What to do when: Buyer Threatens to Kill (and ****** ) You

[ammarshrf]

I wouldn’t let someone who threatened to kill me connect to me through team viewer.

I know, I am talking about the part before it reached to that point. When the buyer first requested a team viewer meeting. So next time he gets this request -from another buyer-, he can contact CS to take their permission.

[misscrystal]

If it’s just to write an article why would they need to connect through team viewer? This buyer is rude from the start, telling him “youre fired” right away.
Clearly this is someone with issues.

[ammarshrf]

If it’s just to write an article why would they need to connect through team viewer? This buyer is rude from the start, telling him “youre fired” right away.

Clearly this is someone with issues.

Clearly this is someone with issues.

I agree.

But my suggestion was not about this particular person 🙂 It’s a general advice.

[misscrystal]

Clearly this is someone with issues.

I agree.

But my suggestion was not about this particular person 🙂 It’s a general advice.

There is no need to use team viewer for writing articles. The whole point of this thread is that this is a problem buyer who is determined to be rude and hostile and bossy from the beginning.

It’s a problem trying to handle this type of buyer. If we aren’t careful we are the ones who get warnings for saying something to them that is not approved of.

There is a type of person who enjoys conflict and uses fiverr as a way to throw their weight around, cause problems for sellers, play the victim, threaten, intimidate, all due to severe issues having nothing to do with trying to actually get a job done.

If you say almost anything to them, then that will be used against you.

[arty182925]

I am sorry to hear that you went trough that.

There was few times that buyer wanted teamviewer as well for some job, but after I explained them about fiver TOS, they just made video (screen capture) and sent it to me.

But, in your case, buyer was just rude.

And, to be honest, I would just report him right away directly to customer support and just ignore him.

For your message that has been reviewed, it is probably “outside of Fiverr” part. No idea why tho.

He will probably be banned if he wasn’t already.

[richardbloch]

I wonder whether it might be best to decline gigs from customers who are vague in their requirements and you’re unable to get them to elaborate/clarify quickly (as I think this example mentioned). Whether that might help partially filter out buyers who might have higher odds of giving bad reviews or worse. Though doesn’t cancelling orders affect one’s rating? At either rate, once someone personally harasses you esp to the point of sending a message threatening to physically harm you – you shouldn’t reply with a single further word to them. Period.

As that person is obviously in a mental state that you can’t effectively play psychiatrist to help them, responding further will just make things worse – at that point ofc contact CS and more if need be.

I agree. I have at this point, ceased communication altogether.

I wonder whether it might be best to decline gigs from customers who are vague in their requirements and you’re unable to get them to elaborate/clarify quickly (as I think this example mentioned).

I’m trying to do it - and trying hard! When first receiving the message from the buyer I asked or elaboration. Poof.

The next thing you know the order’s clock is ticking and the only thing contained within the instructions is “-”.

I would like to not receive orders from buyers who provide extremely vague or no instructions at all, but since they order (without me telling them to do so, and regardless of me asking for additional information) all the choices I’m let with are: to make sure I provide the best work possible taking into account the information I have in order to ensure no harm to my rating/cancellation ratio.

Really not sure how to prevent such buyer from ordering altogether when they in 90% of cases do it on their own…

[jikidedel]

This is so sad. This reminded me of my previous work where the local mall wouldn’t put security cameras nor guards because it would ruin their “laid back” vibe. We were forced to chase shoplifters with no guaranteed support nor protection. And if we get hurt in the process, the management doesn’t care. If we choose not to interfere, we’re fired. It’s upsetting that they don’t value their worker’s safety and rights. There should always be support to sellers as they play a crucial role in the company’s success. This isn’t a bug that Fiverr needs to fix, it’s an alarming issue that can affect sales and performance of everyone involved.

[misscrystal]

We do have the block button now so that has to be used as our protection but used with discretion and only when needed.

[misscrystal]

Dear colleagues,

Those of you who know me, will know that I really despise complaining. I’ll actually be the first one to jump and mock complainers expressing my sentiment that one should use the challenging situation to grow, improve and adapt, instead of complaining.

So I won’t complain.

Instead, I’ll do my best to provide true value to you. Like I always do.

Many times I’ve come across fellow Sellers complaining how buyers mistreat them, try blackmailing them, coercing them into doing free additional work, straight out tricking them and similar. We all know what do to in those situations.

As someone selling on Fiverr for 5+ years I’ve learned the importance of the old folk saying “it takes all sorts (to make a world),” and adapted my career on Fiverr according to it.

I’ve had my fair share of abusers, insulters, unreasonable people, and similar.

I’ve never so far had someone threaten to kill me, try verbally sexually abusing and racially discriminating me so far.

It took 5 years of full time work on Fiverr, several thousands of orders and the same amount of different people I’ve worked with to come across someone that really, truly upset me and stressed me to the point of finding it challenging to work.

Let me tell you my story, and see if you can learn/get insight from it…

I’ve had a buyer send me a vague “need an article for my vape product” message, then order, give no additional instructions but agree that all are delivered and tell me he expects a delivery within 24h.

No big deal. Got used to it. You have to if you work on Fiverr.

I do my best to work with what I have I’ve delivered the best I could with the information I’ve received.

This is where things take a turn for the worse…

First off, I get a strange vibe from a buyer that is insistent that he can’t provide me with the needed, real information for a revision because we need to “talk on the phone” and “do a teamviewer to show me each (instruction I guess)”.

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A Buyer attempting to breach the ToS because they can’t be sanctioned and don’t care? No problems, got used to it.

Always handle it the same way: reasonably, professionally, politely and kindly explain to them that you’re unable to do it in order to respect the ToS.

I’m fired? Well, technically I’m not an employee of the buyer so I can’t be fired but if roleplaying a Boss is what fancies buyer’s imagination - who are you to complain? Customer support shells out warnings, demotions, infractions and urges to “always act professionally and politely” at any argument (no matter how professional, polite and rightful) with the Buyer.

It’s them financing Fiverr and putting food on both theirs, the CEOs, and Seller’s tables.

I get it. Diplomacy. Capitalism. Buyer is always right. Adapt and overcome (less fancy: shut up and put up) else you’re being replaced. As quick as 1, 2, 3.

This is exactly why I answer highly professionally and politely.

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Guess who’s message is being reviewed? Mine of course (sellers)!

You should always be kept in a state of fear. Always treading carefully, knowing that the one wrong move can take bread off your table. Did the buyer get sanctioned for breaching the ToS? Warned even? Of course not.

“I see I’m not right about this cancelling thing as he has done everything requested upon with what he had… But I’m too laze to send the instruction. Let’s try a different threatening and blackmailing approach” ~ Buyer’s train of thought

I better cancel this order else the order is getting disputed. Who cares, right? No one will get sanctioned or anything. Even if they do, they’ll just create a new account and go on a happy buying trip again…

So what happens next?

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"■■■■ it, this guy knows too much about the ToS. Threats with direct cancellation don’t work. Let’s do a different threatening approach again… ~ Buyer’s train of thought

So, we went ahead to blackmails stipulated in “give me your work for free else I’m harming your reputation, making your life a living hell and lying about you while changing my mind and disputing directly with Fiverr. Oh, and laugh about it in the process…”

Well, “you’re on Fiverr, son” I’m thinking to myself. "Not on Wall Street, “not in Sillicon Valley,” “not an important CEO of a Fortune 500 company”. Human and work rights work differently for you, as you’ve learned.

Fiverr won’t do a thing. “Improve your communication with the buyer”. Learn to adapt and play the game else you’re getting fired. For real. What’s taking a bit of written abuse, having someone constantly breach the ToS and be the one reviewed and inspected for it?

I answer like always. Professionally and politely. It’s how I was taught.

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So the buyer decides that going down the “let’s try to blackmail this person into giving me work for free” route to direct insults.

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Well… The buyer goes on to decide that going back to direct dispute (forget the Fiverr one, CS seen what’s going on, at least this must be handed to them) is the best route.

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Of course they don’t care. There’s no sanctions for Buyers. No matter how hard they breach the ToS.

Since they can’t be sanctioned, why not amp up the abuse?

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Please note that ALL of the previous messages that breach the ToS have been reported to the CS at this point and they haven’t even issued the buyer a warning, let alone sanction him coming from the way he kept behaving.

Despite the angst, frustration and bitterness I’m feeling knowing that I have to put up with all this, remaining fully professional, protecting my work and the 50 minutes I’ve invested in writing this copy with the vague information presented to me and agreed that they’re all I need to do the work, I still keep my composure and professionalism.

It’s how you stay afloat in this game.

Yet the buyer says something very important outlining why he doesn’t care about his behavior. “I can do it” sums it up quite well.

Well, if a sick and demented mind feels “they can do it” and “get away with it”, they’ll amplify their behavior, as history taught us.

This is where we get to death threats, verbal ■■■■■■ abuse and racial discrimination…

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I’m feeling so bitter and angry writing this. I’ve always been professional, delivered the best I possibly could, worked when being ill, adhered to the rules and enjoyed great cooperation with thousands of great buyers.

The problem that troubles me is not that there are psychopaths who will threaten your life unless you give them your work for free. Not that they are demented minds around.

It’s that the system is created in a way that facilitates and supports their behavior by not sanctioning it.

ALL of the previous abusive and messages breaching the ToS were reported.

None were acted upon.

Now I’m finding myself having my life threatened, insulted on the basis of what I’m most proud in my life (my nationality) and abused for not wanting to work for free, accept blackmail and give in to the harassment.

While Fiverr is still doing nothing to prevent this or protect me as their Seller.

But I’m not the one to let threats at my life, racial discrimination and verbal ■■■■■■ abuse go like that.

I have filed a police report with my local police station and contacted a law firm in the designated country buyer’s from to file a report on my behalf.

I will take this to court. As far as I can.

“Customer is always right” is fine by me. But you don’t cross certain lines. When my life is being threatened and most basic human rights are endangered while the workplace I work on is giving support to it with its silence, I will do the standing up for myself, and Sellers in similar situations, myself.

You’ll all get to see the epilogue of this. I’ll update you.

My message so far to all those Sellers experiencing lighter or even more dangerous version of harassment of Fiverr: I want to tell you that you’re not alone and that there is no money, policy, organization, Terms of Service, or individual in the world that can take your dignity away from you, unless you give it away willingly.

I’m not giving mine. Promise.

I’ve experienced hundreds of similar cases like this throughout my years here, always being afraid that it’ll be ME getting sanctioned if I stand up for myself. But this is where I draw the line.

Thank you for reading and sorry if I came across incoherent at times… I’m highly upset. Much more than I like to show.

Will keep you updated.

Mod Note: Title edited, screenshot removed, Please blur/hide inappropriate words.

It took 5 years of full time work on Fiverr, several thousands of orders and the same amount of different people I’ve worked with to come across someone that really, truly upset me and stressed me to the point of finding it challenging to work.

You said you were upset.

[richardbloch]

I am genuinely sorry to hear of your issues with this seller @richardbloch. It is so frustrating that we are not supported by CS when these type of problems come up.

I had an abusive seller who insulted my work and said it screamed that I was a seller from a country other than where I live, which to me was an insult to that country. I refused his cancelation request several times, but CS stepped in and canceled it anyhow even after I reported his abusive behavior.

In the end, CS said he would be turned over to Trust and Saftey, but his account is still active, and when I looked for him online thru his username I found out he is a pastor who gives motivational workshops. 😳

@vickiespencer Thanks for replying, always happy to hear from you! I’m so sorry you had issues with that!

That’s so crazy it might fall in the tragicomedy genre! A “love is number 1, love everybody” pastor giving motivational workshops to his “spiritual children” then going on Fiverr and insulting honest, hard working people saying stuff like “your work is so poor it looks like you’re from [country]”. Just unbelievable.

I’m not so familiar with Law and unsure whether such discrimination on the basis of origin, country, ethnicity constitutes racism, but that’s just plain disgusting.

What’s most worrying, however, is not that there are a few crazies here and there. We all know there are.

It’s that Fiverr will tell them “please stay around and keep behaving however insane you’d like to behave as long as you spend your money here. We got you covered.”

As someone who has worked here for 5 years and completed over 4k orders, it is truly painful to watch and have to worry whether you’ll say something “wrong”, as @misscrystal rightfully said, to someone calling you an “idiot”, verbally abusing and blackmailing you, only to find yourself sanctioned, not the other party.

Just crazy.

[misscrystal]

@vickiespencer Thanks for replying, always happy to hear from you! I’m so sorry you had issues with that!

That’s so crazy it might fall in the tragicomedy genre! A “love is number 1, love everybody” pastor giving motivational workshops to his “spiritual children” then going on Fiverr and insulting honest, hard working people saying stuff like “your work is so poor it looks like you’re from [country]”. Just unbelievable.

I’m not so familiar with Law and unsure whether such discrimination on the basis of origin, country, ethnicity constitutes racism, but that’s just plain disgusting.

What’s most worrying, however, is not that there are a few crazies here and there. We all know there are.

It’s that Fiverr will tell them “please stay around and keep behaving however insane you’d like to behave as long as you spend your money here. We got you covered.”

As someone who has worked here for 5 years and completed over 4k orders, it is truly painful to watch and have to worry whether you’ll say something “wrong”, as @misscrystal rightfully said, to someone calling you an “idiot”, verbally abusing and blackmailing you, only to find yourself sanctioned, not the other party.

Just crazy.

I was told only that I had a TOS violation.

[richardbloch]

This is absolutely horrible and inappropriate.

I see that you already sent a ticket to CS, right? (Not just report button).

If so and they still have you a vague answer “keep communicating” I would advice you to ask them to escalate this matter to the second line of support and ask to send this screenshots to trust and safety team

(Usually they take blackmailing like this quite serious, but I guess you just got unlucky with the person assigned to you). Insist on escalating this matter. He breached TOS few times.

Thanks for replying @mariashtelle1. Oh, absolutely, I’ve sent an elaborate ticket to the CS and asked them to take further action.

At this point, nothing has been done and the buyer in question can message me, so they keep coming (I am unable to block them from messaging to me for some reason). I won’t screenshot and post them here as I don’t want to ruin your guys’ day and I’d need to blurr 90% of them anyway with the obscenities I’m being sent. I just hope CS will act asap, as it’s really hard to work with life threats, most vulgar insults and similar popping into your notification box every few hours…

If their answer is still to “keep communicating” I will most definitely have to ask them to escalate this to a second line of support. I can’t be receiving messages from this person anymore. It’s terrible.

@estherrandell Thanks for replying, Esther. I really hope they’ll act and do anything to prevent this, I’ll definitely keep you updated.

[misscrystal]

I have to always remember to make sure I’m fully awake with my usual two cups of morning coffee before I talk to anyone here, and

say a lot less, be a lot more closed mouth, while still remaining available and responsive. I am aware now that anything I may say should be carefully weighed. I am not to ever speak of the site’s policies on refunds!

Everything must be very guarded.

[miiila]

I agree. I have at this point, ceased communication altogether.

I wonder whether it might be best to decline gigs from customers who are vague in their requirements and you’re unable to get them to elaborate/clarify quickly (as I think this example mentioned).

I’m trying to do it - and trying hard! When first receiving the message from the buyer I asked or elaboration. Poof.

The next thing you know the order’s clock is ticking and the only thing contained within the instructions is “-”.

I would like to not receive orders from buyers who provide extremely vague or no instructions at all, but since they order (without me telling them to do so, and regardless of me asking for additional information) all the choices I’m let with are: to make sure I provide the best work possible taking into account the information I have in order to ensure no harm to my rating/cancellation ratio.

Really not sure how to prevent such buyer from ordering altogether when they in 90% of cases do it on their own…

I’ve only read the redacted post but it sounds like a terrible experience. I hope Fiverr will react in the right way and won’t make it too easy for such people to register again. A pity there isn’t some internet-wide algorithm that bans people who abuse their relative anonymity to abuse and insult others online from the internet as a whole, pretty sure many people would suddenly be able to behave decently.

Really not sure how to prevent such buyer from ordering altogether when they in 90% of cases do it on their own…

I’ve looked at your gigs, 4/5 start at $5.If you get too many orders from people you don’t want orders from, it could help to go through your gigs and set the prices and offerings to something high enough that not too many people will book directly (maybe make the premium package the basic one) and say in your gig “x (what you offered for $5) is only $5, message me for a custom offer” if you want to offer it for 5.I'm aware that if you set up your gigs like that, they'll fall out of the filter of some people if they use the filter for $5 and don’t even look at any gig starting above $5, of course, but it could reduce such things. Setting up gigs is kind of a compromise between getting sales by volume and keeping your peace of mind in a way.

Hope you won’t have another incident like that, one is more than enough.

[richardbloch]

I was told only that I had a TOS violation.

If the situation us Sellers can be found with crazy buyer’s weren’t tragic, we could have a field day rolling on the floor laughing about how crazy those situations actually are.

The buyer came to you and asked for a refund on a service-based product (service) 3 years after receiving it.

Can anyone just stop for a moment and think of the craziness of this?

That’s like me going to a Spa and saying "you know that massage I received in 2015? Well, meeehhh… My back still kinda hurts, ya’ know. And it wasn’t that good anyway. I’d like a refund."

I’d get chased from there with a shovel and get police called on me for being insane! After they realize I’m not pranking them as that’s the first thing they would think!

On Fiverr?

"You better communicate properly with the person requesting refund after 3 years, else we’ll sanction you, have them rate your communication as poor, damage your gig ranking and make your life a living hell. Oh, yes. And if you don’t tread carefully and dare saying something “wrong”, you’re getting sanctioned immediately."

If you correlate this to everyday, real business, it does sound completely insane! The policies Fiverr is implementing and what they’re making us do and letting buyers get away with is just insane, despite the full understanding of the fact that buyers are financing all this so we need to take care of them.

Taking care and supporting insanity by not sanctioning it is not the same course of action!

I just can’t believe it…

[misscrystal]

If the situation us Sellers can be found with crazy buyer’s weren’t tragic, we could have a field day rolling on the floor laughing about how crazy those situations actually are.

The buyer came to you and asked for a refund on a service-based product (service) 3 years after receiving it.

Can anyone just stop for a moment and think of the craziness of this?

That’s like me going to a Spa and saying "you know that massage I received in 2015? Well, meeehhh… My back still kinda hurts, ya’ know. And it wasn’t that good anyway. I’d like a refund."

I’d get chased from there with a shovel and get police called on me for being insane! After they realize I’m not pranking them as that’s the first thing they would think!

On Fiverr?

"You better communicate properly with the person requesting refund after 3 years, else we’ll sanction you, have them rate your communication as poor, damage your gig ranking and make your life a living hell. Oh, yes. And if you don’t tread carefully and dare saying something “wrong”, you’re getting sanctioned immediately."

If you correlate this to everyday, real business, it does sound completely insane! The policies Fiverr is implementing and what they’re making us do and letting buyers get away with is just insane, despite the full understanding of the fact that buyers are financing all this so we need to take care of them.

Taking care and supporting insanity by not sanctioning it is not the same course of action!

I just can’t believe it…

“You better communicate properly with the person requesting refund after 3 years, else we’ll sanction you, have them rate your communication as poor, damage your gig ranking and make your life a living hell. Oh, yes. And if you don’t tread carefully and dare saying something “wrong”, you’re getting sanctioned immediately.”

I need to put this behind me.

[sherkhanshani]

I’m unable to stop talking to them unfortunately, as after my initial first report (regarding attempt to communicate outside of Fiverr) the Fiverr has removed the “report” & “spam” buttons.

I can’t block the person from messaging me. The messages keep coming.

communicate with someone who is making you upset you put yourself at risk of saying something that will be taken wrong and snowball.

I’m sorry, wouldn’t like to sound argumentative, but: the person is far from making me upset. Spilling a bit of coffee on me when waiting in line makes me upset.

Threatening my life, saying you’ll kill me, verbally harassing me for days and insulting me on the basis of my nationality are things that not acting on is risky.

Regarding your advice

put yourself at risk of saying something that will be taken wrong and snowball.

, thank you but it’s impossible as I have full control of myself, my words and emotions. As opposed to the abusive buyer.

Unfortunately, considering that I have an open order with this person and that the Fiverr is not giving me the “block” or “report” option, and advising to “keep communicating towards resolution of the issue”, I’m practically forced to keep the communication going in order to protect myself (my response rating, my work and my rights).

Unfortunately sometimes ignoring simply won’t cut it. Discrimination based on nationality, threats at my life and se**l verbal abuse fall far from the “simply ignore” list.

I’m practically forced to keep the communication going in order to protect myself (my response rating, my work and my rights)

Response rate only counts at first time starting communication. After that you can take time to reply so no need to stick with it especially in this case. If someone already pointed that out then sorry in advance.

Also Sorry to hear that and i like how you are dealing this situation.

[sherkhanshani]

I think name calling :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: should be flag automatically or should be send as empty message or not send at all.
I am not a programmer so i don’t know how hard it is to code this but name calling should be flag.
Now
i am thinking after that they will take a screenshot of bad words and send that screenshots so there is no way to deal with this. 😑

[richardbloch]

I’m practically forced to keep the communication going in order to protect myself (my response rating, my work and my rights)

Response rate only counts at first time starting communication. After that you can take time to reply so no need to stick with it especially in this case. If someone already pointed that out then sorry in advance.

Also Sorry to hear that and i like how you are dealing this situation.

Response rate only counts at first time starting communication. After that you can take time to reply so no need to stick with it especially in this case. If someone already pointed that out then sorry in advance.

Thanks for replying and thanks for that advice. I thought I learned it all but seems I was wrong! I didn’t know that only the first message counts towards the response rating.

[sherkhanshani]

I’ve only read the redacted post but it sounds like a terrible experience. I hope Fiverr will react in the right way and won’t make it too easy for such people to register again. A pity there isn’t some internet-wide algorithm that bans people who abuse their relative anonymity to abuse and insult others online from the internet as a whole, pretty sure many people would suddenly be able to behave decently.

Really not sure how to prevent such buyer from ordering altogether when they in 90% of cases do it on their own…

I’ve looked at your gigs, 4/5 start at $5.If you get too many orders from people you don’t want orders from, it could help to go through your gigs and set the prices and offerings to something high enough that not too many people will book directly (maybe make the premium package the basic one) and say in your gig “x (what you offered for $5) is only $5, message me for a custom offer” if you want to offer it for 5.I'm aware that if you set up your gigs like that, they'll fall out of the filter of some people if they use the filter for $5 and don’t even look at any gig starting above $5, of course, but it could reduce such things. Setting up gigs is kind of a compromise between getting sales by volume and keeping your peace of mind in a way.

Hope you won’t have another incident like that, one is more than enough.

A pity there isn’t some internet-wide algorithm that bans people who abuse their relative anonymity to abuse and insult others online from the internet as a whole, pretty sure many people would suddenly be able to behave decently.

I am going off topic to say this but there is social credit system in 🇨🇳 which does the same. It records all of your activity which most people don’t like but it does the job.

[miiila]

A pity there isn’t some internet-wide algorithm that bans people who abuse their relative anonymity to abuse and insult others online from the internet as a whole, pretty sure many people would suddenly be able to behave decently.

I am going off topic to say this but there is social credit system in 🇨🇳 which does the same. It records all of your activity which most people don’t like but it does the job.

Well, I don’t think everything needs to be or should be recorded but threats to kill or find people (and their family) at least should trigger Fiverr’s own system for review if already completely harmless (context) phrases like OP’s “outside of Fiverr” did. And don’t get me started on flags for “papaya”. 😉

[lenasemenkova]

I’m so puzzled by how this message moderation system even works on here. My message got flagged for having “childish” instead of “child-like” in it by mistake (in reference to the cartoon character’s appearance). Yet, I’m a b**** and a c*** and an a** every once and a while and that’s completely fine.

In your particular case, I second the advice not to engage. You should’ve been done after the first message you’ve sent. You tell them what they want is not possible, inform them what you need to proceed and that’s it. Then you report them and you continue to report them to create a case for CS agent to look through. Then you ask for the follow-up in a few days.

And I would report the message with kill/r*** separately with a brief comment of what your concerns are. That you no longer feel safe/motivated to work on the platform when this is kind of behavior is ignored and nothing is getting done.

I was playing this ignore/report game with a disturbed individual for 8 months before the action was taken once and for all (given the multiple accounts they had) but in your case, with this level of escalation, I’m sure they can be dealt with quicker.

Also, you should edit out the buyer’s name on the second screenshot, it’s still visible. And of course, they have a bunch of 5* reviews from other sellers because this blind review system for sure is helpful and works well. 😕

[richardbloch]

I’m so puzzled by how this message moderation system even works on here. My message got flagged for having “childish” instead of “child-like” in it by mistake (in reference to the cartoon character’s appearance). Yet, I’m a b**** and a c*** and an a** every once and a while and that’s completely fine.

In your particular case, I second the advice not to engage. You should’ve been done after the first message you’ve sent. You tell them what they want is not possible, inform them what you need to proceed and that’s it. Then you report them and you continue to report them to create a case for CS agent to look through. Then you ask for the follow-up in a few days.

And I would report the message with kill/r*** separately with a brief comment of what your concerns are. That you no longer feel safe/motivated to work on the platform when this is kind of behavior is ignored and nothing is getting done.

I was playing this ignore/report game with a disturbed individual for 8 months before the action was taken once and for all (given the multiple accounts they had) but in your case, with this level of escalation, I’m sure they can be dealt with quicker.

Also, you should edit out the buyer’s name on the second screenshot, it’s still visible. And of course, they have a bunch of 5* reviews from other sellers because this blind review system for sure is helpful and works well. 😕

I’m very sorry you had to deal with a disturbed individual for 8 freakin’ months! Talking about making one’s life hard!

Yes, as a man I fully understand that the discrimination directed towards female Sellers can go in a different direction and take an even larger scope of sick, twisted forms. Not to mention being more often targeted by demented individuals/perverts. I’ve read some of the Fiverr stories from female sellers who didn’t get any protection from the Customer Support and I felt appalled.

How can they claim they’re trying to make Fiverr a respectable, “family-friendly” community when buyers can literally send women, like you said, b****, c***, and an a** insults while getting away with it without even a warning?

Meanwhile, when us Sellers write “childish”, “can’t talk outside of fiverr” and similar, we’re getting warned, moderated and monitored. How twisted is that?

A platform with the most minuscule level of self-respect and respect for its users would have an automatic, already set-up trigger system to automatically flag any messages containing the insults mentioned above and result in a permanent IP ban within 1 hour at most.

But no, the buyer can call you a c***, b**** and an a** continuously for months while verbally abusing you in all sorts of ways imaginable and you’re the one who has to worry whether you’ll mention something wrong, write “outside of Fiverr”, “childish” and similar?

Because $15 a buyer brings to the Fiverr marketplace and more potential $$$ they are supposed to bring is so important to them they’ll throw ethics out of the window and sellers’ rights under the bus?

Great. I feel so motivated to get working on the next order right now, knowing that if they have a bad day, a buyer can potentially call me a c***, b***, threaten to kill me, tell me to go suck a c*** and then get a refund from the CS for the work I have honestly, fairly and properly done and delivered.

Just great.

I better stop expressing my feelings right here else I might really say something “wrong” out of bitterness…

Unbelievable.

I’m upset beyond measure from 5 days of this, I can’t even start thinking how you felt getting abusive messages for 8 months straight and still having to do the work under that amount of stress. Can’t even imagine, I swear! Even more upset hearing it right now!

[lenasemenkova]

I’m very sorry you had to deal with a disturbed individual for 8 freakin’ months! Talking about making one’s life hard!

Yes, as a man I fully understand that the discrimination directed towards female Sellers can go in a different direction and take an even larger scope of sick, twisted forms. Not to mention being more often targeted by demented individuals/perverts. I’ve read some of the Fiverr stories from female sellers who didn’t get any protection from the Customer Support and I felt appalled.

How can they claim they’re trying to make Fiverr a respectable, “family-friendly” community when buyers can literally send women, like you said, b****, c***, and an a** insults while getting away with it without even a warning?

Meanwhile, when us Sellers write “childish”, “can’t talk outside of fiverr” and similar, we’re getting warned, moderated and monitored. How twisted is that?

A platform with the most minuscule level of self-respect and respect for its users would have an automatic, already set-up trigger system to automatically flag any messages containing the insults mentioned above and result in a permanent IP ban within 1 hour at most.

But no, the buyer can call you a c***, b**** and an a** continuously for months while verbally abusing you in all sorts of ways imaginable and you’re the one who has to worry whether you’ll mention something wrong, write “outside of Fiverr”, “childish” and similar?

Because $15 a buyer brings to the Fiverr marketplace and more potential $$$ they are supposed to bring is so important to them they’ll throw ethics out of the window and sellers’ rights under the bus?

Great. I feel so motivated to get working on the next order right now, knowing that if they have a bad day, a buyer can potentially call me a c***, b***, threaten to kill me, tell me to go suck a c*** and then get a refund from the CS for the work I have honestly, fairly and properly done and delivered.

Just great.

I better stop expressing my feelings right here else I might really say something “wrong” out of bitterness…

Unbelievable.

I’m upset beyond measure from 5 days of this, I can’t even start thinking how you felt getting abusive messages for 8 months straight and still having to do the work under that amount of stress. Can’t even imagine, I swear! Even more upset hearing it right now!

The reason I say non-engagement policy works is because I’ve had weeks of peace with the person by simply ignoring them.

The problem with it is sometimes they create a bunch of new accounts and you may be busy/tired/whatever else and not recognize them right away and respond assuming it’s a new potential buyer. And the second you write “hello”, it’s another cycle of craziness all over again because they feed on attention and power (obviously, since your livelihood is here and your profile is built over the years you can’t just delete everything and go away).

I wish you luck and patience with this. Keep your head up.

[richardbloch]

The reason I say non-engagement policy works is because I’ve had weeks of peace with the person by simply ignoring them.

The problem with it is sometimes they create a bunch of new accounts and you may be busy/tired/whatever else and not recognize them right away and respond assuming it’s a new potential buyer. And the second you write “hello”, it’s another cycle of craziness all over again because they feed on attention and power (obviously, since your livelihood is here and your profile is built over the years you can’t just delete everything and go away).

I wish you luck and patience with this. Keep your head up.

I’m very sorry for what you had to go through and I deeply thank you for sharing the story.

It makes me feel grateful and more humble, appreciative of the fact that I didn’t have to deal with stuff like that in the past. Yes, a threat against my life and several days of insults are tough…

But having a demented person stalk you from months, creating dozens of different accounts only to frighten, harm, insult and abuse you… That’s just scary, demoralizing and literally unbelievable.

I literally can’t even imagine how you must feel having to dread every single new message you receive thinking: “maybe after my very initial response a barrage of insults and abuse will ensue… Maybe it’s him/her. The stalker abusing and threatening my for months.”

I literally can’t even imagine it and I applaud you for your bravery and strength. I would’ve freakin’ left Fiverr and go flip burgers and dig canals if I had to, if I found myself under those circumstances. I swear I would. Wouldn’t be able to open every single message thinking “after my initial response it might start all over again”. Guess I’m not as strong as I thought I was.

Most sincerely I applaud you for your bravery, strength and courage to go through it for months and still keep going strong. Thanks so much for sharing your story.

I feel even more inspired to go through this right now knowing that some of the colleagues are having it issues like this much worse than mine!