Fiverr Community Forum

New Evaluation System - Punishing Sellers - Bad For Business

Your Fiverr Experience The Ranting Pot
#1

The new level evaluation process is just plain dumb. It is penalizing the sellers for what is 99% of the time the buyers mistake. In my opinion Fiverr has become too buyer centric with their policies for my taste and I have taken the majority of my business elsewhere. I will still complete the orders that I receive however, I no longer promote my gigs outside of Fiverr (social media platforms, ads, etc). I now set up my own sites for my services, run ads, can charge more, and have less headaches from my customers.

The stats on the platform aren’t correct most of the time anyway and Fiverr is aware of this. Also, buyers will cause these cancellations by not reading the sellers gig description and ordering incorrectly, and most of the time when you send an offer for the correct price, they request to cancel the order. Now, our stats are affected by this and can cause us to be dropped a level? This is completely illogical.

The repercussions of this new evaluation system are going to cause major issues across the entire site. Why? Because we as sellers are now being strong armed by Fiverr into giving away free services to buyers who don’t order correctly. If we don’t, we face the issue of our stats being lowered by the cancellation and possibly dropped a level at the next evaluation. (which affects search results, traffic to your gig, orders, etc) Once buyers catch on to this. They will run with it, as this is enabling them to feel entitled to free services in which they WILL take advantage of.

Fiverr needs to go back to the drawing board on this one.

I could keep on going and going with the issues the system will cause but I am out of time for now.

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#2

Many are aware of the new level system (me as well)

There have been several similar threads created recently and I suggest being optimistic because there isn’t much you can do other than complete many orders to maintain above standard stats.

Best!

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#3

Hello @thecreativeguys,

I am aware that everyone knows about the evaluation process and the numerous threads regarding it as Fiverr rolled out the news of this system to everyone. I was posting my own thread regarding my thoughts on it. I am always optimistic about my business and services but call it like I see it. Nothing more nothing less. Thanks for replying though.

Best!

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#4

Indeed. Punish the seller due to ignorant/malicious buyers. Not a very good way to keep sellers happy and selling. :rage: Have to wait and see how things turn out!

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#5

Or, you could take the optimistic approach, and see this as Fiverr upping the standards, and challenging sellers to up their standards and customer relations in order to advance on Fiverr.

Why does everyone keep taking the “woe is me” approach? This is a good thing, and I, for one, support it wholeheartedly. Let proactive sellers rise, and the sellers that don’t want to innovate along with Fiverr, fall away into obscurity.

It’s not hard to change your thinking in order to keep pace with Fiverr. :wink:

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#6

Look, I get that there are probably some bad sellers out there and that this is a way of weeding them out but they are hurting the good sellers in the process. Being forced to give away free work is not a way of upping your standards. It’s actually devaluing your self worth further in an already discounted marketplace. This isn’t at all about a “woe is me” approach, but about good honest business.

Let me ask you this Jon, if you go to a restaurant and order a meal but the meal does not include any sides (in which you did not pay attention to on the menu) Do you demand free sides with your meal? If you do and the restaurant agrees, you may now be a returning customer BUT, now an expectation has now been put in place with you (the customer) that you are entitled to free sides and you will likely do this over and over again. Does this sound like an opportunity for the restaurant to consistently give away free food? Nope…it’s not an opportunity for the restaurant. It’s a customer taking advantage and would be bad business for the restaurant to allow the behavior to continue.

As the saying goes…Give them an inch and they will take a mile. :slight_smile:

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#7

Yes for sure… I’m with you 100% - so much good in the new evaluation system - but buyers cancelling before an order even begins - affecting sellers negatively, is an area that I believe needs to be reconsidered, as it is something out of the seller’s control.

I lhink the concept behind fiverr employing a system/standard that effectively spurns ALL sellers to step their game up is great, and fair - even challenging - and I love a challenge :muscle:t4:. But, it should be based on what we have control of.

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#8

I didn’t see anything about being “forced to give away free work”. Let’s not sensationalize the ratings requirements just to make your argument look good. No one is being forced to give away anything for free.

If you give things away for free (as a bonus to your listed pricing), that’s entirely your choice. It has nothing to do with Fiverr requirements.

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#9

Thus it begins, I think I’ll stay off the forums for a couple of weeks to let things run their course.

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#10

The new lever requirements are just perfect. Sometimes, standards are needed to be changed.

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#11

I’m not sensationalizing anything these are behaviours, actions, and reactions that are taking place and are relevant. The fact is that buyers will order without reading the gig description and want for things that are not included in your standard gig pricing, and the majority of the time when you send an extra offer they decline and ask to cancel leaving you with the choice of cancelling and hurting your ratings or doing free work. If you choose to cancel, this hurts your ratings and most don’t want to be level dropped so therefore are forced into doing free work.

This was all in my original post but seems you missed the point.

By the way Jon isn’t this what “The Ranting Pot” is for? Seems like you are just trolling my thread at this point.

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#12

This would be a choice YOU make, not something Fiverr is forcing you to do.

I don’t troll threads. I discuss and interact. It seems to me like you don’t like people disagreeing with you, or offering another more positive perspective. Things are not always as bad as they seem. :wink:

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#13

Fiverr is forcing sellers hands with these buyer centric policies. So it gets to a point no YOU dont have much of a choice. So you think there should be 0 accountability on the buyers end? Cause the rating system is buyer centric as well. Please tell me where I can go view my buyers ratings that other sellers have left them before doing business with them. OH WAIT you cant.

No, I get that you don’t agree with me and that’s ok. We’ll just agree to disagree. No hard feelings.

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#14

You ALWAYS have a choice. Always. You just have to widen your options, and not take such a narrow approach to things. Like I said, things are not as bad as they may seem. :wink:

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#15

I definitely don’t consider this a narrow approach just a realistic one.

You’re right though Jon. You do always have a choice just less options with this one…:):wink: As I explained in my original post. I chose less headaches with this by generating my own business and making more money. I never put all my eggs in one basket.

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#16

A wise decision for any freelancer. I have many baskets – Fiverr is just one source of income for me. I recommend the same to others also. Always diversify your income. That way, when things don’t go the way you want them to with one business, the others can pick up the slack. :slight_smile:

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#17

So what are your other baskets? Upwork? Upwork sucks. I hate the bidding sites, all day long begging, er bidding, and for what? For some client that’s gonna reject you because you have little experience, not enough reviews, charge too much, etc? Who needs that?

Everything else sucks. Yesterday I learned that I can’t drive for Lyft (or Uber) unless I have rideshare insurance, otherwise I could lose my insurance if I have a car accident. So I called Progressive, “we don’t sell rideshare insurance, call Allstate.” I did, they told me to call Progressive! Then I contact Farmers and they tell me, “we can sell you rideshare insurance, BUT, you’re gonna have to purchase one of our auto policies for $170 a month.”

I’m already paying Progressive less than $500 for 6 months. I’m not going to pay $170 a month to drive for Lyft when my earnings there vary wildly. The most I ever earned was $50 after 2-hours, and driving in South Florida is not exactly a pleasure. I also don’t like the idea of putting miles in my car.

So what else is there? Fiverr was perfect, then they changed it, and now everyone’s struggling.

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#18

You need a strategy. I abandoned Upwork ages ago. My best accidental strategy sees me list the equivalent of gigs on PPH, pay for two weeks of daily featured listings for each, get a ton of orders and then communicate off-site with buyers who want regular work before diverting them back there when it comes to payment.

I simply can’t handle orders coming in from both Fiverr and PPH at the same time. Get the right buyers on PPH who need high-quality regular work and you’re sorted. - The only catch being you have to pay for the exposure. Might not work for you but I have had to now make a decision between the two and have took my gigs on Fiverr from 14 to 4. Ideally, by the end of the year, I will just have regular big buyers whom I communicate myself with and use freelance sites as just a payment gateway.

Also, if you want to make a steal as a bit of a side hustle, you can stay up 3 days straight looking at John McAfee’s Twitter feed in order to get a feel for his sleep and posting patterns. Then every morning when he advocates a new cryptocurrency, you can buy it before anyone else does and sell it at the end of the day making a nice easy 100% profit. :wink:

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#19

I’ll let you read my Fiverr bio for that answer. :wink:

I can say that I do not work on Upwork. Managing the same services across multiple freelance platforms isn’t quite the “many baskets” I was referring to.

I know people that make money via Youtube channels. I know people who blog for their income. I know people who freelance OFF of freelance websites. I know professional artists who work one-on-one with their own personal clients. I know people who work on movie sets for a living. I know people who make t-shirts for a living. I know people who…

You get the idea. There are thousands of ways in which you could make money doing what they love – especially online. It’s just a matter of finding where those things you love, and the things other people need meet. That place where those two things meet is a potential source of income.

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#20

Not sure what thats about, but ive NEVER been forced in any way by Fiverr, or TOS to give away Free services. Any time i’ve had an issue support is more than happy to correct the situation if I’m in the right. Cant say i agree with this post.

1 Like