Report Feature for Misuse of Buyer Requests [ARCHIVED]

[audreyjohnson]

There is an update from Fiverr staff in this thread. Scroll to response by @adi_bm to read it.



I keep seeing people submitting buyer requests OFFERING services… this makes no sense and wastes my time when I am looking to find buyers. It would be great if there was a way to report those for review. They’re trying to get a leg up on the competition but it doesn’t really help anyone!

[orcatek]

I’ve started seeing them too. Not sure how it helps them. Other buyers don’t look at buyer requests, and sellers get annoyed so won’t order from them.

[sincere18]

I wonder if sometimes it’s due to a language barrier. I see that many times here in the forums people posting in sections they don’t belong in.

[fonthaunt]

This used to be a problem, but I just glanced at them and I had a hard time finding a single request actually written by a buyer. This is way out of hand now because real sellers have to wade through so much junk to find a real one to respond to that the feature is basically broken.



Fiverr, you guys went to some trouble to fix up the Buyer Request section and make it a little better a while back and many of us greatly appreciated that. Please help fix this problem. Since Fiverr staff is limited, my suggestion would be a community moderation feature where a certain number of flags would automatically remove the offer. Buyers are unlikely to flag each other because there is no motive to do so. Sellers and buyers could flag the offenders along with any buyer requests that are blatantly against ToS, such as escort requests.



If you don’t like that idea, get some volunteer moderators to help. Something, please?

[daveyboy312005]

I agree! It makes me not even want to browse the Buyer Request section!

[katabelle]

YES PLEASE! I contact Fiverr Support every WEEK and attach a .jpg to show them sellers that are advertising in the requests page. Please let this be an option!

[fonthaunt]

I’m bumping this up and when I see people mention it in other forums I’m going to encourage them to tack there votes on here. This is where Fiverr staff is more likely to see it so if everyone puts their two cents in maybe we can raise $5 to buy Fiverr’s help with this. 🙂

[Guest emanhelal]

I agree with you.

It’s clear that no one actually reviews those gig requests.

It’s getting irritating.

[katabelle]

Okay we seriously need this now. Because I saw over TEN people in 2 days advertise. Four in a ROW. Some don’t even have GIGS to sell…so I don’t understand why you are posting “I will do reviews for you $5 fast and efficient” when you don’t have a gig! There are tons.

It’s annoying. And doesn’t benefit them, I mean sellers are going to that page not buyers. Right?

[Guest ricksper]

17 of the last 30 requests in my Category were Sellers. Enough already!

[awesomesachi]

YES!!! Why don’t somebody do this? Lots and lots of people abuse that section. It’s almost not a buyer request area anymore… no wrong in calling it the buyer/seller request at the moment.

[rosych33ks]

I am absolutely dying for a report button, and actually came to the forums just now purely to find somewhere to ask for it. I knew I couldn’t possibly be the only one having this problem. Since the update (which I happen to love in most other aspects), the request section has been an absolute mess. This is more than just inconvenient for me, as quite a bit of my past work has come through replying to buyer requests, and now it’s almost not worth it to bother searching through the seller spam for genuine requests. There is also the issue of completely irrelevant posts, be they from buyer or seller.



I have two topic categories, and here’s how the first pages of each break down right now:

1. Transcription -
   
   Requests from sellers: 11
   
   Irrelevant requests from buyers (wrong topic, asking for a specific user, etc.): 9
   
   Valid buyer requests: 10
   
   
   
   Only TEN out of thirty requests are from buyers and relevant to the topic.
   
   
2. Proofreading & Editing -
   
   Requests from sellers: 23!
   
   Irrelevant requests from buyers (wrong topic, asking for a specific user, etc.): 3
   
   Valid buyer requests: 4
   
   
   
   Out of thirty requests, only FOUR are from buyers and relevant to the topic. This is absolutely unacceptable.
   
   
   
   With a report button, the Fiverr staff wouldn’t have to sift through anything but those requests that are flagged, and though I don’t agree with fonthaunt above that requests should be automatically removed after a certain amount of flags, I do think isolating the problem posts through some form of marking would narrow it down immensely for staff to look through.
   
   
   
   I’d personally like there to be multiple selectable reasons for reporting as well, such as seller requesting or wrong topic. I’d be happy to spend a little extra time reporting inappropriate requests in my topics if it would save me a few headaches in the future.
   
   
   
   Sheriff’s note: even if I understand your frustration about this (and I agree with you) you cannot post names or images containing usernames, sorry.
   
   
   
   Edit: Gigantic oops on my part! I was on such a roll typing that out that I didn’t even think of it. So sorry! I am frustrated, but I would never want to slander specific Fiverr users in that way.

[rodrigueskevin]

I think the “Request a Gig” name as well as the description “Post a request for work…” is a bit misleading for buyers with a native language other than English. To such buyers it may seem to mean that “sellers can place requests for their work”.



So a suggestion is to rename it to something else (e.g. “Buy Something”) and change the description.



Something like “BUY” on the big, green button will at least take sellers away from it 🙂



Of course, this should be in addition to the option of reporting false seller requests.

[wait4pawz]

I strongly agree that there NEEDS to be some kind of flag option for the “buyer’s request” section.

[catwriter]

Reply to @katabelle: They probably don’t even know how to create a Gig and start selling.

[fonthaunt]

While I have commented on this thread already, I’m adding a post to keep it all the way at the top where I am hoping it will get staff attention. I also recommend that everyone who agrees and hasn’t commented yet add their comments and “like” the top post in the thread.



Since many posts on this topic continue to appear in various sections of the forum, it is really important to instead drive a unified topic up and let Fiverr know how much buyers and sellers want a usable Buyer Request tool. It is one of the best ways for us to drive our own sales whether we are brand new, experiencing a slow period or just want to see the needs buyers have. Buyers need the utility to be able to add their request needs when they cannot find a matching gig or need something fast. If the thread is filled with seller advertising, the request utility is no longer functional for any of those things. Help Fiverr! 🙂

[sm1ffy]

I got fed up contacting support about this problem, it seem as though they dont care, everyday i would send them at least 10 screenshots of people abusing this section but to me it seems to be getting worse not better. Wake up Support and do something please

[adi_bm]

Hi everyone, I wanted to update that the Fiverr team is aware of this issue and working to solve it. Fiverr is working on new tools to moderate the requests better and remove requests from users who are abusing this feature.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @adi_bm: Thank you very much for adding this response. Getting information from staff at least let’s us know we are heard. Please update again when you can!

[katja1700]

ALSO the option to report illegal activity in buyers request!

Sometimes there are requests that are in the grey area, posted by buyers…
but some are even encouraging illegal activities very bluntly, with lots of sellers that have actually left an offer to do their dirty work!

I assume Fiverr being under Irish/ EU laws.

[pfpgogo]

Reply to @katja1700: I’ve said the same. It really isn’t good for the credibility of the site to allow people to openly ask for illegal services (and actually have people provide them).

[pfpgogo]

When I sent in a screenshot to support about this issue, I asked about the possibility of having selected users volunteer to moderate buyer requests the same way that users moderate the forums.

I don’t know how many requests come in each day compared to how many end up showing, but if the number that appears is comparable, it can’t possibly take that long to manually go through them rather than depending on “tools”.

If the staff doesn’t have the time to do that, why not get volunteers? I’m sure there would be users willing to do it given how many of us have complained about the problem a million times lol

Otherwise, a flagging system might help (like Craigslist) where a request will automatically get removed after receiving X number of flags from the community, though that can potentially be abused.

[jenku99]

Hello! I would like to add my two cents to this thread. 🙂

It seems to me that especially in the past few months, the ‘buyer request’ section has become a place for sellers to advertise their services. When I go to that section, as a seller, I want to actually see real buyers who are looking for someone to work on their particular project. I don’t want to see page after page of ‘I will edit anything’ or ‘I am in search of something to write’.

Should sellers even be able to post to the ‘Buyer Request’ section? I’ve not tried to do that myself so I’m not sure how that works, but I just know that when I first joined back in January, that was a great way to bid on actual projects, and now it’s become a place for desperate sellers to plea for jobs.

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[escape]

For some days I saw a level 2 seller who accused other Sellers with reference to their genuine gigs at the profile that weren’t stolen on other marketplaces or made with templates!

[katja1700]

Reply to @jenku99:
It would be difficult to ban sellers from posting, as many sellers here are also buyers.

At first I thought it was language barrier, that non-English speakers thinking 'buyer’s request" means sellers are requesting buyers to buy from them.
I don’t know, if re-naming the section into something harder to misinterpret would work, as I’ve seen more and more US/UK based sellers are posting there as well.