Is standing up for myself worth my first 1-star review?

[gwyneth_galvin]

I currently have a client who I knew from the very start was going to be stressful to work with. They have requested a revision which is completely ridiculous and will take hours to complete, and is outside the bounds of the order anyway.

I delivered exactly what the client requested and am actually really proud of the final product. I believe I’m in my rights to refuse the revision, but I know they will leave a bad review.

It is an $80 order. Should I take the L and stand up for myself or should I cancel?

[realdazz]

Take an L and send them a resonable message that why you can revise it.
Since you know them from the start chances are that they are most likely to understand but if not then its still not worth cancelling your hard work which is worth $80.
Besides it can rank your gig lower so just beaware of that

[english_voice]

Only you can decide. But personally I would not cancel. I would message him or her stating something like “I have delivered the order to a high standard in line with our original agreement as detailed in the gig and subsequent message chain. Your revision request falls outside of the scope of the original order. If you would like me to carry out the additional work this will have to be a new order for which I will charge $X and require an additional X days. Please let me know how you would like to proceed”.

The buyer won’t like that. But if you are certain that what you’ve delivered meets the brief of the original agreement then you are within your rights to approach customers support should the buyer become more difficult.

[caesar_english]

Personally, I would do anything within my power to avoid 1 star reviews, so if I had the time I’d probably do the revision. It’s an 80$ job anyway, it’s not like it came cheap (though I don’t know what you were asked, so maybe it was cheap for the service you provided to them :thinking:), but I would make it clear that I’m making a great exception for them and underline my professionalism in agreeing to do something that wasn’t included in our contract.

Only do so if you have the certainty they won’t leave a bad review after the revision anyway. And I would suggest blocking them after the order is completed, because I wouldn’t want to work with them again.

[joshvoices4you]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

I wouldn’t try to stay strong, and stick with it, if you’ve delivered what’s within the offer then you’re not at fault

[gwyneth_galvin]

Personally, I would do anything within my power to avoid 1 star reviews, so if I had the time I’d probably do the revision. It’s an 80$ job anyway, it’s not like it came cheap (though I don’t know what you were asked, so maybe it was cheap for the service you provided to them :thinking:), but I would make it clear that I’m making a great exception for them and underline my professionalism in agreeing to do something that wasn’t included in our contract.

Only do so if you have the certainty they won’t leave a bad review after the revision anyway. And I would suggest blocking them after the order is completed, because I wouldn’t want to work with them again.

Personally, I would do anything within my power to avoid 1 star reviews, so if I had the time I’d probably do the revision. It’s an 80$ job anyway, it’s not like it came cheap (though I don’t know what you were asked, so maybe it was cheap for the service you provided to them :thinking:), but I would make it clear that I’m making a great exception for them and underline my professionalism in agreeing to do something that wasn’t included in our contract.

I am 100% sure that they will leave me a bad review now either way, because they have twice asked me to do work for free and work that I do not provide, and I have twice shut them down (politely) and then received lukewarm responses or no response at all.

I’m lucky to be really busy and I have a cancellation to spare, so I’ve decided to cancel. I actually gave them a $15 discount on their order because they ordered fewer extras than they needed, but since it was my first time working with them and I wanted to make a good impression, I offered it at a discount. When they didn’t say “thanks” or even acknowledge my message, I knew I was in for an unpleasant experience.

Appreciate your feedback pals! X

[gwyneth_galvin]

Only you can decide. But personally I would not cancel. I would message him or her stating something like “I have delivered the order to a high standard in line with our original agreement as detailed in the gig and subsequent message chain. Your revision request falls outside of the scope of the original order. If you would like me to carry out the additional work this will have to be a new order for which I will charge $X and require an additional X days. Please let me know how you would like to proceed”.

The buyer won’t like that. But if you are certain that what you’ve delivered meets the brief of the original agreement then you are within your rights to approach customers support should the buyer become more difficult.

ah jeez, I misread your message… I thought you saild personally you WOULD cancel 😂 ugh. I’M SO STRESSED I CAN’T READ

[hadiabdullah]

Take an L and send them a reasonable message why you can revise it

[caesar_english]

Personally, I would do anything within my power to avoid 1 star reviews, so if I had the time I’d probably do the revision. It’s an 80$ job anyway, it’s not like it came cheap (though I don’t know what you were asked, so maybe it was cheap for the service you provided to them :thinking:), but I would make it clear that I’m making a great exception for them and underline my professionalism in agreeing to do something that wasn’t included in our contract.

I am 100% sure that they will leave me a bad review now either way, because they have twice asked me to do work for free and work that I do not provide, and I have twice shut them down (politely) and then received lukewarm responses or no response at all.

I’m lucky to be really busy and I have a cancellation to spare, so I’ve decided to cancel. I actually gave them a $15 discount on their order because they ordered fewer extras than they needed, but since it was my first time working with them and I wanted to make a good impression, I offered it at a discount. When they didn’t say “thanks” or even acknowledge my message, I knew I was in for an unpleasant experience.

Appreciate your feedback pals! X

Then you did the right thing. It wasn’t worth it. Glad you managed to resolve it somehow x

[english_voice]

ah jeez, I misread your message… I thought you saild personally you WOULD cancel 😂 ugh. I’M SO STRESSED I CAN’T READ

I feel for you. It’s a horrible feeling to have a buyer do this.

Just remember that if the buyer does leave poor feedback, you can respond to that feedback and explain your side of the story. This remains visible on your profile for future potential buyers to read.

If you have nine 5 star feedback ratings for example, and one 1 start feedback to which you reasonably respond with something like; “Buyer requested revisions which were wildly outside of the scope of the project. When I offered a new gig to cover the additional work requested they declined and immediately left 1 star feedback.”…

…then most sane and reasonable people will read between the lines and understand that you had a scammer.

[gwyneth_galvin]

I feel for you. It’s a horrible feeling to have a buyer do this.

Just remember that if the buyer does leave poor feedback, you can respond to that feedback and explain your side of the story. This remains visible on your profile for future potential buyers to read.

If you have nine 5 star feedback ratings for example, and one 1 start feedback to which you reasonably respond with something like; “Buyer requested revisions which were wildly outside of the scope of the project. When I offered a new gig to cover the additional work requested they declined and immediately left 1 star feedback.”…

…then most sane and reasonable people will read between the lines and understand that you had a scammer.

…then most sane and reasonable people will read between the lines and understand that you had a scammer.

You’re totally right, and although I do know this to be true, it’s the princple of the matter that keeps me from doing it. I’d rather refund the buyer than have their nasty message permanently on my page that I’ve worked for 3 years to build 😦

[coerdelion]

Gwyneth { { {socially distanced hug } } } This is horrible.

However, you might like to consider that this isn’t about you, but about them. Not having a single bad review on your profile by cancelling before they can be bad to you … well, you’re going to get a lot of cancellations that way.

Bear in mind that life isn’t just chocolate. Sometimes you have to eat broccolli too …

Don’t cancel. Send them an offer instead

[tracybarnhart]

I wouldn’t cancel. If the revision is outside of the gig parameters, just send them a change order for how much it will cost to complete. In the change order simply state that the revision requests are beyond the original scope. They will either pay it, rethink their request, or hassle you but this way, you at least are putting them on notice that they are asking for additional work not included in the original order. I’ve done this a few times and it worked pretty well.

[gwyneth_galvin]

A thought decision that has already been made but I would personally not have canceled this order.

You have 889 positive reviews…even a couple 1 star reviews wouldn’t make a dent on your profile. Also the sooner you get that 1 star review, the sooner you’ll stop worrying about it.

Fiverr-related stress is at the top of my list with my therapist believe it or not. I have a panic disorder and confrontation is a huge anxiety trigger for me. Watch this space… I’m working on it, I promise!

[gwyneth_galvin]

Gwyneth { { {socially distanced hug } } } This is horrible.

However, you might like to consider that this isn’t about you, but about them. Not having a single bad review on your profile by cancelling before they can be bad to you … well, you’re going to get a lot of cancellations that way.

Bear in mind that life isn’t just chocolate. Sometimes you have to eat broccolli too …

Don’t cancel. Send them an offer instead

{ { {socially distanced hug } } }

Thank you <3

Not having a single bad review on your profile by cancelling before they can be bad to you … well, you’re going to get a lot of cancellations that way.

I’m actually so lucky that 9/10 of my cancellations are because a buyer ordered accidentally. I try to save my cancellations for when I ABSOLUTELY need them. But you’re right, I need to deal with it at some point. Thank god for virtual therapy 😅

[cyaxrex]

Personally, I would do anything within my power to avoid 1 star reviews, so if I had the time I’d probably do the revision. It’s an 80$ job anyway, it’s not like it came cheap (though I don’t know what you were asked, so maybe it was cheap for the service you provided to them :thinking:), but I would make it clear that I’m making a great exception for them and underline my professionalism in agreeing to do something that wasn’t included in our contract.

I am 100% sure that they will leave me a bad review now either way, because they have twice asked me to do work for free and work that I do not provide, and I have twice shut them down (politely) and then received lukewarm responses or no response at all.

I’m lucky to be really busy and I have a cancellation to spare, so I’ve decided to cancel. I actually gave them a $15 discount on their order because they ordered fewer extras than they needed, but since it was my first time working with them and I wanted to make a good impression, I offered it at a discount. When they didn’t say “thanks” or even acknowledge my message, I knew I was in for an unpleasant experience.

Appreciate your feedback pals! X

I offered it at a discount. When they didn’t say “thanks” or even acknowledge my message, I knew I was in for an unpleasant experience.

This is always the way. In real life you might walk past a store and see an iPhone with 20% off as a black Friday sales incentive. If you buy, you will then feel thrilled that you scored a great deal.

On Fiverr, the vast majority of people see discounts as something they deserve. Either this, or they assume that whatever you are creating takes a minimal amount of time or effort. In both cases, the discount goes under appreciated.

I’m now no longer offering discounts to anyone. Every time I do, I end up regretting it. Often, this happens as a result of buyers asking for further discounts. Recently, I had a buyer I was giving a 20% discount come at me asking for a further 50% discount of the discounted price they were already paying because of Covid-19.

I also had a buyer with extraordinary cheek recently, who decided to order my basic package but ask for my standard package. When I delivered, they were thrilled and asked how far we could take the price down further because of the old "we are starting a new SEO agency and need regular work."

In both these cases and a few others, I’ve just blocked the buyers in question because I feel so insulted. Now I just wish I could be a fly on the wall, as they try to find another writer who can deliver the same standard of work I can for my prices.

[eoinfinnegan]

I remember when I had no negatives. I used to agonize about what to do and it turned out that most didn’t bother reviewing.
If you check the buyer and check both the reviews they received (on their profile) and then go to the seller who left that review and see what was actually said, you should get an idea of what they are like. If they have an older account and no reviews then they may never leave reviews.

I have a line for the next time I am threatened with a negative review. "I hope you do leave a review because then I can leave one for you"

Here is the thing - buyers generally buy less than a seller sells. If you get a negative review, it will be lost from view in a week or two. If you give them a negative reviews, basically every seller they message in the next two years will see it. The tables may have turned a little.
Now if only there was a PITA Tax put on buyers below a certain level. Maybe it costs 25% for them to buy or something…