have a bit of humanity then at the last time they will understand who we are and what we do for them??.

[spxmac]

In my opinion, most buyers are simply great. Let’s not waste time with the few nitpickers or those who refuse to communicate (even if you do anything you can to help them).

[spxmac]

According to Fiverr’s TOS, if the order is refunded, then the buyer is not allowed to use it.

Yet, you can’t really know if it uses it or not. Most of the times, it’s hard to discover it and I also feel it’s a waste of time.

Most people here are honest and won’t cancel if you really did a great job.

If it happens to work with someone who tried to scam you, then it’s better to ignore the incident and move on with your life.

[andaluzia]

I agree 100% with this. 🙂

[Guest lindapool]

I am a newbie and this information has been very informative, so thank you very much to everyone who contributed to this thread.