When buyers attack (why we need to be able to block buyers)

[scandalous]

I have a long-running issue with one of my gigs - to the point I sometimes pause it to escape the drama. I have a somewhat popular blog/facebook commenting gig but because I’ve had people wanting to us to comment on hate sites and other types of sites we disagree with, we’ve installed a rule that buyers must contact us first before ordering. As anyone with similar policies know, people love to ignore that policy.



Well, today, I had to cancel orders from the same buyer three times because he just wouldn’t agree with this policy. Here is a threat he sent me:

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"You are very unprofessional. It's against the rules fomr what I understand to FORCE BUYERS to contact you and I am placing a complaint because you conduct business unprofessionally.

You know what? I think I WILL order again, for another website, under another name. And then I will leave feedback telling the truth about you.

Insulting your buyers will get you BANNED form Fiver... I am going to ask Fiver to contact you and explain why you force people to BEG you to do work for money."

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I just wish I could block this guy.

[jimkeeley]

ugh. That’s the worst. Fiverr customer support can usually take care of that for you. I had to start over with a new username because of a certain customer harassing me. +1 for the ability to block.

[surfdude001]

Woah, that’s brutal! I’ve never had a client try to attack me quite like that. I used to support the customer support team, here at Fiverr. But all I can do is wish you the best in trying to get it resolved. 😕 +1 for the ability to block. Bigger websites allow this ability…what makes Fiverr so special that they can skip over this ability?

[meliara]

That’s crazy! Will CS do anything to help you? I wish Fiverr would put more protections into place for sellers. I’ve only been working hard at Fiverr for a few weeks but I’ve already been burned by a few buyers wanting free work and/or ridiculous redo’s for no good reason (especially not $5 worth). Most buyers have been really great, but for the few bad ones, sellers should have the right to block a buyer and/or refuse an order without any consequences. I’m starting to feel like the buyer has all the power in these transactions.

[michellencloud]

Their message alone violates the fiverr TOS (threatening to leave untrue reviews). Please contact fiverr support and ask them to deal with this problem, and please keep us posted on the results.



Also, just in case it needs to be said to anyone here: Always be polite and concise with buyers, even if they’re harassing you. It looks much better if and when fiverr support has to review the situation, because then it will be a professional seller versus an irate and insulting buyer. If both of you are lobbing insults, the review might not go as well for you.



+1 on the ability to block buyers.

[manux79]

Please add a “block buyer” feature.
Some buyers are just… impossible to work with.

[babibalubi]

Hi all,

I agree - some buyers are so weird, that a “block” button would really help.

The problem is sometimes, that if you already have marked an unacceptable message-thread as “spam” they are still able to order sometimes, and then normally the “senseless game” starts, as they do not accept that I don´t deliver to people that called me “everything” or expecting things from me that I simply don´t offer or they are playing dirty from the beginning - they don´t care about in-depth explications that I´ve already given - and they reject the cancelation request again and again.

As you can see, I offer “sensible” services, but absolutely clean without any fake of nothing, just the pure service, and I am absolutely honest in my explications if the buyer expects things I can´t fulfill (and I don´t promise) and if my service does not make sense for them, I tell them not to buy that, what is quite obvious…

Some occurrences would be quite funny if they wouldn´t generate lots of work for me…

Some examples, some of them are generic as they repeat again and again:

A Customer asks me if my service includes the specs A/B/C. I answer him, explaining that none of these expectation would be fulfilled, also they are excluded in the description. And then comes the order “as already spoken by message I bought your Gig and expect from you A/B/C”. Why?

A Customer delivers a link to completely illegal content (Illegal streaming page + forced installs + whatever). I tell him, that for sure I will not deliver to that page, for several reasons. The buyer does not accept and not only insults me, he also says that he will inform customer service, as I do not deliver what he wants. Ehm yes - great idea - report a seller that he is not delivering his service to a completely illegal website…

Also great was some days ago - again a clearly excluded webpage from my services - that I´ve canceled… The buyer had the great idea to tell me: “if I accept the cancelation you have to give me back 3 Gigs”. Ehm, what?

Last example - a classic: “Hey you are selling crap, eh, an offer that is worth nothing!” mixed with some more requirements he expects and I definitely do not offer and if he would have read the description he would have had that clear… Apart of that the links given are mostly some kind of cheat / fraud / whatever. Not really a good start to do a business, that should be based in trust 🙂 I tell him as honest and smart as possible, that I do not have what he is asking for and that there is no base of trust if his “business model” is based in rip off people so the possibility to rip me also off is quite high… Yes and then the “show” begins, and I am the bad guy, as I do not help him with his fraud.

So concluding - Yes a “block function” would be really great in that cases 🙂

[solow13]

+1 for the block function!

[sincere18]

Just don’t continue to write back to this person, contact Customer support and let them know about the message you hvae received.

[solow13]

Take a screenshot of the conversation and contact customer support as soon as possible!

[Guest phantompower]

Take a screenshot of the conversation and contact customer support as soon as possible!

This conversation happen 2 and 1 year ago, most likely the case was resolved so there is no need to revive the post.

[varita]

+1 Favor!
I support the block botton from buyers. Or at least be able to reject orders… We are the ones making this business work but we also need to be protected.