Unusable product, and seller not agreeing to cancel gig

[ainscas]

I am a buyer who requested a logo in the public forum and chose a bid from around 40 solicitations. My designer offered an original product, but is now missing the mark after lots of detailed instruction, and I believe is using stock graphics. They are submitting work that is the complete opposite style of the styles we requested, and just before the first round of revisions, we suggested a cancellation if this gig was out of their comfort zone.

The designer will not engage in conversation with us, and replies with messages like, “Your designs are ready” or “New designs are being worked on” and nothing more, like a bot.

Our first dispute request for a cancellation got declined, and they replied back with a SECOND round of revisions which were even worse than the first round because the text on the logo was barely even readable, which means the logo is basically unusable… but more than that, we still don’t like the tone and style of the logo because the designer is still not listening to us. We’re also pretty sure the designer has not looked at our website or social media to look at the type of company we are, because the files submitted to do not match our existing company brand at all.

Basically, instead of agreeing to dissolve this relationship days ago when we were pretty sure it wasn’t working, the designer has continued to work on our gig, probably to justify getting paid, and further insisting that they don’t cancel it and refund us. Since we have no product that we would ever want to use, this is very frustrating.

Is our ONLY recourse to suck it up if they deny our most recent dispute request, let them keep our money, and just leave negative feedback? We feel like we did not get what we paid for, and they simply dragged out this gig in order to justify getting paid for their time. We would normally not argue with getting paid for time spent on work, but we suggested parting ways a long time ago, but the designer kept working when we knew it wasn’t going in a good direction. We have no product, and just have a lot of wasted time, and now are spending money on hiring someone else.

[miiila]

You always have the recourse to involve Customer Support if it´s not possible to come to a solution acceptable to both parties.

[expertpeople]

In that case give him a warning otherwise please contact with CS

[lisabaarns]

I am a buyer who requested a logo in the public forum and chose a bid from around 40 solicitations. My designer offered an original product, but is now missing the mark after lots of detailed instruction, and I believe is using stock graphics. They are submitting work that is the complete opposite style of the styles we requested, and just before the first round of revisions, we suggested a cancellation if this gig was out of their comfort zone.

The designer will not engage in conversation with us, and replies with messages like, “Your designs are ready” or “New designs are being worked on” and nothing more, like a bot.

Our first dispute request for a cancellation got declined, and they replied back with a SECOND round of revisions which were even worse than the first round because the text on the logo was barely even readable, which means the logo is basically unusable… but more than that, we still don’t like the tone and style of the logo because the designer is still not listening to us. We’re also pretty sure the designer has not looked at our website or social media to look at the type of company we are, because the files submitted to do not match our existing company brand at all.

Basically, instead of agreeing to dissolve this relationship days ago when we were pretty sure it wasn’t working, the designer has continued to work on our gig, probably to justify getting paid, and further insisting that they don’t cancel it and refund us. Since we have no product that we would ever want to use, this is very frustrating.

Is our ONLY recourse to suck it up if they deny our most recent dispute request, let them keep our money, and just leave negative feedback? We feel like we did not get what we paid for, and they simply dragged out this gig in order to justify getting paid for their time. We would normally not argue with getting paid for time spent on work, but we suggested parting ways a long time ago, but the designer kept working when we knew it wasn’t going in a good direction. We have no product, and just have a lot of wasted time, and now are spending money on hiring someone else.

Is our ONLY recourse to suck it up if they deny our most recent dispute request, let them keep our money, and just leave negative feedback? We feel like we did not get what we paid for, and they simply dragged out this gig in order to justify getting paid for their time.

Some of it depends on IF they delivered on what you originally requested, based on their bid.

IF their bid was for “XYZ” and they delivered that but you don’t like it, that is totally different than if you asked for XYZ and they delivered a totally different result.

My gut says you just go to Customer Service. They will look at what you ordered and what was delivered. IF the delivery doesn’t match what was ordered, then they will cancel the order.

The time that doesn’t work is if someone orders something, and the buyer just doesn’t like it, even though it fits the original request.

(While it doesn’t apply to you, some buyers will order something, get what they ordered, then say “I don’t like it” in order to get something free if the seller cancels…)

Let us know how it goes…

PS: Was this seller one of the cheaper sellers, or someone in the mid/upper range in terms of purchase price?

[ainscas]

Is our ONLY recourse to suck it up if they deny our most recent dispute request, let them keep our money, and just leave negative feedback? We feel like we did not get what we paid for, and they simply dragged out this gig in order to justify getting paid for their time.

Some of it depends on IF they delivered on what you originally requested, based on their bid.

IF their bid was for “XYZ” and they delivered that but you don’t like it, that is totally different than if you asked for XYZ and they delivered a totally different result.

My gut says you just go to Customer Service. They will look at what you ordered and what was delivered. IF the delivery doesn’t match what was ordered, then they will cancel the order.

The time that doesn’t work is if someone orders something, and the buyer just doesn’t like it, even though it fits the original request.

(While it doesn’t apply to you, some buyers will order something, get what they ordered, then say “I don’t like it” in order to get something free if the seller cancels…)

Let us know how it goes…

PS: Was this seller one of the cheaper sellers, or someone in the mid/upper range in terms of purchase price?

PS: Was this seller one of the cheaper sellers, or someone in the mid/upper range in terms of purchase price?

We put a flexible budget of $60 in our post, and we were requesting one primary logo with one social media button version logo, and their offer was $40 which included a social media “package.” In the three rounds of submitted logos, they have only been submitting singular logos to us, and I now think that their social media “package” might not include a button logo, but I don’t really care at this point since whatever they may or may not deliver to us in the end is something we won’t use for the business, as all the designs are unusable and not in line with what we’ve requested.

For example, this most recent round of revisions (which came after they declined our dispute and we DID NOT ask for more revisions) was for them to simply turn the existing logo black and white after we gave the following feedback: it is a cartoon-style logo (which is not acceptable, as we previously gave acceptable style of vintage, feminine, watercolor, indie, etc), and the text is unreadable due to the color choices. The b&w revision made it more readable, but the style remained the same.

Even if we are refunded, this is still very frustrating as the funds will be credited to our Fiverr account, but we’ve already paid another designer to begin working today. We need to order business cards for mid-Sept delivery, and could not waste anymore time for processing. We are very upset.

PS - yes, I have opened a CS ticket and alerted them that the seller has declined a cancellation 2 times and continued working on the gig despite us not asking them to. In my 3rd request to cancel, I have explicitly said PLEASE STOP WORKING and told them that a CS ticket has been opened.

[ainscas]

PS: Was this seller one of the cheaper sellers, or someone in the mid/upper range in terms of purchase price?

We put a flexible budget of $60 in our post, and we were requesting one primary logo with one social media button version logo, and their offer was $40 which included a social media “package.” In the three rounds of submitted logos, they have only been submitting singular logos to us, and I now think that their social media “package” might not include a button logo, but I don’t really care at this point since whatever they may or may not deliver to us in the end is something we won’t use for the business, as all the designs are unusable and not in line with what we’ve requested.

For example, this most recent round of revisions (which came after they declined our dispute and we DID NOT ask for more revisions) was for them to simply turn the existing logo black and white after we gave the following feedback: it is a cartoon-style logo (which is not acceptable, as we previously gave acceptable style of vintage, feminine, watercolor, indie, etc), and the text is unreadable due to the color choices. The b&w revision made it more readable, but the style remained the same.

Even if we are refunded, this is still very frustrating as the funds will be credited to our Fiverr account, but we’ve already paid another designer to begin working today. We need to order business cards for mid-Sept delivery, and could not waste anymore time for processing. We are very upset.

PS - yes, I have opened a CS ticket and alerted them that the seller has declined a cancellation 2 times and continued working on the gig despite us not asking them to. In my 3rd request to cancel, I have explicitly said PLEASE STOP WORKING and told them that a CS ticket has been opened.

UPDATE: CS has responded to me, saying that I need to send an additional message as part of my current (3rd) dispute, highlighting that the seller has a 100% money-back policy listed on this gig. They said they will address the issue if the seller is unresponsive after that. It sounds like this negates most of the details of the dispute, and that CS can and would void the agreement since the seller says right in the gig they’ll refund if the buyer is unhappy.

Bottom line: I guess don’t post a 100% money-back guarantee in your gig, then refuse a cancellation from your buyer when they’re unsatisfied.

[lisabaarns]

UPDATE: CS has responded to me, saying that I need to send an additional message as part of my current (3rd) dispute, highlighting that the seller has a 100% money-back policy listed on this gig. They said they will address the issue if the seller is unresponsive after that. It sounds like this negates most of the details of the dispute, and that CS can and would void the agreement since the seller says right in the gig they’ll refund if the buyer is unhappy.

Bottom line: I guess don’t post a 100% money-back guarantee in your gig, then refuse a cancellation from your buyer when they’re unsatisfied.

UPDATE: CS has responded to me, saying that I need to send an additional message as part of my current (3rd) dispute, highlighting that the seller has a 100% money-back policy listed on this gig.

Excellent. From everything you stated, you deserve your money back.

It’s like the sellers who say “Unlimited Revisions” then are bothered that someone keeps asking for revisions.

You also didn’t cheap out and go for someone who is just cheap.

There ARE a huge set of excellent sellers on Fiverr, this time you didn’t get one of those. You’ll find in every category there are a subset of excellent sellers, and a subset who are low quality and not very experienced.

The trick is finding the experienced and high value sellers. They are out there! You often notice they are charging a little more than most in their category, yet they have hundreds or thousands of sales…

Again: Sorry for your poor experience, it makes the rest of us look bad, but you’ll find some high quality in every category.

[misscrystal]

I’m sorry this happened to you. Customer service might refund your money.

Almost every day there is someone complaining about inferior logos they got from sellers.

I put a request for logo samples in buyer’s request once and was shocked at how bad they were. Words that should have been centered were off center. Colors were revolting.

Because my name is Crystal I got giant diamond ring clip art with off center words underneath in marine blue. And that was the best of the lot.

[ainscas]

UPDATE: CS has responded to me, saying that I need to send an additional message as part of my current (3rd) dispute, highlighting that the seller has a 100% money-back policy listed on this gig.

Excellent. From everything you stated, you deserve your money back.

It’s like the sellers who say “Unlimited Revisions” then are bothered that someone keeps asking for revisions.

You also didn’t cheap out and go for someone who is just cheap.

There ARE a huge set of excellent sellers on Fiverr, this time you didn’t get one of those. You’ll find in every category there are a subset of excellent sellers, and a subset who are low quality and not very experienced.

The trick is finding the experienced and high value sellers. They are out there! You often notice they are charging a little more than most in their category, yet they have hundreds or thousands of sales…

Again: Sorry for your poor experience, it makes the rest of us look bad, but you’ll find some high quality in every category.

It’s like the sellers who say “Unlimited Revisions” then are bothered that someone keeps asking for revisions.

What’s especially odd about this situation is that we immediately suggested cancellation after the first submission of graphics, and the designer insisted on continuing the work. I would think this would only guarantee a negative review if you (as the seller) fail to make the buyer happy, since they’ve already said they think it’s going in a bad direction. I’ve read seller analytics go down if you cancel gigs, but that must be better than your time getting wasted AND risk getting bad reviews if you insist on charging ahead against the wishes of your client.

The trick is finding the experienced and high value sellers. They are out there! You often notice they are charging a little more than most in their category, yet they have hundreds or thousands of sales…

I tried to get three designers before this one. One said she was booked. Two others strung me along and ultimately haven’t responded to my messages to build me quotes (as the two-logo package I’m looking for is always slightly outside of standard gig packages, and needs to be built for me… I don’t know why. Needing a main logo and a social media logo should become standard across all logo services, FYI).

I think I’ve finally found someone who is both talented and reliable, and we began the gig agreement on the same day I filed the third cancellation request with this trouble seller, which is why those funds can’t be used to pay the new designer, which is the biggest thing we’re upset about at this point. This was my first time posting a gig request for solicitations, and I’m now wary. I had a great logo experience last year, and didn’t return to her only because I was looking for a different style (I’m servicing a totally different company this time around).

On a completely unrelated note, @lisabaarns … you’re partners with Don?

I’m also a narrator, and know Don by reputation via ACX. He’s even messaged me before to council me on tech stuff. He’s great. I just looked at your gig page and connected all the dots. Small world!

[ainscas]

I’m sorry this happened to you. Customer service might refund your money.

Almost every day there is someone complaining about inferior logos they got from sellers.

I put a request for logo samples in buyer’s request once and was shocked at how bad they were. Words that should have been centered were off center. Colors were revolting.

Because my name is Crystal I got giant diamond ring clip art with off center words underneath in marine blue. And that was the best of the lot.

I put a request for logo samples in buyer’s request once and was shocked at how bad they were.

Thanks, if I ever return to this route, that is a good suggestion. At the very least, something should be in the posting that requires the designers to respond with something that indicates they read your request. It is clear that most of the responses are copy/paste messages that they spam the boards with, just hoping to get a gig.

When this designer started to work on our job, it was clear he/she did not read either of the two simple image requests we had given, or visited our social media websites to get a pulse on our company brand. We went through two rounds of this before formally requesting cancellation, and it never should have even gone that far.