Is there a way to avoid late delivery when the buyer didn't correctly fill out info and there's only a few hours left on the gig?

[joyh97]

So basically the title says it all -

I’m a VA, buyer placed an order and filled out all the questions needed to start the gig, saying they’d attached a script (but they hadn’t). They also paid extra for 1 day delivery, but this was around 1am last night so I didn’t realise until today when I started working through my orders.

I messaged them asking to reattach the script.
There’s now about 10 hours left on the gig (which SHOULD be enough time for them to get back to me, but perhaps not due to the holiday season). They haven’t got back to me yet, and in the event that they don’t, is there anything I can do to avoid a late delivery? I’ve been using fiverr for over a year now and have never had a late delivery, so it probably wouldn’t affect my stats much but I’d rather avoid the automatic 1 star review!

If I go to the resolution centre and ask to extend the delivery time, can a late delivery be avoided even if the buyer doesn’t see it in time? I doubt this greatly as this could easily be abused by sellers trying to get extra time for no real reason.

I know empty deliveries can also get you in trouble, so I’m a bit at a loss. Will I really have to take a 1 star review and a late stat because of the buyer’s own error?

[graphtersawyer]

You should contact CS. In the case that it’s late, you have proof that you did all in your power to be on time, and they can’t possibly penalize you for that. They may even cancel it for you. In my instance, buyer wasn’t getting back and it was 24hr delivery, so I contacted CS, and they didn’t penalize when the buyer answered after the order deadline. My stats weren’t affected.

[joyh97]

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for.

[roots282]

You have a few options here, as far as my experience goes. You can ask CS to cancel the order for you and hope they get back to you in time, and that cancellation will then affect your stats, at least it did in my case. You can also request an extension and then ask CS to cancel in case they don’t get back to you within 10 hours so that the order isn’t marked as late when it gets cancelled. I think you get the review only if your buyer cancels an order that is marked as very late, i.e. two days or more. You can send the request to extend delivery time and wait four days for them to respond, and while you wait get in touch with CS to see exactly what you should do to minimise the damage.

If you don’t want to cancel, I suggest you send the extension request for a few days, two or three maybe, so that that much time is added to the original deadline. If you request to add one day and the buyer gets back to you in two days, your order will be one day late. So if you think it could take them a while because of the holiday season, add several days and explain that you will deliver within 24 hours from the moment they get back to you with the script so they get the one-day delivery they paid for.

And now for my personal negative experience. I’ve had CS cancel several orders such as yours before their deadlines with no repercussions other than the stats impact that is in most cases unavoidable. There was one buyer who ordered, paid for 1-day delivery, submitted info that didn’t help at all and disappeared. We had a prior order that went exactly the same and ended well so I figured that was just normal for them, sent the request and waited. After a day, I contacted CS to ask them to cancel because the buyer hadn’t got back to me. After about a day and a half, the buyer declined the request and cancelled with no explanation whatsoever, and I got the 1* review. When CS got back to me, they reviewed the order and said they’d remove the review, but it’s still there. Didn’t hurt me at all, and I doubt it would hurt you if you got it. So don’t stress about this needlessly, and whatever you do, don’t send an empty delivery because that will hurt your account much more than any review

[joyh97]

Thank you so much for the time you spent writing such a detailed comment!

I do have enough good reviews that a 1 star review wouldn’t hurt me much other than (admittedly) my pride haha. Nevertheless, your words have been reassuring and based on both of these answers I’m going to contact CS now.

[roots282]

I know what you mean, I’m still holding a grudge Good luck!