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Please revise the Response Rate system... Losing rank from Vacation and bugs


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I have to agree several other sellers that I have seen post similar topics. The new ranking system definitely needs some changes and more attention.

I have been working on fiverr for almost 6 years (will be 6 in August), and I have been a Level 2 seller for nearly 5 of those. I have a 5 star record and almost 4000 completed orders, and I do my best to make sure that every experience with my buyers is a successful one (to the best of my abilities anyway).

Back in November of last year I suffered a severe medical issue. I was in the hospital for two months and on bed rest for another 1 and a half. The last thing on my mind was fiverr when I was trying to recover from what my doctors told me was a very life threatening situation. I obviously had to put my account on ‘vacation/pause’ due to all of this. In total, I was down for the count for nearly three months, maybe a little more. I only came back from vacation and started working again at the beginning of February. During that time fiverr pushed through these changes to the level’s system.

I had a family member helping to answer questions/inbox messages whenever they could, however it was not always possible for them to reply within 24 hours, between having their own business and life to attend to, traveling and the holidays, etc. In any case, a very few messages fell through the cracks and were not answered during the 24 hour period. Even when I returned I had many doctor’s appointments to attend to and so much going on that I still missed some of them.

I have also run into a couple of bugs, namely I have encountered a problem where some messages from buyers do not appear for a week or more in my inbox. Then they are suddenly there, and showing like I should have received them on the date they were sent. Obviously my replies were very late on those, but I have no way to prove that this is a bug, because I didn’t know the message was there at all. I have also had a client order and the order not showing up in the to-do list or orders page until the client submits a dispute. I brought this to fiverr a couple of times and it still happens with one of my fairly regular clients.

My main issues are these:
When you are on vacation you are still expected to answer all questions in under 24 hours
Why is this the case? Our accounts can be marked ‘on vacation’ for a reason, and in this case how can visitors expect to receive a response in 24 hours?

Now, I have already lost my level 2 status and I am teetering on the brink of losing my Level 1 and being demoted again come April 15th. (There is very little chance that I can get my response rate from 73% to 90% in that time…) I tried my best and worked my butt off for years to make sure I was delivering only the best I could, but because of a few missed messages/bugs in the system, I’m now being reduced to the beginning again.

My second issue is this:
There is no lenience built into the ‘levels’.
If Level 2 requires 90% response rate… why doesn’t Level 1 require something less? Something more ‘reasonable’?

I would be less upset if I was able to recover at Level 1 for a short while. Why is the required response rate for Level 1 not something like 75 or 80%? Ever since my gigs were on vacation, i haven’t exactly had a lot of questions and orders from new clients. Those very few missed messages are costing me dearly when it comes to ratings. My current clients are repeat buyers and none of their conversations help raise my rating. I feel as though I am still being penalized for questions that were missed almost 60 days ago

I didn’t mind the response rate before these awful updates. It was a good way for me to keep track of my performance and do better… but then they made it a mandatory watch. Something I had to 100% keep an eye on all the time, even when I was unable to even get to a computer or use my phone due to medical issues.

Finally. To take the attention off of the Response rate for a moment and to draw attention to the ‘Orders Completed’ ranking. I know this subject has been receiving a lot of discussion on here.

After I came back I obviously have not had a large amount of orders, or at least nearly not as large as I had before. I had a few very old orders that had never been completed by clients (no information was ever sent, the gig was never officially 'started). One of those clients suddenly came back and wanted to cancel that old order. She requested it and even listed her reason as ‘I ordered by mistake’… so I accepted; And promptly watched my Order Completed rating fall from 100% down to 95%. A few days later I had another, fresh order that did the same - 93%. Luckily some of my repeat buyers are still with me and I don’t think this will drop any further.

Why would canceled orders that are not even ‘ready to go’ count against a completed rating? Especially if the buyer or seller lists it as the buyer’s mistake. (No information give, asking for things not offered, ordered by mistake, etc…)

I think that covers most of my main points for now. I just thought I would throw my own voice into the ring to be heard.

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Yes, I agree with you on both accounts: response rate and order cancellation effect.
No matter who’s fault it is (or not) the sellers always pay the highest price in terms of massive drop in rating, and demotion. When your ratings drop, it drops real fast, but it takes such a long time to rise again. How about giving us the opportunity to review the buyers with unreasonable requests that bullies sellers…?

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I have to agree several other sellers that I have seen post similar topics. The new ranking system definitely needs some changes and more attention.

I have been working on fiverr for almost 6 years (will be 6 in August), and I have been a Level 2 seller for nearly 5 of those. I have a 5 star record and almost 4000 completed orders, and I do my best to make sure that every experience with my buyers is a successful one (to the best of my abilities anyway).

Back in November of last year I suffered a severe medical issue. I was in the hospital for two months and on bed rest for another 1 and a half. The last thing on my mind was fiverr when I was trying to recover from what my doctors told me was a very life threatening situation. I obviously had to put my account on ‘vacation/pause’ due to all of this. In total, I was down for the count for nearly three months, maybe a little more. I only came back from vacation and started working again at the beginning of February. During that time fiverr pushed through these changes to the level’s system.

I had a family member helping to answer questions/inbox messages whenever they could, however it was not always possible for them to reply within 24 hours, between having their own business and life to attend to, traveling and the holidays, etc. In any case, a very few messages fell through the cracks and were not answered during the 24 hour period. Even when I returned I had many doctor’s appointments to attend to and so much going on that I still missed some of them.

I have also run into a couple of bugs, namely I have encountered a problem where some messages from buyers do not appear for a week or more in my inbox. Then they are suddenly there, and showing like I should have received them on the date they were sent. Obviously my replies were very late on those, but I have no way to prove that this is a bug, because I didn’t know the message was there at all. I have also had a client order and the order not showing up in the to-do list or orders page until the client submits a dispute. I brought this to fiverr a couple of times and it still happens with one of my fairly regular clients.

My main issues are these:

When you are on vacation you are still expected to answer all questions in under 24 hours

Why is this the case? Our accounts can be marked ‘on vacation’ for a reason, and in this case how can visitors expect to receive a response in 24 hours?

Now, I have already lost my level 2 status and I am teetering on the brink of losing my Level 1 and being demoted again come April 15th. (There is very little chance that I can get my response rate from 73% to 90% in that time…) I tried my best and worked my butt off for years to make sure I was delivering only the best I could, but because of a few missed messages/bugs in the system, I’m now being reduced to the beginning again.

My second issue is this:

There is no lenience built into the ‘levels’.

If Level 2 requires 90% response rate… why doesn’t Level 1 require something less? Something more ‘reasonable’?

I would be less upset if I was able to recover at Level 1 for a short while. Why is the required response rate for Level 1 not something like 75 or 80%? Ever since my gigs were on vacation, i haven’t exactly had a lot of questions and orders from new clients. Those very few missed messages are costing me dearly when it comes to ratings. My current clients are repeat buyers and none of their conversations help raise my rating. I feel as though I am still being penalized for questions that were missed almost 60 days ago

I didn’t mind the response rate before these awful updates. It was a good way for me to keep track of my performance and do better… but then they made it a mandatory watch. Something I had to 100% keep an eye on all the time, even when I was unable to even get to a computer or use my phone due to medical issues.

Finally. To take the attention off of the Response rate for a moment and to draw attention to the ‘Orders Completed’ ranking. I know this subject has been receiving a lot of discussion on here.

After I came back I obviously have not had a large amount of orders, or at least nearly not as large as I had before. I had a few very old orders that had never been completed by clients (no information was ever sent, the gig was never officially 'started). One of those clients suddenly came back and wanted to cancel that old order. She requested it and even listed her reason as ‘I ordered by mistake’… so I accepted; And promptly watched my Order Completed rating fall from 100% down to 95%. A few days later I had another, fresh order that did the same - 93%. Luckily some of my repeat buyers are still with me and I don’t think this will drop any further.

Why would canceled orders that are not even ‘ready to go’ count against a completed rating? Especially if the buyer or seller lists it as the buyer’s mistake. (No information give, asking for things not offered, ordered by mistake, etc…)

I think that covers most of my main points for now. I just thought I would throw my own voice into the ring to be heard.

When you are on vacation you are still expected to answer all questions in under 24 hours

You are wrong on this point.

Only the first message sent buy a potential buyer counts for the response rate.

When you are on vacation a new potential buyer can’t send you messages. Only your previous contacts can send you messages and these messages do not count for the response rate.

(I use the vacation mode 10 days/month and I never receive a message from a new contact during this period).

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When you are on vacation you are still expected to answer all questions in under 24 hours

You are wrong on this point.

Only the first message sent buy a potential buyer counts for the response rate.

When you are on vacation a new potential buyer can’t send you messages. Only your previous contacts can send you messages and these messages do not count for the response rate.

(I use the vacation mode 10 days/month and I never receive a message from a new contact during this period).

Thank you @carineb I knew for sure no one else could contact me when I was in vacation mode and I knew the previous contacts could, but I was not sure if lapsed messages had to be replied to within the 24-hour time limit.

Also, it seems a lot of sellers either misunderstand or do not know the 24-hour rule when it comes to response rate. Some think they have to sleep :sleeping_bed:

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I have to agree several other sellers that I have seen post similar topics. The new ranking system definitely needs some changes and more attention.

I have been working on fiverr for almost 6 years (will be 6 in August), and I have been a Level 2 seller for nearly 5 of those. I have a 5 star record and almost 4000 completed orders, and I do my best to make sure that every experience with my buyers is a successful one (to the best of my abilities anyway).

Back in November of last year I suffered a severe medical issue. I was in the hospital for two months and on bed rest for another 1 and a half. The last thing on my mind was fiverr when I was trying to recover from what my doctors told me was a very life threatening situation. I obviously had to put my account on ‘vacation/pause’ due to all of this. In total, I was down for the count for nearly three months, maybe a little more. I only came back from vacation and started working again at the beginning of February. During that time fiverr pushed through these changes to the level’s system.

I had a family member helping to answer questions/inbox messages whenever they could, however it was not always possible for them to reply within 24 hours, between having their own business and life to attend to, traveling and the holidays, etc. In any case, a very few messages fell through the cracks and were not answered during the 24 hour period. Even when I returned I had many doctor’s appointments to attend to and so much going on that I still missed some of them.

I have also run into a couple of bugs, namely I have encountered a problem where some messages from buyers do not appear for a week or more in my inbox. Then they are suddenly there, and showing like I should have received them on the date they were sent. Obviously my replies were very late on those, but I have no way to prove that this is a bug, because I didn’t know the message was there at all. I have also had a client order and the order not showing up in the to-do list or orders page until the client submits a dispute. I brought this to fiverr a couple of times and it still happens with one of my fairly regular clients.

My main issues are these:

When you are on vacation you are still expected to answer all questions in under 24 hours

Why is this the case? Our accounts can be marked ‘on vacation’ for a reason, and in this case how can visitors expect to receive a response in 24 hours?

Now, I have already lost my level 2 status and I am teetering on the brink of losing my Level 1 and being demoted again come April 15th. (There is very little chance that I can get my response rate from 73% to 90% in that time…) I tried my best and worked my butt off for years to make sure I was delivering only the best I could, but because of a few missed messages/bugs in the system, I’m now being reduced to the beginning again.

My second issue is this:

There is no lenience built into the ‘levels’.

If Level 2 requires 90% response rate… why doesn’t Level 1 require something less? Something more ‘reasonable’?

I would be less upset if I was able to recover at Level 1 for a short while. Why is the required response rate for Level 1 not something like 75 or 80%? Ever since my gigs were on vacation, i haven’t exactly had a lot of questions and orders from new clients. Those very few missed messages are costing me dearly when it comes to ratings. My current clients are repeat buyers and none of their conversations help raise my rating. I feel as though I am still being penalized for questions that were missed almost 60 days ago

I didn’t mind the response rate before these awful updates. It was a good way for me to keep track of my performance and do better… but then they made it a mandatory watch. Something I had to 100% keep an eye on all the time, even when I was unable to even get to a computer or use my phone due to medical issues.

Finally. To take the attention off of the Response rate for a moment and to draw attention to the ‘Orders Completed’ ranking. I know this subject has been receiving a lot of discussion on here.

After I came back I obviously have not had a large amount of orders, or at least nearly not as large as I had before. I had a few very old orders that had never been completed by clients (no information was ever sent, the gig was never officially 'started). One of those clients suddenly came back and wanted to cancel that old order. She requested it and even listed her reason as ‘I ordered by mistake’… so I accepted; And promptly watched my Order Completed rating fall from 100% down to 95%. A few days later I had another, fresh order that did the same - 93%. Luckily some of my repeat buyers are still with me and I don’t think this will drop any further.

Why would canceled orders that are not even ‘ready to go’ count against a completed rating? Especially if the buyer or seller lists it as the buyer’s mistake. (No information give, asking for things not offered, ordered by mistake, etc…)

I think that covers most of my main points for now. I just thought I would throw my own voice into the ring to be heard.

I am sorry to hear of your health issues and I am also glad you are on the mend and back at work. The “Orders Completed” ranking is the one to me that is most unfair. We sellers have no control over whether or not a buyer orders by mistake.

Finally. To take the attention off of the Response rate for a moment and to draw attention to the ‘Orders Completed’ ranking. I know this subject has been receiving a lot of discussion on here.

I have also run into a couple of bugs, namely I have encountered a problem where some messages from buyers do not appear for a week or more in my inbox.

Have you contacted CS about this? I have noticed sellers here say they have gotten these type of issues cleared up and their rates corrected.

Good luck with turning things around.

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When you are on vacation you are still expected to answer all questions in under 24 hours

You are wrong on this point.

Only the first message sent buy a potential buyer counts for the response rate.

When you are on vacation a new potential buyer can’t send you messages. Only your previous contacts can send you messages and these messages do not count for the response rate.

(I use the vacation mode 10 days/month and I never receive a message from a new contact during this period).

Not entirely true.

If a client places a direct order without messaging, which is completed successfully, they can contact you by clicking “send seller a message”. Then, the mandatory 24 hour timer launches.

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Not entirely true.

If a client places a direct order without messaging, which is completed successfully, they can contact you by clicking “send seller a message”. Then, the mandatory 24 hour timer launches.

That’s happened to me too!

The client was able to bypass Vacation Mode and contact me because I had completed an order for them. However, as all prior messaging took place in the order thread, this is the first one sent to my ‘Messages’ Inbox hence it affected my response rate when I didn’t reply by 24 hours thinking I was safe as I had already communicated with this client previously!

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When you are on vacation you are still expected to answer all questions in under 24 hours

You are wrong on this point.

Only the first message sent buy a potential buyer counts for the response rate.

When you are on vacation a new potential buyer can’t send you messages. Only your previous contacts can send you messages and these messages do not count for the response rate.

(I use the vacation mode 10 days/month and I never receive a message from a new contact during this period).

good idea for your contribution

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So not only could they contact you, they could place an order without talking to you? :thinking:

Buyers (both old and new) cannot place orders whilst a seller has vacation mode turned on.

I think what @mrproofreading meant was that the buyer placed an order - when he did NOT have vacation mode on - without sending him a message first (pretty common, if the gig description is clear enough most people would go ahead and purchase and then proceed to fill in the requirements on the order thread).

So seller delivers, order completed, all good, @mrproofreading goes on vacation, but buyer suddenly has a question and sends him a message - which goes through since Fiverr recognises them as a previous buyer. However this message becomes the ‘first’ message from this buyer to arrive in the seller’s Messages inbox (which is entirely separate from the previous order thread), thereby triggering the 24 hour timer.

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