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What are some mistakes you have learnt from ? Here is my horror story

creativepro

By creativepro
in Tips from Sellers

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creativepro Newbie

creativepro

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So while back user contacted me for my once upon a time very popular gig http://fiverr.com/creativepro/give-you-a-sexy-glamorous-and-professional-photoshop-makeover .



I was even briefly featured by fiverr but the removed me from a feature when I paused my gig during a brief vacation and got a negative review when I accidentally sent the wrong picture to a client facepalm. The user wanted me work on her modeling portfolio pictures on fiverr, she wanted to give modeling a try. I have worked with models and agencies before so this wouldn’t be much of a problem. I told her I was a slightly more expensive that the others since I was experienced and do really quality work. Gave her a free demo even.



I told here her images were poor quality (dim, compact camera, low res etc) . She said she didn’t have an option and told me to proceed. First image went well, she was happy. She hired some more $30 worth of gigs but for some reason didn’t give me a positive feedback for the first one.



Second image, all hell broke lose. I told her image quality was poor and there was no way I could compensate for the level of detail - professional lighting and makeup play a HUGE part. She then pissed me off, told me my work was inferior. Started comparing me to a Victoria’s Secret photoshopper who does gigs for just $5 (Seriously who are you ?), told me I suck etc. I lost my cool and explained it to her in strong language - Huge mistake, my fault completely.



She misquoted me, gave me negative reviews for both the gigs she order - even the one she liked ! A small tiny part of me thinks she did this to get free gigs, she thought I will refund her - I put too much time so I didn’t. Now, I don’t earn on fiverr for a living. It’s just fun for me, I like photoshop challenges and mostly for making people happy - I even do small bonuses like a professional B/W version to make them happier. Alas, because of these negative reviews no one has ordered the gig since. And it was really fun working on them 😦



My Tips :


  1. Don’t work with over demanding clients, not worth it. Tell them you cannot do tons of revision for $5. Include this in your message to buyers when they first order.

  2. If there is a problem, explain to them in advance. If your quality is compromised tell them that.


  3. Don’t be rude to buyers UNDER ANY CONDITION, even if they are disrespectful. Cancel the gig immediately when you feel uncomfortable - not worth it. Just today I cancelled $20 worth of gigs from sociacademic / celebritytypes because they were over demanding.


  4. Explain to them that you are doing this as a passion. Some people exploit fiverr users, it sickens me.



    Anyways, what tips do you have to share ?

    :)>-
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anarchofighter Enthusiast

anarchofighter

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Reply to @madmoo: I actually hold a slightly different view.



The customer is NOT always right. The customer; however, is always the customer. And, when you know your marketplace that can mean a lot.



In ClickBank for example, someone can refund any product for any reason for 60 days. You will be scammed, it will happen more than once, and it’s best to outsource the refunds so you don’t even see them if you’re at all sensitive to rejection.



On Fiverr the buyer has a LOT of power. I guarantee all my gigs and make it a part of my appeal that there is never a reason to leave negative feedback. Not all gigs are for all people. Not all readings of the same instructions will mean the same thing to all people. That’s why I empower you to refund anything I do.



Sorry you the seller got negative feedback. You might want to consider the use of your portfolio to get back off the ground. Maybe show the picture improved on the left side and original on the right!

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creativepro Newbie

creativepro

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Reply to @anarchofighter:



I have to ask permission to use her photo for the portfolio.



Getting sued or banned on fiverr for such a silly reason is worse.



I agree fiverr buyers have a lot of power. But I guess the mistake was on my part too.



I got worked up on negative criticism when I did quality passionate work.



Not once have I received such bitterness, even when I was charging $75 an hour for my work.

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nkesher Newbie

nkesher

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Reply to @creativepro: A few weeks ago I had a very busy week at my day job, as my deadline for my gigs is quite long I didn’t worry about it, I always try to finish my gigs as fast as I can but it wasn’t possible in this specific week. I told one of my buyers that I’ll send him his gig on Friday and he answered “OK” but after a day or two he asked me why I didn’t send him the gig yet… I never encounter such a behavior on Fiverr… I thought it was very rude and I started to write him a very angry reply…but than I erased all that I wrote and started again without even one word of reproach toward him, I just explained the situation and that’s it. I finished the gig a few days later in a good spirit, but I will never forger it…

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lparziale Enthusiast

lparziale

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Reply to @nkesher: I think as sellers, we have all been there. Started typing (fast and furious) our responses but then hit the back key or select all / delete. In the end, I use honey - if I am positive and sweet, no matter the message, then it pays in dividends.



Case in point:



Customer: Hi if you have not started my job yet, I have revisions I need done.

Me: I understand, these things happen. However, I will need to charge for the revisions.

Customer: Well, you missed a section, so while you are fixing that, could you just layer in the fixes?

Me: type… type… type… backspace… backspace… backspace… (check my work - um, oh, I did miss a section)

Me again: Sorry, see where I made a mistake, fixed it and made the other edits.

Customer: Thanks for your patience. I am going to leave you a tip for your hard work.



In the end, I did make a mistake but had I not and was nice to this customer, I would have received my tip I believe either way. I also got great feedback and the customer said they would return again soon. Yup, not everyone gets it and often expect $50 worth of service for $5 (which they often have no idea you pay $1 of that back). But nice normally beats not nice, no matter who is right or wrong.

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Guest tellme

Guest tellme

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my experience was a recent one I had received an order I looked at the doc he had sent it was the most awful thing I have ever seen I warned him, said it looks like a doc that was a result of the very worst pdf conversion ever!



explained that behind ever character (not word or sentence or paragraph lol) it had the font name the font size and often the font colour lol anyone who know a little about html knows this can add a tone of weight to a page or in this case a book lol told him he would have higher fees from Amazon if he didn’t clean it



he just said go ahead and format it into a book! Ok so he doesn’t care about fees I thought but… this doc had broken sentences that were not only half on one line and half on another but it was sometimes half a word! lol again I warned him said I will format the book but that the doc had lots of issues that he really should look at if he wanted good sales on Amazon.



I formatted the book and delivered early

he left me negative feedback!

that is right he didn’t even ask me to fix anything (I always always say in the delivery if there is anything they want changed or anything else please let me know) well he didn’t he just left negative feedback! lol

high praises from everyone else for always over delivering offering lots of tips and suggestions on how they can help themselves etc etc and this guy comes along with rubbish and for a $5 expect me to make it all wonderful lol



so in my feedback response I did put in that he had not asked me for any alterations at all that I always offer on delivery if there are to please contact me on fiverr and I always make sure I deliver as fast as I can to the point where some have gone wow 3 hours and my book is ready now that puts a smile on my face I love making them happy!

but there is a lot of exploiting - while your fixing this can you just add this last page on my book lol I do state it must be completed book that I do not add or remove anything lol only format (I do fix the odd spelling mistake if I see one and let them know I have done that) but you still get some and probably always will 🙂



I am striving for top instead of level two 🙂 I want gold! ha ha ha

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ztommyx Newbie

ztommyx

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though i didn’t read all the comments…

as they say, customers always right. NO. most of them are NOT.



regardless, a first great review will go a long way. i had not once but a couple time, a dozen orders at one time! it was soo much work, i had to pass some of the orders to a buddy who does the same thing by purchasing his gigs.



personally, who do they expect from 5 buck work? take it as a grain of salt.



word of advice: don’t tell them you are a professional in your work and is worth more because YOU ARE NOT. there are others who does good or better work than you.

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jedimarketer Newbie

jedimarketer

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Just refund them, remember you have to value your time better

to become a top notch seller for fiverr. Ive made over $13k on fiverr

because I value my time too much to be messing with people.



I also promote gigs that take me 2 minutes to process. So essentially

if your buyer is been a butt plug, just give them your money back,

fiverr has a huge directory of buyers that can replace them…

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allysonmichelle Newbie

allysonmichelle

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Wow, so sorry you had such a bad experience with your client. I too have had a bad experience before.



My biggest piece of advice, however, would be to just put yourself in the customer shoes. Are your instructions clear and concise? If you were the customer, how happy would you be with the work you’ve just completed? Did you double or even tripple check your work before you sent it?



creativepro - Maybe you can add to your gig that you aren’t always capable of turning a bad quality photograph into a masterpiece. You could also even offer tips on how to take better quality photos next time.



I agree with oldbittygrandma that sometimes our clients may just be confused and seeking answers. Being a seller here on Fiverr is mainly trial and error in the beginning. You are going to make mistakes, and you are going to have less than positive experiences. But you shouldn’t let it upset you too much, and definitely don’t EVER take it out on your clients.



I am ALL about going above and beyond to please my client, but I also understand the value of my time and work. When I first started offering my services, I was too eager and excited to even notice that I was being taken advantage of. Doing 10 times the work for half pay. Or having difficult clients that can make your work drag on for far too long, and taking time away from the next client.



This has all helped me learn when to take a loss. I would honestly rather cancel a gig and lose the money than have a negative feedback for all to see and potentially lose futur business. But even then, at the end of the day, your work will speak for itself.



Lastly, kindness goes a LONG way. I’ve actually turned a really bad client experience into a great one, just be taking the time to understand where they were coming from and offering a bit more than usual, and you know what? That “bad” client, is now a repeat customer, who is super easy and a pleasure to work with. So how about we kill em with kindness?

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designersgurus Newbie

designersgurus

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Hi All,

First apologize, b’cause I didn’t read all stories/comments above. As i pass i saw few words here and there.



As one of our colleague mentioned “BUYER has LOT of power”. I too agree.



I have an request to FIVERR TEAM, the “FEEDBACK” idea is great. But you have to disable the feedback option, say 60 days from delivery date or something similar. Because one of my previous experience as follows. One of my buyer placed an order on December 2010 (approximate date) and the order got closed (officially, but i didn’t delivered the final). Last month same client started the conversation with the same order and raised request to refund, when i asked the reason the reason client said “I just saw my records and come to know that i didn’t got any delivery”.



In actual we had an agreement to extend our project’s dead line by 10 days more and in mean time i send few mockups for which i got some feedback. Our conversation extended till February and suddenly i didn’t received any reply from client until last month.

I placed an option in front of my client either to restart the order or to start a new job. But client replied to refund the amount as the work got completed by some other person/professional. Finally I refunded the amount to the client with FIVERR team help.



This should not happen to all other sellers because we may engage our-self with the new clients/order or with some other job. Which leads us for 1. Negative feedback/impact either by new client or by the client who revoke there previous order. Reason: time delay or 2. to refund (loose) the previous order.

FIVERR TEAM please help seller too like this type of scenario, either by refunding the amount automatically or to close the refund option by closing the FEEDBACK option or by other great options which should support Seller as well as Buyer.



If you found anything wrong let me now so that i can improve myself as a seller.



Thanks,

TDG

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ajdrawings Newbie

ajdrawings

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Honestly, I have to agree with the OP. He must have gone through A LOT to make this buyer happy, and who cares if he lost his cool? She lost her cool. It’s not like because he’s a seller that he’s some god that is immoral and isn’t a person either. It’s 5 dollars you’re paying, not like because you’re paying 5 bucks that you deserve to be treated amazingly.

If the girl didn’t give him something to work with, it really is her fault.

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