Jump to content

Seller ratings are not accurate


stewiejt

Recommended Posts

I’ve seen this topic covered a few times in the past and each time people jump to the defence of sellers. Recently, my experience of using Fiverr has been so bad, I’m very close to ditching it for good.

I think the main issue is that it is not possible to leave reviews of sellers if orders have been cancelled. This means that the only people leaving reviews are satisfied customers, which gives an unrealistic bias to the seller ratings and doesn’t help prevent future buyers from placing orders with sellers who are not capable of completing the job, don’t have the necessary communication skills or who have poor customer service.

I would be willing to accept a buyer rating scheme so that problematic buyers are known, as I appreciate it’s a two way thing. I’m sick of clueless sellers wasting my time.

I also don’t appreciate the fact that Fiverr staff make a big deal of refunding my admin fee, like it’s a favour. If you provide a platform for sellers, you are responsible for those who fail to deliver what they promise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What about the sellers buying from their competition, cancelling the order and leaving a bad review? Boths pros and cons needs to be taken into consideration…

So, it’s either you have your money or you leave a review. You can freely leave the seller a bad review if you want… (By choosing review over your money)

Expect that I understand your concern…

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree that this is an issue but only to a point.
Many sellers do not issue cancellations to avoid reviews and Fiverr has also taken some steps to combat the issue. For me, if I do the work then I get paid. The buyer can then review as they see fit. There are many sellers who do the same. I expect that Fiverr will continue to make changes to the site to try ensure this happens as often as possible as cancellations are not good for anyone.
Fiverr has also introduced private feedback which you can leave even after a cancellation which a seller does not see. They have not really explained what it is used for but the option is there to tell Fiverr about the experience.

To avoid the situation of cancellations as a buyer, I suggest you follow what another buyer said earlier on another thread. I also use this method.

I order $5 gigs usually for the same reason I stick my toe in the water before I get in the swimming pool - to see how warm the water is. Before I order something more expensive from the seller, I often “try them out” with a $5 gig. This is not ALWAYS the case, but I have used this technique frequently. It works for me. 🙂

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What about the sellers buying from their competition, cancelling the order and leaving a bad review? Boths pros and cons needs to be taken into consideration…

So, it’s either you have your money or you leave a review. You can freely leave the seller a bad review if you want… (By choosing review over your money)

Expect that I understand your concern…

Do you honestly think people would bother to set up separate buying accounts just to leave negative reviews? What a waste of time and it wouldn’t mean they would suddenly take more business for themselves!

This system works on other sites which you may have heard of such as Amazon and eBay. But what do they know, eh? You’re saying why bother trying to protect buyers because people might try to abuse it? It would be obvious if they did that and their accounts could be blocked or they could be given a warning.

And you expect me to lose money so I can leave a bad review?! What are you on?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’ve seen this topic covered a few times in the past and each time people jump to the defence of sellers. Recently, my experience of using Fiverr has been so bad, I’m very close to ditching it for good.

I think the main issue is that it is not possible to leave reviews of sellers if orders have been cancelled. This means that the only people leaving reviews are satisfied customers, which gives an unrealistic bias to the seller ratings and doesn’t help prevent future buyers from placing orders with sellers who are not capable of completing the job, don’t have the necessary communication skills or who have poor customer service.

I would be willing to accept a buyer rating scheme so that problematic buyers are known, as I appreciate it’s a two way thing. I’m sick of clueless sellers wasting my time.

I also don’t appreciate the fact that Fiverr staff make a big deal of refunding my admin fee, like it’s a favour. If you provide a platform for sellers, you are responsible for those who fail to deliver what they promise.

it is not possible to leave reviews of sellers if orders have been cancelled

This is not entirely correct, you can´t leave that public review on the seller’s gig page, that´s right, but you can leave a private review which only fiverr sees, neither ‘the public’ nor the seller. I strongly assume it does have some effect on the seller, probably on the ranking of their gigs and their eligibility for leveling, else fiverr hardly would waste time with that.

But yes, I understand your concern too and it´s a real pity you didn´t find the right sellers for you, but it´s a difficult problem to solve fairly for all sides.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree that this is an issue but only to a point.

Many sellers do not issue cancellations to avoid reviews and Fiverr has also taken some steps to combat the issue. For me, if I do the work then I get paid. The buyer can then review as they see fit. There are many sellers who do the same. I expect that Fiverr will continue to make changes to the site to try ensure this happens as often as possible as cancellations are not good for anyone.

Fiverr has also introduced private feedback which you can leave even after a cancellation which a seller does not see. They have not really explained what it is used for but the option is there to tell Fiverr about the experience.

To avoid the situation of cancellations as a buyer, I suggest you follow what another buyer said earlier on another thread. I also use this method.

I order $5 gigs usually for the same reason I stick my toe in the water before I get in the swimming pool - to see how warm the water is. Before I order something more expensive from the seller, I often “try them out” with a $5 gig. This is not ALWAYS the case, but I have used this technique frequently. It works for me. 🙂

I don’t want to waste my time ‘testing the water’ - I shouldn’t have to! I thought private feedback was for the seller. I didn’t realise it went to Fiverr.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it is not possible to leave reviews of sellers if orders have been cancelled

This is not entirely correct, you can´t leave that public review on the seller’s gig page, that´s right, but you can leave a private review which only fiverr sees, neither ‘the public’ nor the seller. I strongly assume it does have some effect on the seller, probably on the ranking of their gigs and their eligibility for leveling, else fiverr hardly would waste time with that.

But yes, I understand your concern too and it´s a real pity you didn´t find the right sellers for you, but it´s a difficult problem to solve fairly for all sides.

It’s not difficult. Use the same system as eBay use, buyer and seller ratings. It’s the most viable option.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It’s not difficult. Use the same system as eBay use, buyer and seller ratings. It’s the most viable option.

I can´t decide which system is being used, my choice might very well be a different system than the current one, a lot of sellers here would do some things different, if they were at the wheel, you know.

Maybe put your suggestion here: https://forum.fiverr.com/c/Fiverr-Site/Fiverr-Site-Suggestions

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you honestly think people would bother to set up separate buying accounts just to leave negative reviews? What a waste of time and it wouldn’t mean they would suddenly take more business for themselves!

This system works on other sites which you may have heard of such as Amazon and eBay. But what do they know, eh? You’re saying why bother trying to protect buyers because people might try to abuse it? It would be obvious if they did that and their accounts could be blocked or they could be given a warning.

And you expect me to lose money so I can leave a bad review?! What are you on?

Provided that - After cancellation, the money gets transffered as Fiverr credit and there is no processing fees for ordering next time using this credit. I do honestly think that it will be abused.

Order-> Cancel -> Leave a bad review -> Repeat!

It becomes worse when the CS tell the seller to work on with the buyer and Cancellation is the only option left.

And what about sellers making separate accounts, ordering from themselves, cancelling the order and leaving 5 star reviews…

To protect this, as many users told above, Private feedback is there that affects the sellers ranking positions. If you want to affect the sellers more, ask them for sending a dispute and let it expire after 2 days, it will also hurt their order completion rate. If their order completion rate drops below 70%, they lose their Level1/2/TRS status and drops to the status lower than their current one. (I know, some forum users will dislike this 😉)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you honestly think people would bother to set up separate buying accounts just to leave negative reviews? What a waste of time and it wouldn’t mean they would suddenly take more business for themselves!

This system works on other sites which you may have heard of such as Amazon and eBay. But what do they know, eh? You’re saying why bother trying to protect buyers because people might try to abuse it? It would be obvious if they did that and their accounts could be blocked or they could be given a warning.

And you expect me to lose money so I can leave a bad review?! What are you on?

For the prices that services are offered at here it is well worth trying out a few sellers for services that you use often, comparing the results and then sticking with the one you like best. In the long run it will save you from having to waste time with cancellations, let-downs etc.

Alternatively you can continue wasting money on bad services.

Yes, the feedback goes to Fiverr and the seller does not see it.

This system works on other sites which you may have heard of such as Amazon and eBay. But what do they know, eh? You’re saying why bother trying to protect buyers because people might try to abuse it? It would be obvious if they did that and their accounts could be blocked or they could be given a warning.

And you expect me to lose money so I can leave a bad review?! What are you on?

The system for buyer and seller reviews works well on eBay and Amazon. The system for buyers having to pay for the goods irrespective of the result also works. If the Fiverr system was to simply eliminate cancellations then reviews would always be left. Problem solved.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the prices that services are offered at here it is well worth trying out a few sellers for services that you use often, comparing the results and then sticking with the one you like best. In the long run it will save you from having to waste time with cancellations, let-downs etc.

Alternatively you can continue wasting money on bad services.

Yes, the feedback goes to Fiverr and the seller does not see it.

This system works on other sites which you may have heard of such as Amazon and eBay. But what do they know, eh? You’re saying why bother trying to protect buyers because people might try to abuse it? It would be obvious if they did that and their accounts could be blocked or they could be given a warning.

And you expect me to lose money so I can leave a bad review?! What are you on?

The system for buyer and seller reviews works well on eBay and Amazon. The system for buyers having to pay for the goods irrespective of the result also works. If the Fiverr system was to simply eliminate cancellations then reviews would always be left. Problem solved.

If the Fiverr system was to simply eliminate cancellations then reviews would always be left.

you make a good point. People think it’s simple to get these things right but it’s incredibly difficult to come up with a system that is fair to both buyer and seller and can’t be abused.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am one of the biggest opponents of the lack of worth of the all 5-star system (I’ve posted a whinge or two), but it’s so hard to come up with a system that’s fair to all and not open to abuse. Fiverr are at least trying with the ability of buyers to leave reviews after cancellation, and as a seller I’m glad they’re taking baby steps not an all-out change.

In the meantime, trialling sellers is the way to go. Look at it this way, if you were going to change your brand of baked beans, you’d buy one tin to see if you liked the new brand before buying the bulk-discount 6-pack, wouldn’t you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’ve seen this topic covered a few times in the past and each time people jump to the defence of sellers. Recently, my experience of using Fiverr has been so bad, I’m very close to ditching it for good.

I think the main issue is that it is not possible to leave reviews of sellers if orders have been cancelled. This means that the only people leaving reviews are satisfied customers, which gives an unrealistic bias to the seller ratings and doesn’t help prevent future buyers from placing orders with sellers who are not capable of completing the job, don’t have the necessary communication skills or who have poor customer service.

I would be willing to accept a buyer rating scheme so that problematic buyers are known, as I appreciate it’s a two way thing. I’m sick of clueless sellers wasting my time.

I also don’t appreciate the fact that Fiverr staff make a big deal of refunding my admin fee, like it’s a favour. If you provide a platform for sellers, you are responsible for those who fail to deliver what they promise.

I think the main issue is that it is not possible to leave reviews of sellers if orders have been cancelled.

This comes under the “pay to play” idea that if you have paid you get to leave a review and if you get a refund you do not, because you have your money back. And if you have your money back then you are back where you started just as if you never purchased a gig.

So you can choose either to get a refund, or leave a bad review.

There are plenty of malicious people on the internet who would delight in leaving bad reviews for sellers and getting refunds routinely. I have encountered dishonest buyers who go from one seller to another buying gigs and then demanding refunds once they have the service. Imagine if they also got to leave bad reviews for every seller they cheated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It’s not difficult. Use the same system as eBay use, buyer and seller ratings. It’s the most viable option.

The significant difference is the majority of sales on eBay are for tangible products, whereas it’s predominantly services on Fiverr. You can return a product, but you can’t return lost time.

Your suggestion, simply put, is to:

  • Take the seller’s time (essentially, a portion of their life)
  • Obtain a refund from the seller
  • Leave a bad review for the seller

Regardless of how poor the service is, no one deserves to be hit so hard.

If you have genuine concerns about the quality of work on Fiverr, you have two options:

  • Only use Top-Rated Sellers (not fair on the rest of the talented market)
  • Report all genuine instances of poor work to support for review (through private feedback)

Those that game the system deserve to be penalised. However, I’ve had my fair share of psychotic customers to know that your suggestion of open feedback isn’t feasible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...