I strongly object to arm-twisting

[msalup]

It seems to me that every time one is honest and gives someone a less than five rating, one gets an incessant series of emails and messages demanding five stars. I strongly object to that, I think it is a nasty practice and honestly, all I feel like doing is going back to whomever requested it and downgrading the stars.

[david_expertise]

Yes agree, this should not happen.

[Guest jenihiggs]

I agree with you. I’ve never had this happen to me, but I’ve heard about this a lot on the forums. I’m both a buyer and a seller. I only ever gave one review that wasn’t five stars. I gave a seller three stars because their communication was passive-aggressive and unfriendly. It was my second order with the seller. I had already left them a glowing review and a large tip for the first order. Still, with the second order I got no “Thank you for your repeated business” or “Thanks for your order” or anything. All I got was one hostile reply asking me to close out the order, one day after it had been delivered. So that was the only time that I left a review less than five stars. But I’d heard about sellers contacting buyers to change reviews, and I’m a bit of a socially-awkward, introverted person. The entire day after I left that review, I was nervous that I was going to get harassed to change it. I didn’t, but it’s like why do I have to worry about that? I would be so uncomfortable with a seller asking for a review change. That’s why I would never do that to my buyers. I’ve had two four star reviews since I started selling and I never mentioned it to the buyer. It’s an awkward and uncomfortable situation that really doesn’t need to be created. Besides, negative reviews are inevitable and I’m sure at some point, I’ll even get a one or a two star. It’s best to just accept that as a fact of doing business and not get too worked up over it. Anyway, agree with you 100%. I hope some of the sellers that do this will rethink their behavior.

[myskillsforsale]

Sellers rely on glowing reviews to grow their business and continue to get orders. For new buyers, a low star rating early in their career can actually prevent them from working on the site (responding to buyers’ requests and such).

The system is busted because no one wants to buy from a seller with less than 5 stars unless they have thousands of reviews. 3 stars isn’t “Average”, it’s unacceptable because buyers expect $50 worth of work done for $5 and at a 5 star quality. That’s the downside of this bargain site.

Because of the way this system is set up, I think that a buyer should only give less than 5 stars if the seller was mean (as @jenihiggs described, though even then I wouldn’t have rated them down) or if the seller refused to deliver and hold your work hostage for a favorable review, or the seller was grossly incompetent and offered no remediation. If you’re going to leave a review of less than 5 stars, you should work it out with your seller. Tell them you’re unsatisfied and provide clear, objective changes that would satisfy you. For example, you order a voice over and decide that the voice isn’t sufficiently feminine. That’s something that could be fixed in post-production or by re-recording and maybe the seller is willing to fix it (for free or by a paid revision). Most sellers are genuinely good people who want to provide excellent work and make a living doing so. Failure to effectively communicate your needs with your seller is not a reason to rate them harshly. Even subjective taste is not a valid reason to dock stars – if the product was delivered in accordance with the gig description (or agreed upon custom order), then they should receive 5 stars. You could even give them 5 stars and say “gig was completed according to instructions, but lacked (insert your subjective taste here); if you need (objective description of product), this may be sufficient for you.” That’s an honest review which doesn’t bash your seller.

The old Fiverr rating system was binary: thumbs up, thumbs down. The star system didn’t fix this – The binary has simple changed to 1 star or 5 stars. Or perhaps, 5 stars or not 5 stars. Sellers defend their ratings because buyers rely on them. It’s a flawed system, but it’s all we’ve got right now.

[Guest offlinehelpers]

While I agree that sellers should not be begging for 5 stars, I have to give 5 stars to @myskillsforsale for an excellent description off the whole feedback issue from a seller’s point of view.

Did you ask your seller to make any modifications after delivery, which would have improved your purchase? There are many ways buyers and sellers can work together to make the whole Fiverr experience much more pleasant for both parties.

[artworkking]

I also strongly object to arm-twisting. It really hurts.