Seller not messaging me on the order page? Wants to only DM

[pinksamuraiii]

Help… I need some advice here. I’m still fairly new. I have a seller who keeps trying to get me to message them off of the actual order page. I bought a gig from them after chatting for a while and agreeing on a project, but instead of responding and replying to messages on the actual order page, they keep insisting to get me to DM them from the conversation page. Is this something I should be worried about? Is this a red flag? It feels odd that they don’t want to have a conversation on the order page, and he keeps redirecting it off of there. He says he doesn’t want to chat on the order page? This is the first time I’ve run into this. Have any of you buyers gone through the same thing here with any sellers?

[arnukas]

That is a bit odd that a seller wants to communicate on Fiverr Inbox. It often happens on the buyers’ side.

But I do think the seller is either new or they are annoyed by how Order Page works, so instead of refreshing the page to receive a message, they use Inbox that do not require a page refresh every new message. Order Page is a very outdated system.

Other than that, I do not have any ideas in mind why they want to use Inbox rather than the Order Page.

[miiila]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Unless it’s actual chatting, like smalltalk, I’d say it’s not necessarily a red flag but unusual if they actively try to redirect you to the inbox if you purposely choose the order page.

But it doesn’t have to be “for nefarious reasons”. For instance, if you work with someone on several orders or over a longer time (the seller might think you will be), it can be handy to have any “chats” in the same place vs strewn about several order pages in case you need to look up info you already have somewhere and don’t want to ask your customer again. It can become bothersome/time-consuming, especially once you have dozens of orders with the same customer, and dozens, or hundreds of customers.
Also, it can be annoying to “have to monitor two conversation strings”.
Once the order is completed, that conversation string is at a dead end, so if there’s a conversation on the order page that needs continuation, it has to move to the inbox, so it might be more convenient to have it there in the first place.

I’d guess that some sellers prefer everything on the order page, others prefer the inbox, others a mix. I prefer the inbox for above reason, as I have many return/regular customers, and for me, typically, it’s more convenient to have any info in the same easily scrollable place, than to try and remember in which order’s conversation the customer may have mentioned what, or to click through several or more orders, but still will typically reply wherever the customer messages, and wouldn’t actively try to get them to chat in the one or other spot.
If a customer wants to keep the conversation on the order page, that’s perfectly fine of course, and for some customers and sellers too, I’m sure it makes more sense to keep conversations and info separate by order.

Fiverr support in any case has access to both order page and inbox and can check both if needed, if that’s what’s worrying you. Although if the seller doesn’t know that and thinks inbox messages are completely private, that might be also a reason to steer towards the inbox, and that’s not a good sign then probably.

If you’re uncomfortable chatting via inbox, I’d simply say so in a nice way, like “Could we stick to the order page, I’d like to keep all info related to this order there?” or something.

[benedictrm]

I must say I find it annoying how the conversation gets split between before/during/after order. There is a sense that things said before order may no longer seem relevant if they are not in the actual conversation.

It may be completely innocent. If it worries you, might be worth checking with CS as it is an interesting Q.

If you do get an answer on this, can you let us know please.

🙂

[martina_esse]

Doesn’t look suspicious to me, there’s really nothing that could harm you in doing that. Having the conversations split is really annoying, and I find myself going back and forth all the time. So it’s easier to keep everything in one place. This is something I’d really like fiverr to change!

[marinapomorac]

I work in design section and inbox has option to attach image from clipboard while order messaging system doesn’t allow that “copy paste” image in to text box. I have to save the file name it and then upload it.
This is taking too much of my time.
For example my Word cloud art service.
Client says: Can you make this word in purple
I make it in purple, take screenshot (or snip with snipping tool) and paste it in inbox message and click send (no need to add any words)
Client says: Can it be different purple?

• same as before.

If I would to do this in order communication I would have to export each change as jpg, name it, then upload it and also type something…to be able to send it.

So for fast changing and back and forward designing revisions I prefer inbox conversation.

I have couple of clients where we do everything in inbox and then in order I just make final delivery.

So it depends on what is the service and what kind of data has to be transferred.

Also something interesting, as a buyer in order page I can paste image from clipboard directly, but sellers can’t.

[english_voice]

Apart from being a bit annoying I wouldn’t say it’s anything to worry about.

At the end of the day, if anything does go wrong with the order, all your conversations - wherever they took place on Fiverr - are accessible by you, the seller and customer support.