Fiverr Forum

Some sellers hire other sellers. Is it ethical?

#1

When a seller (especially those whom I talking about) gets a lot of jobs, sometimes, he can’t do the works by himself and then he hires other sellers, especially newer one to get the job done with a cheaper rate. Is it ethical?
I think it is not ethical at all. Because-

  1. Buyers spending a high amount of money for their valuable job to be done by a skilled and high rated seller.- Here buyers are depriving of.
  2. Newe sellers may get those job if those sellers take jobs limited to their own capacity.- Here newer sellers are depriving of.

These are from my practical experiences. You can differ with me as you experienced something different.

#2

Outsourcing work is one of the ways that Fiverr started. Most of the first buyers on Fiverr were purchasing from Fiverr sellers to resell the work. To this day that is true, but now it is common for established sellers to purchase from new/inexpensive sellers and resell it. It isn’t against the Fiverr terms and it never would be because new sellers get their first jobs from this sort of thing.

Since sellers get paid the same and lose rights to the work no matter who buys it, I can’t imagine why it would be a problem. If you don’t prefer it, you can put a sentence in your gigs that you prefer not to sell to resellers.

I don’t see anyone being deprived of anything. The skilled seller who does the work gets paid the fee they ask for. If the buyer can make a profit, that’s personal. You can charge extra for commercial rights, too, if you wish.

I can’t understand you here. Sellers hiring other sellers is good for new and experienced sellers.

#3

So, why is the first buyer giving you a huge amount where he could his work done by a newer seller with low price? What the buyer supposed to get from you with a good price? Why is he not going to hire a seller with a low price for the same job? Is he spending a big amount only for getting his job done?
Here I meant that a buyer is hiring a seller, not a middleman. It’s my own opinion.
Thanks for your nice diagnosis.

#4

Doing business means “earning money”. Focusing in ethics is definetly not the same. It never was. And it will never be. Sorry for killing your illusions. This is how this world works.

#5

I am agree with your opinion.

#6

Freedom of choice - the buyer is entitled to hire whoever they want to hire, whether they’re acting as a middleman or not.

A number of buyers purchase services on-Fiverr and sell at a profit off-Fiverr.

#7

Okay, I’m not sure if I understood this – I’m not sure what you mean by “are depriving of”. I assume you find it unethical for the sellers (who has lot of jobs) to outsource from other sellers (usually those cheaper ones).

You are free to feel that way but that’s how a lot of things have been playing out – not only in Fiverr but also in other businesses in the world. Although it’s a bit different from what we’re discussing here, a lot of big brands re-package things they purchased way cheaper somewhere else or they outsource labor where it’s cheaper.

Most likely the original buyer (not the middleman seller you mean) wanted to purchase from someone who is more established (more reviews, level seller, etc.)

Unfair? Maybe, everyone will have their own opinion regarding that. I personally think it’s great that someone purchased from new sellers, that way they can build up their brand too and later on adjust their pricing to that similar of the originally established ones.

Do note even new sellers or anyone in general can choose to not sell “cheap” so the chances of them getting outsourced are lesser, but to build up your company/brand, you’ve got to start somewhere – if that means starting out with cheaper prices so be it. That’s business and you’ve got to roll with it.

I don’t think so. Maybe, but it’s more likely that the buyer would still look for someone as established as the first one he was originally supposed to purchase from (assuming the first established seller refuses to take the job because he has too many orders at hand)

If you don’t want someone to outsource from you or you feel that it is unethical then you have the right to that choice.

#8

And the seller they buy from is still responsible for the end result. If that seller outsources work to seller2, and the buyer hates what they receive, it’s up to the first seller to find someone else, do the work themselves, or refund the buyer.

Because that particular seller with a low price doesn’t know how to market their service and make a sale? Being able to sell is also a skill. If the middleman knows how to sell, and the seller with a low price doesn’t, buyers will keep buying from the middleman. And it’s good for the seller with a low price, too, because, with the middleman’s help, they will also be able to earn some money.

#9

I agree with @catwriter 100%.
Marketing is a skill and I’m pretty sure most sellers here would be happy to do white label work for others who can sell their gigs to the end user.

If you don’t like it then put it in your gig description and resellers won’t order from you.

#10

I totally agree with you. New sellers could get those jobs and show their skills to go further. If you do not know how to do the particular job or don’t have that much time then shouldn’t take the job.

#11

Ethics aside, it comes down to your personal preference of doing projects. I personally prefer direct communication with the end client (after a decade of office job I’m severely allergic to middlemen who get in the way of that) and I’m happy most of my clients on fiverr are small businesses so the end client is the person who buys the gig most of the time.

I’ve been approached by resellers on here once or twice and it’s not like they are sneaky about it. They let you know right away and you can politely decline if it irks you in some way.

I have people in my inbox demanding I resell my projects to them. So it must be quite popular.

#12

I’ve got a lot of opinions from experienced forum members and also I’ve learned a lot. One general answer to some comments that I’ll never refuse any offer, if I’m offering the service, either it comes from buyer or seller.
My exact point was “Do the buyer knows or does he expect that you are (middleman) doing the high priced job by others with much lower payment (of course, it doesn’t matter to the end seller), to whom he (First buyer) is not offering the job for various reasons i,e new, do not have more reviews etc. ?”
If it does,t matter to the buyer, It is clear to me.
Thanks for your valuable comments.

#13

I’ve been working with plenty of resellers as a translator, my first order came from a reseller, so I guess you could say they got my business going. I’ve started working on Fiverr in July last year and for the most part, pretty much all my customers were resellers. The issue, in my opinion, is just that resellers don’t usually leave reviews (maybe just for the first order and that’s it) and they’ve always been very pushy when it comes to the delivery time and money. That’s the reason why I have been working way too much for way too little money. Maybe it was just me getting in touch with the wrong resellers but when it comes to ethics, I think it’s not really fair to make others do your job (especially if you are not actually able to do it yourself, I’ve met plenty of reselling translators who don’t even speak the languages they claim to translate so well) and get the good reviews for work you haven’t done yourself. If you actually have the skills to do the job but you have just too many orders, then at least you help keep newer sellers busy by letting them do the work.

#14

Demands, in this context, would infuriate me. :laughing:

I don’t outsourcing think is unethical, I’d just choose not to work with them. I’d also take a moment to reevaluate my services and their cost/value proposition.

I’m still charging far less than I want to be, but I’m still a new seller :slight_smile:

#15

I don’t outsourcing think is unethical, I’d just choose not to work with them.

Exactly. It’s the matter of choice. I don’t know how many people are really involved in the approval process, I don’t know how good the reseller really is in managing the said process, etc.

#16

I agree with you. I think its the actual scenario.

#17

Reselling happens for higher-priced services too, just not always on Fiverr.

About 70% of all the work I do is for marketing agencies - they have a client who needs content, they then outsource that work to me, I write it, get a good fee, and send it back to the agency.

I know that agencies sell work on to their end client for much more than what they pay for that content - and that’s fine. I don’t have to do anything other than write - I don’t need to worry about client communication, contracts, promoting the work, or anything else.

I know that my work is just part of an overall content supply chain, and I am totally happy with that. I don’t have the relationships (or self-confidence) to sell content for two to three times what I charge now, and since I make a good living, I am very happy to have my work re-sold. I just want to keep the work pipeline full, the marketing agencies happy, and enjoy what I do.

I know reselling is part of that, and it’s something I embrace.

#18

That’s a great point.
I don’t consider myself as a reseller, but I do sometimes need to outsource some design elements. It’s not just taking someone else’s work, increasing the price and selling it with a profit.

Let’s say I need a custom banner for a website I’m developing.

  • First I have to go through the discovery process. (Sometimes it’s a call, sometimes multiple emails)
  • Once I have the basic understanding what the customer needs I need to find the right designer. This is not easy either. Sometimes I need to spend hours on it.
  • Once I find a designer I need to put together a requirement list and talk to the designer. It takes time.
  • After the seller delivers I sometimes need to go through 1-2 revision rounds with him/her. Quite often it even means that I need to go back to the client so it takes even more time.
  • Once I finally accept the banner design I need to make sure it fits with my website design. Often I still need to edit the work (resize, compress etc)

After spending hours and hours of my time, I do believe I deserve to get paid for it so of course I will add to the price.

PS. At the end of the day, I’m responsible for the work I give to my client. If for whatever reason the end user rejects the work or even cancels my entire order then the designer I used won’t be impacted by this. They have already been paid.

#19

I don’t find anything wrong in it because when a buyer spends money with the seller he has right to accept to order only when he thinks he got the quality. If a buyer thinks he has not got what was required he can ask revisions so Fiverr has everything right set for the buyer. Therefore I don’t see anything wrong in outsourcing.

#20

What’s not okay, because against the terms everyone who registers and works here agreed to, is when they use multiple accounts on Fiverr itself, buy on one Fiverr account, resell on another Fiverr account. Ethics again are a wide (mine) field.