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There is a serious issue with Fiverr's automatic one star rating function


szepesif

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I’ve been working here for a while but this is the first time when I feel disappointed about the Fiverr system. Let me tell my story.

I work as a system administrator/webmaster and my most popular gig is the malware removal one. Basically if a site gets infected I will step in, remove the malware and the infection, patch the security holes and upgrade everything (+ also increase the site’s security to make sure it won’t happen in the future).

In order to do all of this I have to ask several login info from the buyer before I can get started. Administrator login for the site, FTP access, sometimes root access for the server, etc. 80% (!) of the time the user sends me the WRONG username or the wrong password. The countdown is ticking, I have two days and sadly I have to start my first message with a line like this “thank you for your order but it seems something wrong with the **** login details, please double check the username or password and get back to me with the correct one”. And that’s it. Most of the time I only get an answer on the next day. So one day has already passed before I can even start the malware removal process. Some clients are even more complicated because they are unreacheable or they didn’t know the requested details. 90% of my late orders are because of those users. As soon as I get the correct details I always do my part and deliver within the set timeframe. That is the reason why I was a level 2 seller with only 100% positive 5 star ratings. I was very proud of this. Until…

I received an order. Basic gig, $5, malware removal. I couldn’t find any indication of an infection so asked the client to tell me why he think the site is infected. He told me that he received a lot of spam through the contact form on the site. I checked it and found out that he didn’t have any captcha installed so it seemed a quick and easy fix. I just have to add a captcha and that’s all. But… it was a Joomla site and he used a commercial contact form plugin where you can only add a captcha if you download the free extension through your contact form account (so you have to log in to the site where you purchased the extension). So I asked him to log in there, download the mentioned extension for me and I will install it for him. Sadly he refused that because he didn’t have the log in details for that site anymore. Then I offered him an other solution to replace the contact form completely and to use a different one where I can easily add Google reCaptcha. Then he stopped answering me. The 2 days have passed, the order was very late and I tried to contact him several times in each day. I asked him how he want to move on with this, how can I help, what he wants to do. Nothing. Then a few days later I received a notification, he closed the order (because it was late…) and I got an automatic one star rating from Fiverr. What? Why? How? What did I do wrong? What else could I do differently? He was the one who stopped answering me, he was the one who couldn’t provide the required details. And because of these irresponsible buyers I got a 1 star rating. Of course the order is late if I can’t even start working on it. It’s more than annoying…

I tried to contact the support and wanted explain the situation to them but it was an other letdown. They just sent me a sample answer (“the order was late so the buyer cancelled it…” wow, really?). And they closed my ticket right away and I didn’t have a chance to reply at all. Perfect.

So my questions are: Is this how this system supposed to work? Here I am, a responsible, hardworking freelancer who always stick to deadlines, I always do my best and I work really hard to make my clients happy. But what can I do if the client is not answering? What can I do if they didn’t send me the correct info and I can’t start working? They can easily close the order anytime and I just have to get used to the automatic 1 star ratings? I don’t think that is the correct way…

Sorry for the long post but I had to get this out of my chest.

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I’ve been working here for a while but this is the first time when I feel disappointed about the Fiverr system. Let me tell my story.

I work as a system administrator/webmaster and my most popular gig is the malware removal one. Basically if a site gets infected I will step in, remove the malware and the infection, patch the security holes and upgrade everything (+ also increase the site’s security to make sure it won’t happen in the future).

In order to do all of this I have to ask several login info from the buyer before I can get started. Administrator login for the site, FTP access, sometimes root access for the server, etc. 80% (!) of the time the user sends me the WRONG username or the wrong password. The countdown is ticking, I have two days and sadly I have to start my first message with a line like this “thank you for your order but it seems something wrong with the **** login details, please double check the username or password and get back to me with the correct one”. And that’s it. Most of the time I only get an answer on the next day. So one day has already passed before I can even start the malware removal process. Some clients are even more complicated because they are unreacheable or they didn’t know the requested details. 90% of my late orders are because of those users. As soon as I get the correct details I always do my part and deliver within the set timeframe. That is the reason why I was a level 2 seller with only 100% positive 5 star ratings. I was very proud of this. Until…

I received an order. Basic gig, $5, malware removal. I couldn’t find any indication of an infection so asked the client to tell me why he think the site is infected. He told me that he received a lot of spam through the contact form on the site. I checked it and found out that he didn’t have any captcha installed so it seemed a quick and easy fix. I just have to add a captcha and that’s all. But… it was a Joomla site and he used a commercial contact form plugin where you can only add a captcha if you download the free extension through your contact form account (so you have to log in to the site where you purchased the extension). So I asked him to log in there, download the mentioned extension for me and I will install it for him. Sadly he refused that because he didn’t have the log in details for that site anymore. Then I offered him an other solution to replace the contact form completely and to use a different one where I can easily add Google reCaptcha. Then he stopped answering me. The 2 days have passed, the order was very late and I tried to contact him several times in each day. I asked him how he want to move on with this, how can I help, what he wants to do. Nothing. Then a few days later I received a notification, he closed the order (because it was late…) and I got an automatic one star rating from Fiverr. What? Why? How? What did I do wrong? What else could I do differently? He was the one who stopped answering me, he was the one who couldn’t provide the required details. And because of these irresponsible buyers I got a 1 star rating. Of course the order is late if I can’t even start working on it. It’s more than annoying…

I tried to contact the support and wanted explain the situation to them but it was an other letdown. They just sent me a sample answer (“the order was late so the buyer cancelled it…” wow, really?). And they closed my ticket right away and I didn’t have a chance to reply at all. Perfect.

So my questions are: Is this how this system supposed to work? Here I am, a responsible, hardworking freelancer who always stick to deadlines, I always do my best and I work really hard to make my clients happy. But what can I do if the client is not answering? What can I do if they didn’t send me the correct info and I can’t start working? They can easily close the order anytime and I just have to get used to the automatic 1 star ratings? I don’t think that is the correct way…

Sorry for the long post but I had to get this out of my chest.

And they closed my ticket right away and I didn’t have a chance to reply at all. Perfect.

Anddddd for this kind of service we pay 20%…

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I’ve had a similar thing happen to me where the client didn’t respond when they send me about 2 lines of information and expected me to write an entire 1-minute script off of what they had provided. My advice to you is to increase your normal delivery rate to act as a buffer to the time it takes some clients to reply. And, if this happens again, send a request to either increase the delivery time, or mutually cancel the order so it doesn’t impact your rating as well. Hope this helps!

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This sounds like the type of gig that you KNOW takes longer than 48 hours to get the information and complete the order. So, since you already know that the issue is clients not giving the correct information on time, why haven’t you increased your delivery time?

You can’t rant about Fiverr’s system when the issue isn’t with Fiverr’s late cancellation procedures, it’s with the short delivery times and unresponsive clients.

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Hello, you need a two week delivery time, not a two day one. This is a complex gig and you know this is going to happen 80% of the time so it’s not realistic to have a two week time to do it in.

I would even ask customer support if I can get a client’s phone number for a gig like this, and their s***e.

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