Feedback from sellers for a repeat buyer now a new seller :)

[mstayler1]

I’ve been an occasional buyer for years and now doing my due diligence as far as setting up shop as a seller. I’ve come across this really negative article and comments addressing the seller experience here.

It bummed me out big time . . . then I thought, wait, Fiverr redid the platform and sellers can have gigs that start above $5, there is very reasonably priced training, etc.

So. My question is, is this all still true? **************

I’d hate to expand any more energy into creating gigs that offer a valuable service only to be faced with this sort of thing if I come across an unreasonable buyer.

I’d love to give 20% of my earnings to Fiverr if they do all the hard work of marketing, keep up the platform, and offer sellers SUPPORT, etc. That’s more than worth it to me

But. Not if there is no support for sellers and if buyers are always right even when wrong, and if the money I was paid for a gig I completed satisfactorily several months ago can be taken from me just because the buyer felt like asking for a refund, and Fiverr doesn’t bother investigating the case. This is being found guilty until proven innocent rather than the other way around!

Many thanks for any input.

Nervous in Vegas,
MsTayler 🙂

Mod Note: link removed.

[cubittaudio]

I’ve been an occasional buyer for years and now doing my due diligence as far as setting up shop as a seller. I’ve come across this really negative article and comments addressing the seller experience here.

It bummed me out big time . . . then I thought, wait, Fiverr redid the platform and sellers can have gigs that start above $5, there is very reasonably priced training, etc.

So. My question is, is this all still true? **************

I’d hate to expand any more energy into creating gigs that offer a valuable service only to be faced with this sort of thing if I come across an unreasonable buyer.

I’d love to give 20% of my earnings to Fiverr if they do all the hard work of marketing, keep up the platform, and offer sellers SUPPORT, etc. That’s more than worth it to me

But. Not if there is no support for sellers and if buyers are always right even when wrong, and if the money I was paid for a gig I completed satisfactorily several months ago can be taken from me just because the buyer felt like asking for a refund, and Fiverr doesn’t bother investigating the case. This is being found guilty until proven innocent rather than the other way around!

Many thanks for any input.

Nervous in Vegas,

MsTayler 🙂

Mod Note: link removed.

Hi MsTayler - welcome to Fiverr, and the forum.

I’d love to give 20% of my earnings to Fiverr if they do all the hard work of marketing

You may have to set your expectations here a little. Fiverr partake in marketing, but of the Fiverr platform. They’re not going to be marketing you as an individual seller, or anyone else, so any personal marketing to bring traffic to your own gigs is solely on you. But that’s not really any different to say an eBay or similar. You’ll benefit from the marketing that Fiverr does of the Fiverr platform, as more people visiting the site means more opportunity.

keep up the platform

Yes, this they definitely do.

and offer sellers SUPPORT, etc

I know that some sellers have had a rough ride on Fiverr. But our (myself and my partner operate our Fiverr business) experience these past 2 years has been that 99% of the time, sellers are absolutely supported. Yes, we’ve had cancellations that weren’t our fault go against us, denting our ‘order completion’ rate. It was never bad enough to put us at risk of demotion though. But on the odd occasion that we’ve been faced with an unreasonable buyer, and we’ve approached Customer Support for help, they’ve been great, and have done all that they can.

and if the money I was paid for a gig I completed satisfactorily several months ago can be taken from me just because the buyer felt like asking for a refund, and Fiverr doesn’t bother investigating the case.

Again, this hasn’t happened to us - but there are lots of stories on the forum of sellers having positive experiences here. The issue is a chargeback, where the buyer claims via PayPal that the purchase was fraudulent, and PayPal slap Fiverr with a refund. It’s entirely understandable that Fiverr will then investigate. But there have been lots of reported cases where sellers have fought the case and had the money reimbursed to them by Fiverr (which is a loss for Fiverr… they have to pay that from their own money).

My take on where Fiverr may have ‘gone wrong’ in the past (and this is just my opinion), is that the barriers for entry as a seller are super-low, you just need a computer. There’s a benefit to this… by not asking people to pay a membership, or take a test (or whatever business model you’d choose to go with), you encourage anyone with a talent to come and set up shop. In an ideal world, only those who plan to take things seriously would join. But we don’t live in an ideal world, and the down-side is that hundreds of sellers join up each day because they’ve been told Fiverr is a get-rich-quick scheme, where you simply set up your 7 generic gigs and watch the cash come rolling in. I believe this increases the number of sellers without a real skill, which lowers the overall quality of the seller-pool, encouraging more people to try and cheat the system to get ahead, and makes it more likely that both buyers and sellers are going to get hustled.

And I suspect, this is where most of the negative articles you are referring to begin.

Like any free-trade, skills-based market, there are phenomenal sellers and brilliant buyers here on Fiverr, but you have to put the effort into finding them. As a seller, if you come here with a genuine talent or skill, a strong work ethic and you treat it like a business, you’ll be successful.

For us, Fiverr has allowed us to travel to the US, multiple countries here in Europe, and we’re going to Mexico in September, all from Fiverr earnings. This coming year we plan to grow our Fiverr business even more. Fiverr handle the website, the tech, the money… For us, that’s more than worth the 20% they ask for.

[mstayler1]

Thank you so much, cubittaudio! I appreciate your detailed response 🙂

[mariashtelle1]

there is not much to add, @cubittaudio already gave a good insight.

I will only add: you will never know unless you’ll try.
It was only 1-2 times I had problems with fiverr where we still see a lot of people on the forum complaining that they are scammed so many times.

I believe it depends on your attitude, price and your communication with buyers.

[mstayler1]

Thank you, @mariashtelle1. I feel better now based on the responses I’m getting 🙂 let’s Fiverr on!