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Questions on how to handle unusual buyer experiences

Your Fiverr Experience Conversations
#1

Hello, I’ve recently had an unusual experience with a buyer and I’m curious how other sellers might handle a similar situation.

A buyer recently ordered a gig where I offer to write lyrics and a melody for a song. This includes a rough recording of a singing performance to show how the words are meant to be sung over the music that they send me. I offer two revisions with this service for a 4 day deadline. Everything went well up until when I delivered my first version of work. The buyer seemed very happy with my work but kept waiting until 7-12 hours before the deadline would expire and then would give me an excuse to have me extend the gig. This happened 3 times and the gig was extended by 14 days without a revision. They kept asking me to keep waiting for them to record the song in case they make changes to it and then they would make the revisions but I couldn’t get a date or number of days that they would commit to. At this point our communication broke down and they kept misquoting past messages which I kept correcting them respectively. I ended up canceling the gig because they seemed very displeased that the gig was going to end without them giving me the revisions. Am I wrong to think they were taking advantage of how Fiverr works? The deadlines are all clearly stated in all my gigs so there was no surprise.

#2

You will get clients like that from time to time but you should never cancel it. I’m sure now they are using your work anyway and you stayed unpaid.

In situations where clients asking for a revision without actual revision but just to keep an order open you can redeliver your files with a message that it’s against fiverr rules to keep an order open requesting a revision without an actual request but they shouldn’t worry and that even if the order will be marked as a complete you are still happy to provide x amount revisions that are included in their order anyway within a reasonable timeframe (and here you can put what is a reasonable timeframe for you either it’s one week or 3 months)

People usually calm down after they hear that they still can ask you for a revision they paid for and most of them actually never come back.

5 Likes
#3

Ok this is kinda what I thought too. I just would rather eat the time I spent than get a nasty review. Should I add to my Fiverr gigs that deadline extension are not allowed or are limited to a single extension based on reasonable request? What are your thoughts on buyers asking for an extension to give them time for all revisions? It kinda feels like they are just wasting the sellers time from my point of view.

#4

My thoughts are exactly in a message above :wink: I’m not tolerating that but it’s all about communication and finding right words.

I also think there is no point to add to your gig description because most of buyers actually don’t even read it.

#5

It’s usually always a scam. It is you who has to request that they agree to extend the delivery time. This makes it look like you are not delivering their order and gives the leverage if they complain about you to CS.

1 Like
#7

Gotcha, ok next time I’m in a situation like this I’ll try to just explain that it’s against fiverrs terms of service to keep an order open for revisions without offering anything to be revised. Should I report their profile?

#8

Welcome to the forum, David, a pity your first post was about a bad experience like that.

Or a reseller who wants more time to wait for a reply from their customer. Or both.

Deadline extensions via the “Request modification/revision” button without giving any actual modification instructions just to “buy time” already are an abuse of that button/feature.
Of course, you can add that, although you’ll quickly find you’ll run out of space to describe what your gig even is about if you keep adding things that are already a given or common sense :wink: and I doubt the people who do these things will be kept from it y reading that, if they read it in the first place. However, you can try if you got the space.

I might accept it if seems reasonable/I already know the buyer and I’m sure they’ll “come through” in the end. If I thought it’s just stalling/scamming, I’d just keep delivering until they’d finally put in an actual revision request or would give up that silly game.

I don’t think support will do much as you let that buyer kind of bully you into a cancellation (obviously, Fiverr isn’t fond of cancellations, as they’ll lose their % too), it was your decision to accept the cancellation to not potentially risk a bad review.
However, if you’re sure it was the buyer’s intention to scam you out of your payment for work delivered in the first place, it might do good reporting it as they might check other orders in their account and if they find that’s a pattern, or there are already complaints of that kind, they might do something like warn or suspend the buyer, depending. But just based on your case, I don’t think anything would happen.

#9

Yes I see I’ve also been handling delivery wrong as well. I didn’t realize I was suppose to deliver the first draft and let them press the revision button to request a revision. It seems even more like a scam knowing how nasty the buyer got when I delivered the work

#10

Ah no, respectively, it depends on what you mean with draft. You may only deliver the finished product. If they have revision requests, they can then press the button, but what you deliver needs to be the end product.
Some people do send drafts, depending on category and personal work flow but they don’t, or shouldn’t, use the delivery button for that, it can get you a warning or worse if you deliver an incomplete work.
If you want to show a client a draft of an unfinished product, you can do that but not via the delivery button.

1 Like
#11

I would be cautious about making a rule based on one experience. Sure, you don’t want this type of thing to happen often but if your rule is going to put people off then be careful.

The thing is, there isn’t really any good reason for them to request an extension. They should have sent all details at the beginning and then abide by the Fiverr method of asking for revisions where allowed.

I think perhaps the issue here is that you delivered without using the delivery button? If you use the button then they can’t request additional time I think.
They can request revisions but to do so, they need to send the info - in the same way sellers cannot send blank deliveries to stop the clock, buyers aren’t allowed send “blank” revision requests. If they do, then redeliver and explain why. Three days are enough to assess the song or whatever. Either that or they are prioritizing something else which is nothing to do with you and shouldn’t be your issue to handle.

PS. I would suggest you don’t use the word draft when delivering as that suggests that you want revisions.

3 Likes
#12

And I’d suggest following Eoin’s suggestion ^^. Using the word “draft” when delivering completed work sounds about as much as handing buyers Pandora’s box as “Unlimited Revisions”.

All this may sound nitpicky, but some buyers misunderstand, some buyers are mean, or might include “hiccups” in their review and deduct stars even if they were happy with the final outcome, sometimes support also misunderstands, and all in all, it’s good to avoid things like that, even if you can clear it up in the end, it may cost you a lot of time and nerves.

You’ll get the hang of it all soon, though, it just can seem a lot in the beginning :slight_smile: