How the Fiverr rating system is broken and makes sellers into desperate beggars

[kanishkaseo]

You will loose nothing for giving 5 stars.

[jonathandellmar]

You will loose nothing for giving 5 stars.

Except in the world that I live in, when you earn a “B”, you get a “B” If everybody that earns a “C” gets an “A” WTF bother with having a rating system?

[fonthaunt]

You will loose nothing for giving 5 stars.

The whole system loses if a buyer gives an undeserved 5 stars. All sellers lose if every seller gets a perfect rating just because they were nice. Even so, I wish the transaction between the OP and seller could have gone differently.

In a system where sellers are generally okay if they get a 4.5-5 star rating but penalized for anything less than that, I tend to think harder before I rate a seller below 4.5. I’ll do it if I have to, like with a seller who is late and never delivers anything or contacts me and gets an automatic late rating. If a seller gives me really poor work and they say they offer revisions but then try to charge me for a revision to correct their errors, I might give them an honest rating that is 4 stars or below.

Overall, though, because of the way the rating system is set up, my own reaction to a mediocre dellvery that isn’t worth 4.5 or up but also isn’t bad enough for a bad rating, I just don’t leave a review at all. The seller isn’t penalized and they get paid. The buyer isn’t offering a dishonest review, they just choose not to review. I

don’t think that’s a bad thing and for most sellers who do an OK job and are under a harsh review system, I think it can be unfair to give a 3 or 4 star rating to a seller that does enough to keep buyers coming back. On the other hand, just handing out 5 stars to every seller out of pity or because it’s only $5 (or $10 or whatever) doesn’t help excellent sellers either. 🙂

[jonathandellmar]

OK. Now that I’ve found out that the seller’s behavior is just a symptom of a failed rating system, I’ve adjusted the tile of the topic to be more accurate in light of my new found knowledge.

[divyagoel]

Ratings matter more than the tip here.

[newsmike]

Good thing I paid more that $5us pesos for the work that I commissioned. I didn’t go with the cheapest provider, I paid for the upgrades and I tipped to boot.

And shock of shocks, I was going to give him more work.

But hey. The extra money does nothing to help grow his business…

And shock of shocks, I was going to give him more work.

I can guarantee, the last thing he wanted was for you to order again.

Not long ago, I had a buyer review a job as “outstanding Experience”, give me a tip and a 3 star rating. Unlike your seller, I did not write back and argue about it. No need to, I understand the type of buyer. I’m sure he felt that 3 star was equal to “outstanding”.

Then he orders from me again. I politely told him I could no longer work for him. No further explanation. The last thing anyone needs is an arbitrary lowering of their rating because someone is virtue signalling and playing games with the system to elevate their self image.

[frank_d]

So, I commissioned a gig for a logo. The job gets done and I’m happy. I left a 4 star review and I tipped an additional 20%

The seller messages me: “Thank you sir! But a tip with 4stars? That’s a bit contradictory 😂”

My response was: “God has a hard time getting five stars from me… If someone gets a 5 star review or a 10 / 10 from me, it means that the work was so good that my heart stop beating and it was all I could do from demanding that the Pope canonize and raise them to living sainthood.”

The sellers response was mind blowing: “Then don’t try to contact me again 🙂 because with that 4 stars you didn’t help me develop my business, regardless with the disrespect in your first message. Ciao 👋”

WTF… You got an above average rating… You got tipped… And now you are butt hurt because you didn’t get a five out of five? The work wasn’t perfect. I did have to repeat myself a few times. So, the work wasn’t perfect and you didn’t get a perfect score. It was above average and you got good marks.

You got graded on the work you did and telling a paying (and formerly happy) customer to never come back… How the hell is doing that going to help you build your business sunshine?

Is this what I should expect when engaging sellers on Fiverr?

God has a hard time getting five stars from me

And now you are butt hurt

How the hell is doing that going to help you build your business sunshine

I can totally see your point when it comes to leaving 4-stars, you also tipped and I am aware that a lot of sellers in the logo design category have a really hard time understanding English well, or articulating/comprehending basic design concepts,

BUT

at the same time, all of the above direct quotes from your original post are all big red flags to me as a seller.

[catwriter]

Ok. I’ve always been told that:

1 star - The work sucked Total trainwreck and the lawyers are being called.

2 stars - The work was barely passable. Not a dumpster fire but the job is done and everybody walks away with their marbles.

3 stars - The work met expectations. Your run of the mill everybody did their job and went home satisfied rating.

4 stars - The work exceeded expectations. The client got something above and beyond. Pat yourself on the back and enjoy.

5 stars - The work exceeded all reasonable expectations.

If everything below a 5 star review is considered a dumpster fire, Fiver should put that in big red letters on the top of the review page. Or just give us a “yes” or “no” check box.

Or just give us a “yes” or “no” check box.

It used to be ‘thumbs up’ and ‘thumbs down’, and then someone came up with the idea of a 5 star system.

[eoinfinnegan]

Ok. I’ve always been told that:

1 star - The work sucked Total trainwreck and the lawyers are being called.

2 stars - The work was barely passable. Not a dumpster fire but the job is done and everybody walks away with their marbles.

3 stars - The work met expectations. Your run of the mill everybody did their job and went home satisfied rating.

4 stars - The work exceeded expectations. The client got something above and beyond. Pat yourself on the back and enjoy.

5 stars - The work exceeded all reasonable expectations.

If everything below a 5 star review is considered a dumpster fire, Fiver should put that in big red letters on the top of the review page. Or just give us a “yes” or “no” check box.

I appreciate your understanding my point and that while the seller was unprofessional in how they messaged you, there is an understandable element to why they did so. That said, regardless of whether a buyer understands how the review system works or not, I would never query a review left by a client - the only time I have done so is when I got a 2 star review and a “Eoin is the best” type comment - it was clearly a mistake and the buyer rectified it. Beyond that, sellers should pretty much take it on the chin when they get a 4-4.9 star review. If you only get one like that every now and then it won’t be an issue. However, a 4 star review for a new seller could be detrimental - they wont be able to Send Quotes which is the best way for new sellers to get jobs initially.

4 stars - The work exceeded expectations. The client got something above and beyond. Pat yourself on the back and enjoy.

5 stars - The work exceeded all reasonable expectations.

This idea of “exceeding expectations” is something I dislike - it is like a sports coach saying he wants to see his team give 120%. It doesn’t actually make sense, especially for something like a logo which is completely subjective. You may hate the work, others might love it.

In terms of expectations, if you hired someone from a non-English speaking country, is it reasonable to expect that all communication will be perfect? I don’t think so, so a reasonable expectation in that case would be that you may need to use short sentences, explain things once or twice etc but as long as there wasn’t anything major, then they should get 5 stars for communication, because communication was as expected!

[steveeyes]

If only the rating system was somehow detrimental or rewarding to a buyer’s standing on Fiverr, I bet they would see it from a different perspective. But we all know buyers’ ratings mean very little.

[zazi_developer]

So, I commissioned a gig for a logo. The job gets done and I’m happy. I left a 4 star review and I tipped an additional 20%

The seller messages me: “Thank you sir! But a tip with 4stars? That’s a bit contradictory 😂”

My response was: “God has a hard time getting five stars from me… If someone gets a 5 star review or a 10 / 10 from me, it means that the work was so good that my heart stop beating and it was all I could do from demanding that the Pope canonize and raise them to living sainthood.”

The sellers response was mind blowing: “Then don’t try to contact me again 🙂 because with that 4 stars you didn’t help me develop my business, regardless with the disrespect in your first message. Ciao 👋”

WTF… You got an above average rating… You got tipped… And now you are butt hurt because you didn’t get a five out of five? The work wasn’t perfect. I did have to repeat myself a few times. So, the work wasn’t perfect and you didn’t get a perfect score. It was above average and you got good marks.

You got graded on the work you did and telling a paying (and formerly happy) customer to never come back… How the hell is doing that going to help you build your business sunshine?

Is this what I should expect when engaging sellers on Fiverr?

That’s a bit contradictory

Indeed it’s contradictory. The seller was shocked+Confuse by 4* and tip LOL what a situation.

Its quite hard to build reputation and someone for their ego hurt it. I think its unfair.

[roshanekka]

No work can be perfect in one attempt. I am a graphics designer here and a graphics can not be perfect in one shot. SO if you think that you will get a perfect job in 1 shot then you are totally taking it wrong. Sometimes we give few samples to the buyer, a good buyer always sticks with the seller and see how he is doing, Both must be in same page. So revision helps.

For a genuine seller rating system is very important even more than the money that you are paying. If you ruin a rating of a seller he wont get orders.

So don’t think that if you have to point few stuffs to the seller then the job is not perfect. if you approve it and finalize it then you mean its perfect for you. If you don’t like you must ask for revision until satisfied or cancel it if you are not satisfied. No one will be in any harm if you cancel the order, but a bad rating will surely affect the sales of that buyer.

[Guest glitchybot]

My response was: “God has a hard time getting five stars from me… If someone gets a 5 star review or a 10 / 10 from me, it means that the work was so good that my heart stop beating and it was all I could do from demanding that the Pope canonize and raise them to living sainthood.”

God always gets 10 out of 5 stars from me. He deserves it. But that’s just my two cents . 😉

God always gets 10 out of 5 stars from me. He deserves it. But that’s just my two cents . 😉

Are you always this savage sir?

[indieoven]

So, I commissioned a gig for a logo. The job gets done and I’m happy. I left a 4 star review and I tipped an additional 20%

The seller messages me: “Thank you sir! But a tip with 4stars? That’s a bit contradictory 😂”

My response was: “God has a hard time getting five stars from me… If someone gets a 5 star review or a 10 / 10 from me, it means that the work was so good that my heart stop beating and it was all I could do from demanding that the Pope canonize and raise them to living sainthood.”

The sellers response was mind blowing: “Then don’t try to contact me again 🙂 because with that 4 stars you didn’t help me develop my business, regardless with the disrespect in your first message. Ciao 👋”

WTF… You got an above average rating… You got tipped… And now you are butt hurt because you didn’t get a five out of five? The work wasn’t perfect. I did have to repeat myself a few times. So, the work wasn’t perfect and you didn’t get a perfect score. It was above average and you got good marks.

You got graded on the work you did and telling a paying (and formerly happy) customer to never come back… How the hell is doing that going to help you build your business sunshine?

Is this what I should expect when engaging sellers on Fiverr?

You got an above average rating… You got tipped…

Seller´s behavior was unprofessional and, no doubt about that. But I find it incoherent the fact that you gave 4 stars and left a tip. Sounds like 2 contradictory actions.

Maybe leave the 4 with no tip at all?

Reviews are very important, and is out of discussion that we have to be honest, just like being able to maintain consistency.

[Guest deborah_article]

I can feel the pain of the seller but I won’t blame the buyer because he thought a 4star was a good rating but nevertheless, am happy he is now aware of the rating system.

[frank_d]

I can feel the pain of the seller but I won’t blame the buyer because he thought a 4star was a good rating but nevertheless, am happy he is now aware of the rating system.

A 4-star review IS a positive review, let’s not lose track of that please.

The seller’s response was unprofessional to say the least.

[jonbaas]

God always gets 10 out of 5 stars from me. He deserves it. But that’s just my two cents . 😉

Are you always this savage sir?

Are you always this savage sir?

I fail to see how my comment was “savage”. It was not written with any sort of malicious intent.

[Guest glitchybot]

Are you always this savage sir?

I fail to see how my comment was “savage”. It was not written with any sort of malicious intent.

I was kidding man! 😉 but it seems like you like roasting people on forums, saw you on a couple posts.

[Guest offlinehelpers]

I was kidding man! 😉 but it seems like you like roasting people on forums, saw you on a couple posts.

And I’ve seen you as well! 😉

Please, just chill out and join in the fun - don’t make fun of others - I can see you’ve had posts flagged already. 🙂

[jonbaas]

I was kidding man! 😉 but it seems like you like roasting people on forums, saw you on a couple posts.

I was kidding man! 😉 but it seems like you like roasting people on forums, saw you on a couple posts.

Ah, you were “kidding”… I see. I failed to see the humor, but that may have been just me. 😉

As far as me roasting other people on the forums, that is not my intention either. I am merely a veteran seller voice of practicality and common sense – on a forum where many new sellers lack any of their own, while, instead, expecting everything to be given to them for free. In moments like that, perhaps my common sense responses appear – to those people (and people like them) – to be of a “roasting” nature. Like I said, though, that’s not my intent.