The power of saying, "NO!"

[gina_riley2]

For those of you who do not know me or those of you lurking the threads without logging on; take it from a buyer - know how to say “NO!”

If you spend any time reading these forums, you’ll find plenty of posts where a seller, typically new - but not always, say they were scammed or the buyer is holding them hostage. They are literally begging forum members, to help them with a really bad scam artist, who is threatening them with bad reviews or giving them a sob story to get things for free.

Remember something very important - SELLERS, the only POWER the buyer has is the one * YOU * give us. When a buyer asks for

• A custom free sample, say NO!
• A freebie extra, say NO!
• Extra revisions or any revision that is not your fault, say NO!

If the buyer threatens, treat them with extra kindness - because it will drive the scammer nuts! Capture everything they say to you and report to customer support.

So, you say “HECK NO!” and then end up with a cancellation or bad review and you’re scared because it may ruin your business on 5r. Let’s think this through logically, if you give in every single time, you will get a reputation as an EASY target.

Before you know it, you will end up on some dark, underground forum with other easy targets on “How to get work done for free.” You’d constantly be working for free.

So you get one bad review, you may even get demoted - but my take is this - it’ll pass in 60 days.

• Enough sellers report a bad buyer (I hate people that classify these people into the same category as me), then customer support will take notice & perhaps get rid of them?

• Okay your counter-argument, “Then they will just create another account.” It’s not a perfect world - but at least you won’t get a defeated mentality and scammers will eventually stay away from you. Occasionally, you’ll still get tested by a new scammer but they’ll eventually learn.

Stop being an easy target. You saying, “Yes” to every scam artist isn’t going to stop whatever bad thing from happening to you. It’s just going to happen later and you just gave away more free work (more of your professional time) for free.

As a last note, don’t automatically assume all buyers are scammers through miscommunication. Be smart enough to know that some buyers are indeed new and need help. It’s easy to tell apart a true newbie buyer from a scammer with a new account.

Stop being weak and helpless. Stand up for yourself and for your fellow sellers. The REAL buyers won’t stay away from you for saying

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[emeraldawnn]

Great post Gina,

I’m one of the lurkers with an occasional post or comment on the Forum. You always have great advice for both buyers and sellers. I love reading what you have to say. It’s often what I think as well - I just don’t have time to put it into words to be useful for others. 🙂

Thanks for being a great Fiverr buyer!

[gina_riley2]

Great post Gina,

I’m one of the lurkers with an occasional post or comment on the Forum. You always have great advice for both buyers and sellers. I love reading what you have to say. It’s often what I think as well - I just don’t have time to put it into words to be useful for others. 🙂

Thanks for being a great Fiverr buyer!

[gigworkers]

Nop Nop Nop 😛

[misscrystal]

This is a very important article for all sellers to read. I especially hope all newer sellers pay attention.

Newer sellers are the most targeted since they are afraid of a bad review.

When my gigs began at $5 I still got the occasional buyer who demanded that I do much more than my gig was for. I learned to say no, but still had to cancel too many orders. Part of the solution is not selling gigs for $5 if possible. Even increasing a price to $10 may help head off this kind of buyer.

[ollydave]

Great advice!

I have learnt to take a stand on issues like this. Usually, I’m flexible with most new buyers. Everything seems very complicated to them when they want to make a video and they are scared to take the plunge because they are scared they will lose their money or they want to be sure I actually make custom videos (not like a lot of people that claim they do).

I never give out a free sample. It is too much work for me. some even say, for a small fee, I should make 5 to 10 seconds of their video. I have to decline. I have a team and for each project we get, we have creative meetings on the storyboard and then our awesome storyboard artist sketches them along with his additional ideas. I will only accept a full project. I have said NO on countless occasions and many buyers have understood and eventually ordered. They are excited at the end of the day.

What I can do is send them a roughly sketched storyboard for a small fee or show them every bit of a sample project, from the script, storyboard, illustrations to the animation.

Sometimes I get an offer of a large project but within a small timeframe (2 days maybe). I decline, no matter how much and sometimes the buyer wants to force me to accept it.

I also have to mention this - I HAVE THE BEST BUYERS ANYONE CAN ASK FOR! 95% ARE SIMPLY AWESOME!

[gina_riley2]

As experienced sellers, OllyDave & MissCrystal know the difference between a nervous new buyer and a cheapskate looking for a freebie.

Never having been a seller on 5r, I can’t say for certain but I don’t think it would be very hard to tell the difference. I do realize there are a few really good scammer that are hard to tell but most are rather easily found out.

Oh, another advice - don’t fall for sob stories. It may sound cruel but any buyer that tries to guilt you into doing more or any seller that tries to guilt you into paying more is

T R O U B L E!!! 💔

[yesminrashada]

For those of you who do not know me or those of you lurking the threads without logging on; take it from a buyer - know how to say “NO!”

If you spend any time reading these forums, you’ll find plenty of posts where a seller, typically new - but not always, say they were scammed or the buyer is holding them hostage. They are literally begging forum members, to help them with a really bad scam artist, who is threatening them with bad reviews or giving them a sob story to get things for free.

Remember something very important - SELLERS, the only POWER the buyer has is the one * YOU * give us. When a buyer asks for

• A custom free sample, say NO!
• A freebie extra, say NO!
• Extra revisions or any revision that is not your fault, say NO!

If the buyer threatens, treat them with extra kindness - because it will drive the scammer nuts! Capture everything they say to you and report to customer support.

So, you say “HECK NO!” and then end up with a cancellation or bad review and you’re scared because it may ruin your business on 5r. Let’s think this through logically, if you give in every single time, you will get a reputation as an EASY target.

Before you know it, you will end up on some dark, underground forum with other easy targets on “How to get work done for free.” You’d constantly be working for free.

So you get one bad review, you may even get demoted - but my take is this - it’ll pass in 60 days.

• Enough sellers report a bad buyer (I hate people that classify these people into the same category as me), then customer support will take notice & perhaps get rid of them?

• Okay your counter-argument, “Then they will just create another account.” It’s not a perfect world - but at least you won’t get a defeated mentality and scammers will eventually stay away from you. Occasionally, you’ll still get tested by a new scammer but they’ll eventually learn.

Stop being an easy target. You saying, “Yes” to every scam artist isn’t going to stop whatever bad thing from happening to you. It’s just going to happen later and you just gave away more free work (more of your professional time) for free.

As a last note, don’t automatically assume all buyers are scammers through miscommunication. Be smart enough to know that some buyers are indeed new and need help. It’s easy to tell apart a true newbie buyer from a scammer with a new account.

Stop being weak and helpless. Stand up for yourself and for your fellow sellers. The REAL buyers won’t stay away from you for saying

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

If the buyer threatens, treat them with extra kindness

Hi Gina,

I agree with you and I used this tip with many buyers. The result was that they changed their tone positively 🙂

Thank you so much for your helpful post.

[misscrystal]

For those of you who do not know me or those of you lurking the threads without logging on; take it from a buyer - know how to say “NO!”

If you spend any time reading these forums, you’ll find plenty of posts where a seller, typically new - but not always, say they were scammed or the buyer is holding them hostage. They are literally begging forum members, to help them with a really bad scam artist, who is threatening them with bad reviews or giving them a sob story to get things for free.

Remember something very important - SELLERS, the only POWER the buyer has is the one * YOU * give us. When a buyer asks for

• A custom free sample, say NO!
• A freebie extra, say NO!
• Extra revisions or any revision that is not your fault, say NO!

If the buyer threatens, treat them with extra kindness - because it will drive the scammer nuts! Capture everything they say to you and report to customer support.

So, you say “HECK NO!” and then end up with a cancellation or bad review and you’re scared because it may ruin your business on 5r. Let’s think this through logically, if you give in every single time, you will get a reputation as an EASY target.

Before you know it, you will end up on some dark, underground forum with other easy targets on “How to get work done for free.” You’d constantly be working for free.

So you get one bad review, you may even get demoted - but my take is this - it’ll pass in 60 days.

• Enough sellers report a bad buyer (I hate people that classify these people into the same category as me), then customer support will take notice & perhaps get rid of them?

• Okay your counter-argument, “Then they will just create another account.” It’s not a perfect world - but at least you won’t get a defeated mentality and scammers will eventually stay away from you. Occasionally, you’ll still get tested by a new scammer but they’ll eventually learn.

Stop being an easy target. You saying, “Yes” to every scam artist isn’t going to stop whatever bad thing from happening to you. It’s just going to happen later and you just gave away more free work (more of your professional time) for free.

As a last note, don’t automatically assume all buyers are scammers through miscommunication. Be smart enough to know that some buyers are indeed new and need help. It’s easy to tell apart a true newbie buyer from a scammer with a new account.

Stop being weak and helpless. Stand up for yourself and for your fellow sellers. The REAL buyers won’t stay away from you for saying

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

If the buyer threatens, treat them with extra kindness - because it will drive the scammer nuts!

I’ve only had that happen one time, and it was recently when the person saw the 100% guarantee sign on my gig and tried to get a refund as soon as I delivered. His plan was to get it free from the beginning.

I told him absolutely not. He said it was better for me to give him a refund rather than him leaving a bad review. I did not treat him with kindness, I reported him to customer support. I then again delivered the same thing when he repeatedly used the resolution button to try to cancel.

CS also told him they would not give him a refund. I had done nothing wrong, the delivery was perfect as always, therefore he got no refund.

It would be a cold day in hell before I gave a refund to someone who threatened me.

[gina_riley2]

If the buyer threatens, treat them with extra kindness - because it will drive the scammer nuts!

I’ve only had that happen one time, and it was recently when the person saw the 100% guarantee sign on my gig and tried to get a refund as soon as I delivered. His plan was to get it free from the beginning.

I told him absolutely not. He said it was better for me to give him a refund rather than him leaving a bad review. I did not treat him with kindness, I reported him to customer support. I then again delivered the same thing when he repeatedly used the resolution button to try to cancel.

CS also told him they would not give him a refund. I had done nothing wrong, the delivery was perfect as always, therefore he got no refund.

It would be a cold day in hell before I gave a refund to someone who threatened me.

I know the quality of your work, Miss Crystal - therefore, I know you did an amazing job as always. You take pride in what you do and take it very seriously, as any professional on 5r should.

What I meant by that statement was for seller’s not to fall into the trap, of reciprocating in the heat of the moment, with bad words or something the scammer can use against the seller.

[voiceoverphil]

This is a very important article for all sellers to read. I especially hope all newer sellers pay attention.

Newer sellers are the most targeted since they are afraid of a bad review.

When my gigs began at $5 I still got the occasional buyer who demanded that I do much more than my gig was for. I learned to say no, but still had to cancel too many orders. Part of the solution is not selling gigs for $5 if possible. Even increasing a price to $10 may help head off this kind of buyer.

I will say I had luck with a price increase. I got purchases from a buyer for my voice over extra for script writing. I had it listed at $5 for 100 words. Of course, there were always a ton of details that all MUST be included in the 100 word script, which were impossible to include without going over.

I changed my price for the extra from $5 for 100 words to $10 for up to 200. The abusive buyer stopped requesting script writing, and I am much happier.

[hedayetsaadi556]

I wish I could get this post one month ago. One buyer is sucking my blood for one month and still counting. My return is only $5 gig sale.

[nikavoice]

As experienced sellers, OllyDave & MissCrystal know the difference between a nervous new buyer and a cheapskate looking for a freebie.

Never having been a seller on 5r, I can’t say for certain but I don’t think it would be very hard to tell the difference. I do realize there are a few really good scammer that are hard to tell but most are rather easily found out.

Oh, another advice - don’t fall for sob stories. It may sound cruel but any buyer that tries to guilt you into doing more or any seller that tries to guilt you into paying more is

T R O U B L E!!! 💔

Another EXCELLENT buyer perspective post. :ok_hand:t4:

Oh, another advice - don’t fall for sob stories. It may sound cruel but any buyer that tries to guilt you into doing more or any seller that tries to guilt you into paying more is

Oh, I’ve heard stories! Fiction & bizarre 😩

It really bothers me! Especially, when they use stories of heartache & pain to gain sympathy. Don’t get me wrong, I understand things happen, but Sellers/Buyers shouldn’t tell tall 🤥 tales about it. I’m not scared to say HELL TO THE NO. 😁 I usually say… "Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be a good fit for XYZ" etc. Just like IRL - online is no different, there will ALWAYS be shady characters on the hunt to take advantage of people.

[misscrystal]

Another EXCELLENT buyer perspective post. :ok_hand:t4:

Oh, another advice - don’t fall for sob stories. It may sound cruel but any buyer that tries to guilt you into doing more or any seller that tries to guilt you into paying more is

Oh, I’ve heard stories! Fiction & bizarre 😩

It really bothers me! Especially, when they use stories of heartache & pain to gain sympathy. Don’t get me wrong, I understand things happen, but Sellers/Buyers shouldn’t tell tall 🤥 tales about it. I’m not scared to say HELL TO THE NO. 😁 I usually say… "Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be a good fit for XYZ" etc. Just like IRL - online is no different, there will ALWAYS be shady characters on the hunt to take advantage of people.

I hear lots of sob stories of hardship and misery and some lay it on thick. It is simply exhausting and generally is false, either attempts to get prices lowered, or a genuine mental problem that is seeking pity from anyone who will hear them out. This can be a type of bizarre psychological problem I have realized. It is possible to be wrongly sympathetic to someone who would be better served by professional counseling.

[im_amir007]

Thanks for these tips ❤️

[digitalrjt]

very very nice post. very helpful. 👌

[ccreations527]

Nice motivation really appreciated that one

[brathaslogos]

Thank you so much you are so kind

[zarawalker]

Great advice!

I have learnt to take a stand on issues like this. Usually, I’m flexible with most new buyers. Everything seems very complicated to them when they want to make a video and they are scared to take the plunge because they are scared they will lose their money or they want to be sure I actually make custom videos (not like a lot of people that claim they do).

I never give out a free sample. It is too much work for me. some even say, for a small fee, I should make 5 to 10 seconds of their video. I have to decline. I have a team and for each project we get, we have creative meetings on the storyboard and then our awesome storyboard artist sketches them along with his additional ideas. I will only accept a full project. I have said NO on countless occasions and many buyers have understood and eventually ordered. They are excited at the end of the day.

What I can do is send them a roughly sketched storyboard for a small fee or show them every bit of a sample project, from the script, storyboard, illustrations to the animation.

Sometimes I get an offer of a large project but within a small timeframe (2 days maybe). I decline, no matter how much and sometimes the buyer wants to force me to accept it.

I also have to mention this - I HAVE THE BEST BUYERS ANYONE CAN ASK FOR! 95% ARE SIMPLY AWESOME!

I have came up with this matter really often. There are many intermediaries order my Logo designing gig. They request revisions again and again as the end customer is someone who is not in Fiverr. So it takes days to get revision request and ultimately I do lots of work for $5.

Sometimes they cancel the gig saying the client is not happy. It’s really hard to do business with intermediaries. Even I get so many threatening messages to do revisions for free otherwise I’ll end up with a negative review. Getting a negative review can be dangerous as hell especially for the people who do Graphics/Logo designing because the competition is really high in this sector.

I’ve been with Fiverr for almost 5 years and had no luck so far to be a TRS. This is the main reason I can’t say NO to those scammers!

[graphic_real]

This is very important post. thank you so much for your tips.

[sarah_explainer]

Thanks for sharing this tip with us. 😌

[jonbaas]

I have came up with this matter really often. There are many intermediaries order my Logo designing gig. They request revisions again and again as the end customer is someone who is not in Fiverr. So it takes days to get revision request and ultimately I do lots of work for $5.

Sometimes they cancel the gig saying the client is not happy. It’s really hard to do business with intermediaries. Even I get so many threatening messages to do revisions for free otherwise I’ll end up with a negative review. Getting a negative review can be dangerous as hell especially for the people who do Graphics/Logo designing because the competition is really high in this sector.

I’ve been with Fiverr for almost 5 years and had no luck so far to be a TRS. This is the main reason I can’t say NO to those scammers!

I’ve been with Fiverr for almost 5 years…

it takes days to get revision request and ultimately I do lots of work for $5.

You’ve been here for 5 years. Why are you still charging $5 for your work, and doing far more than that $5 is worth? I’ve been here nearly 5 years, and I successfully charge nearly $200 for one of my packages (not counting extras). Raise your prices to match your skill and experience, and you’ll probably see fewer buyers begging for free work.

Set limits on the number of revisions you do as well. If a troublesome buyer keeps demanding more than he purchased, say no, and let your no mean no. You can, and you SHOULD say no to scammers.

The only reason why scammers succeed, is because you let them.

[tayburrahman24]

Thanks for post this idea:heart_eyes:

[arrumi96]

I think you just helped 964 sellers, really appreciatable article

Thank you so much for sharing it with us 😍

[hanshuber16]

I think you just helped 964 sellers, really appreciatable article

Thank you so much for sharing it with us 😍

I think you just helped 964 sellers

Did you just assume all viewers of this post to be sellers? Some of them could be buyers too, you know? 😜 Just kidding.