Reviews Sticking After Refunds (for or against?)

[sydneymorgan]

This latest change is just odd and unfair. Oftentimes, sellers will deal with buyers who:

A. Didn’t read the description, and once you do the work and deliver, they complain that they didn’t get what they want. So they leave a bad review.

B. Buyers who want free work, so they leave a TERRIBLE review hoping it will prompt you to cancel.

Either way, if you don’t refund them, they typically go straight to CS and if you’ve ever had a buyer stop communicating with you, leave a poor review, and go to Customer Service to tell their “sad” story of how they didn’t read your gig, didn’t communicate properly, or are just greedy, you’ll know that CS almost ALWAYS refunds them!

And now the reviews don’t even go away. It’s bad enough sellers spend their own time working on something only to have the money handed back to the buyer. Now the reviews stick?

Is anyone for this model? I always thought it was fair that buyers either left a review, or got a refund.

By the way, I almost always refund a buyer who is unsatisfied as long as they communicate with me and say what’s up. Oftentimes, though, they stop messaging or get nasty (for instance, every few weeks some buyers will come through who order my editing gig, I’ll edit for them, and then they say “oh, I wanted re-writing…”).

Just looking for opinions 🙂

P.S. I was introduced to Fiverr many months ago by a close friend who had experienced much success on here, but was leaving just as I joined because of the greedy buyers (and some greedy sellers) who ruin it.

I didn’t really believe CS would offer that many refunds considering it’s money out of their pocket, then he pointed out: once you buy a gig, the money is stuck in your account (so you have to spend it eventually, or just let it sit there). Obviously with that in mind, CS doesn’t have to worry too much about which seller it goes to, because once someone buys a gig, they’ll get their share anyways.

[diplomadon]

The review is removed only if the order is mutually cancelled

[Guest easyediting]

I thought maybe they had implemented this change to combat sellers who bribe buyers into leaving good reviews for free “extra” stuff (those who refund when an honest buyer comes along and leaves a negative review).

But if that’s the case, what does this do to help sellers when buyers go over their head to CS like SydneyMorgan was talking about?

Seems kind of…silly!

Luckily I haven’t had any buyers like this, but I’m sure they’ll come eventually (that’s not an invitation by the way!) 🙂

[seofanatics]

If Fiverr team can at least think about this issue the way sellers do, things would be better. I haven’t experienced it, but based on my recent conversations with some buyers who almost want to get everything for free, it is possible to witness it one day.
Gig cancellation cannot be mutual all the time. Sellers have many limitations and challenges on this platform, and most cheapskates are using that opportunity to extort us. If sellers agree to refund buyers (mutual or not mutual) after spending several hours working on their projects, there’s no reasons why such sellers should suffer loss and negative review.

[adsensewizard]

It does stay after a mutual cancellation. Happened to me on an order that was not possible to cancel through my end due to time limit, but we both asked support to cancel the order for us. They did, and the negative review has stood there until this day. If both wanting a cancellation is not mutual, I don’t know what is.

[kangel_phoenix]

I have to agree with the first poster. In my experience, it would seem to be better that if a Buyer received a refund, their review didn’t stay there. But from Fiverr’s point of view, in what they have told me, it is “so Buyers can share their experience of the process of dealing with a Seller”.

So yes, it certainly favours Buyers, but I suppose Fiverr just believes they are just choosing the ‘lesser’ of two evils.

My disappointment is that, at least in my experience, you can’t reply to a review that someone leaves after a refund has been issued. This would at least give Sellers the option to give their side of a negative review. But as it is, that’s not possible, which I think is possibly the worst part of the current set up.

[doruku]

Absoloutly true… I have had a disaster experience over a 75 dollar job recently where the buyerwent to CS, my gig was no doubt fully delivered without any space for misunderstandings or what so ever. I posted multiple proofs that it was delivered fully, yet CS chose to refund (lesson learned). And now i am stuck with a bad review on my gig which had over 50+ 5 star reviews because of a BLATANTLY bad intended buyer…

[amzpro]

some bad buyer gave me bad review but i did his job perfectly. maybe he is my competitor. now if I refund him then bad review goes away?

[misscrystal]

This is from 10/2015

[misscrystal]

If you ask customer support to do it.

[amzpro]

Customer Support unable to remove bad review. If I refund then they can do?

And one question. can I refund, after job completed and buyer review on it?

[emmaki]

Or is it?

those woozy lines they do on TV to show the passage of time