Is Fiverr too Greedy?

[allistercole]

Hi Everyone I just did an order with a Virtual assistant - I have hundreds of orders completed on Fiverr but the gig took longer than I thought it would and I wanted to tip the seller as they kept going until it was done. at the end it was a $10 gig with $5 tip so it worked out as this

seller got $15 less 20% = $12

Fiverr got the initial $2 and charged me another $2 for tipping and the 20% from the seller = $7

im not sure about you but I feel that $7 in fees for a $10 gig is really over the top

I would love to flag this to someone higher up but they probably wouldn’t care or want to listen to my feedback

I do understand that this is the Fiverrs platform and yes there should be fees but hey … not on Tips

Rant over

[Guest joshcates]

“Is Fiverr too Greedy?”

Short answer: No.
Long answer: Noooooooooo.

The service fees and 20% off the top is the price to pay for a host and market at your fingertips.

[hanshuber16]

Hi Everyone I just did an order with a Virtual assistant - I have hundreds of orders completed on Fiverr but the gig took longer than I thought it would and I wanted to tip the seller as they kept going until it was done. at the end it was a $10 gig with $5 tip so it worked out as this

seller got $15 less 20% = $12

Fiverr got the initial $2 and charged me another $2 for tipping and the 20% from the seller = $7

im not sure about you but I feel that $7 in fees for a $10 gig is really over the top

I would love to flag this to someone higher up but they probably wouldn’t care or want to listen to my feedback

I do understand that this is the Fiverrs platform and yes there should be fees but hey … not on Tips

Rant over

I do understand that this is the Fiverrs platform and yes there should be fees but hey … not on Tips

There used to be a time when tips didn’t have the 20% service fees. However, a lot of sellers used to take advantage of the system. For example, if a buyer wanted to actually place a $200 order, the seller would, instead, convince them to just place a $5 and pay the remaining $195 in the form of tips. Do you see what’s wrong here?

By doing this, sellers used to evade the 20% service fee. When Fiverr should have, in fact, earned $40 (as service fees) from the $200 order, they’d have only earned a measly $1. That’s a huge loss for Fiverr.

[fonthaunt]

I understand your point. I’m not against the 20% commission on tips for the reason hanshuber mentioned. I am against the $2 fee on tips and extras. The thing is, this has been discussed and ranted about on the forum for months and I don’t think it is a point that Fiverr wants to debate.

I know for sure that staff is aware of some of the original long forum threads on it. They aren’t interested. I assume that means they are doing well and not losing many quality sellers and buyers over the issue. I personally wouldn’t stop selling over it and I still buy as well though I don’t normally buy extras or tip anymore, I just pay as much as I can afford up front. So, I don’t expect to see it change.

[xuntes]

This is really simple to answer:

1. Fiverr fees aren’t only for their profits, but also external expenses like any other company which deal with money transactions. Fiverr pay taxes, employees, Energy, algorithm creation, Fiverr platform/site, Customer support, rent, etc etc etc. Nothing of this is free. These $2 fees, we must understand that there are also cancelled orders, refunded and charge back orders, etc etc etc.

2. But you may think that they should get it from their 20%. Of course not! This is their profit. Even if you think it’s too much, seller just need to raise your prices 25%. So they will earn the same amount of the order price they have today.

Even after this, if you think that fiverr is greedy, I believe the greedy eye is on the other side.

Sellers do their money by working, fiverr do their money by offering the best platform for online/remote services.

Me, as seller, I don’t think it’s greedy. I know that fiverr does a lot of money over their sellers, but if these sellers think that the are not earning enough, they should just raise their prices, like any other company has to do to make profit with their products.

In resume, most of sellers doesn’t set their hourly wage. And the calculation should start from profit, not for the initial offer.

[misscrystal]

Fiverr can charge anything it wants. It can even be “greedy” if it wants to. I don’t mind.

[allistercole]

I understand your point. I’m not against the 20% commission on tips for the reason hanshuber mentioned. I am against the $2 fee on tips and extras. The thing is, this has been discussed and ranted about on the forum for months and I don’t think it is a point that Fiverr wants to debate.

I know for sure that staff is aware of some of the original long forum threads on it. They aren’t interested. I assume that means they are doing well and not losing many quality sellers and buyers over the issue. I personally wouldn’t stop selling over it and I still buy as well though I don’t normally buy extras or tip anymore, I just pay as much as I can afford up front. So, I don’t expect to see it change.

Yes @fonthaunt that is what I was saying you seem to be the only one that gets it. as a buyer and a prolific one at that I would not tip anyone moving forward as I will not pay another $2 to do so therefore instead of Fiverr getting 20% of the tip they will get nothing. what begrudges me is if I had placed an order for $5, $10, $15 anywhere up to $40 I pay $2 flat fee. So if I order a $10 , $15 or $20 gig and want to tip a little something after fiverr wants another $2 … no sir I will no longer tip anyone and therefore I am happy I keep my money and both seller and Fiverr lose out. Surley if they didnt double charge sellers would get more tips and fiverr would make more as they will get the 20% and sellers would have no reason to tell a buyer hey buy this gig for $5 and tip me $95 as it would be no benefit to them.

[dlinteriors]

With clientele growing, the comm charge should lower a bit for fairness, not increase a lot.
But businesses most of the time aren't about fairness. They're about about profit and greed. No hard feelings there. Just a fact.
Unfortunately many people do not have web skills etc. So this is where Fiverr comes in. C'est la vie.

The most important is that they do not become too massive (because of us) otherwise things end up like with some bit pharma companies. We all know what happened there.

[nickj2013]

It sounds like they're shaking you down when you first start out on the platform. But once you adjust your prices to normal business levels, the percentage that they take won't seem as harsh. Of course, you could also expand your business outside of Fiverr. Plenty of options out there where you get to keep all of what you make.