Edits: Typos
Heads-up: This will be a very long post, so strap in.
Preface: I will not be mentioning any names or ranks of the sellers, and I will not answer any requests to do so. This is a subjective rant, serving both as information to you and as a vent for myself.
Also, it should be noted that I always contact any seller first, before placing an order, to get an idea of what they can do and whether they feel confident they can deliver the work I want.
I joined this forum/site about a month and a week ago, as a buyer. I read a lot of topics, and I’ve seen a lot of complaints about buyers asking for too many revisions, or buyers that have too many requests and so on. So, after having a mostly bad experience on Fiverr thus far, I figured I’d share my side of the story and give you a perspective from a new buyer.
I came to this site looking for some upgrades for my personal YouTube channel that I run as a hobby on the side. All I wanted was a new logo, some custom emojis, a few voicelines, and a custom intro and outro. That’s it. The channel has been my baby for a few years and I simply wanted to polish it up a little with some fancy new stuff that I couldn’t do myself.
First things first:
The Emojis - Part 1
I was scrolling through page after page, looking for the right style and price, and then I found it. I’m no fool, I know what a decent price is. I wasn’t looking for the cheapest work. I wanted the price to be within my planned budget and I wanted the style to be just right. And I got what I wanted. Or so I thought.
I contacted the seller, went over the details of what I wanted, gave them proper descriptions and plenty of reference material, discussed the pricing and what I needed to order. And then bam! Placed my first order!
A day goes by, then I get an update from the seller with some sketches. They looked wonderful! I was very delighted. We discussed the changes and exchanged ideas, then they went back to work. Great! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on those awesome emojis!
Another day goes by, then I receive a message from Fiverr. Customer Service cancelled my order. Wait, what?! Yeah… Apparently, the seller messed up or something, and it got their account deleted (it’s still gone to this day). This happened 3 days before delivery, and the seller was actually early with the delivery anyway.
What a blowback. Real bummer. I really liked the emojis. But what could I do? I had to find a new seller now.
Anyway…
The Logo - Part 1
…in the meantime I ordered my new logo.
Something extravagant. Out of the ordinary. Expensive ($150), but beautiful.
Again, I discussed the details prior with the seller, gave all the requirements and reference material. I asked whether they could handle any new orders, because I noticed that they had a few orders in queue. They assured me they could handle. Fine. So I placed my order and waited patiently.
5 days go by, without a single word from the seller. Odd. Very odd. It’s 1 day before delivery, so I figured I’d ask what’s up. Lo and behold, the seller told me that they hadn’t even begun working on the project yet! 1 day (!) before delivery. I never received a sketch, no mockup, no scribbles, no nothing.
On the day of delivery, 3 hours before due date, they wanted to extend the delivery time because they needed more time. Already running late because I couldn’t order any new intro without the new logo, I asked to cancel and find someone else.
They kinda tried to guilt-trip me into extending the order by saying how they give more revisions than others because they try to deliver quality work, but I wasn’t buying it and they eventually gave in and cancelled.
To me, it was unacceptable to deliver not even a single sketch 1 day before delivery and the seller never communicated with me beforehand that they needed more time. I explicitely asked them when I placed my order to tell me ahead of time if something’s going to give them trouble.
Already very irritated, I ventured on to find someone else.
The Emojis - Part 2
I found someone with a similar style, though for about double the price. I wasn’t looking for the cheapest Gigs as I said earlier, but we are talking over $100 here. Stung a little, but figured it was worth it.
Same story as before, discussed details, gave requirements and reference material, blah blah.
And what did I get after a couple of days of waiting? This:
Absolutely stunning work. Not quite the style I was originally aiming for, but it’s really good work and I like it a lot.
That settles the emojis part. Let’s move on, shall we?
The Voiceover
Actually, not much to say here, but I figured I’d tell my story in a structured form for you to follow along.
I placed my order and received a top product within a very short amount of time. Took like 1 day of waiting, if I recall correctly.
Very pleased with what I got and already used some of it for my channel as of this day.
Now, let’s continue.
The Logo - Part 2
This time around, the logo I ordered was still expensive, but it was a bit cheaper ($84) than the previous seller. I also settled for a different style. Obviously, this step was required so that I could finally continue with my last needed and just as important projects: the intro and outro. More to that later.
So, I hired this seller after carefully scrolling through pages and pages on the site and reviewing their work with great care. I really liked the style, so same procedure as before. I even gave them several Paint sketches.
This particular step turned out to be rather a requirement because of some sort of language barrier, I think? I’m not exactly sure. They did speak a bit broken English, but they appeared to understand what I wanted. Well, most of the time. It got annoying at some point because I had to repeat and repeat myself over and over, and point out what had been forgotten, again, to be corrected.
It was a bit of a tedious process, but we finally got there. And this is roughly how it progressed:
Finally! I could now move on to the last important step: the intro and outro. Right?
The Intro & Outro - The True Nightmare
Oh, boy. This has been one hell of a ride. And I don’t mean that in a positive way. Are you ready?
Here we go.
I was already getting stressed out because I was now about 2 weeks or so behind with my planned video release. Keep in mind that my re-branding during this time had already taken place. There was no going back to the old logo/intro/outro, you get the idea. Mistake on my part, in retrospect. Should have waited until all assets were complete.
What I wanted was a 2D animated (silhouette style) intro and outro that incorporated my logo character.
I hired a total of 3 sellers during this process. Had to cancel them all. I will break down each, so strap in.
Note: I also want to be very clear that I’m not trying to shun any sellers here. I just want to share my frustration/experiences I had as a buyer.
Seller #1:
My requirements (this is important for context):
Intro:
5-6 seconds long (max. 8 seconds, unless not possible), depending on how long the animation needs to be to not feel rushed.A dark/black screen. You can see a bit of moon at the top. Slight fade down into black. You can hear a werewolf ripping people apart. Screams and battle noises like swords clashing and armor crushing. Blood splashing on black screen. Werewolf howl (short). Werewolf growl (short). Red claw swipes tear apart the black screen (similar to how you did with the sword swipe for [redacted] intro) and reveal logo. Logo (werewolf) dripping blood from hands and breathing as if exhausted. Medallion (amulet) eyes glowing, same for character.
Would be cool if the logo’s “glow effect”/border effect could be blood rushing/tracing around the edge (no dripping).
As ending transition I want a red cape (what my logo has) swipe over the screen, just as you would do with smoke, but with a red cape instead.
This was later changed, after some discussion, to this:
Ok, tell you what. I realize the red cape transition might be a bit much, so let’s scrap it. Just let the logo continue “breathing”. I will add a black fade myself (so I can control timing).
Obviously, I left out the added files and outro requirements here. But I think I was pretty clear in what I wanted, no?
Fast forward a couple days and I got this delivered:
Standard template work. Re-used assets and animations from previous Gigs. The Gig said custom intro, so yeah… Maybe the definition of that is too broad.
Aside from the moon (has wrong color, but whatever) and blood dripping from my logo, does it in any way resemble what I asked for? No? Precisely.
4 days wasted for nothing and I needed to find another seller.
Seller #2:
My requirements (this is important for context):
INTRO:
Moon in background. Background a shade of dark blue/green like in sample image. Landscape or cliff (preferrably cliff like in sample idea picture). If you can do it similar to the sample picture, that’d be cool.
Werewolf silhouette (looking like my logo character) is tearing apart a medieval soldier. Blood gushing everywhere as he claws into him.
Then he stops and looks up. His eyes light up red and a growl can be heard, then he attacks the camera. Blood flows down from above, transitioning into next scene that reveals the logo.
Background: If you could use the same blue/green from before instead of the red I showed in my storyboard image (or maybe let me see both so I can decide which fits better).
The eyes of the character and amulet are glowing. Some blood is flowing from the amulet’s eyes and my logo text. Also, blood is dripping from the hands of my logo character. Logo character is breathing heavily, with arms moving slightly up and down, chest expanding as he breathes. Blood drops are rushing/tracing the outline of the logo.
As for the attack animation: I want him to jump at the camera, maybe. Like he’s leaping to claw you, not jumping to bite, if you know what I mean?
I provided them with a storyboard as follows:
Yes, I changed my initial idea after some thinking. It happens. But this seller got the requirements as listed.
After some discussion, I said the corpse doesn’t need to be so detailed, it’s enough to look like this:
I settled with this seller after again carefully reviewing their work and messaging them with all the details. They offered me 2 separate Gigs (and they were the only ones to ever do that) for the same work to fill out my entire budget. Split offer, as they called it. Not necessary for the Gig I ordered, but I wasn’t quite sure at the time because I was new, so I accepted.
Fast forward a couple days, I get a storyboard I was asked to approve. Gave them the changes and they continued.
Fast forward a day, I get another storyboard. This time, some changes I asked for were not incorporated. I agreed to make some cuts, like getting rid of the swipe animation and blood covering the screen.
Fast forward another day… urgh, you get the idea. We went over like 5 different storyboards, and each time I agreed to some cuts or changes, and then they added something I never asked for, like a super detailed werewolf.
These were the last storyboards I received when things started to get really irritating:
As you can see (or maybe hard to see), this is the type of stuff I was talking about. Super detailed werewolf, some added anime roar animation I never asked for, etc. So bloody annoying at this point.
This entire Gig was supposed to take a total of 10 days. After 9 days, the seller asked for an extension of delivery time of 7 days.
Like, what?! They needed more time. I asked what on earth they had been spending all this time on, and all I had received so far were a couple of storyboards when I already gave them one when I placed my order.
You know what they told me? Animation work hadn’t even started yet and their animator needed more time. And the money they asked for in the extra Gig was supposedly for the graphical assets needed for the storyboard. Why?! I gave them a storyboard already!
All this time, I was under the impression that they were working on the animation and just adjusting the storyboard to accommodate any changes we discussed.
And again a seller tried to guilt-trip me with the response “but it will affect our account”. Well, too bad, I guess! Delivering nothing, not communicating that you needed more time, and then expecting the buyer to just suck it up? Totally unacceptable!
So I declined their request for delivery time extension and gave them an ultimatum. Either they show me something in the next couple of days, no matter how unfinished, or I would cancel the order. No, no, they will manage, so they said.
Fast forward 2 days and I get this:
At this point I was fuming internally. Like, I wouldn’t have minded it if it were some janky animation, but instead, what I got was something we already discussed a hundred times over to be changed, and it again hadn’t been changed.
The werewolf was still not doing what he was supposed to, the corpse was still too detailed (that one was the most infuriating because I sent them like 5 times very simple designs as listed above and asked them to change it), etc., etc.
I was so irritated that I declined any further revisions and just cancelled the order. I instantly got my money back because they were 2 days late on delivery.
Great! Another 12 days wasted. Now I was more than 3 weeks behind schedule. And it’s a real shame, too, because I liked the style this seller used. But… they just wouldn’t listen to any changes or requirements I asked for. Just… do as you are told, damn it! 
Before we move on to seller 3, let’s quickly go over the ridiculous (quick) journey that was Buyer’s Request.
Because of my past bad experiences so far, I decided to try my luck with Buyer’s Request.
I provided all the requirements, this time in even greater detail and again with changes to make this even simpler to do, drew a storyboard, added my budget and delivery time.
Budget: Up to $150 (explicitely stated that I’d welcome it if it wasn’t all needed)
Delivery time: 10 days (generous enough, in my opinion)
Requirements
I’m looking for a professional 2D animated intro and outro. No background music. Sound effects optional (can add them myself). I have a PSD and PNG file of my logo that I want to have represented in said intro and outro. The animation: The animation is supposed to be in silhouette style, meaning mostly shadows. With some vector-ish graphics assets that will need to be created. You will know what to do.
---------- INTRO:
I want a fairly detailed landscape with maybe a few rocks and trees, and bonus points if you can make it a cliff. There’s a moon in the background to light up the scene. Check the sample images that I attached. I want a werewolf (more like wolfman with short snout) that looks like my logo. With helmet, swords, cape and all. Very important that you get those details right. I want the werewolf to slash into a roughed up corpse with his claws quickly several times (blood splashing), then he stops and looks up and turns his head towards the viewer. Then his eyes glow red and he pounces at the camera. I want the pounce animation to be the transition for the logo reveal. I want the arms to be aligned with the logo so that it looks like the werewolf is transforming into the logo as it’s revealed.
The moon should turn into a blood moon as the logo is revealed. Feel free to draw inspiration from this video game title screen that I really like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3MOHlmUJiM
I want the logo character to be breathing slightly. And I want some blood dripping from the claws and from the eyes of the amulet. And maybe make the eyes of the amulet glow slightly red. Oh, and maybe make the character’s eyes blink once or twice to add some life to it.
Duration: Maximum 10 seconds. Preferrably 7-8, but I feel this might not be possible. If the animation feels too rushed at 7-8 seconds, contact me and we can talk about some cuts.
------ OUTRO:
I want the clawing animation used in the intro to continue. Maybe make him stop and look up every 4-5 seconds, then continue clawing. Rinse and repeat. Duration: 21 seconds, so I can trim it a bit myself. ANY TYPE OF FADE at the start or end of the intro or outro I can add myself. I have attached a storyboard that shows the rough idea, and I have attached a sample logo file and reference material. You will get the full PSD and PNG files when I place my order.
Storyboard to go along with it:
Pretty straight forward again, no? Well, long story short, I got a ton of ridiculous offers, such as:
- $5 and 1 day delivery time, unlimited revisions
- $25 and 3 days delivery time, unlimited revisions
- $200
- $250
- And my personal favorite:
“Hey, I’ve carefully read your request and I can do it all. Here is my offer.”
Their offer: $500. Mhm. Read my request carefully.
After getting spammed with messages from people who were not animators and didn’t even offer any kind of animation work, I was so fed up that I cancelled the request and tried looking for another animator.
Seller #3:
And this is how we arrive at seller number 3. This seller received the same requirements as I just posted. Exact same. Same files, same everything.
A day after placing the order, I got some sketches what I thought were the concept art of my character for their animation. Looked good, was excited. Told them I liked it.
Fast forward a couple days and it’s delivery day.
For convenience, here’s my storyboard again:
And this is what I got delivered ($95 for 5 days delivery):
Bland sky, weird/cheap corpse model and not what I asked for, moon missing texture, logo off center, laser ray eyes I never asked for, low resolution artwork (you can literally see it pixelated in the full work), wrong transition, wrong background, fade animation at the end when deliberately asked not to, etc.
I wasn’t even mad. Nope. I felt… nothing. No rage. Well, except defeat. Yes, I literally gave up trying to get some damn animation work done. I just couldn’t bear it anymore. I’ve now told my community 3 times that the next video will be delayed, and I cannot tell them again. I’ve already lost several paying (!) subscribers during this bloody nightmare, and I honestly cannot be bothered anymore.
However, this seller remained very polite. I even offered them some compensation for their work and they politely declined and just offered to cancel. Which I did.
At the end of the day, I just entered round 4 of this nightmare, completely foregoing the idea of an animated 2D intro and outro, and will simply settle with an animated logo that I will be ordering today.
So, the moral of the story is this: Maybe, just maybe, instead of complaining about your buyer being so difficult, perhaps first check whether you understood all their requests? That you delivered all the work required as was requested? Don’t add/change anything you weren’t asked to do.
For me, after all this is over, and I hope it will resolve itself in a good way, it might take a while before I place another order on here. I’ve been burned several times in a very short time span, so that takes its toll.
Anyway, thanks for letting me rant and maybe you can take away something from this awfully long post.
Cheers! 
