View Without Downloading - Fighting off insincere buyers

[rainny_writer]

A lot has been made of the loss of hard work when a buyer is able to view and download a delivery before approval. There has been an unfortunately high number of buyers who run off with the job executed for them, claim dislike, receive a refund, and make use of the delivered work.

The Graphics category has aimed to fight this a bit through the use of watermarks. It still doesn’t help that there could be chargebacks and/or refunds by CS against the will of the seller and against any better judgment. But it’s a step that I’m certain has reduced the number of delivery thefts in this category (I should add that I have no statistic to back this claim).

A discussion with a friend helped me see that this could also be extended to other categories somehow. The writing category has been one of the worst hit by order thefts. A buyer could simply write CS that they are not satisfied and have their order canceled. They could take your delivery, claim dissatisfaction with the style or what not, eventually get a cancellation and run off with all of the downloaded files. By the time they upload your work to their website, there’s little that can be done to fight back.

Now, let us imagine that a buyer cannot download or copy an article except they have approved it. The idea is that the seller is able to upload the document to Fiverr’s system. The system then converts this file somehow to provide a preview of the article to the buyer. The buyer would be able to read all that has been delivered but would lack the ability to download it or even copy/paste it. If (s)he approves, he clicks his approval and Fiverr releases the funds to the seller. Leaving a rating could be made compulsory upon approval as it currently is or could be made optional. Once the buyer clicks their approval, they no longer have any recourse with CS and cannot claim duress. This way, any disapproval would be sincere and insincere buyers would be unable to get free work.

I know this might seem a tad complicated, but I’ve seen such upload platforms on a few websites (tho I’ve not noticed any in the gig economy). I’ve also visited websites where copy/paste functionality is locked in and impossible. Except the buyer is hell-bent on suffering to get free work - wherein they could go ahead and type out all that you have written, a rather tedious exercise - they would have no choice but to pay for what they receive.

If you have taken the time to read this, please vote your thoughts below:

• This is a lovely idea I would like to see implemented
• Like the idea but it’s impossible to implement
• Like the idea but it has a few rough edges
• Totally not okay with this; It’s crappy at best!

0voters

Show results

I’d like to hear your opinions below as well. Gracias!

[rainny_writer]

Now I just got a buyer who placed 3 $5 orders in quick succession and got them all canceled by Fiverr CS. Interestingly, she gave no indication that she wishes to cancel, although she informed me she wasn’t totally impressed. After 3 revisions, a point I can hardly remember getting to with any buyers prior this, she bade me a great weekend with the message that we just weren’t as good a fit as she had hoped.

Guess what, I wake this morning to find all three orders canceled. My surprise isn’t the cancellation, it’s the fact she said nothing of the sort to me. Well, now comes the issue, there’s no guarantee that the content I’ve delivered won’t be used in her book. The above suggestion serves that role. If you cannot download my content without paying for it, you’d be really serious about any cancellation you request.

[writer99025]

Keep up the fight brother 👍

[cyaxrex]

An easy way to stamp out people stealing articles is simply to never give samples and raise prices. You can test the sample issue by sending people watermarked and copy and paste password protected PDF’s. Scammers will always ask you to send them a normal Word version instead.

[misscrystal]

An easy way to stamp out people stealing articles is simply to never give samples and raise prices. You can test the sample issue by sending people watermarked and copy and paste password protected PDF’s. Scammers will always ask you to send them a normal Word version instead.

sending people watermarked and copy and paste password protected PDF’s.

How do you make a PDF like this?

[cyaxrex]

sending people watermarked and copy and paste password protected PDF’s.

How do you make a PDF like this?

Put an image on a transparent background over the text in a word doc then export to pdf and make the pdf itself password protected. If you can’t do that, export it anyway, open it and take a screenshot of the open document area and then send the image.

If people can’t cut and paste, they freak out because they can’t pretend it’s their own work.

[miiila]

I think it´s a good idea, there´s screenshots, of course, and some still might try the ‘didn´t like it’, but it might at least keep the laziest of them from doing it, and CS would know what´s up without needing to go through the messages and all. Though it might mean more transcribers would get scammed…

[misscrystal]

I think it´s a good idea, there´s screenshots, of course, and some still might try the ‘didn´t like it’, but it might at least keep the laziest of them from doing it, and CS would know what´s up without needing to go through the messages and all. Though it might mean more transcribers would get scammed…

it might at least keep the laziest of them from doing it,

They are all too lazy to do anything but copy and paste.

[miiila]

it might at least keep the laziest of them from doing it,

They are all too lazy to do anything but copy and paste.

OT actually, this is more about insincere sellers, or people who are both

I recently updated a gig with a PDF I had added a kind of watermark in the bg with ‘only on Fiverr’ and my username to as background decoration, and made uncopyable too, similar to what Cy said, in PS; I do think a lot of people will be too lazy, yes, they´ll look for some easier prey, so that should help. And at the least, if they want to steal it, they´ll need to do the typing work themselves if not the mental work.

I wish there was something to keep people from stealing our bio texts at least, that´s what irks me most, but those are that kind of short that even typing will do, though they even manage to mess up that bit of text by ‘enriching’ it with a couple own words, or something they copied from another bio, whatever… -_-

[kevinfrederick]

sending people watermarked and copy and paste password protected PDF’s.

How do you make a PDF like this?

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. Solves both problems well. Answering it because I know about this and would like to suggest. 🙂