Blocked by user for no reason?

[jgsexe]

I messaged a user just explaining can i see some more examples of your work before i book anything just want inspiration as well, and she said sorry can’t help and blocked me? i’m actually speechless, you cant even leave a review for this and i wasn’t being nasty or anything it was just asking to see more of her work, is there any way to leave a comment or review bc i just think it’s unprofessional

[jonbaas]

You are unable to leave a review unless you placed an order, and that order was delivered by the seller.

[jgsexe]

You are unable to leave a review unless you placed an order, and that order was delivered by the seller.

Okay i’ll just have to live and learn there’s rude sellers on the platform

[emeraldawnn]

I can understand where you are coming from - in asking for samples. However, many sellers are hesitant in sharing samples for fear of being ripped off or work stolen. While the answer was curt and the blocking was the result, the seller may have felt you were trying to get work for free or something scammy and decided to cut the conversation off entirely.

While that may not have been your intention, it boils down to the old adage, “one bad apple spoils a bunch.” When a seller has been burned by a buyer, it’s hard to trust any would-be buyer’s intentions. It’s much harder to recognize good intentions through the Internet. You can’t see people’s faces, so what you write is how people convey things.

Right or not, it’s just reality.

And, like Jon said, you can’t leave reviews on conversations. Just imagine the host of issues that would result from that if buyers and sellers could rate each other based on inbox conversations. The only thing you can do is move on and find a seller who is willing to either share their portfolio with you or use the review system in place to see how other buyers have viewed them.

Good luck!

[uk1000]

I messaged a user just explaining can i see some more examples of your work before i book anything just want inspiration as well, and she said sorry can’t help and blocked me? i’m actually speechless, you cant even leave a review for this and i wasn’t being nasty or anything it was just asking to see more of her work, is there any way to leave a comment or review bc i just think it’s unprofessional

What type of gig were you looking at (what service), and how many examples were shown in the gig (eg. in the live preview) or in any links from the gig page? It’s possible they couldn’t show any more examples than they had. eg. they didn’t have any past client’s permission to show previous Fiverr work done. Or maybe they thought there were many examples on the gig page or maybe they thought you weren’t likely to order and the “inspiration” might have been for your work (eg. a gig you’d create) rather than something you’d order from the seller?

i’m actually speechless, you cant even leave a review for this

Like has been said, the only public review is after an order has been placed and delivered. There is (or was) a private feedback thing that sometimes is/was shown in the inbox saying “was this helpful [yes][somewhat][no]” or something like that. Though I assume that wasn’t shown in this case.

[mariashtelle1]

It’s not easy with fiverr to show a portfolio.
Sellers are not allowed to share any links to their external portfolios or websites and uploading samples for you in a messaging system can be a royal pain in the ass especially if they don’t know what you are looking for.
E.g I’m working with logos and if someone comes to me and asks “can you show me more samples of your work?” It just makes me wonder and do this :woman_shrugging: For a few reasons:

1. I did more than 5000 logos which exactly do you want me to upload in our messages? I don’t even know your style you are looking for.
2. I have samples portfolio in my gig and fiverr usually shows at least 20 images there.
3. If they want to see more samples they can just open fiverr in the browser and see at least 600 examples next to the reviews from the people that allowed fiverr to show their logos.

Sum up: there is no real easy way to show you more samples and usually what’s shown in a gig already enough. However you just might send some inspirational material to your seller that you already have to ask them if that will be something in their style.

[lenasemenkova]

I have 50+ samples on fiverr (both on gig pages and portfolio page). It’s enough to make a decision on whether someone wants to work with me or not.

In my personal experience, requests to see “more work” with all that in mind mean either that a) the person didn’t even look properly at my samples and contacted multiple sellers at once, b) has some contrived scheme to get me to communicate with them off the platform by obtaining my other portfolio links from other sites.

We got the block button that actually works fairly recently. Before that, if we’d ever had to decline to work on the project, we’d often have to deal with spam and occasional abuse from potential buyers who don’t take “no” for an answer. Now we don’t.

It’s a big platform with so many sellers that will be happy to assist you, yet instead of looking for them, you’re trying to find ways to punish a person who did what they had a right to do.

[cyaxrex]

I blocked a buyer yesterday for a similar reason, I responded to a buyers request by sending an offer 20% below their stated budget. They asked me for samples. I sent three. They asked for more samples and followed up with a cheeky ask for a discount.

From experience, buyers like that don’t place orders or do, but only if if its in the $5 to $10 range. They are often also very heavy on communication and requests for (non-paid) extra work. Many also just want your samples to use as their own to show to their own end clients.

This might not have been your MO. However, it is important to have realistic expectations when asking for samples. Obviously, you did have access to samples created by your seller. Asking for more is, therefore, like going into a restaurant, asking to taste a glass of wine, and then proceeding to ask to taste several wines - all without there being any guarantee you are ever going to place an order.

In a restaurant, there would be other people waiting to be served, and you would be refused service because of this. It is also not economically feasible to let you sample everything on the menu or wine list FOC.

You might not like that analogy, however, it is essentially the same here on Fiverr.

From experience, I’d also go as far as to say that asking for more samples is often the surest way for buyers to end up working with the worst sellers.

You might need a vegan cookbook cover created. A seller might have several book covers in their portfolio, but nothing as specific to your niche as you would like. You can ask to see more samples. However, this means that a seller could have to go through 1,000’s of covers they have created previously (and got permission to use as samples), before providing you with these. That takes time.

Conversely, most people happy to satisfy your request for more samples will do a quick Google search for awesome vegan cookbook covers, and send you a sample ripped from the Internet. You will have no way of knowing if they are the original creator of the content in question.

Nine times out of ten, buyers who ask me for writing samples take umbrage with the fact that I won’t deliver these. They will say something passive aggressive and look up a seller who will provide as many samples as they want. Later, though. I can guarantee that a lot of such buyers will return and place an order, after realizing that the quality of work provided to them by sellers happy to provide samples was actually awful.

In short, a sample is usually always going to be generic or at least, not be an exact match for what you are looking for. The more specific samples are, the more likely it is they are fake. If you are not happy with samples you are given access to, simply move on and find another seller. The minute you ask for more, you tell most sellers that really you have no interest in placing an order and may well just want free sample content. - That is likely why you were blocked.

Like I have said, this might not have been your intention. However, this is how most buyers requesting samples behave.

[catwriter]

I messaged a user just explaining can i see some more examples of your work before i book anything just want inspiration as well, and she said sorry can’t help and blocked me? i’m actually speechless, you cant even leave a review for this and i wasn’t being nasty or anything it was just asking to see more of her work, is there any way to leave a comment or review bc i just think it’s unprofessional

just want inspiration as well

When potential buyers say this, it often means that they don’t know what they want, and they later turn out to be a nightmare to work with, demanding endless revisions (but not being willing to pay for additional work), with the instructions like: “I don’t know, you figure it out, I thought you were the expert!”

I’m not saying that you’d behave like that, just that, perhaps, the seller you’ve contacted thought that you might turn out to be like that (plus, a lot of sellers don’t work with buyers who haven’t decided yet what they’d like).

[lenasemenkova]

just want inspiration as well

When potential buyers say this, it often means that they don’t know what they want, and they later turn out to be a nightmare to work with, demanding endless revisions (but not being willing to pay for additional work), with the instructions like: “I don’t know, you figure it out, I thought you were the expert!”

I’m not saying that you’d behave like that, just that, perhaps, the seller you’ve contacted thought that you might turn out to be like that (plus, a lot of sellers don’t work with buyers who haven’t decided yet what they’d like).

perhaps, the seller you’ve contacted thought that you might turn out to be like that

Yeah, “inspiration” is a big trigger word. It can mean “brainstorm and give us free ideas right now, we’ll see if we like them”. I usually give them my hourly “consultation fee” (which is equal in price to my basic package) and never hear from them again.

[alihassan991]

Fun Fact: there’re are rude sellers on fiverr as well

[misscrystal]

Hello, I’m sorry this happened to you! Sellers get bombarded with a lot of requests for things that, for one reason or another, they don’t want to do. Some spend hours a day answering questions and requests, so they might be too busy that day, might have decided that they don’t want to give samples to anyone, or lots of other reasons why they are not accepting requests or answering questions. That seller probably wants to avoid having to send out samples. Or they might have had bad experiences with people who ask for samples. It’s best to just move on and find a more accomodating seller who will probably be a much better seller to work with.

When I spend six or more hours a day doing nothing but answering questions and messages, it becomes routine to quickly decide if it’s worth more time to send samples, have discussions, answer questions, and have to do the extra work involved that may or may not lead to someone placing an order. It’s simply a matter of not enough hours in the day if I sense someone will require more time than other potential clients. While it does seem rude to get blocked, it’s actually to your advantage as you didn’t waste precious time with a seller who isn’t able to help.

[jgsexe]

Okay there’s so many responses, basically i get inspiration is a trigger word but i’m a starting business as i said i just wanted you know an oomph like that’s cool yeah let’s do this, and as i said i’m not 100% what i’m looking for its like when you’re online shopping you just want to know what you’re putting money into first. It’s not offensive and i’m not trying to offend anyone or get something for nothing as i said i’m a starting company i don’t have any experience or anything to go off that’s why seeing more stuff would of been helpful and point me in the right direction so then i could of been more helpful down the line of what i wanted and how i wanted it
I understand people are busy and it might seem like a scam but i’m literally just trying to get my foot in the door and needed some help… i don’t know anyone in the business so this is my only way of contacting professionals but yeah oh well

[jgsexe]

just want inspiration as well

When potential buyers say this, it often means that they don’t know what they want, and they later turn out to be a nightmare to work with, demanding endless revisions (but not being willing to pay for additional work), with the instructions like: “I don’t know, you figure it out, I thought you were the expert!”

I’m not saying that you’d behave like that, just that, perhaps, the seller you’ve contacted thought that you might turn out to be like that (plus, a lot of sellers don’t work with buyers who haven’t decided yet what they’d like).

how am i meant to know 100% what i want if i knew what i wanted i would of made it and done it, i’m not a professional so why is it bad to ask for professional help

[jgsexe]

Also if there was an option to pay for someone’s time to talk and discuss ideas i would pay for it but there’s not,

[j6nyc6]

Also if there was an option to pay for someone’s time to talk and discuss ideas i would pay for it but there’s not,

You can ask them to send you a custom offer for a $5 thirty minute consultation.

[misscrystal]

Also if there was an option to pay for someone’s time to talk and discuss ideas i would pay for it but there’s not,

That’s why you have to keep contacting various sellers until you find one with the time and willingness to spend with you to help you figure it all out. Some sellers wouldn’t mind the extra time spent to help you.

But just realize if they block you that means they are not the right seller for you and move on to the next one.

[Alex.M]

Okay i’ll just have to live and learn there’s rude sellers on the platform

there’s rude sellers on the platform

if he said sorry I can’t help there’s nothing rude with that … I don’t see why you can’t accept if someone can’t help , if a seller doesn’t want to work with you for various reasons no one can force him to work with you

[misscrystal]

there’s rude sellers on the platform

if he said sorry I can’t help there’s nothing rude with that … I don’t see why you can’t accept if someone can’t help , if a seller doesn’t want to work with you for various reasons no one can force him to work with you

It feels like rejection probably which a lot of people have a hard time with.

[jgsexe]

there’s rude sellers on the platform

if he said sorry I can’t help there’s nothing rude with that … I don’t see why you can’t accept if someone can’t help , if a seller doesn’t want to work with you for various reasons no one can force him to work with you

No it’s not that it’s the blocking and the concept of i asked hi i would like your service and it was like no sorry blocked it wasn’t needed

[Alex.M]

it can happen for various reasons that we can’t know about

[misscrystal]

No it’s not that it’s the blocking and the concept of i asked hi i would like your service and it was like no sorry blocked it wasn’t needed

If they had said “no sorry” but not blocked you, would you have asked them why not? Because having to come up with an answer to that could lead to more hurt feelings.

How do you tell someone you don’t feel like working with them? It’s a sticky situation for a seller. By blocking them you don’t need to try to come up with a nice way to say you don’t want to work with someone.

The honest answer would have been something like:

When you asked for samples and mentioned needing inspiration, right away I knew that it would involve a lot of my time answering questions and putting in a lot of effort in consulting with you which is not something I want to do.

And that would have probably led to you becoming hurt and mad and demanding more explanations etc.

[miiila]

You can ask them to send you a custom offer for a $5 thirty minute consultation.

How about asking them what they bill for a (thirty minute) consultation instead if they don’t have a consultation gig that would tell one the rate.

Asking for a custom offer for a $5 thirty minute consultation might be counterproductive, I don’t think it’s a good idea to tell a seller that 30 minutes of their time is worth $5 (-20% Fiverr fee, -currency conversion loss if applicable, etc.). It’s the seller who gets to decide what a 30 minute consultation with them costs and might vary wildly, just as gig prices do. The buyer then is free to say yes or no to that price. Prescribing a seller their price for something may lead to the forum infamous “I fear I’m no good match for you” - in some cases perhaps even if the seller actually would have offered $5/30 minutes on their part if they’d been asked, by the way, and rightly so - or even to more blocks.

Apart from that, it’s a good idea, of course, a consultation makes sense if you don’t know exactly what you want.

[misscrystal]

I actually told someone two days ago who had asked me for a sample that I was going to block them. Then came several upset and anxious questions about why would I do that and things like “no please please don’t block me!” and other rapid fire messages. Then I blocked them.

I felt like an executioner kind of. It’s very draining for me as an empath to have to do that.

So for some sellers the ability to quickly block those we can’t help is a blessing.

[meldawn9]

There are samples on my gigs. Also, the very wording of my gigs is considered a sample. If people can’t be bothered to read, or I feel they have read it but are asking for free work, I will block them.