Just Been Demoted? Let's Stop it Happening Again

[thepromogirl]

Just got demoted because my response time was 16 hours.

Are you sure ?

Response time does not count for the monthly evaluation. There must be another reason!

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All those are green on my end, sorry.

[hafiznjd]

Very informative your words. I like it. Thanks!

[hardbearded996]

Very informative your words. I like it. Thanks!

Very informative your words

Which One? :thinking:

[alexbassguy]

This is not intended as a universal panacea - it won’t deal with all issues, but it will deal with a significant number of them, at least based on reading forum threads here.

I don’t see you address this, which is the biggest reason why many Sellers got demoted.

Do you have evidence of this, or is it anecdotal? To me, it seems to be a huge variety of reasons that sellers got demoted, which this post was intended to help with.

Yes, there are issues caused by what you mention, which is why I would be a big supporter of a “mutual cancellations” policy that does not affect stats, or perhaps periodic “free passes” on cancellations based on how many orders successfully delivered or something like that.

But, cancellations due to circumstances genuinely beyond your control (as per you losing power and internet due to hurricanes) should be something we can do something about - that, however, is something outside our control at present. Everything I metnioned above is very much inside our control, which is where sellers should be focussing first of all.

I have EXTENSIVE evidence of this, as I just got demoted for exactly this reason and am now going back and forth with CS about how insanely unfair this is to sellers. I’m an audio professional and offer a variety of music services here, I started selling in May of last year and in 8 months have grossed over $15k through hard work. Always have kept my metrics up, flawless 5-star record, my buyers love me. But I get on average at least 2-3 orders a month for services I don’t advertise or can’t complete. I have set up my page so that it’s all but impossible to order without contacting me (requests in gig description, “have you contacted me” is a mandatory yes/no in the order requirements, etc) Some buyers outright ignore all of this and place orders anyway. I had someone order a $200 radio jingle, write “i dont know” for every order req. field, and then never log onto the site again. I had to go through CS to get the order cancelled. I had a woman send me a voice recording of her mumbling into her phone, and tell me to make her sound like Beyonce for $25, which is obviously impossible. Because of buyers like this, I’m now demoted, I used to be in the top 10-20 audio sellers and now don’t even show up in the first 10 pages of results. This is messing with my life - when I found Fiverr it immediately took over a large part of my work, and now my conversion metrics are absolutely tanking. This is unfair to all sellers, but especially to the most experienced and active among us. I understand stuff like on-time deliveries - that is within our control as sellers, just extend the delivery window on your gig. Same with response rate, reviews, etc. But when it comes to this ‘completion’ rate it’s a SERIOUSLY flawed situation. By nature, the best sellers will get the most orders, and thereby see a higher cancellation rate - it’s just math. Why would Fiverr elect to lose money and alienate their best sellers? I’m dumbfounded. If anyone from the Fiverr team sees this, I’m happy to provide literally dozens of order numbers to cancellations that I’ve had that were 100% due to buyer laziness, ineptitude, unpreparedness, or all three.

[contentcruise]

I have EXTENSIVE evidence of this, as I just got demoted for exactly this reason and am now going back and forth with CS about how insanely unfair this is to sellers. I’m an audio professional and offer a variety of music services here, I started selling in May of last year and in 8 months have grossed over $15k through hard work. Always have kept my metrics up, flawless 5-star record, my buyers love me. But I get on average at least 2-3 orders a month for services I don’t advertise or can’t complete. I have set up my page so that it’s all but impossible to order without contacting me (requests in gig description, “have you contacted me” is a mandatory yes/no in the order requirements, etc) Some buyers outright ignore all of this and place orders anyway. I had someone order a $200 radio jingle, write “i dont know” for every order req. field, and then never log onto the site again. I had to go through CS to get the order cancelled. I had a woman send me a voice recording of her mumbling into her phone, and tell me to make her sound like Beyonce for $25, which is obviously impossible. Because of buyers like this, I’m now demoted, I used to be in the top 10-20 audio sellers and now don’t even show up in the first 10 pages of results. This is messing with my life - when I found Fiverr it immediately took over a large part of my work, and now my conversion metrics are absolutely tanking. This is unfair to all sellers, but especially to the most experienced and active among us. I understand stuff like on-time deliveries - that is within our control as sellers, just extend the delivery window on your gig. Same with response rate, reviews, etc. But when it comes to this ‘completion’ rate it’s a SERIOUSLY flawed situation. By nature, the best sellers will get the most orders, and thereby see a higher cancellation rate - it’s just math. Why would Fiverr elect to lose money and alienate their best sellers? I’m dumbfounded. If anyone from the Fiverr team sees this, I’m happy to provide literally dozens of order numbers to cancellations that I’ve had that were 100% due to buyer laziness, ineptitude, unpreparedness, or all three.

I feel your vibe and I think fiverr has to do more than just applying blanket hammer on sellers. Many buyers are new and careless how the system works and when the erred, seller must bear the brunt. I think the CS should know that they can’t leave every decision to the algorithm to decide, some issues are pure human relations which machine is in no place to offer help. I am not against the decision to clean up the system and apply strict control to get sellers sit up, but this should not hurt sellers who are putting in the very best to make the community work as intended.

[moonilogo]

Thank you for the tips, it really helps.

[design2thrive]

Barely getting enquires after demotion to level 1 though my gig is at the top on the best selling list. Only gotten 2 orders these 2 days from a repeat buyer and buyer request. Feeling hopeless. Was top rated for 4 years, damn fast it came tumbling down. All just because on time delivery is 84%. I think 90% for all metrics is a bit harsh

[Guest ekramullah1996]

I can see that a fair number of people have been demoted on St. Level’s Day. Although its unfortunate if it happens to you, there are things you can do to stop this happening in future. Here are some suggestions, which I hope are useful not just if you’ve been demoted, but for sellers in general to help you maintain high standards and ratings.

Review the Turnaround Times on Your Gigs

I can see plenty of people getting demoted because of delays in completing work, extra time taken to do revisions, etc. One way around this is to lengthen the time you allow yourself to deliver a gig. Normally deliver in 24 hours? Change it to 48. Can’t make three days? Change it to five. Yes, I know that some buyers are looking for very fast turnarounds, but if trying to meet those deadlines is damaging your order completion rate, maybe its time to review that.

Use the Resolution Center

The Resolution Center is an awesome resource for sellers. It lets you extend deadlines, request extra money, modify orders, and more. If the scope of an order changes, use this to painlessly request an extension on your delivery times. If an order needs to be revised and you need an extra day or two, request that through the Resolution Center. OK, it may not work in every case, but for many it absolutely will.

Get Email Alerts When a Buyer Contacts You

You can setup Fiverr so you get an email every time you receive a message or an order from a buyer. Go into your email program and ensure it flags these as urgent. Use a service like Zapier or IFTTT to send you an SMS when you receive a message from Fiverr. Anything that gets you to your phone or computer so you can respond to the buyer and not damage your response rate.

Setup Quick Responses and Use Them

The Fiverr messaging system has templated, quick responses built in, and you can add your own. Don’t have time to reply to an inquiry in detail right now? Just set up a QR that says “Thanks for your message, I am currently traveling and will respond to you as soon as possible.” Then, when you get alerted you have a message you just need to go into your smartphone, pull up the QR, send it, and then respond properly when you have time.

I have QRs setup to thank people when I receive an order, let them know when I am starting it, for delivery, and as a single followup after delivery to check everything is good. It works very well.

Submit Unspam Requests

the way the Fiverr system works, you have to respond to every request, even spam ones. If a spam user has already been blocked, just submit an “Unblock User” request in the messaging system, and send them a “No Thanks” response.

Communicate Better and Manage Expectations

This all comes back to communication - whatever you do in your freelancing life, fast, effective, high-quality communication is at the heart of being a professional freelance worker. It sets expectations, enhances relationships, keeps buyers informed, and ultimately grows your business.

Implement these changes today, and there’s every chance you will enhance your response and order completion rates for future evaluations.

Good luck!

Please do not use this thread to complain about being demoted. This thread is intended purely as a help resource for sellers who want to avoid demotion in future. If you’re frustrated, angry, or want to vent, there are plenty of other places on the forums you can do that. Let’s keep this thread on-topic, please.

Mod Note: Just an addition to this great list - Even if you don’t have time to check the forum every day, check every 3-4 days and look at the pinned posts. In this way you will be aware of big issues such as bugs, changes etc. Also, if you see something strange on your account, check here too or ask if anyone has seen the same. Average response time on the forum is 2 minutes so it is well worth it.

Submit Unspam Requests

the way the Fiverr system works, you have to respond to every request, even spam ones. If a spam user has already been blocked, just submit an “Unblock User” request in the messaging system, and send them a “No Thanks” response.

Thanks you very much

[alerrandre]

It doesn’t matter if you are green on everything, I was demoted in January for being 89% reply, but was not promoted despite being 93%+ on everything with almost 10,000 completed sales 5 star rating on February, I received an email saying that I wouldn’t get a top seller tag, that is it, nothing explaining why despite meeting the requirements.

[royalflame]

We HAVE to respond to spam messages? Are you kidding me?

Can you really not develop a program that ignores spam messages?

Also, communication can’t go on forever. When sellers communicate with each other (I regularly buy and sell on Fiverr), and I send a ‘final’ thanks message… the other seller has to keep responding simply to maintain their response level.

This is not something that is OUR fault as sellers… and thus should NOT affect our ratings.

Find these errors in your programming and statistics and FIX them, don’t punish us for things we have no control over.

#Ridiculous

Omg! This was something I complained to them about as well! If you don’t respond to spam it affects your stats and it’s outrageous!

[darrentunstall]

After trying “available now” and then not getting alerts when notified!! I added an IFTTT -> if a new message on Fiverr -> send me an SMS message. A little annoying when both work.

Since they added the Available Now expiration timer, it’s less relevant.

I wish the Available Now didn’t count when you already have an established conversation or order with a customer, and instead only counted for new customers. 😦

And if you DO increase order times, to be safe — don’t be lazy and procrastinate. Make early deliveries as an “overdelivery”. I wanted to do a gig as a 24 hour gig, but time zone differences can make that very challenging. So it’s 48. I usually deliver within 24 hours, and the customer thinks I did them a favor! More stars for me.

I love IFTTT. I opted out of the SMS because of the redundancy between the Fiverr App and the SMS messages.

I wish there was a ZAP (Zapier) that auto-responded to messages saying, “Thanks for contact me. I’m reviewing your message and will respond after reviewing your question. Thanks again…” Then, create a new label called, “Follow-up” and have it ZAP check the box.

Only if.

[darrentunstall]

I second this. Just got demoted because my response time was 16 hours. I’m a former TRS as well, not a “no badge” Seller. I’m green in all other categories for this demotion except reponse time.

Sorry to hear it. You should not be penalized for responding to anything less than 24 hours (per Fiverr Customer Support). I would question why you are being penalized for 16 hours.

Mod Note: Off topic portion removed and can be posted in a relevant thread.

[fonthaunt]

Closed to new comments. Please enjoy the existing tips!