Fiverr Forum

Punished because of bad buyer

#1

Very frustrated with Fiverr.

I had a buyer purchase a video intro from me. I made a perfect video intro for the client that was exactly in line with the gig description. After I delivered the final product, the buyer came back with unreasonable demands.

He wanted me to license different music and extend the intro video from 7 seconds to 40 seconds.

This would have resulted in a lot of additional work + I would have to pay to license additional music. I would, in essence, lose money on the order.

So I requested that the order be canceled by mutual consent, and it was. The buyer got a free intro, and I got ripped off once again. That happens on Fiverr, fortunately, it is the exception, not the rule.

But this time, not only did I get ripped off, Fiverr then demoted my account because of an incomplete order.

Seriously Fiverr? I get ripped off and you then add insult to injury by demoting my account because of a bad buyer?

The point is, the Fiverr Level system is SERIOUSLY BROKEN when sellers who have over 300 five star ratings get demoted because or 1 or 2 bad apples.

This has been happening for a long time and I cannot fathom why Fiverr keeps turning a blind eye to the situation.

I have written to their customer support people - but from experience - they always side with the buyers over the sellers.

So now your turn to chime in - have you been demoted because of a bad buyer? How can Fiverr fix their level system to ensure they are not penalizing dedicated and honest sellers?

#2

No, I have not.

#3

It’s very easy to harm good sellers and make them leave the platform for other competitors, what Fiverr authorities are not seeing is that they are axing their own feet in this way.

Bad sellers can easily kill competition by posing as buyers and destroying profiles of good sellers, when they will be only option available then they can serve poop to the buyers and this will fend off the good buyers.

Finally Fiverr will have neither good buyers nor good sellers, but a big good void.

#4

You are 100% correct - and I just got another insulting message from “Fiverr customer support” stating that there is nothing they can do about this.

This is ridiculous - they can easily take a few minutes to verify my claim and restore my level to its previous standing.

But they care so little about their sellers that they won’t even take that simple step.

What a complete joke. I am going to try to write to their senior managers and let them know how badly sellers are being treated on their platform.

#5

You could have said that was not what the order was for and was not part of the gig.

Or you could have sent a custom order for the additional work.

Why did you cancel?

You could have sent a message such as this:

I would be glad to do further work on it as you are now asking for. I will send an offer to you for this extra work you have chosen to request.

The extra 33 seconds of an extension on the video will be $40.
Licensing additional music will be $30, for a total of $70.
This is a discount.

Please let me know promptly. If I don’t hear from you soon this will be the conclusion of all offers.

#6

In hindsight, you are correct - but then the buyer would have simply left me a bad review and I thought that would hurt me more than the cancellation.

But my point is - Fiverr needs to start supporting its sellers. The support team shows zero consideration for sellers - all they do is send a canned response without looking at the specifics of the complaint.

There is no valid reason for them to destroy my selling level because of one bad apple. It’s a big slap in the face. When I think of how hard I’ve worked for them - it just makes me furious.

#7

You said you got demoted because of an incomplete order. Didn’t you deliver the completed order?

#8

Yes I did - that’s the scam - they get the completed order, then make all these unreasonable demands to get the work done for free.

And then we get punished by Fiverr - just disgusting.

If Fiverr cared for their sellers, they would be reading this thread and dealing with the issue - instead, they send you a canned answer claiming they cannot restore my level status - which is complete BS and they know it.

#9

I had the same thing happen and refused to cancel. I even refused when customer support offered to reimburse me if I cancelled but I wanted him to pay for his order so I refused to cancel and got a bad review for it. It was how I chose to handle it.

I will not allow someone to get free work from me.

#10

This doesn’t make sense. If you got demote for completion rate it is because you had enough cancellations to drop below the 90% mark.

Sellers need to start supporting themselves even more. I do empathize about what happens with Support, but sellers own their own businesses on Fiverr. Fiverr is pretty much a landlord that advertises the real estate in general and takes a commission for it. The seller is responsible for the majority of the business itself. I see this over and over here. I think sometimes people get into Fiverr without really thinking of it as just a platform. They expect Fiverr to behave like a boss or a defense attorney.

I wish you the best of luck in taking the steps to bring your level back up by completing as many orders as you can. It isn’t easy and I’m not saying that it is. I just don’t put full responsiblity on Fiverr.

#11

We all have those occasional buyers. If we are doing enough on the platform, it doesn’t hurt us. It’s a problem if we do a few orders ever month or two.

Also note: They have tens of thousands of sellers, ranging from amazing to “what the heck”. Many of their overall policies are because anybody can become a seller, and too many of those sellers aren’t doing a great job.

Longer term that helps the ones who do a great job, but it’s still a pain at points.

Since they tell us in advance about the rules, we have to deal with them. If my clients request additional work, I send them a “Here’s the gig extras for your request.”

If they don’t accept the request, sellers need to cancel the order, and it will effect our stats, but it happens to everybody, so we are all in the same boat.

One other factor: If someone is demoted, then you temporarily are competing with people at a lower level. It’s like a hockey player at the highest level going down and playing short term on a minor league team… I’ve seen it be a big win on occasion.

#12

Often when people ask for extras, I simply say that I don’t know how to do what they’re asking. If I did, it would be part of my gig. Usually they go away.

#13

The fact that this thread hasn’t been deleted shows that a few Fiverr employees still have a shread of human decency. Most support staff simply fire off canned responses without looking at the details specific cases. Zero professionalism.

Taking my business, and Fiverr regulars, over to UpWork. I’ve given them ample opportunity to correct this bad decision - still they close their eyes and give me lame excuses via scripted responses. Even the president of the company closes his eyes to this abuse of long time sellers who have been with him since the early days.

Pathetic.

#14

Staff likely hasn’t seen this thread. If they have, they probably wouldn’t delete it since the OP didn’t break the forum rules.

This, on the other hand, violates ToS. You are always free to go work on another platform but talking about telling your buyers to purchase from you off-Fiverr takes some gall.

No one owes you anything. It was your business to protect. Calling any staff member or user “pathetic” is against the forum rules. Good luck on Upwork or wherever, I hope you show more “human decency” there.

#15

OP has altered the course of the thread in a way that is a violation of the forum rules. Closed.