No review for a seller who fails to deliver anything at all

[jonathanwill839]

Here’s the situation. I place an order with the seller, having agreed a price and timeline (small PowerPoint plus one infographic; six days). The seller failed to deliver, despite two time extensions. (They also claimed to have finished the PowerPoint element earlier but “could not send it separately”). I cancelled the order and the seller accepted.

1. The system message, “Order cancelled by mutual consent” does not accurately reflect the situation; there was no alternative for the seller.
2. Though total failure is one of the worst possible outcomes, the experience cannot be recorded or reviewed.

So, I miss a deadline, I can’t make potential buyers aware of my experience and this disingenuous, inept person cost some able, genuine, efficient seller the work.

Incidentally. When this person agreed to the cancellation, she claimed that the work was actually finished. I replied, “Send it to me and I will pay you for it”. Nothing came, of course.

[power_design]

I’m sorry for your bad experience.
When an order is cancelled, the seller loses revenue and the order completion rate (this is one of the standards showed only for seller) decreases which negatively affects his/her business on fiverr.
For a mutual cancellation, it is fair enough since the seller has been penalized already. Receiving a bad review without being paid is a nightmare for any seller here on fiverr.
Better luck next time.

[diasy13]

That’s an unfortunate situation. I’m glad that you wanted to help by warning future buyers. Like @power_design said, they will be penalized and it will affect their ranking for a cancelled order. One the bright side, you got all your money back! 🙂

[jonathanwill839]

I’m sorry for your bad experience.

When an order is cancelled, the seller loses revenue and the order completion rate (this is one of the standards showed only for seller) decreases which negatively affects his/her business on fiverr.

For a mutual cancellation, it is fair enough since the seller has been penalized already. Receiving a bad review without being paid is a nightmare for any seller here on fiverr.

Better luck next time.

Thanks for the info. I just checked the seller again and she is still displaying 5 stars based on 2 reviews (oddly one from just 8 hours ago, when they failed to deliver on my project). Where is the completion rate displayed? How would any buyer know to be cautious about this seller?

[jonathanwill839]

That’s an unfortunate situation. I’m glad that you wanted to help by warning future buyers. Like @power_design said, they will be penalized and it will affect their ranking for a cancelled order. One the bright side, you got all your money back! 🙂

Hi Daisy, where is their ranking displayed? Does it take a while to update?

[Guest kawsaradi]

If that seller accept your cancellation then why she said that she finished your work ?

[Guest offlinehelpers]

Hi Daisy, where is their ranking displayed? Does it take a while to update?

The completion rate isn’t visible to buyers. As a buyer, you won’t see anything on their profile. Buyer levels are based on completion rate - these are updated on the 15th of the month.

[lenasemenkova]

From a seller’s standpoint, I’ll second that once the order is cancelled and you get the money back, you not being able to leave a review is a fair thing. Most of the orders I’ve cancelled were where the buyers were behaving inappropriately (threats for more work or simply ordering something I don’t sell at all) and giving them the power to affect my reviews after everything would be a nightmare.

Because from what I understand now fiverr doesn’t remove any reviews at all, fair or not, and I’d rather have it at least on the basis of a delivered product.

Your seller’s cancellation rate will be affected and it will prevent them from moving up the ranks and receiving the perks that go with it. May not seem like much but trust me, the perks are good.

• I do feel for you, though, I bought a few gigs myself and was in a very similar situation. Hopefully, your deadlines didn’t suffer much from this.

[jonathanwill839]

From a seller’s standpoint, I’ll second that once the order is cancelled and you get the money back, you not being able to leave a review is a fair thing. Most of the orders I’ve cancelled were where the buyers were behaving inappropriately (threats for more work or simply ordering something I don’t sell at all) and giving them the power to affect my reviews after everything would be a nightmare.

Because from what I understand now fiverr doesn’t remove any reviews at all, fair or not, and I’d rather have it at least on the basis of a delivered product.

Your seller’s cancellation rate will be affected and it will prevent them from moving up the ranks and receiving the perks that go with it. May not seem like much but trust me, the perks are good.

• I do feel for you, though, I bought a few gigs myself and was in a very similar situation. Hopefully, your deadlines didn’t suffer much from this.

I take your point. Reviews on cancelled orders would have to be type-specific; as they are not necessarily the seller’s fault, as you say. In my case, where nothing at all was delivered after two extensions (requested by the seller) were missed; I think that’s pretty bad and deserves a negative comment.

I think it was really the lies that got to me.

Some of it was my fault of course. Too late I checked and saw that they had very few completed jobs or reviews and some of those did not look genuine. They also claimed to be experts in business writing but their grammar and sentence construction was all over the place.

I have given the work to another seller and hoping for a good experience this time.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

[fastcopywriter]

I take your point. Reviews on cancelled orders would have to be type-specific; as they are not necessarily the seller’s fault, as you say. In my case, where nothing at all was delivered after two extensions (requested by the seller) were missed; I think that’s pretty bad and deserves a negative comment.

I think it was really the lies that got to me.

Some of it was my fault of course. Too late I checked and saw that they had very few completed jobs or reviews and some of those did not look genuine. They also claimed to be experts in business writing but their grammar and sentence construction was all over the place.

I have given the work to another seller and hoping for a good experience this time.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

I’m sorry you had a bad experience with this seller.

I wouldn’t have given him two time extensions. One is already testing my patience, as a seller, I only request them if the buyer demands revisions and Fiverr tells me that I’m late because of that. Even thenI try to deliver 24 hours before an order is due to avoid that problem.

Sellers should know how long it takes them to do things. They shouldn’t promise 24 hours or 3 days unless they can comply.

Know that your seller is hurting himself, every cancellation lowers the order completion rate and can lead to demotions. I don’t understand why my order completion rate was 91%, I deliver 4 orders, and it stays that way, then I refund 2 orders, and it drops to 89%. It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s the way it is.

Now I had to message CS about an order where the buyer provided no instructions. I have asked him twice for instructions, now I’m asking CS to cancel because I don’t want to lower my order completion rate to 88%.

The important thing is that you got your money back and now you can hire someone else.

[lenasemenkova]

I take your point. Reviews on cancelled orders would have to be type-specific; as they are not necessarily the seller’s fault, as you say. In my case, where nothing at all was delivered after two extensions (requested by the seller) were missed; I think that’s pretty bad and deserves a negative comment.

I think it was really the lies that got to me.

Some of it was my fault of course. Too late I checked and saw that they had very few completed jobs or reviews and some of those did not look genuine. They also claimed to be experts in business writing but their grammar and sentence construction was all over the place.

I have given the work to another seller and hoping for a good experience this time.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

I think the late orders are automatically reviewed with 1 star and the comment “The order is cancelled. The seller failed to deliver on time” or something like that. You’d receive an email with “Have you received something yet?” and if you click “no” you’d automatically get refunded and the review would get posted. It used to be this way a year ago, at least.

So it is kind of type-specific but only if you go about it a certain way.

[lenasemenkova]

I’m sorry you had a bad experience with this seller.

I wouldn’t have given him two time extensions. One is already testing my patience, as a seller, I only request them if the buyer demands revisions and Fiverr tells me that I’m late because of that. Even thenI try to deliver 24 hours before an order is due to avoid that problem.

Sellers should know how long it takes them to do things. They shouldn’t promise 24 hours or 3 days unless they can comply.

Know that your seller is hurting himself, every cancellation lowers the order completion rate and can lead to demotions. I don’t understand why my order completion rate was 91%, I deliver 4 orders, and it stays that way, then I refund 2 orders, and it drops to 89%. It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s the way it is.

Now I had to message CS about an order where the buyer provided no instructions. I have asked him twice for instructions, now I’m asking CS to cancel because I don’t want to lower my order completion rate to 88%.

The important thing is that you got your money back and now you can hire someone else.

Oh, a new order and no instructions at all. My favourite kind. 🙂 I feel for you.

I did turn on the mandatory requirements feature but people tend to get around it with typing in something random and tricking the system this way. There is no way to fight it at all, it seems.

[jonathanwill839]

If that seller accept your cancellation then why she said that she finished your work ?

Exactly . . it doesn’t make any sense. I still don’t understand what was going on with the seller.

[fastcopywriter]

Oh, a new order and no instructions at all. My favourite kind. 🙂 I feel for you.

I did turn on the mandatory requirements feature but people tend to get around it with typing in something random and tricking the system this way. There is no way to fight it at all, it seems.

I don’t mind if they type something random because then I can reply and maybe they’ll get back to me. When they order and don’t get back to me, that freaks me out. It’s a $30 order, why would they not provide the information?

Whenever I order, I provide the information immediately.

[legacine]

Not being able to review a cancelled order is fair and reasonable for the following reasons:

1. The Buyer receives her/his money back, less its processing fee.
2. The penalization imposed on the Seller is two - fold: they lose money, and their completion rate takes a hit.
3. Fiverr does not remove reviews for any reason anymore.

About a week ago, I had to cancel a $40 order for legal writing because the Buyer did not provide instructions at all, despite my repeated reminders for her/him to do so. The order was cancelled through no fault of my own and to my detriment (my completion rate decreased by 7%).

I think that’s punishment enough.

[miiila]

I think the late orders are automatically reviewed with 1 star and the comment “The order is cancelled. The seller failed to deliver on time” or something like that. You’d receive an email with “Have you received something yet?” and if you click “no” you’d automatically get refunded and the review would get posted. It used to be this way a year ago, at least.

So it is kind of type-specific but only if you go about it a certain way.

You’d receive an email with “Have you received something yet?” and if you click “no” you’d automatically get refunded and the review would get posted. It used to be this way a year ago, at least.

The last time I ordered, the seller didn’t deliver or react in any way, after the order had gone very late, I got a mail from Fiverr reminding me of the order and recommending to message the seller, which is a pretty nice way to go about it, I think.

Sadly, I had to cancel in the end, after all, as the seller never reacted in any way (hope they abandoned their account without pausing gigs/turning on VM and that nothing bad happened).

I would have been able to cancel already at the point I got the mail, 2 or 3 days after the due date, I think, though, which would then have triggered that automatic 1* review in spite of me being refunded.

So, yes, there is a way to get refunded and yet “leave a review” (but it will have that standard text in your name and you can’t change it - a bit weird, by the way) but only if the seller doesn’t deliver anything at all.

Perhaps it’s thought to be the best possible solution for those cases of abandoned accounts (or sellers who aren’t able to log in anymore).

[lenasemenkova]

You’d receive an email with “Have you received something yet?” and if you click “no” you’d automatically get refunded and the review would get posted. It used to be this way a year ago, at least.

The last time I ordered, the seller didn’t deliver or react in any way, after the order had gone very late, I got a mail from Fiverr reminding me of the order and recommending to message the seller, which is a pretty nice way to go about it, I think.

Sadly, I had to cancel in the end, after all, as the seller never reacted in any way (hope they abandoned their account without pausing gigs/turning on VM and that nothing bad happened).

I would have been able to cancel already at the point I got the mail, 2 or 3 days after the due date, I think, though, which would then have triggered that automatic 1* review in spite of me being refunded.

So, yes, there is a way to get refunded and yet “leave a review” (but it will have that standard text in your name and you can’t change it - a bit weird, by the way) but only if the seller doesn’t deliver anything at all.

Perhaps it’s thought to be the best possible solution for those cases of abandoned accounts (or sellers who aren’t able to log in anymore).

So, yes, there is a way to get refunded and yet “leave a review” (but it will have that standard text in your name and you can’t change it - a bit weird, by the way)

It is weird. In my case, the regular buyer was running late with the requirements and we’ve agreed that I’ll just wait around. Until I got a 1 star rating and that generic review.

The buyer contacted me immediately with “OMG I pressed something in the email, I didn’t mean to”, I just sent the screenshots to the CS and they’ve removed that review. If now I’d be forced to keep it even though there was no bad blood and the project was under control, it’d be, well, I’d hate to whine about it, but incredibly unfair.

[lenasemenkova]

I don’t mind if they type something random because then I can reply and maybe they’ll get back to me. When they order and don’t get back to me, that freaks me out. It’s a $30 order, why would they not provide the information?

Whenever I order, I provide the information immediately.

I do send the followup questions as well in that case but it’s one of the main reasons I don’t do extra fast deliveries anymore.

Just doesn’t make sense. You just lose half of all the time you have trying to find out what the person actually wants to order.

[jonathanwill839]

Not being able to review a cancelled order is fair and reasonable for the following reasons:

1. The Buyer receives her/his money back, less its processing fee.
2. The penalization imposed on the Seller is two - fold: they lose money, and their completion rate takes a hit.
3. Fiverr does not remove reviews for any reason anymore.

About a week ago, I had to cancel a $40 order for legal writing because the Buyer did not provide instructions at all, despite my repeated reminders for her/him to do so. The order was cancelled through no fault of my own and to my detriment (my completion rate decreased by 7%).

I think that’s punishment enough.

By your reasoning, I could order anything from anywhere (Amazon for example) and, if they failed to deliver completely as very occasionally happens, I would have no recourse to a negative review. Fortunately Amazon is a very successful, customer-driven company and they appreciate the value of all feedback, negative or otherwise.

Let’s be clear. I sent a simple $200 order, six days duration, no rush. All notes provided prior to order and no additional requests or changes made. The seller delivered NOTHING even after two time extensions and LIED about their progress. Seriously, not a valid cause for complaint!? Seriously? As a buyer, I have the right to know about this type of unprofessional conduct.

[lenasemenkova]

By your reasoning, I could order anything from anywhere (Amazon for example) and, if they failed to deliver completely as very occasionally happens, I would have no recourse to a negative review. Fortunately Amazon is a very successful, customer-driven company and they appreciate the value of all feedback, negative or otherwise.

Let’s be clear. I sent a simple $200 order, six days duration, no rush. All notes provided prior to order and no additional requests or changes made. The seller delivered NOTHING even after two time extensions and LIED about their progress. Seriously, not a valid cause for complaint!? Seriously? As a buyer, I have the right to know about this type of unprofessional conduct.

I as a seller can’t refuse a buyer service without repercussions for myself if a buyer proceeds with the order, no matter how they behave. While a buyer can do that any moment, no explanations, no questions asked. So it’s fiverr’s way to balance the power (somewhat), I guess.

If as a seller I could decline an order based on an unprofessional conduct with no penalties, I’d be 100% behind your way of looking at it, btw.

Also, you can report the seller. This kind of behaviour is frowned upon. Especially selling what you can’t actually deliver.

[Guest offlinehelpers]

By your reasoning, I could order anything from anywhere (Amazon for example) and, if they failed to deliver completely as very occasionally happens, I would have no recourse to a negative review. Fortunately Amazon is a very successful, customer-driven company and they appreciate the value of all feedback, negative or otherwise.

Let’s be clear. I sent a simple $200 order, six days duration, no rush. All notes provided prior to order and no additional requests or changes made. The seller delivered NOTHING even after two time extensions and LIED about their progress. Seriously, not a valid cause for complaint!? Seriously? As a buyer, I have the right to know about this type of unprofessional conduct.

I agree with you, but I think 2 different types of cancellations are being discussed - yours where the seller wasn’t very good, didn’t do what they promised and were generally rubbish.

The second type is where the buyer ordered and didn’t give any instructions or ordered completely by mistake - it does happen.

Although these should be treated in different ways as they’re different scenarios, in both cases the seller is the one who’s penalised, whether they didn’t do what they were supposed to, or didn’t even get a chance to complete the order.

[fastcopywriter]

I do send the followup questions as well in that case but it’s one of the main reasons I don’t do extra fast deliveries anymore.

Just doesn’t make sense. You just lose half of all the time you have trying to find out what the person actually wants to order.

You can set extra fast to 2 days, 3 days, it really depends on how you work. Or you can disable it. I like extra fast because some buyers have deep pockets, and don’t mind paying extra. Extra fast can turn a $30 order into a $60 order.

[lenasemenkova]

You can set extra fast to 2 days, 3 days, it really depends on how you work. Or you can disable it. I like extra fast because some buyers have deep pockets, and don’t mind paying extra. Extra fast can turn a $30 order into a $60 order.

I’ve encountered the same problem with the 48 hours ones (not enough information to start working, not enough time for people to get back to me) and setting it to 3 days while my standard delivery time is 4 days doesn’t make sense to me. If the buyer is okay with 3 days, they most likely will be okay with 4.

I do agree though, extra fast deliveries are a good tool for pricing. If you have time and resources to do them.

[note_speak]

I just had a very similar experience. A seller didn’t deliver on time for a paid sample of an animation project where I as the buyer didn’t ask for any changes to what I initially asked for. The 3 days turned into 5 days with a lot of back and forth messaging. In the messaging, on day 3 after the deadline, the seller said that they had been doing even more work than I had asked for on the project and were cutting and exporting the file in that moment. Several hours later, I asked where the project was and they said I would get it very soon. I asked again the following day and they promised I would get it within the day several times. On the fifth day, I gave them a two hour window to deliver before cancelling and they asked for a 5 hour window instead, still insisting that they were actually finished with the project. I didn’t understand, why they needed 5 hours if the project was finished, but waited until half an hour after the 5 hour window. Then I cancelled the project.

The seller has a 4.8 star rating and is a level one seller, which sounds like a good thing to me. After having this experience, I looked closer at the reviews. Most of the hundreds of positive reviews were duplicates from the same few accounts and the few negative reviews were people describing similar situations to mine who waited out the multiple delays to receive a project apparently with lower quality than described.

I feel that it is likely that the seller frequently has such dealings and somehow still has a great rating. I don’t see any tangible negatives for the seller in this scenario other than losing one person’s business. I understand that leaving reviews in similar cases could be very bad for a seller that isn’t at fault as the buyer may or may not believe, but costumers seem to have the short end of the stick as the system stands in situations like mine.

Although buyers receive a refund from a cancellation, they still invest some time and energy in their orders and cancellations of time sensitive projects can be very detrimental for goals of projects and such as well.

Would it not be possible to make cancellations and reasons from both seller and buyer perspectives as a separate review and rating system from rating and reviewing the services themselves? This seems to me to be a solution that would be a good middle ground for the benefit of buyer and seller to be able to explain their experiences to potential costumers.