I am being held hostage!

[est1990]

I am so confused about what is happening. I have been on fiverr for just under 2 months. I always try and over deliver to make all buyers happy. I even do more than I should at times but I still do it with a smile on my face. As a result, buyers have given me the best feedback and even tipped me. So I feel that is an equal trade off. I have read horror stories in the forum section, but I am now finding myself in one.



The buyer purchase my business card gig which shows EXACTLY what you get to avoid any conflicts. All I do is just change out the buyers information. He first said he wanted the .psd file which clearly states in the description that I cannot do that. You get the .jpg. I said I will wait till you confirm that a .jpg file is okay. The buyer than stated to proceed which I did. I delivered very promptly only to get a response saying the final product was not what was advertised. I am shocked to hear this since nobody has ever complained about this. Not only that, It’s the same EXACT file that is shown. Not only is it the same file, but you can see all the other purchases from other buyers that show the final product in the gig gallery. I asked what was not the same and he said the font, which is not even the case at all. Like I said, it’s the same file.



I checked the buyers score and it turns out that he has a 22% cancellation ratio. Now that doesn’t mean issues will happen, but it makes you get cautious. So then thinking that all he is out to do is harm me, I decided to offer a mutual cancellation and said ‘I am sorry that you feel that way as it is the same exact file, but I am sending you a mutual cancellation so you can have your money back.’ (Even though I didn’t want to do so as he has the final product and can still go print his cards and have gotten a refund as well)



So after not responding to my mutual cancellation request he completes the gig order and gives me a really negative feedback which I am not surprised he was going to do. (Kicking myself for not nuking the order and hurting my cancellation ratio)



Then after he gave me a negative feedback, he sent me such hurtful messages. I have attached a screenshot as proof and blocked out the users information. However, You can see what was said. What is a seller supposed to do in this situation? I just really hope that customer support can help me out.



If you can’t download the screenshot attachment, here is a copy of the message that was sent to me after he declined a mutual cancellation request and gave me a negative and hurtful feedback.

---

Here is the message in case you don't want to download the screenshot

Buyer:
1) my life isn't only fiverr, and fiverr doesn't have a mobile app unfortunately, so i can't access it properly when i'm not home
2) sending 6 messages in a row doesn't help or expedite the gig either
3) if you compare 'iphone_business...jpg' with 'legalusfront...jpg' you gonna see they don't match AT ALL
4) i don't want my money back, i just want you to deliver the expectation you created on your consumer -- if you say both images match 100%, i'm gonna escalate this to fiverr team to decide who's right.
5) till you deliver what i've paid for, i'm not removing my bad rating/review.

available to debate your points of view.
thanks

Me:

Are you serious? I offered to give you a full refund.... yet you still give me a negative score? I will be contacting customer support.

Me:

I also sent you those messages because I wanted to RESOLVE the issue before i left to take my dog to the vet. That way you could either have your refund or I could try and resolve the issue. You said you would be around to answer my reply and i replied within 1 minute.

I don't understand why if you're unhappy you wouldn't just take the money back instead of trying to ruin someone's reputation and hold them hostage. I have read about horror stories in the forum and I am afraid that this is happening to me.

Buyer:
no bullying please.
i'm fed up of false advertising on fiverr.
i'll be the one contacting fiverr team, don't worry.
if you don't answer my question now, i'm gonna ask all my friends to order your gig and give you bad ratings too. you're not using good faith, or else you'd fix my design or at least admit and apologize for having a false ad!

Buyer:
stop giving me orders and bullying me.
my money, i decide how to spend it. i'm the customer not you.
i want you to:
a) answer my question if those 2 images are alike
b) to deliver what you've promised
if you don't wanna do neither of those, stop spamming me or i'll report you to the FBI for online stalking.
this is my last warning!

Me:
I am not bullying anyone. I offered to give you a refund since you were unhappy. I don't know how you can say I am threatening you.... you're the one doing the threatening. Like I said, I will just leave this up to customer support.

Hope you have a good day.

Thanks.

Me:
Hello,
You also said "you're not using good faith, or else you'd fix my design or at least admit and apologize for having a false ad!"

1. I don't know what to fix as it's the same exact file.
2. I offered to give you your money back and sent you a mutual cancellation.

Hope you have a good day,
Thanks.

---

That is what was said to me. So again, I ask what are you supposed to do as a seller when someone does this to you? He calls me the bully but yet he talks to me like this and threatens me when I've done nothing but been polite, and sent him a refund request. I just really hope customer support does something about this and helps me out as I am now scared to do any business on here. It took me awhile to build up my reputation only for someone to come along and purposely try to hurt my reputation. It's just not fair. Maybe fiverr can implement a way to reject a gig purchase from someone with a 22% cancellation ratio....
I really hope none of this happens to you.... I just wish I had nuked the order and had my cancellation ratio go up instead of dealing with this now :(

Sincerely,
A very bummed seller :/

[est1990]

Reply to @bachas85: I really hope so as I am shocked that this just happened… Call the FBI on me for nothing? I explained everything to customer support. I just hope they resolve it as it hard for me to understand how they could allow someone to act like that.



Also, I am not sure how else sellers are supposed to protect themselves. The only thing I could’ve done differently was just nuke the order before he had a chance to give me a negative feedback. And even If I did that, I still get punished for nuking an order which hurts my cancellation ratio.

[craigscott]

Wow this one takes the cake! I’m still on the process on believing what I just read. I sincerely have no doubt that Customer Support will sympathize with your plight and have this situation resolved in a timely manner. Don’t be discouraged when you meet buyers like these, they’re out there just for the specific purpose of frustrating sellers. Once you can identify them then 95% of your problems are solved now the 5% left is decided on how you deal with them and not let them impact their depression on you.

[est1990]

Reply to @craigscott: I know, I am still shocked that this has happened to me. It just a bummer because I try so hard to satisfy all my customers and you can tell how appreciative they are for it with all the positive feedback they give me. I should’ve known something was up with a 22% cancellation ratio as a buyer. His agenda is clearly to harass sellers… I really hope customer service doesn’t allow/tolerate this kind of behavior as it is making me 2nd guess whether I want to continue to be on here. I just hope his negative feedback which is complete b.s. doesn’t scare any future customers away. Luckily all my wonderful buyers have left the best feedback so let’s hope future buyers see the positive instead of that 1 negative.



Just really wish this doesn’t happen to anybody else…

[craigscott]

Reply to @est1990: don’t worry girl I’m sure your work speaks for itself and believe me that ALL your satisfied customers will NEVER hesitate in referring your services to their associates, friends and family members. Good Customer Service and Professionalism is the main ingredient in any business.

[est1990]

Update:

I have a question, maybe someone can help out.



I still have not heard from fiverr but the buyer’s profile stated he was in the Netherlands. After going over the info the buyer provided for the business card I decided to check his website. It takes me to his amazon page where he is selling a book. The buyer claimed to have graduated from standford and harvard. All the information he gave me was also for the U.S. so I thought maybe he was outsourcing my gig. After reading some of the comments for his book, it looks like someone called him out on being a fraud and then got attacked just like me. Now I know this guy is a fraud!!! I would provide the link to his amazon kindle book, but I do not want to get into trouble by posting it. So I will copy and paste the comment of what was said.



Also remember, this guy verbally attacked me and threatened me as you can see in my first post. You can see a lot of the similarities between our problems with this buyer.

---

Here is the comment that someone left on his amazon kindle book but have taken out the buyers name as I do not want to break any rules for posting it:

"It is highly unlikely that [buyers name] graduated from Stanford or Harvard Business School. If his representations are indeed lies, it throws all his credentials into doubt. I am an alumni of Stanford University (with an actual degree) and searched for his name in our alumni database. He does not appear anywhere. As an author trying to promote a book, he should be popping up everywhere. As an alumnus, he should appear at least once. Neither are the case.

Red flags were initially raised after Peter added me on Facebook. He started a conversation with me and his grammar was incredibly poor. When I asked why he added me on the social network, he claimed I was insecure. He became aggressive and claimed I was fishing for compliments. When I looked him up in the Stanford alumni database, he asked why I was acting like a police officer, called me a vulgar name, claimed I was bullying, and un-friended me.

I looked into his credentials because his writing is awful. I don't know if English is his second language (which would be a reasonable excuse up to a certain point) but spelling "until" as "untill" (among other elementary mistakes) will automatically eliminate your application to Stanford and, especially, Harvard Business School. I have little doubt that Peter is a complete fraud searching for a quick buck and I encourage everyone to proceed with caution.

Update: I have sent an email to Amazon with my concerns."

---

There is no way someone like this should be allowed on Fiverr.... you guys are lucky he isn't attacking you like he is me.

So my question is this: Should I contact the buyer and give him the link to his review that someone left about him and prove that he's just only to cause trouble. I already contacted customer support, so should I wait for their response or message them again with the link to the review so that they can see how treats and threatens other people?

Like I said, Imagine if this was happening to you....

Please help me fiverr :(

[rbsonsf]

Leave it. This is crazy! People do crappy things and you just have to be strong within yourself; you know the truth as do the customers who support you. If customer support doesn’t boot this dude out and fast, then there is a broader discussion…I’ll use your services sista; I’m sure your work rocks–you can’t fight all the mental abnormalities out there. Just surround yourself with the best people.

[apicturesworth]

Any updates on the hostage situation?

[radugeorgescu]

Reply to @est1990: I don’t suggest stepping on his toes. 🙂 Apologise and try to resolve the problem nicely, offer him to cancel the order, tell him that you didn’t mean to cause him any problem.



If you go at it thinking that you are right (even if you are) and answer him in the same manor he does. You won’t get far with it.



But it does sound like a strong case for CS to help you out. Usualy they encourage sellers to deal on their own with the buyer, I’m curious on what they will reply to you on this clear abuse case 🙂

[finalstep]

Make sure to highlight this part to fiverr support (it definitely violates terms of service and they should remove the feedback) - “if you don’t answer my question now, i’m gonna ask all my friends to order your gig and give you bad ratings too”

[est1990]

Reply to @radugeorgescu: I did not step on anybodies toes. I offered a mutual cancellation right away as he started complaining. Although I don’t think I should have as all the images that he’s complaining about come from the same exact file! He turned it down only to give me a negative feedback and then started threatening me. I also never attacked him as I tried to be polite as I could be.



Honestly after reading his comments threatening someone else on amazon like he is doing to me, it’s clear he’s only out to cause problems. There has got to be away to protect sellers from people like this. If you look at all my comments/reviews, you’ll see how much people appreciate that I do. I always over delievered and do more than I should. So it’s unfair that someone thinks that they can for fun ruin someone’s reputation. Imagine someone was doing this to you?

[est1990]

UPDATE: I woke up to him messaging me where his clearly trying to brag about giving me a negative review… I have also yet to hear from Customer Support which is pretty frustrating as I am not sure how they could allow a member on fiverr to treat anybody like this.



It’s also more frustrating that a BUYER can go around and ruining people’s reputations for fun. What’s even more frustrating is that he can give me negative feedback and ruin my ratings. However, I give him a negative feedback but he still has his 5stars… How does fiverr only allow the seller to get penalized? Doesn’t make sense how the buyer can’t get a negative score…



Here is the message that he sent me earlier trying to rub it in my face that he left me a negative feedback and keep in mind, I have no responded to him since the last message that I posted.

---

Buyer:
we are done here.
you keep the money and the bad rating/review.
i keep my integrity, and this debate is over.
hope you have a good life!
thanks

---

I am not sure what he means by integrity? I offered a full refund!! How can someone get so mad at someone?? I am honestly not sure what to do as a seller. I made sure that the buyer knows what they're getting in advance. You see what your business cards are going to look like before you purchase them!! So what else does a seller do to protect themselves from these situations? So unfair.... I'm just hoping customer support hurries up and takes care of this and even removes this user from the site. Imagine if you had someone doing this to you....

:(

[est1990]

Wow… This guy will not leave me alone. So after his last message i had sent a response only because I do not want my ‘responsiveness’ time to up as a result of not responding. And then he follows by sending me another message rubbing it my face that he gave me a negative review (Which is why i’m pretty sure he bought the gig. I should’ve just nuked the order instead requesting a mutual cancellation) So i politely asked him to leave me alone as he’s just trying to bait and get a reaction out of me. Below is this message that I had sent:

---

Me:
Hello,

Please leave me alone. I have already reported you and am awaiting a response from Customer Support. I have explained to them how you are harassing me as well as threatening me. I have also showed them how you treat people on amazon as you threatened someone else just like you are doing to me to show them how you treat people.

You are not PL so stop claiming to be as you never graduated Stanford or Harvard. I know Customer Support will see how much of a fraud you are that your disgraceful behavior should not be allowed on fiverr.

So please just leave me alone!!

---

I would rather not even respond to him, but like i said, I don't want my responsiveness time to get damaged because of this guy. I am not sure if blocking him is a good idea as I don't want the convo to be removed until Fiverr has a chance to review everything.

So here is the message that he just sent me which he is clearly just trying to rub in my face that he gave me a negative review.

Buyer:
are you feeling alright?
you think it's through bullying you gonna get my bad rating/review removed?

---

Again, I have posted the whole convo in here and no way have i bullied him. I have asked him to leave me a lone multiple times.

I really wish Fiverr customer support would do something about this as I have never had any issues on here. I have always over delivered and now somebody is harassing me to the point to where I am not sure I want to even continue to do business on here. I know other communities would not tolerate this kind of behavior. I just really hope fiverr does something soon as it has been almost 24hrs since this has happened.

:(

[est1990]

Also, Should i contact customer support again that this guy is still harassing me? Or shall I continue to wait for a response. it’s just hard for to imagine that fiverr would allow someone to bully users on here like this…

[est1990]

Update:



Wow, this guy will not leave me alone… Now i get this message from him!!

---

darling, you must be very confused: i do not take orders from you.

i am the customer, and i asked you to stop writing me. till that happens, i'm gonna continue kindly asking you to stop spamming me.

i've also reported you to the fiverr team, and to the IC3/FBI for cyberbullying, since you said my name is fake, and accused me of being a criminal. and harassing other people.

this is escalating and i think it's in our best interest stop writing each other at this point.
all the best
PL

ps. it's very easy to insult and accuse others when our name is 'est1990' and we don't have a clear face or name or contacts. lack of character it's a cliche here, so as cowards like you ;) come back when you have a NAME and a FACE like i do!

---

Can you believe what this guy is saying? I never gave him orders as you can tell from my responses. I am not sure what IC3 but apprearently he has now reported me to them as well as the FBI, which I highly doubt. I never accused him of being a criminal as well. Also, on his amazon page where he is claiming to be a harvard and stanford grad, a person left a comment saying they looked his name up to see if he was an alumni and his name was nowhere to be found. And he's calling me a fake?

What is a seller supposed to do when they come across this kind of behavior? This is really sad that this kind of behavior is on fiverr. All of you sellers are lucky you are not dealing with this guy. I wish i could post his name on here so all sellers will know to avoid him. He is not worth the $4.

[akashintros]

@est1990 Thankx for posting this case above…i wish i could help you! Don’t worry about name…i got him…just checked your main gig which has only 1 negative feedback much like you stated. I have already put him to my blacklist!

sorry for your troubles…hope it gets heard soon by fiverr gods 🙂

[est1990]

Reply to @akashintros: Hmmm good idea. Maybe I should start creating my own blacklist… Only thing is then you’d have to nuke your order to cancel it which effects your ratings 😕



Anybody know how long it takes to get a response from Customer Support? It’s been pretty much 24hrs already…

[wordpressguru]

I’m new on Fiverr, but I can give you an advice.

If you had a buyer who asked you to do more than you are willing to to in that gig, or the buyer stalking you, just don’t do his next order. He can’t leave you a bad review but only the automated message: “failed to deliver on time”.

[est1990]

Reply to @wordpressguru_: Welcome to fiverr!! I am not sure if you read the story or not, but I had already completed the gig. The buyer then said it wasn’t what was advertised which is absurd as all images are shown are from the same exact file. It’s a template, all I do is put in the users information into the business card. I told him I am not sure how it is not what is advertised as all images were taken from that file. I’ve had over 50 completed orders from that gig alone and not one person has complained about anything.



Even after the buyer said that and even has a 22% cancellation ratio, I got concerned that he was just out to give me a hard time (Which i have read a lot of horror stories about and right away thought this is what was going to happen). I sent him a mutual cancellation request, he turned it down so he could ‘give me negative feedback’. If you look at the comments i left on here that he left me, you can see how aggressive he is and how mean. He’s bullying and threatening me. Sorry, I am not sure what else a seller is supposed to do in this situation.



I have contacted customer support but I am not sure what is going on as it’s been over 24hrs. How they let this kind of behavior be tolerated on Fiverr is beyond my understanding. I have worked very hard to build up my reputation and if they allow people like this on fiverr, I will just cash out and go somewhere else. I don’t need the aggravation of someone purposely trying to hurt my reputation. Not only that, it’s sad that it’s taking customer support to handle a situation in which someone is threatening another user and even said that he was going to get his friends to buy my gig just so they can give me a negative feedback.



You’re new, so I will tell you this… If you sense something is wrong, just ‘NUKE’ the order. Don’t do a mutual cancellation. The $4 is not worth the treatment and abuse I am getting from this user.

[wordpressguru]

Reply to @est1990: In my almost 8 years of work as a programmer, I had countless issues with this kind of clients. Actually, this is what I do. I “NUKE” them. One of my gigs have 94% positive ratio simply because of that. Unfortunately, some people consider that for 4$ someone should do miracles on the assigned task.



Forget him and go ahead 🙂

[est1990]

UPDATE: I guess it might be time to pack up and leave the fiverr community. Making $4 is not enough for me to allow myself to get bullied on this site. Here is the response I got from Jenny in customer service.

---

Hi there,

As much as we would like to help you here, it's not possible for us to override buyer's right for leaving feedback on the order. Feedback on the order FO83E8482245 can be removed only if buyer gives their agreement for that.
We advise you to concentrate on successfully delivering your other orders as doing so would eventually negate impact of this buyer's negative feedback.

Good luck with your sales!

Regards,
Jenny

---

I could not believe that when i read it!! I have read lots of stories in the forum about how fiverr only protects the buyers. I cannot believe they cannot change negative feedback as people on here have mentioned that they can. I delivered exactly what was promised, the buyer complained so i was nice and offered a mutual cancellation. He then declined only to give me a negative feedback and then harass me via inbox. I have copied all messages above so people can see what has been said.

So I ask you this fiverr community:

What's to stop people from targeting high sellers or people with solid score or competitors? For instance, all i would have to do is just make a new account, purchase a competitors or anybody i felt like targeting and then say it's not what is promised and then leave a negative feedback. Obviously fiverr allows this.

I am really shocked. I honestly thought the fiverr customer support would see right through what this guy was doing, especially after him harassing me in my inbox with such mean messages and threatening to get his friends to purchase my gig so they could also give me negative feedback.

You sellers are lucky you haven't ran into this clown or this situation. There should be a blacklist or something that way we know who to stay away from.
You guys are lucky this hasn't happened to you.

[est1990]

So I have a question after checking the buyer’s profile again…



When a buyer leaves a negative feedback, the sellers score is impacted. However, when you leave a negative score for the buyer, nothing happens and they still have their same score. How is this far? Don’t you think as a seller, we should be allowed to see more information about the buyer? Maybe this guy has had lots of other bad experiences. Had i known he was a trouble maker from the beginning, I would have just nuked the order and avoided everything altogether.



Just like I have stated before, it seems like the system in place is setup for the buyers w/o keeping the sellers integrity in mind. Just seems like you can spend lots of time building up your reputation, only to have someone easily tarnish it if they feel like it.

[sliverfox]

Is this not a a similar situation on ebay and Amazon and countless other online selling communities… I think that if there are no buyers then there is no business site - maybe that is why all these sites seem to value the buyer more than the seller - are we dispensable or disposable - I do hope I am so wrong over this - I wish you all the best in this situation. I do not know the answer to your question I am sorry so should not have replied I guess… but hope that you are ok. I would not let 1 jerk ruin your success.

[sliverfox]

Reply to @wordpressguru_: I agree wholeheartedly with you approach - life is too short eh to let someones elses issues cloud your fun 🙂

[apicturesworth]

Never mind the actual exchanges, but the whole thing is too subjective for fiverr to change feed backs because you’re client was (wrongfully) unhappy with his gig.



Be upset that you got a lame duck client, don’t be mad that fiverr couldn’t change his feedback for you.