Fiverr Community Forum

Why are sellers not able to block anyone we need/want to?

Welcome Fiverr FAQ
#1

I’ve been on Fiverr a few months and I’m still fuzzy on how and when I’m able to block people. I don’t see why we don’t have a sitewide ability to block individuals from contacting us AND buying from us, particularly if they’re being abusive. That seems like the bare minimum of functionality we should have from a platform that takes 20% off the top of our earnings. Other freelance platforms I work for take 20% and have dedicated phone support for sellers, blocking features, etc with no issues. Fiverr is extremely laissez-faire except when you do something they don’t like as a company…outside of their needs, it’s apparently every woman for herself.

I had a person message me out of the blue today through my product description gig, saying he had over 1000 items to be described, and asking me for a price. I quoted him 20% off my normal rate and his response was to tell me to “F*ck off” - uncensored, of course. That’s ridiculous, and I have a right not to be subjected to that kind of abuse, particularly from people I haven’t even worked with before. I want to block him, yet there is no option for me to do so - and reading what I have here on the forums, it appears that blocking someone from contacting you isn’t necessarily blocking them from buying from you…that seems like a massive oversight that’s ripe for abuse, to me.

7 Likes
#2

I afraid you can’t block a user. But you can click on the report button next to the buyer’s nick. There are many kind of buyers you will encounter along the way, just don’t bother with them and move on. Don’t let this small group of black sheep affected our life, pay more attention to genuine buyers and provide excellence support and you will be good :slight_smile:

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#3

@vince007 This person isn’t affecting my work in any way, but the fact remains that none of us should be subjected to this kind of abuse, which is unfortunately more common in female freelancers. I just finished working with a returning female client, a model, who needed my help creating big, bold disclaimers in her gigs to inform men that any inappropriate messages or requests would be reported. She already clearly stated she didn’t do any adult work, but she’s inundated by these disgusting creeps on a daily basis. That’s unacceptable, and it’s Fiverr’s job to step up and protect her and other harassed freelancers here. I deserve to go to work without having strangers curse at me, free of consequences, because they don’t like my prices.

5 Likes
#4

I’m sorry that happened to you! Any place where there are females open to a message system on the internet, this kind of abuse is going to happen. Fiverr can’t know before it happens who is going to send these types of messages.

I’m sure men get a share of abusive messages too.

I think two things are having the effect of how fiverr runs things:

  1. They have to listen to their legal team about making sure they are not acting as our employers. That ties their hands about exactly how much they can supervise what goes on with sellers.

  2. They surely noticed a drop in sales when the block feature was available, so they took it away.

That’s my guess about why things are done as they are here.

As a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, there are very strict rules fiverr has to follow that affect how it is run on a day to day basis.

In addition they have to keep an eye of the bottom line and how any changes affect that. It’s their fiduciary duty to their shareholders.

It’s unfortunate that the internet is a world where anyone acting as a female model will be seen by a large proportion of men as someone who may be open to more than simply modeling fully clothed but that’s life on the internet. There is no way fiverr can screen out the creeps who send that kind of message. It’s something anyone offering modeling services will have to deal with.
Models in real life go through that too.

4 Likes
#5

I didn’t know Fiverr was publicly traded…that explains a loooot. You’re right, they have to tread lightly, but honestly…give us the block button and let us handle it ourselves. They’re letting us self-police on the forums with flags, is it really that different at the core?

And yeah, I know about the awful crap models go through - I used to handle the model releases for a BIG clothing company for several years and I heard stories. I made sure to shut down any of it I could and circulated warnings about bad photogs and crews I’d heard about through the grapevine so the girls I worked with could avoid them. Gotta push back where ya can!

2 Likes
#6

I’m not so sure about that. Being on the NYSE means you have to release quaterly reports as every company, hold yearly meetings, etc. It doesn’t mean you have to protect people from harassment.

For example, when Elon Musk smoked 420 on a video, that didn’t get him in trouble with the SEC. However, when he started a rumor that he was going to take his company private, which lead to people buying a lot of Tesla stock, only for Elon to back down, that did cause him problems, I believed he was fined.

My point is NYSE only cares about the bottom line, they don’t care about morality or human decency.

1 Like
#7

Fiverr’s view is that buyers are money messiahs and sellers are as expendable as houseflies. (At least until they are raking in $$$$$'s.) That’s not official policy, but that’s how things work in practice.

What I hate is not being able to block buyers to shutdown conversations before they order. It seems to me that people’s ability to communicate fell off a cliff and set on fire this year. The majority of new buyers I get simply can’t say in a simple message what they want.

After three messages when it is still not clear what people want, I try to close things down by saying I can’t help. In the majority of cases, this results in a barrel of insults, accusations that I’m wasting people’s time, or a Liam Neeson-esq "Good Luck."

The same thing happens when I refuse to give discounts or simply can’t help because I don’t offer what people want. People simply can’t take no without going on a rage rampage.

In every case, I’d like to say I can’t help and then just block people. This would also solve the added problem of people messaging me again days or weeks later and restarting the whole process. - After all, if I don’t reply, I get penalized.

Personally, I’m waiting for a #FreelancesArePeopleToo movement. - Or something like it. Either that or we should be allowed to create chatbots to respond to messages.

Pretty much every message I get asks if I do what my gig description says and how much I charge. I could easily create a script to automate replies and I doubt anyone would notice.

4 Likes
#8

Companies care about being sued and getting bad publicity. It’s not the NY stock exchange that cares though.

There is a large set of rules for publicly traded companies.

https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/sec-disclosure-laws-and-regulations.html

http://www.legalandcompliance.com/securities-resources/sec-requirements-for-public-companies/

GENERAL RULES AND REGULATIONS, SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=8e0ed509ccc65e983f9eca72ceb26753&node=17:4.0.1.1.1&rgn=div5

3 Likes
#9

The bigger they are, the less they care. Apple didn’t exactly fix the problem of having to hang nets to catch ‘falling workers’ outside its factory windows. If you’re Uber, you can run over old people in robot cars, and if you’re Google, you spy on everyone on the planet.

The trick is to just bury all the bad PR beneath new product launches and as many “look, we’re woke” announcements as possible.

4 Likes
#10

Apple

@cyaxrex In 2016, Nokia sued Apple for patent infringement, claiming that Apple has relied on its patents related to software, video coding, chipsets, display, UI and antenna for years dating back to the release of the iPhone 3GS, TechCrunch reported. The companies settled for an undisclosed amount in May 2017, but Nokiamob reported that Apple ended up paying Nokia a whopping $2 billion.

Airborne

In 2008, Airborne agreed to pay $23.3 million to refund customers who bought the product, though the company did not admit to any wrongdoing,

Dannon

Dannon was ordered to pay up to $45 million in damages to consumers under the terms of a class-action lawsuit that was settled in 2010

Enron

Energy company Enron collapsed in 2001 after its fraudulent accounting practices came to light. Then, in 2008, the company made history for being at the center of the largest settlement of a U.S. securities fraud case. As part of the settlement, Enron shareholders and investors were entitled to split more than $7.2 billion

GlaxoSmithKlinee

Department of Justice ordered the drug company to pay $3 billion as part of a criminal and civil case.

McDonald’s

In 1992, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, N.M., sued McDonald’s after the fast food chain’s coffee caused severe burns when she accidentally spilled some onto her lap. Liebeck offered to settle the claim for $20,000, but McDonald’s chose to fight it. During the trial, it came to light that McDonald’s was serving their coffee at a potentially dangerous temperature — between 180 and 190 degrees — while most other fast food restaurants serve coffee in the range of 135 to 140 degrees.

Liebeck was awarded $200,000 in compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages.

Philip Morris

Philip Morris is the company behind some of the most well-known cigarette brands, and it’s one of the cigarette manufacturers that was sued by several U.S. states to recover the costs incurred to treat sick and dying cigarette smokers. The Master Settlement Agreement was reached in 1998, and it required the tobacco industry to pay the settling states billions of dollars annually forever, and imposed restrictions on the sale and marketing of cigarettes by the participating manufacturers. In Fiscal Year 2019, the participating states will collect $27.3 billion from the settlement and taxes.

Philip Morris has since re-branded itself to PMI, and is now focusing on the development and sales of its smoke-free tobacco products.

Red Bull

It turns out Red Bull does not give you wings. Benjamin Careathers filed a class-action lawsuit against Red Bull in 2013, alleging that the company’s claims that the energy drink increased performance, concentration and reaction speed were misleading. The company was ordered to pay $13 million in a settlement,

Splenda

Splenda was sued by its rival Equal over claims that Splenda was misleading consumers into believing its product was more natural and healthier than other artificial sweeteners by using the slogan, “Made from sugar so it tastes like sugar.” Although the active ingredient in Splenda begins as pure cane sugar, it is chemically altered in the process and the end product contains no sugar. Merisant Co., which makes Equal, was seeking over $200 million in damages from Splenda’s parent company, McNeil Nutritionals.

Visa and MasterCard

After 13 years of litigation, in 2018 Visa and MasterCard agreed to pay up to $6.2 billion as part of a class action lawsuit brought on by U.S. retailers over unfair swipe fees.

…And many more.

I think they might care after these happen to them.

taken from finance. yahoo. com

6 Likes
#11

I know it’s maddening. I’ve now resorted to never answering personally but sending a barrage of pre-written messages to each and every one of them. They can’t bother to read the gig descriptions and now ask if I do anything under the sun all of which are nothing to do with my gigs at all.

Of course none of them want to read anything and that includes the message I send them so they leave.

3 Likes
#12

Do they? Nike chose Kapernick as their spokesman even though he kneels during the national anthem, he attacked their Betsy Ross shoes, and he is not popular with a lot of people.

Nike stock price is up because in spite of the controversy, their sales are up.

If your fundamentals are good, bad publicity won’t affect you. Uber and Lyft have low stock prices because they’re unprofitable companies, just like Amazon was for ten long years.

Exactly! Even if they are sued and pay huge settlements, it doesn’t matter. Stock traders and even the public at large don’t care in the long run.

There are exceptions. When Dick’s Sporting Goods turn their backs against gun owners, a lot of gun owners went elsewhere, and Dick’s had to close several stores. As the saying goes: “Get Woke. Go Broke.”

All companies have target audiences. If your Nike, you can get woke and stay strong. If you’re Dicks, Chick-Fil-A, etc, you can’t.

Personally, I think corporations should avoid any political causes. Politics and business don’t mix.

1 Like
#13

It would be a bigger risk to their reputation if word got out that they they don’t do anything about ■■■■■■ harrassment. That’s a much bigger stakeholder relations issue.

1 Like
#14

But they aren’t our employers. It’s a website. Where we post our gigs. And anyone can message anyone, about anything.

I don’t expect to be protected by fiverr against ■■■■■■ harassment like I would if this were in a situation of being an employee.

#15

I know. Not caring about ■■■■■■ harrassment is always a PR issue. It doesn’t only become an issue for if there is legal obligation.

That’s why companies ditch spokespeople when allegations come to light.

Companies lose business because of this sort of thing.

#16

True they do ban people when there is an issue.

#17

Yeah it can really affect stakeholder relations.