What's the most ridiculous way a buyer has tried to trick you?

[catwriter]

"Putting this into revision as we won’t be able to have a look until Monday.”

In other words, “I’ve mismanaged my time so you’re going to have to be on standby until I’m ready.” 😤

In other words, “I’ve mismanaged my time so you’re going to have to be on standby until I’m ready.” 😤

Or “I’m just a middleman, I’ve sent your work to my client, and I have no idea when they’re going to respond. Oh, and they might go on a vacation.”

[steve_maxell]

My favorite is getting a large script
They order without contacting you first.
Then you look at the voice over script and see there’s 50 or more foreign unpronounceable tongue twister words.
Your shoulders slump as you ask the client for examples. While searching Google and waisting and hour. Customer says “don’t worry it’s just the English version they don’t have to sound perfect”.
After the delivery you get revision after revision “because they sound weird!”. Learnt my lesson now anyone sending these scripts is told right up front revisions for pronouciation on non English words are extra.
Probably 8 people before me said no and passed on the script.

[mariashtelle1]

What I’m not ok with is actively participating in the buyer lying to their client about where the work comes from. It’s really obvious when they’re doing this because I usually ask them to share my gigs with their client so that they can hear my demo, and they respond with “my client does not have a computer”

Literally as I was writing our reply to you, a request came in for a $30 order, but the buyer wanted us to provide a custom sample, and wanted it within the hour, for free.

I just don’t understand this mentality. I can only assume it’s because on other freelance VO sites, you audition for work - but the rates there are at least 5 times more than you can get away charging here, so auditioning is OK. Would people do this in other niches? Do you contact a logo designer and say “I’m interested, but I want you to draw me some logos for free first, and then I’ll make my decision”…

Do you contact a logo designer and say “I’m interested, but I want you to draw me some logos for free first, and then I’ll make my decision”

All the time! There are always some one trying to be sneaky, pretending they didn’t see my portfolio or prices. Those who ask samples I block right away after a polite message that all work on fiverr starts after placing an order as per fiverr TOS.

Another one is 5 min changes (of course as buyer saying “if you are a skilled designer it will take you just 5min, kind of implying that for 5 min I wouldn’t charge more than 5$ 😂)those banned right away.

Designers to be able to do it in 5min studied a lot, invested a lot and worked a lot for clients to pay back now for all those years, not to devalue our knowledges.

And also “I already have a logo and I don’t really want to change it I just need to touch it up a little bit. Which meant to start from zero, redraw everything and come up with a new idea for their logo”

But to be honest I mostly have great clients and with first signs of “this” I block them right away. I don’t need more problems than I already have so no way I voluntarily will agree to work with such buyers.

[steve_maxell]

In other words, “I’ve mismanaged my time so you’re going to have to be on standby until I’m ready.” 😤

Or “I’m just a middleman, I’ve sent your work to my client, and I have no idea when they’re going to respond. Oh, and they might go on a vacation.”

This one drives me nuts…

The “My Client this, My Client that” buyer

I remind buyers quite often that they are the one buying the gig and my responsibilities are to you and not your client. Buyers always referring to their client in a third party way always expect free revisions or script changes.

[lenasemenkova]

These are my favorites:

1. “I have already translated everything and you just need to proofread it.”

   In 99% of cases, it means someone decided to use Google to save some money on translation.

2. “It’s an easy task and it will take you a couple of minutes to make it.”

   Which basically means they want to have an urgent translation here and now for $5.

3. “I will place an order in a couple of hours (days, weeks).” They never will…
4. “I asked my Russian (imaginary) friend and he didn’t like it. I want a refund.”

   Usually it happens in 5 minutes after the delivery.

5. “I will send you 6 birth certificates. They have around 500 words, so $5 is a fair price for this work.”

   And my favorite ones are those, who click the revision button just to say “I will send revision requirements later.”

“I asked my Russian (imaginary) friend and he didn’t like it. I want a refund.”

:))) I had this dude years ago who was talking about a potential project and he was just going and going about the quality of the text he received (in Russian) and how he wanted to “take care” of that order and the seller and get everything redone and then proceed with the design.

I told him the text was pretty well-written, actually, and got brushed off because how could I know. He had no idea Ukrainians usually speak Russian pretty well. 🙂 I did decline working with them just in case, though. Didn’t want to be another evil seller from the past who did a bad job that needed to “be taken care of”.

[cubittaudio]

Do you contact a logo designer and say “I’m interested, but I want you to draw me some logos for free first, and then I’ll make my decision”

All the time! There are always some one trying to be sneaky, pretending they didn’t see my portfolio or prices. Those who ask samples I block right away after a polite message that all work on fiverr starts after placing an order as per fiverr TOS.

Another one is 5 min changes (of course as buyer saying “if you are a skilled designer it will take you just 5min, kind of implying that for 5 min I wouldn’t charge more than 5$ 😂)those banned right away.

Designers to be able to do it in 5min studied a lot, invested a lot and worked a lot for clients to pay back now for all those years, not to devalue our knowledges.

And also “I already have a logo and I don’t really want to change it I just need to touch it up a little bit. Which meant to start from zero, redraw everything and come up with a new idea for their logo”

But to be honest I mostly have great clients and with first signs of “this” I block them right away. I don’t need more problems than I already have so no way I voluntarily will agree to work with such buyers.

All the time! There are always some one trying to be sneaky, pretending they didn’t see my portfolio or prices. Those who ask samples I block right away after a polite message that all work on fiverr starts after placing an order as per fiverr TOS.

I genuinely find this surprising and outrageous. I simply wouldn’t dream of asking a logo designer (or writer, or anything else) give me a free sample to my specifications before I order something. The only possible exception is if I’m spending thousands, but even then, you usually find that a good portfolio is more than enough. I wouldn’t ask a builder to come and knock a wall of my house down before I decide whether he’s capable of building my extension. The mind boggles.

Another one is 5 min changes (of course as buyer saying “if you are a skilled designer it will take you just 5min, kind of implying that for 5 min I wouldn’t charge more than 5$

I remember reading a quote somewhere that said something along the lines of, “the fact that I can do something so effectively, in just 5 minutes, is the exact reason WHY you should pay me more money to do it.”

My favorite is getting a large script

They order without contacting you first.

Then you look at the voice over script and see there’s 50 or more foreign unpronounceable tongue twister words.

Yup, we get a lot of this. I was, at one point, getting loads of work from a client who wanted me to do all of their Nordic work for them, for reasons that I still don’t quite understand (you’d think there would be lots of talented Nordic Male VO people, but I’m not complaining!). The scripts would be 99% fine, but always have a Dutch business/place in, and I always felt like I was butchering the pronunciation (although they kept coming back!).

[steve_maxell]

All the time! There are always some one trying to be sneaky, pretending they didn’t see my portfolio or prices. Those who ask samples I block right away after a polite message that all work on fiverr starts after placing an order as per fiverr TOS.

I genuinely find this surprising and outrageous. I simply wouldn’t dream of asking a logo designer (or writer, or anything else) give me a free sample to my specifications before I order something. The only possible exception is if I’m spending thousands, but even then, you usually find that a good portfolio is more than enough. I wouldn’t ask a builder to come and knock a wall of my house down before I decide whether he’s capable of building my extension. The mind boggles.

Another one is 5 min changes (of course as buyer saying “if you are a skilled designer it will take you just 5min, kind of implying that for 5 min I wouldn’t charge more than 5$

I remember reading a quote somewhere that said something along the lines of, “the fact that I can do something so effectively, in just 5 minutes, is the exact reason WHY you should pay me more money to do it.”

My favorite is getting a large script

They order without contacting you first.

Then you look at the voice over script and see there’s 50 or more foreign unpronounceable tongue twister words.

Yup, we get a lot of this. I was, at one point, getting loads of work from a client who wanted me to do all of their Nordic work for them, for reasons that I still don’t quite understand (you’d think there would be lots of talented Nordic Male VO people, but I’m not complaining!). The scripts would be 99% fine, but always have a Dutch business/place in, and I always felt like I was butchering the pronunciation (although they kept coming back!).

Yes !!! Nordic, and Russian words have that gutteral “chhhh” sound, very hard to get right.

Plus the inflection on words changes in the middle. Unlike English

[mariashtelle1]

Yes !!! Nordic, and Russian words have that gutteral “chhhh” sound, very hard to get right.

Plus the inflection on words changes in the middle. Unlike English

chhhh” sounds

I still find the most difficult sound is ы which sounds (the best described) like someone punched you in your gut 🙈

Sorry for going off topic

[steve_maxell]

chhhh” sounds

I still find the most difficult sound is ы which sounds (the best described) like someone punched you in your gut 🙈

Sorry for going off topic

Not to gross you out or go off topic.

But I had my adenoids and tonsils removed some years ago because of apnia some years ago. Something I say actually helped my voice. However, this makes pronouncing these words almost impossible for me. 😛

[pyonarts]

Do you contact a logo designer and say “I’m interested, but I want you to draw me some logos for free first, and then I’ll make my decision”

All the time! There are always some one trying to be sneaky, pretending they didn’t see my portfolio or prices. Those who ask samples I block right away after a polite message that all work on fiverr starts after placing an order as per fiverr TOS.

Another one is 5 min changes (of course as buyer saying “if you are a skilled designer it will take you just 5min, kind of implying that for 5 min I wouldn’t charge more than 5$ 😂)those banned right away.

Designers to be able to do it in 5min studied a lot, invested a lot and worked a lot for clients to pay back now for all those years, not to devalue our knowledges.

And also “I already have a logo and I don’t really want to change it I just need to touch it up a little bit. Which meant to start from zero, redraw everything and come up with a new idea for their logo”

But to be honest I mostly have great clients and with first signs of “this” I block them right away. I don’t need more problems than I already have so no way I voluntarily will agree to work with such buyers.

Price on the package is based on 1 figure. I had a buyer who added 10 or so object on a single page to order. Might I add they have chosen the basic package! When I wanted to discuss it with them, their reply was, “well your portfolio image is more complex”. I replied them with, in case you have missed I have 3 packages. 😉

And also “I already have a logo and I don’t really want to change it I just need to touch it up a little bit. Which meant to start from zero, redraw everything and come up with a new idea for their logo”

Can’t agree more!

[lenasemenkova]

I’m a voice-over artist and here are my most common ones:

• Deleting spaces between sentences to make the word on their script count lower (I charge per word)
• Telling me that they need me to do a custom demo “for the client”… (beause they don’t want their client to know that they’re outsourcing the voice-over for cheap on Fiverr!)
• Telling me that if I give them a discount now they will be back for more work at full price later!

The cheek of it!

Just a few of my favorites:

Deleting spaces between sentences to make the word on their script count lower

I usually say that I’m a dyslexic and English isn’t my first language so could they please format the text properly. But this one just explained what’s the deal with random spacing in some copy I get to work with.

wanted it within the hour, for free

I had a seller trying to outsource the project to me (we’re in the same category but looking at their samples versus the references provided by the buyer they had no business accepting that order). They were selling their works for $10 and offered me a hefty price of $5. I declined and was told: “No, I believe you can do it.”

I’m just a middleman

This one is a nightmare to deal with. “My boss is unhappy, I want to make them happy, DO SOMETHING.”

He wanted the VO to over the top of Cradle of Filth

I’d love to hear that narration, though. :)) Especially in a corporate style. On a semi-related note, I didn’t know Cradle of Filth were still a thing.

[lenasemenkova]

Yes !!! Nordic, and Russian words have that gutteral “chhhh” sound, very hard to get right.

Plus the inflection on words changes in the middle. Unlike English

My British art director decided to learn Russian to ensure we didn’t talk smack behind his back and he was very good with individual sounds. He got “zh” almost immediately which is a miracle in itself but the combination of sounds he couldn’t do.

They started to study the numbers and he got to “9” and quit because it had that “vya” in the middle that just broke his will.

Sorry for OT, I just find this topic very fascinating.

[colegordon]

• [usually a day or after I delivered an order to a client] “I have another order coming for you soon, but can you do X for me. It’s a simple thing that will only take a few minutes.”

• [When you tell them your price - they usually reply a few days later] “How about this, I will pay you X now, and if I like the work you delivered I will tip you X.”

• Client: $X just to format my 300-page book? Don’t you think that’s too high?

  Me: What is your budget?

  Client: $5

  Me: Fortunately for you, there are a ton of talented formatters out there offering their service within your budget. Have a great day!

• I now know that when they say their book is “around x pages” I’m probably gonna end up with 30-50 pages more. The client who gives me a precise number of pages are always truthful. When I hear “around” or “about” I know the client is a trickster.

• There’s a client who I designed a cover for MONTHS back. A few weeks ago she messaged me this:

“Hi there! How are you? I was wondering if you could help me with something. I have a cover that I’ve had for years now. It was designed by a publisher that has long since gone out of business and transferred the cover rights to me. Since Amazon changed from CreateSpace to KDP print, I’ve had trouble with it accepting a few of my covers. It basically says it just needs trim added to the edges of the print cover in order for it to be accepted. Would you be willing to add the trim to the cover for me? I’m having a hard time finding someone who is willing to do it. I don’t have the option to ask the original designer because the company is out of business. It’s a very simple, quick fix. What do you say?”

I’m usually extremely kind to my clients and this is something that I have no problem doing for a loyal, repeat client. I thought she was one, so I replied:

“Let me see the file that you have.”

However, after I sent that I decided to check her profile to see how long I’ve been working with her. When I went on her profile (thank you Fiverr for this new feature!) I noticed that she only ever ordered one gig from me, a long time ago, and was actually using another cover designer REPEATEDLY since. So this cover designer was getting all her business and couldn’t do that favor for her so she came to me who wasn’t getting her repeat business?

I promptly followed up my last message with:

“Hi. Never mind. I have a few things that just landed on my plate. Good luck!”

[mariashtelle1]

My British art director decided to learn Russian to ensure we didn’t talk smack behind his back and he was very good with individual sounds. He got “zh” almost immediately which is a miracle in itself but the combination of sounds he couldn’t do.

They started to study the numbers and he got to “9” and quit because it had that “vya” in the middle that just broke his will.

Sorry for OT, I just find this topic very fascinating.

They started to study the numbers and he got to “9”

Ha ha talking about numbers (sorry again off topic): I love making my friends saying “84 years old” in Russian which is one word and sounds like “vosmidesiaty chetireh letniy” (Восмидесяти четырех летний)

[miiila]

The ways people try to get writing FOC are pretty ridiculous. Quite a few times, I’ve had people send me articles which read like they have been written by a child. They ask me to re-write these but insist that any words which already exist in their existing article can’t count toward the final word count.

i.e. Let’s say they send me something like:

Monster Energy is a really good way to get energy and tastes so nice you will love having it more than coffee in the morning.

(I tried to make that sound childish on purpose.)

The buyer will insist that I can’t consider words like monster, is, good, energy, tastes, etc, part of my final word count, as they have provided these words.

It’s basically a way of ordering a 300-word article but making sure you get a 500-word article.

My favorite people, though, are those who message to say they need x amount of words about x by x date. They don’t follow up replies or place orders. Instead, they appear on the date they requested work by to ask how things are going. Then when you remind them that they do not have an active order, they threaten all kinds of nasty things.

A new scam recently has seen a few buyers order the likes of a 500-word article, only then to say that they only need 3 lines of text. Either this or they need the entire article to be no more than one paragraph.

These revision requests are absurd and impossible to satisfy. Needless to say though, after canceling, I usually find the buyer using the full text I delivered on their website anyway…

They ask me to re-write these but insist that any words which already exist in their existing article can’t count toward the final word count

I often get something similar for translation jobs. “My text has 2675 words but some words are repeated.”

Oh really.

[anabellamadeo]

I’m a voice-over artist and here are my most common ones:

• Deleting spaces between sentences to make the word on their script count lower (I charge per word)
• Telling me that they need me to do a custom demo “for the client”… (beause they don’t want their client to know that they’re outsourcing the voice-over for cheap on Fiverr!)
• Telling me that if I give them a discount now they will be back for more work at full price later!

The cheek of it!

Telling me that if I give them a discount now they will be back for more work at full price later!

I feel you!!!

(And of course they never come back…)

I opted for telling these kind of customers to pay the first order full-price and that they’ll get a discount on the second one. Then… I just sit back and listen to the sound of crickets.

[gwyneth_galvin]

In other words, “I’ve mismanaged my time so you’re going to have to be on standby until I’m ready.” 😤

Or “I’m just a middleman, I’ve sent your work to my client, and I have no idea when they’re going to respond. Oh, and they might go on a vacation.”

Or “I’m just a middleman, I’ve sent your work to my client, and I have no idea when they’re going to respond. Oh, and they might go on a vacation.”

This is probably way more likely, actually.

[gwyneth_galvin]

Do you contact a logo designer and say “I’m interested, but I want you to draw me some logos for free first, and then I’ll make my decision”

All the time! There are always some one trying to be sneaky, pretending they didn’t see my portfolio or prices. Those who ask samples I block right away after a polite message that all work on fiverr starts after placing an order as per fiverr TOS.

Another one is 5 min changes (of course as buyer saying “if you are a skilled designer it will take you just 5min, kind of implying that for 5 min I wouldn’t charge more than 5$ 😂)those banned right away.

Designers to be able to do it in 5min studied a lot, invested a lot and worked a lot for clients to pay back now for all those years, not to devalue our knowledges.

And also “I already have a logo and I don’t really want to change it I just need to touch it up a little bit. Which meant to start from zero, redraw everything and come up with a new idea for their logo”

But to be honest I mostly have great clients and with first signs of “this” I block them right away. I don’t need more problems than I already have so no way I voluntarily will agree to work with such buyers.

But to be honest I mostly have great clients and with first signs of “this” I block them right away. I don’t need more problems than I already have so no way I voluntarily will agree to work with such buyers.

Here, here! I have been really lucky to build up a base of super lovely regular clients, and most of my one-off clients are pretty nice and easy to work with as well. It kind of blows my mind that when buyers see that you’ve completed hundreds of orders and that you have 10+ orders in your queue you will still be willing to waste your time for basically no pay with them!

[gwyneth_galvin]

This one drives me nuts…

The “My Client this, My Client that” buyer

I remind buyers quite often that they are the one buying the gig and my responsibilities are to you and not your client. Buyers always referring to their client in a third party way always expect free revisions or script changes.

Buyers always referring to their client in a third party way always expect free revisions or script changes.

When I first started on Fiverr I got tricked by one buyer (and probably more without realizing) into providing free revisions “for their client” - it wasn’t until after I had delivered that I finally looked at their whiteboard animation gig and realized they charged their clients for voice-over revisions! They were making $10 a pop on MY FREE REVISIONS!

[psychicbunny]

“Can you give me a reading right now? I promise I’ll pay later.”

[gwyneth_galvin]

• [usually a day or after I delivered an order to a client] “I have another order coming for you soon, but can you do X for me. It’s a simple thing that will only take a few minutes.”

• [When you tell them your price - they usually reply a few days later] “How about this, I will pay you X now, and if I like the work you delivered I will tip you X.”

• Client: $X just to format my 300-page book? Don’t you think that’s too high?

  Me: What is your budget?

  Client: $5

  Me: Fortunately for you, there are a ton of talented formatters out there offering their service within your budget. Have a great day!

• I now know that when they say their book is “around x pages” I’m probably gonna end up with 30-50 pages more. The client who gives me a precise number of pages are always truthful. When I hear “around” or “about” I know the client is a trickster.

• There’s a client who I designed a cover for MONTHS back. A few weeks ago she messaged me this:

“Hi there! How are you? I was wondering if you could help me with something. I have a cover that I’ve had for years now. It was designed by a publisher that has long since gone out of business and transferred the cover rights to me. Since Amazon changed from CreateSpace to KDP print, I’ve had trouble with it accepting a few of my covers. It basically says it just needs trim added to the edges of the print cover in order for it to be accepted. Would you be willing to add the trim to the cover for me? I’m having a hard time finding someone who is willing to do it. I don’t have the option to ask the original designer because the company is out of business. It’s a very simple, quick fix. What do you say?”

I’m usually extremely kind to my clients and this is something that I have no problem doing for a loyal, repeat client. I thought she was one, so I replied:

“Let me see the file that you have.”

However, after I sent that I decided to check her profile to see how long I’ve been working with her. When I went on her profile (thank you Fiverr for this new feature!) I noticed that she only ever ordered one gig from me, a long time ago, and was actually using another cover designer REPEATEDLY since. So this cover designer was getting all her business and couldn’t do that favor for her so she came to me who wasn’t getting her repeat business?

I promptly followed up my last message with:

“Hi. Never mind. I have a few things that just landed on my plate. Good luck!”

I now know that when they say their book is “around x pages” I’m probably gonna end with 30-50 pages more. The client who gives me a precise number of pages are always truthful. When I hear “around” or “about” I know the client is a tricksters.

This is so, so true. I work with exact word counts (in increments of 75) and “about 1,000” is not gonna cut it for me.

Actually, I just received an order today where the buyer said “it’s 100 words”. I sent a custom order for 100 words… when they uploaded the script after confirming the offer they said “please forgive me for the extra 4 words” 😤

[cyaxrex]

“Can you give me a reading right now? I promise I’ll pay later.”

Can you give me a reading right now? I promise I’ll pay later.

That’s easy. I’d just tell them they have very little time left…

To find out more, that’ll be $20.

[gwyneth_galvin]

Can you give me a reading right now? I promise I’ll pay later.

That’s easy. I’d just tell them they have very little time left…

To find out more, that’ll be $20.

To find out more, that’ll be $20.

Cheeky… I like it!

[cyaxrex]

I now know that when they say their book is “around x pages” I’m probably gonna end with 30-50 pages more. The client who gives me a precise number of pages are always truthful. When I hear “around” or “about” I know the client is a tricksters.

This is so, so true. I work with exact word counts (in increments of 75) and “about 1,000” is not gonna cut it for me.

Actually, I just received an order today where the buyer said “it’s 100 words”. I sent a custom order for 100 words… when they uploaded the script after confirming the offer they said “please forgive me for the extra 4 words” 😤

Actually, I just received an order today where the buyer said “it’s 100 words”. I sent a custom order for 100 words…

This reminds me. There are a lot of people who message me asking how much to write pages.

They purposefully don’t provide links or word counts, they just say ‘pages.’ In the hellish scenario where an order is placed, a ‘page’ turns out to be 1000’s of words of text crammed onto a single web page, PDF, or Word Doc.

I also had a buyer who figured out they could ask me to write single articles on 5 subjects, each of which was broken down into 5 sub categories. They ordered 5 such articles which realistically would have amounted to 25 articles. - They were also fuming when I called them out on the matter and canceled.

[steve_maxell]

Buyers always referring to their client in a third party way always expect free revisions or script changes.

When I first started on Fiverr I got tricked by one buyer (and probably more without realizing) into providing free revisions “for their client” - it wasn’t until after I had delivered that I finally looked at their whiteboard animation gig and realized they charged their clients for voice-over revisions! They were making $10 a pop on MY FREE REVISIONS!

Wow I’ve never thought of that. I raised the cost of my gig to stop this kind of thing.

That’s a low blow fo’ show’