Revision requested but no instructions

[ehimeai]

Hi there!
I’m a lurker here on the forum, but recently I’m having a slight issue with one of my buyers. If anyone has any advice, it’d be very appreciated!

A couple of weeks ago I got an order and the buyer was a pleasure to work with, very responsive to questions etc. I delivered in time and the buyer immediately asked for a revision. The gig comes with 1 revision, so it’s no problem for me to do. However, the message that the buyer sent was

“Just WOW!!!
Thanks for that!
I’m sitting with my friends and will let you know if everything OK!
Thanks again!”

As there is no instructions, I’m really unsure as to what I should be revising. I sent a message on the delivery day, as well as a week later, asking what revisions are needed. The buyer however, has now been offline for 2 weeks, since the delivery and the order is just sitting there waiting for a revised redelivery.

Has anyone got any advice, or had a similar situation? I’m just not sure what I should be doing about it. Or should I do nothing and just sit and wait for the buyer to get back to me in their own time…

Many thanks!

[catwriter]

That’s a difficult one. Perhaps you can submit a ticket to Customer Support, explain the situation clearly, and ask for their help and advice? Maybe they can reach the buyer and remind him to send you instructions (if there are any)?

Another thing you might want to do is to send another reminder to the buyer, and politely tell them that using the revision button to extend the review time is considered abuse (be careful how you word it, though); when using the revision button, buyers are supposed to tell the seller what they want modified.

In the past, I would redeliver the same work, with the explanation that it’s been X days, they haven’t told me what they wanted revised, and that I’d be happy to revise it once they give me instructions. These days, though, it might be risky to redeliver the same thing.

Another thing I’d do in the past would be to request a cancellation, and in the request, explain that I don’t want to cancel, but don’t know what to do, because they’re not telling me what they want (it helped that the message about the cancellation request went to the buyer’s email address, so they’d definitely see it even without logging in). Sometimes that did the trick, and I got the necessary instructions. These days, though, every cancellation can harm your account, and if the buyer still doesn’t respond, well…

[lenasemenkova]

Hi there!

I’m a lurker here on the forum, but recently I’m having a slight issue with one of my buyers. If anyone has any advice, it’d be very appreciated!

A couple of weeks ago I got an order and the buyer was a pleasure to work with, very responsive to questions etc. I delivered in time and the buyer immediately asked for a revision. The gig comes with 1 revision, so it’s no problem for me to do. However, the message that the buyer sent was

“Just WOW!!!

Thanks for that!

I’m sitting with my friends and will let you know if everything OK!

Thanks again!”

As there is no instructions, I’m really unsure as to what I should be revising. I sent a message on the delivery day, as well as a week later, asking what revisions are needed. The buyer however, has now been offline for 2 weeks, since the delivery and the order is just sitting there waiting for a revised redelivery.

Has anyone got any advice, or had a similar situation? I’m just not sure what I should be doing about it. Or should I do nothing and just sit and wait for the buyer to get back to me in their own time…

Many thanks!

As there is no instructions, I’m really unsure as to what I should be revising.

Buyers do this when:

• They know that the order auto-completes in 3 days and need more time to put together a list of revisions. So they leave you hanging for as long as it takes. My personal record is 27 days. 🙂
• They don’t know how the site works and just press the button to let you know there will possibly be a revision.

I’m pretty sure both of those cases are a ToS violation on the buyer’s part. That pesky “abuse of the X button”.

I usually give it 24 hours and then send them a reminder with a request to use the revision button when there are actually any revisions and to inform me of an approximate timeframe they have for the project. Most people will then at least give you an update. I send reminders every 24-48 hours for as long as I have patience to wait.

Since there is no definitive statement on their part that they do have any revisions, I think it will be safe to redeliver (again, with a comment that you’ll be happy to assist as soon as they have something specific and a request to stop pressing the dang button for no reason).

[ehimeai]

Thank you both for replying!

I did think about cancelling, but as it was a 3xquantity of the gig, I don’t want to throw my effort (and the $$) away…
I did also think about sending them more reminders, although I’m wary about what would count as spam…
Maybe I’ll try redelivering, with a note about a revision when they need one. They haven’t been online since the delivery, so with any luck it might just auto-complete. Or seeing if CS can help me at all. (Yes, I’m super indecisive… always… 😅 )

Thanks again!

[lenasemenkova]

Thank you both for replying!

I did think about cancelling, but as it was a 3xquantity of the gig, I don’t want to throw my effort (and the $$) away…

I did also think about sending them more reminders, although I’m wary about what would count as spam…

Maybe I’ll try redelivering, with a note about a revision when they need one. They haven’t been online since the delivery, so with any luck it might just auto-complete. Or seeing if CS can help me at all. (Yes, I’m super indecisive… always… 😅 )

Thanks again!

I was in a similar situation a few months ago. I gave it a few weeks with reminders and all, then redelivered. In another 2 weeks, the person contacted me, apologized and told me they had death in the family. 😕

So anything can happen but you definitely have no obligation to sit on it forever.

[abidhafeez]

If there were no instructions on the revision and there is no reply to the messages, you should deliver the same design again so that it marks the order complete automatically if the client doesn’t show up.

[Guest humanissocial]

This has happened to me a couple of times.

When the buyer didn’t respond to my attempt to get the information, I simply redelivered the order and specified politely in the delivery message that upon not hearing details from them about their requested revision, I am redelivering the order as is and to please include details if and when they request a revision.

In the cases when this happened to me, the order was marked automatically complete after the three day mark and I didn’t hear from the buyer again or get a dispute. I’ve found when I’m firm and polite and clear that I can only work with the resources given to me, people usually back off. Honestly I think some people just like to get people to serve them. A lot of buyers are really entitled like that, but many back off when they see they don’t have a case to stand on.

If the buyer rejects again without said details and remains unresponsive, I would open a support ticket.

Well said, @lenasemenkova. Life happens, but it doesn’t have to result in you not getting paid at an appropriate time for work you completed.

[abidhafeez]

This has happened to me a couple of times.

When the buyer didn’t respond to my attempt to get the information, I simply redelivered the order and specified politely in the delivery message that upon not hearing details from them about their requested revision, I am redelivering the order as is and to please include details if and when they request a revision.

In the cases when this happened to me, the order was marked automatically complete after the three day mark and I didn’t hear from the buyer again or get a dispute. I’ve found when I’m firm and polite and clear that I can only work with the resources given to me, people usually back off. Honestly I think some people just like to get people to serve them. A lot of buyers are really entitled like that, but many back off when they see they don’t have a case to stand on.

If the buyer rejects again without said details and remains unresponsive, I would open a support ticket.

Well said, @lenasemenkova. Life happens, but it doesn’t have to result in you not getting paid at an appropriate time for work you completed.

True and I also leave the message that although the oder will complete automatically if you will not reply, if you need modifications even after the order completion, let me know and I will do the modifications but no one replied bak.

[ehimeai]

Yes, that’s very true, we never really know what’s happening in other people’s lives.

I will redeliver with a polite but firm message about being happy to do a revision if they let me know the details. Hopefully then everything will work out.

Thank you everyone for your help 🙂

[dhananjay_verma]

I think, whenever there is revision requested, seller should also be given some authority to accept it or decline it. So, in such cases when buyer is abusing (knowingly or unknowingly) the revision button, seller gets the chance to approve such revision provided they are genuine.