Bad seller, cancelled order - how do I get my money back?

[ecastle]

I purchased a gig, and the seller proceeded to send me plagiarised art. I requested him do it again, and after a few days of back and forth I gave up and accepted his 4th or 5th request to cancel the order. This appears to mean that not only do I not get to leave him negative feedback, but that I don’t get my money back? It is now in my “Fiverr balance”, but it is of no use to me there. How do I get it back onto my Paypal account?

Aaand seems I posted this in the wrong forum. But there really doesn’t seem to be an appropriate one.

[ecastle]

So Paypal complaint it is then. Dispute has been opened. I was not provided the service I paid for.



My experience with this site has been nothing short of shameful. Horrible, horrible site that allows dodgy sellers to walk all over buyers.



And I guess this seller gets to keep ripping people off and selling plagiarised work.



Fiverr really needs to work on its usability and providing more clarity to buyers.

[ecastle]

The way disputes are handled and the way they took my money for a specific gig but haven’t refunded it for a specific gig makes me definitely want to never use it again. I really don’t mind if my account gets suspended as long as I get my money back.



I’m sure there are many great sellers, but it’s Fiverr’s systems I have issues with. It’s been a horrible user experience from start to finish.

[deafive]

Reply to @kjblynx: Wow, I think that was a bit harsh, just towards a slightly disgruntled customer. Not everyone sees through rose-colored glasses!



I agree he should have read the terms more, but telling him goodbye so abruptly just because of the terrible experience they had and chose to be honest about it?



Not everyone handles bad stuff positively. I’ve been here for several years and just got burned recently, harrassed by two different sellers, and was sold copyrighted info. Yes I was bummed, but yep I’m still here because I know that one bad apple doesn’t destroy the entire bunch.



But everyone is individual.



Your response to him is seen by everyone who is a member of Fiverr. If I feel this way about your harsh response, then others reading this must also. So you may either lose or not-gain some customers because of this.



Just saying be careful of how you treat others, even if you disagree with them.



But wow, no “Wow, plagiarized service 5 times! You need to report this to Fiverr so that they can investigate…” I mean, this buyer was SCAMMED.



I like most of your posts here at these forums, but this one surprised me. Maybe you’re just having a bad day or are tired of hearing typical complaints lately.



See? Benefit of doubt…

[ecastle]

So who should I be blaming because Fiverr’s systems allowed the seller to peddle me plagiarised art and then spam me with cancel requests?



What steps could I have taken to be able to leave a negative review for the seller without also giving them my money? If a seller doesn’t fulfil an order, I seriously can’t leave them negative feedback?



Who should I be blaming for the misleading way in which Fiverr took my money and refuses to give it back despite the service I paid for not being provided? I’m sorry but if the only way I know they have a policy of “NO REFUNDS” is to trawl through the fine print, then I consider that misleading selling of services. I didn’t even know as I paid for this gig that I was “adding money to my Fiverr account” and not “Paying for a gig”.



My experience with my first gig has been sour from start to finish, why should I just assume Fiverr is in fact great, and this was just one bad seller? My experience has been terrible both during my contact with this dishonest seller AND after, during my attempts to get support from Fiverr.



I judged this site on my experience with it, and I’m fully entitled to my opinion. My opinion is that I’ll avoid it like the plague from now on as it has left nothing but a bitter taste in my mouth as a buyer.



And if this complaint is a “typical” one here, then perhaps a problem is being ignored.

[happyspace]

Sorry to hear your bad experience. I have had one bad too. But all the rest sellers were more than excellent. Fiverr is not a bad or good site. It is - as everything in life - what one makes out of it.



Being a seller initially, I would like to share with the forum that I am amazed at how wonderful things and services I have bought on Fiverr. Treasures for ONLY $5!



Friendly advice everybody: don’t let ONE bad experience make you unhappy. It is only $5 anyway 🙂

[mark74]

Honestly I fully understand your frustration; but, believe me, there are really a lot of wonderful sellers here at Fiverr, many many sellers working over your expectations and overdelivering to make every single customer happy!

So, if I can provide my suggest, try another seller: you already have your $5 on Fiverr account you can use to buy another gig, so search another seller among the top rated ones or simply the one that gets your attention while surfing the category you need; then talk with him, agree for the product you need and place the order.

Maybe you can change your mind and convert an horrible experience into a positive one, discovering how funny can be buying here at Fiverr!



Last thought: even on real life you can buy goods/services that make you angry and you’re not able to get your money back… but you won’t stop buying such goods/services if you need them 🙂

[mikealbright]

Reply to @kjblynx:

"By cancelling the gig you forfeit your ability to leave feedback."

This doesn’t seem right to me. I just had to cancel a gig for being late and now I cannot leave feedback for this person and their gig…now the next buyer won’t be able to see any negative comments or feedback. That’s not fair and as a buyer I think I’ll take my $5 at a time elsewhere now, sorry fiverr.com

[cheezees]

Reply to @kjblynx: are you sure? I thought the “seller failed to deliver on time” message was reserved for cancellations AFTER the gig ran late. It’s the only time I’ve seen it. I had a seller ask me to remove that feedback. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t because it was automatic.

[researchteamnl]

I also think it’s a bit shame that we cannot get the money back from our fiverr account, I also had an order (with rush) that got cancelled, now I have $20 on my fiverr balance that is basically thrown away money. I thought this is our fiverr account and that we could put money on it whenever we want and also withdraw it whenever we wanted… indeed I also did not read the terms deeply but that was at least my expectation… anyway… another lesson learned.

[ep2002]

Fiverr used to be a good site with good sellers, but those days are LONG GONE.



In the last 1-2 months I’ve had NOTHING but problems with sellers.

1. Ever since Fiverr now allows sellers to cancel with no consequences, 75-90% of the orders are cancelled by the seller & that’s with me speaking to them prior to ordering which I always do.
   
   
   
   I e-mailed Fiverr re: this & they ignored me, which they always do when they don’t want to deal with a problem they can’t control or they refuse to fix it with their terribly coded site.
   
   
2. The majority of sellers now are from India & they are TERRIBLE. I put out a gig request asking for someone who knows Florida well & all I get are Indians.
   
   
   
   And Fiverr won’t even let you say you want someone from the US. They always decline my gig requests when I say that.
   
   
   
   The foreigners can’t understand English at all, & they put up gigs with no skills to match the task. They also put up fake samples. I’m also positive they pay for fake 5 star reviews.
   
   
   
   I just hired 2 different people to fix an excel sheet, the first one said he wanted $20, I gave him the money & then he tried to get MORE money out of me. I was furious.
   
   
   
   The next person said he’d fix everything, then suddenly said he couldn’t. I asked him 2 questions which he ignored, then he wanted me to repeat the questions b/c he was too lazy & stupid to scroll up & read them himself.
   
   
   
   Finally I found someone in the US, so hopefully she can help.
   
   
   
3. Every E. Indian, Pakistani & Bangladashian I talk to doesn’t understand English. Their English is soooo poor, I can’t even work with them.
   
   
   
   All of them (I’m NOT exaggerating here) can’t do what their gig says they can do. I can’t remember the other gigs I hired Indians with in the last few weeks, I just know that not one of them did the job well enough that I could use their work.
   
   
   
   Oh I know, I hired a guy to design a form. After going back & forth with him, I printed it out & he overlapped the new form on top of the old example I gave him (can’t you believe that???)
   
   
   
   I hired a logo designer, the logo looked like a 2nd grader designed it. NOTHING like what I saw on his profile. Then he wanted me to help him design it & show him designs I liked b/c he’s clearly NOT a logo designer.
   
   
   
   While it’s not only E. Indians causing me this stress, it’s the majority of them or it seems to be everyone from overseas.
   
   
   
   I had someone else from another country waste my time with WP templates. I FINALLY ordered them after wasting days going back & forth with him only to find out none of them can be used for commercial use.
   
   
   
   My point is, I can’t take it anymore. You can blame it on the fact that it’s ONLY $5, but that’s not true. When Fiverr first started, there were a lot of good sellers out there. Way more then I’d find on Elance or oDesk.
   
   
   
   I’d get good quality work. Now either the sellers are bitter or totally unskilled & I’m NOT getting my work done & so it’s not even $5 anymore, it’s a lot more b/c of all the time I have to spend screening them or trying to search for the few good ones out there.

[glassjar]

Don’t complain about the sellers when you’re paying them five dollars and they only receive four dollars. You’re lucky they’re there for you take advantage of them. Sellers don’t walk over buyers. It’s the buyers that need to pay six dollars so the seller can actually receive five.

[kickgom]

Wow, he offered you a cancelation even when he worked and spend time doing your job and you are still trying to screw his life with a bad rate? i think he is not stealing your money, he was the one that lost more i don’t get the point of your complains.

[joshuarose]

the system you have in place discourages people from going back to your site as well as takes time away from you doing your job because I am pretty sure alot of people call there bank and claim fraud on the situation. I will tell everyone to not use fiveer ever again because I did not get a refund

[joshuarose]

the system you have in place discourages people from going back to your site as well as takes time away from you doing your job because I am pretty sure alot of people call there bank and claim fraud on the situation. I will tell everyone to not use fiveer ever again because I did not get a refund. As you know one bad experience can change they way you feel about the organization in general