When buyer's transaction charged-back, Fiverr sacrifice seller and let been ripped off

[juraganet]

Hello,

I’m a seller on Fiverr. I’ve been about 5 years here, happy with the environment. I share this story in hope to gain attention and better solution for the community.

So here’s the story…

I had a buyer for a gig/project which valued $60, it was in August 2016 (3 months ago). The project already finished and the buyer gave me nice 4 stars ratings.

But yesterday (21 December 2016), Fiverr Customer Support canceled this order and refunded the money. I ask Support why my money refunded after 3 months. The Support guy answered the money was charged-back due to claim by payment authority.

When such charge-back occurred, FIverr sacrifice me as seller without any compensations. Their excuse is neither Fiverr or Seller receive the money. But why Fiverr 100% sacrifice seller? Meanwhile for every sales made Fiverr pick 20% deduction fee…

I have made more than $10,000 from fiverr. That means at least I have given Fiverr $2,500.
$12,500 x 20% = $2,500.

With the money I sent to Fiverr as fee, I should have been able to recover the “Loss” of my sales due to charge back (which only $60). But why Fiverr not doing that, instead Fiverr excuse that they do not get the money from the canceled order.

With this case… I’m asking you guys in this community, what should be the best solution. I understand in business we have risk. But here we join to Fiverr in hope we get protection from Fiverr through their payment gateway service.

Let me know what’s your thought…

Regards,
Arofat

[dion]

Hi Arofat,

I understand how frustrating this can be as over the course of my (almost) 7 year tenure, this has also happened to me on more than one occasion. However, I can count on one hand the occurrences, so this is absolutely the exception as opposed to the rule. The issue here is that that particular buyer went through their financial institution (which Fiverr cannot control) in what I can only suggest as a possible desperation act.

The positive thing here is that Fiverr bans accounts that do this. Sure, people could simply ‘open a new account’, but the motivation factor to continually open accounts to commit this behavior is less likely present after being banned and again, after 5300 completed orders, I’ve only experienced this 3-5 times over the course of 7 years. This is the risk that every business takes on whilst excepting credit and bank card payments, so you’re not alone in dealing with the frustration of this happening.

Fiverr does a nonpareil feat of marketing our marketplace, and I’m sure many others would agree that the sheer volume of buyers/clients interested in their products and services has been amplified since joining, because the most sophisticated tactics are being used (at a very paltry cost to us) on our behalf, so that we can simply focus on delivering something awesome to the world. My hope is that more people begin to realize how highly challenging marketing-to-receive-actual sales-that-provide-tangible-monetary-gain at this scale truly is, so Fiverr has shielded/protected us from the absolute most pressing issue facing a sales reliant small business/freelancer/entrepreneur.

One idea that I’ve always had is a custom withdrawal amount as this would allow you to keep a portion of your funds in your Fiverr account for purchases, personal reasons and for instances like this. Whether or not Fiverr pay for this type of mishap is definitely subjective, but I have enough experience and data to suggest that this will be few and far between.

Cheers,
Dion

[martinzed]

I’ve recently joined fiver and on my 3rd gig had the problem of a buyer not responding, despite sending the gig early. No payment either.
It seems that sellers are underrated… this is my first impression. We are customers too.
Despite what you say Dion, I wouldn’t say the cost to sellers is ‘paltry’ Fiverr seems to be a very good way for Fiverr to make money without any responsibility to the seller.

I don’t understand how fiver can take money from you 3 months after delivery?

[juraganet]

I’ve recently joined fiver and on my 3rd gig had the problem of a buyer not responding, despite sending the gig early. No payment either.

It seems that sellers are underrated… this is my first impression. We are customers too.

Despite what you say Dion, I wouldn’t say the cost to sellers is ‘paltry’ Fiverr seems to be a very good way for Fiverr to make money without any responsibility to the seller.

I don’t understand how fiver can take money from you 3 months after delivery?

Hi Dion and Marinzed,

Yes, exactly, I understand the risk of business. I was just trying to get some idea to solve this problem and reduce the risk, i.e Fiverr give insurance from the deduction fee. Which will make us all respect them instead of fully 100% sacrificing seller meanwhile they picking money from us. As we all building this community up to gain market attention.

For Marinzed, yes it’s kind of funny because the event of transaction is already 3 months ago, but Fiverr rip my balance today.

So as for now, for the sake of protection and reducing my risk, from now on, I will always withdraw my balance whenever reach more than $50.

Yesterday my balance was $300, then Fiverr cut it to $250. Very sad…