Unhelpful CS and a crazy buyer

[worthforcheap]

This was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had, so I have to rant about this. So…

A buyer placed an order on my album cover gig. He attached in the requirements section 4 different side-by-side comic book covers and next to them NFL athletes drawn as the comic book characters

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This seemed like a pretty clear request to me. I figured that he wants me to do the same thing, so I told him that if he needs an illustration of the sort, he’ll need to provide a comic book cover and a reference picture of him or the person he wants me to illustrate as a comic book character and he immediately followed - he provided a photo of his face and a comic book cover of the Black Panther.

The buyer didn’t purchase the background extra, but I still went and wasted a whole day on it as a bonus (To surprise him) and provide a great experience. So, long story short, I worked for 4 days on this order, I declined a few orders in order to complete it on time, I delivered exactly what he requested initially and I did a complex background free of charge… So, I delivered the order and the buyer requested a revision. He wanted me to “fix a bunch of things” as it looked a lot like the original picture (when initially that was his request) so I went ahead and I did the revisions (Free of charge again, wasted at least 4 hours on the revisions). I delivered the new version after fixing the things that he wanted me to fix, then he opened another revision request and he pretty much wanted a complete rework, because he wanted original work and didn’t want the cover art to be based on the comic book cover (WHAT?) then he attached some examples from my gig portfolio and he told me that he wanted work like the one from my examples.

(Like, why didn’t you said so from the start?) He could’ve easily told me that from the get-go, but no - he didn’t. He wanted a comic book cover turned into an album cover. That’s literally all he requested and he attached 4 examples for that and that’s what I did, then when I did that he changed his mind and told me that he wants “original work”.

I then calmly explained that I already spent a lot of time working on the current version, so there would be additional costs if I have to start from scratch. I told him that I will provide a 30-40% discount and here is when it all went downhill - He told me that all of this happened just so I could charge him more, which is ridiculous as I literally did what he initially requested, I even over-delivered and then he changed his mind, so that accusation was just insulting. I forwarded this to CS and asked them to cancel this as the user wanted something that was not in the scope of the original order, yet was not willing to pay for it.

I told the buyer that he is wrong and that I opened a case with CS and that he will receive a full refund. I told him that his accusation was insulting, especially when I over-delivered just to appease his needs, to which he responded - “You are insulted? I am insulted and what you did was copyright infringement”. What I did? I did precisely what was asked. The audacity… He is the one who attached the side-by-side examples of comic book art turned to custom illustrations, that was his request, that is what I did. God.

So yeah, long story short, I forwarded this to CS, I told them that what the buyer requested was not in the scope of the original order, I explained that he didn’t want to upgrade the offer and then they followed on my request and canceled the order. However, to my surprise, I was penalized - My order completion rate fell to 98% which is crazy and has never happened before in circumstances where the buyer wants work that is not in the scope of the order.

So yeah, TL;DR: I worked for 4 days on an order and I strictly followed the request of the buyer, I even over-delivered (I completed a complex background free of charge). The buyer then changed his mind completely and requested a revision. I revised the work (Free of charge). Then he requested work from scratch and when I told him that we will need to upgrade the offer, he accused me of some crazy conspiracy and told me that I didn’t follow his request just so that I could charge him more afterward (Which is ridiculous as I followed his request with absolute precision).

Not sure where the platform is advertising, but just the last month I’ve had some of my worst buyers. 90% of the worst buyers I’ve worked with are buyers that I worked with over the course of the last month (Been working on Fiverr for almost 3 years). Or maybe I’m just unlucky :man_shrugging:

[enunciator]

Ouch. What a ghastly experience.You went above and beyond the scope of what the gig should have included, yet the buyer was a contradicting dolt in terms of what he actually wanted. 😬

I’m not sure if you present to buyers a rough outline/sketch before committing fully to a finished illustration, but can see in this case why you wouldn’t since the buyer gave you the reference image and cover.

It seems this was a case of, “No good deed goes unpunished.”

[chrisdata]

Sad.

If I were you who already spent so much time and effort on the order, I wouldn’t cancel it. I just told the client this is not what we agree on at the beginning of the order and either he accepts it or small amendments will be provided. I don’t think it’s a good idea to give a bonus to a new client because we do not know how good working with them, it’s risky and wasted all our effort if later found out they are evil. This not only wastes time, effort, also losing money, sometimes rather they leave a bad review.

We can see Fiverr system about rating and penalty to a seller are somewhat ridiculous. After I’ve been working for this platform for over a decade, I still don’t like how they treat sellers. They should take out the ridiculous cancellation rate and implement the accept/reject order button.

[worthforcheap]

Ouch. What a ghastly experience.You went above and beyond the scope of what the gig should have included, yet the buyer was a contradicting dolt in terms of what he actually wanted. 😬

I’m not sure if you present to buyers a rough outline/sketch before committing fully to a finished illustration, but can see in this case why you wouldn’t since the buyer gave you the reference image and cover.

It seems this was a case of, “No good deed goes unpunished.”

Yep! What surprised me most was that CS pretty much told me that it’s my fault:

"As a freelancer, you are your entire business so you’re also responsible for engaging with your buyers and convincing them to accept your work. This is why cancellations of this nature are supposed to affect your completion rate. The rate is meant to measure your effectiveness at completing orders so it makes sense that orders canceled due to a lack of an agreement to complete it are taken into account."

My order completion rate going down due to this is absurd. I spent 4 days working on that order, I over-delivered, then I revised the work for free. Then when he decided that he wants something entirely different than what he initially requested I told him that we’ll need to upgrade the order but I offered a big discount for the upgrade (as a gesture of good will), then the user not only declined that but he insulted me with his ridiculous accusation. I guess CS expects me to work for free until ultimate satisfaction and I guess me deciding to charge more for having to do additional work (and start from zero) qualifies as “Not completing an order”. I exchanged around 5 messages with CS without any luck, but the last appointed agent was pretty helpful and he said that he will forward this to the right department so I hope that they’ll make the right decision.

Damn, I’m so pissed 😆

[wordsfire]

Oh boy!

CS has lately turned into bots/slaves with no regard to human situations. They will turn a blind eye to any problem that the sellers face as long as they can come up with any absurd response to penalize their account.

In my opinion, Fiverr doesn’t want sellers to ever contact CS. It’s an overhead cost anyway.

Back to your case –

I’m just glad your completion rate didn’t fell under 90%.

It probably won’t hurt you much in the long run. So I’m gonna write what I feel may have gone wrong in your case —

Summary

1. Never say you want to cancel the order –

Do not make the decision to cancel the order by yourself.
Always, in each and every condition, look like you want to keep the order.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to work for free. Inform CS about the issue. Keep replying to the buyer (once in every 24 hours). And keep sending that damn upgrade request until either the CS or buyer decide to cancel the sh!t.

2. Don’t say everything.

You don’t need to tell the whole story to the CS. Keep it short. Point out why the buyer is wrong, how his accusations are false, and how he doesn’t want to move forward. Paint them black if you can.

If CS wants to dig in, they have access to all the communication anyway.

---

It may not work always. But it did so in my case.

For now., let’s just hope the right department does the right thing. 👀

Xx

[cindy217]

Oh boy!

CS has lately turned into bots/slaves with no regard to human situations. They will turn a blind eye to any problem that the sellers face as long as they can come up with any absurd response to penalize their account.

In my opinion, Fiverr doesn’t want sellers to ever contact CS. It’s an overhead cost anyway.

Back to your case –

I’m just glad your completion rate didn’t fell under 90%.

It probably won’t hurt you much in the long run. So I’m gonna write what I feel may have gone wrong in your case —

Summary

1. Never say you want to cancel the order –

Do not make the decision to cancel the order by yourself.

Always, in each and every condition, look like you want to keep the order.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to work for free. Inform CS about the issue. Keep replying to the buyer (once in every 24 hours). And keep sending that damn upgrade request until either the CS or buyer decide to cancel the sh!t.

2. Don’t say everything.

You don’t need to tell the whole story to the CS. Keep it short. Point out why the buyer is wrong, how his accusations are false, and how he doesn’t want to move forward. Paint them black if you can.

If CS wants to dig in, they have access to all the communication anyway.

---

It may not work always. But it did so in my case.

For now., let’s just hope the right department does the right thing. 👀

Xx

Can you dm me as yours is private. You know I am facing same Robert CS just answering me the same reason which order was canceled…….and ask me to accept….

[cindy217]

Oh boy!

CS has lately turned into bots/slaves with no regard to human situations. They will turn a blind eye to any problem that the sellers face as long as they can come up with any absurd response to penalize their account.

In my opinion, Fiverr doesn’t want sellers to ever contact CS. It’s an overhead cost anyway.

Back to your case –

I’m just glad your completion rate didn’t fell under 90%.

It probably won’t hurt you much in the long run. So I’m gonna write what I feel may have gone wrong in your case —

Summary

1. Never say you want to cancel the order –

Do not make the decision to cancel the order by yourself.

Always, in each and every condition, look like you want to keep the order.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to work for free. Inform CS about the issue. Keep replying to the buyer (once in every 24 hours). And keep sending that damn upgrade request until either the CS or buyer decide to cancel the sh!t.

2. Don’t say everything.

You don’t need to tell the whole story to the CS. Keep it short. Point out why the buyer is wrong, how his accusations are false, and how he doesn’t want to move forward. Paint them black if you can.

If CS wants to dig in, they have access to all the communication anyway.

---

It may not work always. But it did so in my case.

For now., let’s just hope the right department does the right thing. 👀

Xx

Can you dm me as yours is private. You know I am facing same Robert CS just answering me the same reason which order was canceled…….and ask me to accept….

[chrisdata]

Yep! What surprised me most was that CS pretty much told me that it’s my fault:

"As a freelancer, you are your entire business so you’re also responsible for engaging with your buyers and convincing them to accept your work. This is why cancellations of this nature are supposed to affect your completion rate. The rate is meant to measure your effectiveness at completing orders so it makes sense that orders canceled due to a lack of an agreement to complete it are taken into account."

My order completion rate going down due to this is absurd. I spent 4 days working on that order, I over-delivered, then I revised the work for free. Then when he decided that he wants something entirely different than what he initially requested I told him that we’ll need to upgrade the order but I offered a big discount for the upgrade (as a gesture of good will), then the user not only declined that but he insulted me with his ridiculous accusation. I guess CS expects me to work for free until ultimate satisfaction and I guess me deciding to charge more for having to do additional work (and start from zero) qualifies as “Not completing an order”. I exchanged around 5 messages with CS without any luck, but the last appointed agent was pretty helpful and he said that he will forward this to the right department so I hope that they’ll make the right decision.

Damn, I’m so pissed 😆

Hey I see you’re a Pro seller, have you contact your so called Success Manager about this case and see if he can help?

[worthforcheap]

Hey I see you’re a Pro seller, have you contact your so called Success Manager about this case and see if he can help?

Nope! You have access to the Pro Success Manager only for the first 8 weeks of the Pro onboarding program - they’re not available to you after that. I have a new Success Manager from the Seller Plus program and my first session with him is in a couple of days from now, but I think that CS should be able to solve everything by then (I hope). Thank you for your suggestion tho!

[emmastaden]

Oh my goodness. It is honestly stories like this that make me so nervous and overly cautious about each buyer. I feel like I just never know what I’m getting into.

I am just so SOO sorry you had to deal with that. Also, they had some nerve accusing you of copyright infringement after they asked you and then paid you to commit the copyright infringement they’re accusing you of. It really sucks that you’re order completion rate had to suffer because of this, I’m really sorry. 😔

[milahmidiva]

Same here! I really feel like they take advantage of kind hearted people who put so much time and effort 

and even when you do exactly as they say. You get no recognition of the time you spent doing it and they do not even consider that you literally worked so hard on it.

i did this recording and mixing for this one person. Only to find out they want a revision. What was wrong with my version? The rules were clear. I read them correctly too. The words were up to me it said. But apparently not, so now they requested that i sing it exactly like the guy in the song. But why? My version wasn’t good enough? And plus I even added an additional edit that wasn’t even part of the gig. 
and instead of genuine appreciation. I get a total apathetic person. They should have made the instructions clear in the beginning if they were just gonna switch up on me as soon as I delivered the order. So far, I’ve had 2 bad buyers. The first one, wouldn’t pay me at all no matter how many times I did everything they wanted. This second one, I don’t even know if he’s gonna pay me if I do this revision. There was nothing wrong with my first version. They should just crop it together if they are not satisfied. Why do more work when we get literally no recognition. But for the sake of peace I will do the revision. If it’s not accepted. Clearly, the buyer has some issues because I have always done more work than what I am asked. If they want a 60% effort instead of my 100% effort so be it.