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Is tipping sometimes discouraged by Fivver's fees?


ultimatefantasy

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I feel that the additional fee for tipping a seller is a little out of place, in that when I offer to tip someone for a service provided, I like to know that that specific payment is for the seller only, and do not feel comfortable with the additional fee Fivver charges me for the privilege of tipping. I think Fivver is awesome, and maybe this fee gesture is in not so great taste. Is this discouraging buyers from tipping sometimes? What is best practice?

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I feel that the additional fee for tipping a seller is a little out of place, in that when I offer to tip someone for a service provided, I like to know that that specific payment is for the seller only, and do not feel comfortable with the additional fee Fivver charges me for the privilege of tipping. I think Fivver is awesome, and maybe this fee gesture is in not so great taste. Is this discouraging buyers from tipping sometimes? What is best practice?

So, a $5 tip to the seller cost me $10!

You’re sure? I’ve given tips on the last few gigs I bought too, but you pay the same fees on tips as on gigs, that’s $2 (or 5% for orders/tips of $40+), so you should have paid $7, not $10 for a $5 tip.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like fees on tips either, but $10 can’t be correct.

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Hello,

I’m sorry you feel that way!

I do agree to some extent that Tips should have 0% fees.

BUT then people would do a $5 gig and get a $150 tip, they avoid all the fees he’s cheated the system.

You must look at this from all angles …

The only angle is that that Fivver is discouraging tipping. Fivver makes money on every single transaction. Hands-off the tips! Who cares if I want to tip someone $150. That’s my choice as the buyer and it is MY money to give to the seller, not Fivver. No one is cheating the system because they get a tip. Plus tips are determined by the buyer, not the seller. Also, it’s well known by many of us buyers that this sucks and is hurting Fivver as a business. It’s not an opinion, it just sucks and we all know it. See links:

I actually enjoy giving back a little extra tip for services. BUT, the service fee on top of the tip is pure GREED.
Why are buyers charged $2 to give a $5 tip? Fiverr stop being stingy. Buyers would tip more and buy more gigs if Fiverr wasn’t “nickel & diming”
I may be completely out of place by stating this, but I think Fiverr treating a tip as if it was a purchase of a gig and taking a fee respectively ($10 tip, $2 fee taken) is absolutely 100% ludicrous. I work as a server waiting tables for a living, using Fiverr to supplement my income, and I liken this to my boss who makes almost $1,000,000 yearly snagging $2 off of the table before I come to clear it, clean it, and collect my tip. All of the buyers whom I’ve spoken with think that this is bogus…
Really disappointed in the service fees that need to be paid to tip the seller. I get the service fees are part of the business transaction but if I tip I am charged a service fee. So I hire somebody for five dollars, then I get a service fee of two dollars. If I tip five dollars you get another two dollars. a 40% markup is ridiculous. It makes people want to tip less. It feels a bit scamish.

Nothing personal, but obviously this is not healthy and it’s not helpful to suggest that sellers are ‘cheating’ fivver because buyers don’t want to tip fivver.

Cheers!

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The only angle is that that Fivver is discouraging tipping. Fivver makes money on every single transaction. Hands-off the tips! Who cares if I want to tip someone $150. That’s my choice as the buyer and it is MY money to give to the seller, not Fivver. No one is cheating the system because they get a tip. Plus tips are determined by the buyer, not the seller. Also, it’s well known by many of us buyers that this sucks and is hurting Fivver as a business. It’s not an opinion, it just sucks and we all know it. See links:

I actually enjoy giving back a little extra tip for services. BUT, the service fee on top of the tip is pure GREED.
Why are buyers charged $2 to give a $5 tip? Fiverr stop being stingy. Buyers would tip more and buy more gigs if Fiverr wasn’t “nickel & diming”
I may be completely out of place by stating this, but I think Fiverr treating a tip as if it was a purchase of a gig and taking a fee respectively ($10 tip, $2 fee taken) is absolutely 100% ludicrous. I work as a server waiting tables for a living, using Fiverr to supplement my income, and I liken this to my boss who makes almost $1,000,000 yearly snagging $2 off of the table before I come to clear it, clean it, and collect my tip. All of the buyers whom I’ve spoken with think that this is bogus…
Really disappointed in the service fees that need to be paid to tip the seller. I get the service fees are part of the business transaction but if I tip I am charged a service fee. So I hire somebody for five dollars, then I get a service fee of two dollars. If I tip five dollars you get another two dollars. a 40% markup is ridiculous. It makes people want to tip less. It feels a bit scamish.

Nothing personal, but obviously this is not healthy and it’s not helpful to suggest that sellers are ‘cheating’ fivver because buyers don’t want to tip fivver.

Cheers!

Hello,

I’m not saying that buyers or sellers are trying to purposely “cheat” the system.

What I’m saying is, if there was NO fee’s on tips, Instead of the buyer purchasing a $200 gig, they will purchase a $5 gig and tip $195.

Sellers could manipulate buyers into using the Tip system instead of paying gig fees etc!

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Hello,

I’m not saying that buyers or sellers are trying to purposely “cheat” the system.

What I’m saying is, if there was NO fee’s on tips, Instead of the buyer purchasing a $200 gig, they will purchase a $5 gig and tip $195.

Sellers could manipulate buyers into using the Tip system instead of paying gig fees etc!

I see what you meant more clearly here, but it puts the cost onto the buyer as a punitive measure instead of actually dealing with this potential issue. This can easily be solved by having a tip cap in percentages or dollar amount just like in a restaurant, where the card reader gives the buyer a tip option ranging from 5-20%. If Fivver sees an unusally large tip amount, then they can simply go over the correspondence and deal with it from there, not pre-charge and punish me and other buyers for tipping. Instead of creatively working to manage the transactions and policies, Fivver instead just charges me to tip sellers. Imagine reading that as a feature at Fivver. Here at Fivver, you pay us a fee for the privilege of tipping sellers! It’s ridiculous and everyone knows that. But why bother listening to buyers right? I’m out. Fivver sellers are awesome and Fivver management has it’s head stuck in the sand. 😉 My thoughts are not in anyway directed at you my friend, but I have never experienced this type of put-off with any other website or service in my life. Literally no where can I find a single example in business where you have to pay a company fees in order to tip it’s workers or service providers. This is unique to Fivver, and it’s just a really negative experience. Obviously, buyers are very upset by this and many have simply stopped tipping, so the policy hurts far more people than it helps I believe. Anyway, I will not use Fivver any longer unless this changes. I like the site and services, but I feel so strongly about this that it has directly affected my desire to use the site any more. I wish you all the best and hope you have a good day.

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I’ve gotten very large tips which I had to create a custom offer for, after the buyer told me how much he wants to tip me. This can happen a week or two after the original order was completed.

Just because it’s called a “tip” does not mean it’s not a payment to a seller.
A payment for nothing is still a payment.

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I’ve gotten very large tips which I had to create a custom offer for, after the buyer told me how much he wants to tip me. This can happen a week or two after the original order was completed.

Just because it’s called a “tip” does not mean it’s not a payment to a seller.

A payment for nothing is still a payment.

I’m glad people are tipping, and it’s a great way to say thank you and add incentive, but as you can read in my first post, the tip amount turned out costing me 100% more than I opted in for. That’s not right. Why am I paying Fivver to give YOU a tip? It’s just backwards is all, and I like to spend my money where I choose, not be charged a fee to be generous. : )

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

It’s a sad day when sellers have to manipulate the system to ask buyers to include a tip inside a custom order to eliminate the $2 tip fee. Something just doesn’t sit right with me. Also, it would not be cool to assume that a buyer is going to tip you before you provide them with a service. That’s the whole idea of tipping. You give your buyer a great service and then if they feel like you have exceeded their expectations… you get a tip.

Although, I do agree with untimatefantasy that it’s unfair of Fiverr to charge a tip fee… Totally uncalled for!

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This is such an illuminating post. I hope more ppl read it. Perhaps the creation of a separate post specifically detailing the solution herein as a viable workaround. Would hate for other buyers to become similarly frustrated by what seems to be a systematic (if not unintentional) flaw. Thanks so much OP for posting.

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This is such an illuminating post. I hope more ppl read it. Perhaps the creation of a separate post specifically detailing the solution herein as a viable workaround. Would hate for other buyers to become similarly frustrated by what seems to be a systematic (if not unintentional) flaw. Thanks so much OP for posting.

I agree that a secondary post detailing the statistics, the issues and proof would be a good start.

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I’m glad people are tipping, and it’s a great way to say thank you and add incentive, but as you can read in my first post, the tip amount turned out costing me 100% more than I opted in for. That’s not right. Why am I paying Fivver to give YOU a tip? It’s just backwards is all, and I like to spend my money where I choose, not be charged a fee to be generous. : )

Why am I paying Fivver to give YOU a tip?

As I said, to fiverr it’s just another payment.

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Why am I paying Fivver to give YOU a tip?

As I said, to fiverr it’s just another payment.

That’s not how it should be.

Fiverr earn’s a LOT of money from seller/buyer fees.

Then to take a fee from a TIP is against moral standing.

I don’t agree with it, but that’s how it is.

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That’s not how it should be.

Fiverr earn’s a LOT of money from seller/buyer fees.

Then to take a fee from a TIP is against moral standing.

I don’t agree with it, but that’s how it is.

Fiverr earn’s a LOT of money from seller/buyer fees.

Then to take a fee from a TIP is against moral standing.

It’s their prerogative. Lyft lets you keep 100% of your tips, however, most passengers don’t tip, and when they do, it’s $1 to $3, so they might as well not tip.

Yesterday I was paid $8.59 for driving a passenger for 21 minutes, 8.15 miles

My passenger paid $16.96 to Lyft

Lyft platform fee: $5.37

Service fee: $3.00

That means Lyft is getting 50.65% of my money. Now imagine how much more money I would make if Lyft charged a 20% commission on everything like Fiverr does?

In fact, why are we worried about tips at all? We’re not waiters making $2.50 an hour, we don’t depend on tips.

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Fiverr earn’s a LOT of money from seller/buyer fees.

Then to take a fee from a TIP is against moral standing.

It’s their prerogative. Lyft lets you keep 100% of your tips, however, most passengers don’t tip, and when they do, it’s $1 to $3, so they might as well not tip.

Yesterday I was paid $8.59 for driving a passenger for 21 minutes, 8.15 miles

My passenger paid $16.96 to Lyft

Lyft platform fee: $5.37

Service fee: $3.00

That means Lyft is getting 50.65% of my money. Now imagine how much more money I would make if Lyft charged a 20% commission on everything like Fiverr does?

In fact, why are we worried about tips at all? We’re not waiters making $2.50 an hour, we don’t depend on tips.

That means Lyft is getting 50.65% of my money. Now imagine how much more money I would make if Lyft charged a 20% commission on everything like Fiverr does?

In fact, why are we worried about tips at all? We’re not waiters making $2.50 an hour, we don’t depend on tips.

You’re right. I know buyers don’t like paying an extra fee but tips are optional. If you don’t want to pay the fee, don’t tip.

Lately most of my buyers have been tipping me, and not $5 tips either but large ones. It’s not an issue for every buyer. I’ve been getting $50 tips and more than that lately. My largest recent tip: $600.

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That means Lyft is getting 50.65% of my money. Now imagine how much more money I would make if Lyft charged a 20% commission on everything like Fiverr does?

In fact, why are we worried about tips at all? We’re not waiters making $2.50 an hour, we don’t depend on tips.

You’re right. I know buyers don’t like paying an extra fee but tips are optional. If you don’t want to pay the fee, don’t tip.

Lately most of my buyers have been tipping me, and not $5 tips either but large ones. It’s not an issue for every buyer. I’ve been getting $50 tips and more than that lately. My largest recent tip: $600.

I believe you may have missed my point entirely. It doesn’t matter how big or small a tip is, it is a courtesy and a ‘thank you’ between the buyer and seller. I tip my mechanic, my landscaper and my fishing guide when I go fishing. These are all services, and none of those providers then are required to take a percentage of said tip and hand it over to the company they work for. That would be unfair and in poor taste. The tip fee for Fivver is not $2. A $5 tip in CDN dollars for example comes to $9.50. How is that reasonable? I don’t care about a $2 fee, but I do care when the fee is incurred when I decide to gift a tip to a seller. If you’re getting $600 tips, then great! You must offer a fantastic service. Can you link me to it so I can hire you if need be? Your profile comes up as ‘Private.’ Thank you! 🙂

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I agree with @miiila. Anytime I have ordered, and I have ordered recently, a $5 tip cost me $7 not $10.

That is USD. For Canadians the fee is 30% higher, as is true for many other countries, as the fees are in USD. It’s simply principal. Even if the fee was 10 cents, it would still be the same issue I’m writing about. A fee charged to process a tip is not good practice, and is not standard in any other service or industry I’m aware of, as I’ve never been charged to tip someone before. 🙂

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I believe you may have missed my point entirely. It doesn’t matter how big or small a tip is, it is a courtesy and a ‘thank you’ between the buyer and seller. I tip my mechanic, my landscaper and my fishing guide when I go fishing. These are all services, and none of those providers then are required to take a percentage of said tip and hand it over to the company they work for. That would be unfair and in poor taste. The tip fee for Fivver is not $2. A $5 tip in CDN dollars for example comes to $9.50. How is that reasonable? I don’t care about a $2 fee, but I do care when the fee is incurred when I decide to gift a tip to a seller. If you’re getting $600 tips, then great! You must offer a fantastic service. Can you link me to it so I can hire you if need be? Your profile comes up as ‘Private.’ Thank you! 🙂

I think most people here entirely understand your point and most sellers probably are not actively for the fee on tips. I agree that sellers would likely be tipped more often without the fee. The point that people are trying to make in turn is that it’s a fact of life here and that buyers can choose not to tip. Buyers who tip large amounts are probably less likely to care about the fee, so there is some validity in misscrystal’s point when it comes to the psychology of buying.

98% of active forum users are either sellers who also buy sometimes or just sellers, and neither group has control over the tip fee. If you want to tell staff your argument, it would be great. You can send them a Support ticket and it’s an awesome thing to do. There just isn’t much point in arguing about it on the forum, though it’s a public forum so you can if you wish.

You can get to any seller’s Fiverr profile by going to fiverr.com/username and just replace the word username with their real username. Even if someone has no active link to their profile, it will work and their username shows up on ever post they make. 🙂

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I’m glad people are tipping, and it’s a great way to say thank you and add incentive, but as you can read in my first post, the tip amount turned out costing me 100% more than I opted in for. That’s not right. Why am I paying Fivver to give YOU a tip? It’s just backwards is all, and I like to spend my money where I choose, not be charged a fee to be generous. : )

@ultimatefantasy I understand your concern but if buyer want to tip seller he has to tip the Fiverr system, too. Because the buyer found that “excellent” seller using Fiverr system. So Fiverr need to get part of that tip.

That’s simple because many of sellers here use Fiverr because not have other way to get projects and also I’m sure that most of people make tip because Fiverr suggest Tip after they complete the order. And trust me that’s very important to remind them to tip you because they’re very happy with what seller has done but also with the system that helped client to find that seller.

Sorry writing all of that 😄 but I just wanted to share my opinion.

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That is USD. For Canadians the fee is 30% higher, as is true for many other countries, as the fees are in USD. It’s simply principal. Even if the fee was 10 cents, it would still be the same issue I’m writing about. A fee charged to process a tip is not good practice, and is not standard in any other service or industry I’m aware of, as I’ve never been charged to tip someone before. 🙂

A fee charged to process a tip is not good practice, and is not standard in any other service or industry

Fiverr isn’t like other industries. Other industries demote you if you can’t meet your sales quota, if you don’t produce enough, don’t work fast enough. Fiverr demotes you over order completion rate. The blind review system is also a uniquely Fiverr thing. On Amazon, I can reply the book reviews I get, without imagining what the reviewer wrote.

I get that Canadians aren’t happy paying 30% for tipping. But what can they do? It’s just the way things are.

I wonder if Fiverr listens to online petitions? I would start one if tipping mattered to me.

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With all due respect to some of the comments herein: let’s not confuse letter of the law with ‘spirit’ of the law. It’s goes without saying what Fiverr’s rights are – it’s their platform. The issue here is equity. Whether or not ppl tip all the time or as they should or Fiverr allowing a platform that enables sellers to sale a product that (I agree) would require more time, resources and most likely finances still does not negate the legitimacy of the greed factor and also doesn’t address the issue @ hand.

The mere ability to do something doesn’t necessarily make it the right thing to do. Furthermore, intimating that buyers should just suck it up is also counterproductive. What does Fiverr allowing sellers the aforementioned platform to sell their products or ppl not tipping their Lyft driver have to do with Fiverr taking a percentage of a tip meant 100% for the seller? Automatically built-in tips some opine? Well then, how about we just not require or expect ppl to produce quality work bcuz they will receive something either way? Bucz none of us has ever run into a situation where we received shoddy service but were still expected to tip, right?

I personally wouldn’t lose sleep over whether or not I received tips. It is (as far as I’m concerned) within the rights of the buyers to determine if they will do so. My work (outside of Fiverr) has always stood on it’s own merits and will continue as such. If I retain you as a repeat customer (tips notwithstanding) I’m totally fine with that. However, I don’t work in a tips related industry. But there are far too many jobs in society today that pay salaries that pale in comparison to the cost of living, forcing individuals into very confining/compromising situations where they must resort to extreme measures to make ends meet. So yes, many folks ‘rely’ on tips (unfortunately).

Again, Fiverr’s RIGHTS here isn’t the issue as I see it – rather operating in fair equity with the folks who also make it possible for them and this platform to exist. Honestly, this entire dynamic we all share is more quid-pro-quo than a simple one-sided affair. Is Fiverr’s only obligation to merely provide this platform for buyers and sellers and that’s it - while doling out said equity to it’s users ONLY to the extent that it serves to pad its bottom line? I considered correlating the practice to usury but don’t want to digress as that may be a post for another time. As for the issue of tipping itself, I will choose to side with buyers on this one. Fiverr wouldn’t be hurt one bit by allowing it’s sellers to receive 100% of tips. Yes, Fiverr will do what Fiverr is going to do but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with it. And I gather I’m not the only one who feels this way.

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I believe the 20% of tips to Fiverr is fair and makes sense, since as mentioned, sellers could potentially create a $5 order and ask the buyer to leave a large tip to get more of the revenue. 20% is the agreement we all have by working here, and I think it’s more than fair considering the work Fiverr brings us.

What I do not like is the $2 order fee charged on tips. The 20% is not even shown to the buyer, so they aren’t affected by that. The $2 is just tasteless. If a buyer wants to be kind enough to leave you a $5 tip, it then becomes $7, 30% higher!

I have no doubt that this discourages tips from time to time. Of course if a buyer is leaving a larger tip, they won’t mind the $2, but for a smaller tip, it’s just in poor spirit of Fiverr to charge that to someone who was trying to be kind enough to say a little extra thank you to the seller.

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With all due respect to some of the comments herein: let’s not confuse letter of the law with ‘spirit’ of the law. It’s goes without saying what Fiverr’s rights are – it’s their platform. The issue here is equity. Whether or not ppl tip all the time or as they should or Fiverr allowing a platform that enables sellers to sale a product that (I agree) would require more time, resources and most likely finances still does not negate the legitimacy of the greed factor and also doesn’t address the issue @ hand.

The mere ability to do something doesn’t necessarily make it the right thing to do. Furthermore, intimating that buyers should just suck it up is also counterproductive. What does Fiverr allowing sellers the aforementioned platform to sell their products or ppl not tipping their Lyft driver have to do with Fiverr taking a percentage of a tip meant 100% for the seller? Automatically built-in tips some opine? Well then, how about we just not require or expect ppl to produce quality work bcuz they will receive something either way? Bucz none of us has ever run into a situation where we received shoddy service but were still expected to tip, right?

I personally wouldn’t lose sleep over whether or not I received tips. It is (as far as I’m concerned) within the rights of the buyers to determine if they will do so. My work (outside of Fiverr) has always stood on it’s own merits and will continue as such. If I retain you as a repeat customer (tips notwithstanding) I’m totally fine with that. However, I don’t work in a tips related industry. But there are far too many jobs in society today that pay salaries that pale in comparison to the cost of living, forcing individuals into very confining/compromising situations where they must resort to extreme measures to make ends meet. So yes, many folks ‘rely’ on tips (unfortunately).

Again, Fiverr’s RIGHTS here isn’t the issue as I see it – rather operating in fair equity with the folks who also make it possible for them and this platform to exist. Honestly, this entire dynamic we all share is more quid-pro-quo than a simple one-sided affair. Is Fiverr’s only obligation to merely provide this platform for buyers and sellers and that’s it - while doling out said equity to it’s users ONLY to the extent that it serves to pad its bottom line? I considered correlating the practice to usury but don’t want to digress as that may be a post for another time. As for the issue of tipping itself, I will choose to side with buyers on this one. Fiverr wouldn’t be hurt one bit by allowing it’s sellers to receive 100% of tips. Yes, Fiverr will do what Fiverr is going to do but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with it. And I gather I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Is Fiverr’s only obligation to merely provide this platform for buyers and sellers and that’s it - while doling out said equity to it’s users ONLY to the extent that it serves to pad its bottom line?

That’s usually how businesses operate. Last time I checked this was not a charity.

What I do not like is the $2 order fee charged on tips.

If $2 is a deal breaker to you then don’t tip. Problem solved.

Seems you guys don’t understand fiverr gets to earn money from its website.

It’s outrageous to call fiverr greedy for simply charging fees for use of the site. It’s not here to do anything but earn money. If you don’t like the fees no one is forcing you to use it.

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