Account flagged in error; Fiverr won't discuss it

[thetruemelissa]

… not a case of “can we” but “we must”. Nothing to do about it - it just is what it is. 💩

Well … I have the option of moving to a different site, which does not smear me.

[coerdelion]

Lol! We all have that one … and should seriously consider it, even if this CS thing doesn’t continue. All 🥚 in one basket is never a good idea …

And, yes, I felt really 😠, too …

[misscrystal]

I really don’t think a buyer has returned after a year to complain about a delivery they were then happy with. I think it is more likely that a more recent buyer had hit the partial or incomplete delivery button either by mistake or out of malice.

You could also go back through your past few weeks of deliveries and make sure you can still download and view all work you have delivered. I have had a few occasions where files appear to upload but don’t fully.

Thankfully, buyers have always let me know when this has happened. However, I have also had some buyers who seem to know what to do or say to CS to get work FOC and this could also be the case here…

I really don’t think a buyer has returned after a year to complain about a delivery they were then happy with.

I had one do that after three years.

[thetruemelissa]

SECOND UPDATE: I’ve been escalated again. This third person is at least willing to give mysterious hints.

you have replied to a revision request by delivering the order without the revision made.

The only time this has ever happened was with a plagiarist who thought that editing including disguising his plagiarism. He sent endless revision requests to try to make me rewrite “his” essay so that the plagiarism wasn’t so obvious. I had to threaten to report him before he would accept delivery.

That was yonks ago, so I can’t think why he’d pop back up now to complain about having failed at blackmailing me. Maybe he graduated, so is no longer afraid of being reported.

I haven’t written back to Fiverr yet. If I’ve finally guessed what they’re talking about, it’s pretty frickin’ aggravating that they would side with an obvious plagiarist over a legit seller.

It’s well-known that Fiverr favors the buyer, and as a general policy, that’s good. We want buyers to feel safe coming here. However, there is such a thing as the absurd. Allowing an obvious plagiarist to file a bogus claim that his plagiarism wasn’t “revised” enough, and having that complaint treated as valid, is well into the realm of the absurd.

Fiverr may have lost sight of the fact that the sellers are the resource they’re marketing to the buyers. Without us, they have nothing to market.

Of course, it’s also possible that they’re on about something else entirely.

[cyaxrex]

Lol! We all have that one … and should seriously consider it, even if this CS thing doesn’t continue. All 🥚 in one basket is never a good idea …

And, yes, I felt really 😠, too …

When I first started on Fiverr, there were several times I had to contact CS. Once I was demoted from level 2 to level 1 which was either because I had cancelled a lot of orders due to being ill, or because I had been changing locations between the UK and Malta frequently.

The support I got was always friendly and I always felt safe actually chatting with CS agents. These days, I have a rule that I don’t contact CS unless it is the absolute last resort.

This is pretty sad and a sever sent to my enthusiasm for Fiverr. Situations like that the OP is facing simply shouldn’t happen.

[coerdelion]

Well, y’kno, it’s quite possible these warnings about things they won’t explain are simply a punishment for bugging them too often … The thought occurs that we should have that option for high maintenance buyers …

[misscrystal]

There are some very manipulative people who contact CS occasionally and are practiced at convincingly playing the victim. They would fool anyone. I don’t know if that’s the case here or not. We probably will never know.

[coerdelion]

I think that’s quite possible, MissC - I’m awaiting comp payment in respect of one of those …

[thetruemelissa]

THIRD UPDATE: If anyone is still reading … I was transferred to some fourth person, but he is no more helpful He says it’s not the plagiarist from two years ago, but refuses to say what the case is, so there’s no way to make forward progress.

You know, if I had actually done this, I’d take the hit and try to live it down. However, it sure doesn’t look like I did. I’ve already crawled back through all my orders over the past six months, and no such thing happened.

I remain trapped in a Kafka story, convicted in absentia at a secret trial with secret accusers and secret evidence.

I’ve accepted that CS is hopeless, so now I’m considering other options.

[miiila]

SECOND UPDATE: I’ve been escalated again. This third person is at least willing to give mysterious hints.

you have replied to a revision request by delivering the order without the revision made.

The only time this has ever happened was with a plagiarist who thought that editing including disguising his plagiarism. He sent endless revision requests to try to make me rewrite “his” essay so that the plagiarism wasn’t so obvious. I had to threaten to report him before he would accept delivery.

That was yonks ago, so I can’t think why he’d pop back up now to complain about having failed at blackmailing me. Maybe he graduated, so is no longer afraid of being reported.

I haven’t written back to Fiverr yet. If I’ve finally guessed what they’re talking about, it’s pretty frickin’ aggravating that they would side with an obvious plagiarist over a legit seller.

It’s well-known that Fiverr favors the buyer, and as a general policy, that’s good. We want buyers to feel safe coming here. However, there is such a thing as the absurd. Allowing an obvious plagiarist to file a bogus claim that his plagiarism wasn’t “revised” enough, and having that complaint treated as valid, is well into the realm of the absurd.

Fiverr may have lost sight of the fact that the sellers are the resource they’re marketing to the buyers. Without us, they have nothing to market.

Of course, it’s also possible that they’re on about something else entirely.

you have replied to a revision request by delivering the order without the revision made.

Hmm… that’s somewhat specific, at least. Do you send revised files with a new file name? If not, is it possible that you accidentally sent an unrevised file instead of the revised one? You could find out if you download the files you delivered and check them against your own last version, though I guess that could be a lot of work, depending on how many revision requests you get, and since you need to guess whether it go back 2 weeks or 4, … also it wouldn’t help if the revision request wasn’t for a file but for a Google doc.

I’m not really sure about the logic behind not telling you which customer it is … from a common sense standpoint, wouldn’t the customer want their revision done finally rather than staying anonymous? 😕

[thetruemelissa]

you have replied to a revision request by delivering the order without the revision made.

Hmm… that’s somewhat specific, at least. Do you send revised files with a new file name? If not, is it possible that you accidentally sent an unrevised file instead of the revised one? You could find out if you download the files you delivered and check them against your own last version, though I guess that could be a lot of work, depending on how many revision requests you get, and since you need to guess whether it go back 2 weeks or 4, … also it wouldn’t help if the revision request wasn’t for a file but for a Google doc.

I’m not really sure about the logic behind not telling you which customer it is … from a common sense standpoint, wouldn’t the customer want their revision done finally rather than staying anonymous? 😕

Do you send revised files with a new file name?

Yes, I always use new names when sending new files. I number them.

I’ve already crawled back through my search history for several months, and no such thing has happened. The incident with the plagiarist from two years ago was the only thing I found which even resembled the claim of “abusing the delivery button.”

It’s a complete mystery, and CS won’t speak frankly.

[silberma1976]

Sounds like you have been diligent and not given up. I am sorry you have had this experience. From what you have shared, you have done everything according to known rules, and perhaps this was something triggered by an algorithm that looks for abnormalities. I am guessing because I do not know, and I see how frustrating this is for you.

[cyaxrex]

SECOND UPDATE: I’ve been escalated again. This third person is at least willing to give mysterious hints.

you have replied to a revision request by delivering the order without the revision made.

The only time this has ever happened was with a plagiarist who thought that editing including disguising his plagiarism. He sent endless revision requests to try to make me rewrite “his” essay so that the plagiarism wasn’t so obvious. I had to threaten to report him before he would accept delivery.

That was yonks ago, so I can’t think why he’d pop back up now to complain about having failed at blackmailing me. Maybe he graduated, so is no longer afraid of being reported.

I haven’t written back to Fiverr yet. If I’ve finally guessed what they’re talking about, it’s pretty frickin’ aggravating that they would side with an obvious plagiarist over a legit seller.

It’s well-known that Fiverr favors the buyer, and as a general policy, that’s good. We want buyers to feel safe coming here. However, there is such a thing as the absurd. Allowing an obvious plagiarist to file a bogus claim that his plagiarism wasn’t “revised” enough, and having that complaint treated as valid, is well into the realm of the absurd.

Fiverr may have lost sight of the fact that the sellers are the resource they’re marketing to the buyers. Without us, they have nothing to market.

Of course, it’s also possible that they’re on about something else entirely.

you have replied to a revision request by delivering the order without the revision made.

Can this mean that a buyer has asked you to revise work when they have not been entitled to a revision?

i.e. I offer 0 revisions on most orders. However, I get quite a few people ask me for revisions. After 2, I refuse to revise work FOC further and re-deliver work. In theory, though, there is nothing stopping a buyer telling Fiverr that I have failed to deliver.

Technically, they would be right as I am delivering a file without any new changes. However, this would be my right considering no revisions are included in the order.

I was transferred to some fourth person, but he is no more helpful He says it’s not the plagiarist from two years ago, but refuses to say what the case is, so there’s no way to make forward progress.

You know, this is why it is probably a good thing that whomever you are talking to at CS will be completely replaced by a chatbot in a few years. They might even be being trained to stonewall sellers so that we don’t notice when Fiverr fully automates CS.

The very idea of being told that you have done something wrong without being told exactly what this is is ridiculous to the point of it seeming like some bored CS worker might be having a good chuckle at your expense watching you run in circles.

[psychicbunny]

This morning, I received a notification that Fiverr had flagged my account “for using the delivery button to send incomplete, partial, or an empty delivery.” They also threatened to ban me if I repeat the alleged violation.

This didn’t happen. There were no incomplete, partial, or empty deliveries.

When I wrote to Fiverr CS to point this out, I received some boilerplate which simply repeated the false claim, without support. When I wrote again, I got a rather nasty message claiming that “The warning is legitimate and will remain” while also explicitly refusing to provide any support for the false claim. They won’t even say what delivery they’re talking about.

So, what’s going on with this allegation? Would one of my clients file a bogus complaint? I can’t think why. The only recent thing that’s been even slightly odd was a client sending me the wrong file and then having to place a new order with the right file. That was a shame, but I have no reason to think he made a misleading complaint about his own mistake. Nothing else lately has been even slightly out of the ordinary.

I had a client a couple of months ago who left mediocre ratings and didn’t say why. I guess she was unsatisfied, but I can’t think why she’d pop back up later with a false complaint.

Further back in the past, I’ve done a “empty deliveries” for clients who preferred me to deliver some other way (e.g., Google Docs). This was always the client’s choice, so there would be no reason for them to complain, and none of these clients were recent.

I have no idea what Fiverr’s talking about, and they refuse to say.

Despite my innocence, it appears that I am now living on the edge. I can be banned at any time, out of the blue. I can’t repeat something I haven’t done, but since I don’t have to do it to be blamed for it, a “second violation” could pop up out of nowhere. After years of earning money for Fiverr, I’ve been put on permanent probation based on either a glitch or a false claim. They won’t allow any appeal.

Do I have any recourse? I don’t like the idea of writing to clients to ask them if they’ve been in contact with Fiverr. It’s unprofessional and weird.

Barring that, the only thing I can think of is to retain a lawyer. That might get Fiverr to have a real conversation with facts, but is it worth it?

It might be best to leave. I’m well-established here, but the bogus flag may well mean that I’ll no longer get the search results placement I’ve earned.

What would you do, if it happened to you?

Further back in the past, I’ve done a “empty deliveries” for clients who preferred me to deliver some other way (e.g., Google Docs).

You should always attach SOMETHING to your deliveries. I would atleast take a screenshot of the document on google docs, then put in the text box of delivery “Hi (username) thanks for your purchase Your order is in the google docs and here is a screeshot attached.”

I remember there was a big time Psychic on this site who got her account shut down because she claimed she had an empty delivery.

[thetruemelissa]

Sounds like you have been diligent and not given up. I am sorry you have had this experience. From what you have shared, you have done everything according to known rules, and perhaps this was something triggered by an algorithm that looks for abnormalities. I am guessing because I do not know, and I see how frustrating this is for you.

I am sorry you have had this experience.

Thanks. It’s been wretched.

[thetruemelissa]

you have replied to a revision request by delivering the order without the revision made.

Can this mean that a buyer has asked you to revise work when they have not been entitled to a revision?

i.e. I offer 0 revisions on most orders. However, I get quite a few people ask me for revisions. After 2, I refuse to revise work FOC further and re-deliver work. In theory, though, there is nothing stopping a buyer telling Fiverr that I have failed to deliver.

Technically, they would be right as I am delivering a file without any new changes. However, this would be my right considering no revisions are included in the order.

I was transferred to some fourth person, but he is no more helpful He says it’s not the plagiarist from two years ago, but refuses to say what the case is, so there’s no way to make forward progress.

You know, this is why it is probably a good thing that whomever you are talking to at CS will be completely replaced by a chatbot in a few years. They might even be being trained to stonewall sellers so that we don’t notice when Fiverr fully automates CS.

The very idea of being told that you have done something wrong without being told exactly what this is is ridiculous to the point of it seeming like some bored CS worker might be having a good chuckle at your expense watching you run in circles.

Can this mean that a buyer has asked you to revise work when they have not been entitled to a revision?

i.e. I offer 0 revisions on most orders. However, I get quite a few people ask me for revisions. After 2, I refuse to revise work FOC further and re-deliver work. In theory, though, there is nothing stopping a buyer telling Fiverr that I have failed to deliver.

Technically, they would be right as I am delivering a file without any new changes. However, this would be my right considering no revisions are included in the order.

I don’t include revisions at all. If someone requests a change, I will generally do it to satisfy the client, but neither of my gigs includes revisions.

It hardly ever comes up. With proofreading and editing, the question of revision doesn’t really arise. I’ve had revision requests on formatting issues, and I’ve always accommodated them as far as I can recall.

I agree completely about the ridiculousness. It passed “absurd” some time on Saturday, and I’m not even sure what the right term is now.

Thanks for the sympathy.

[thetruemelissa]

Further back in the past, I’ve done a “empty deliveries” for clients who preferred me to deliver some other way (e.g., Google Docs).

You should always attach SOMETHING to your deliveries. I would atleast take a screenshot of the document on google docs, then put in the text box of delivery “Hi (username) thanks for your purchase Your order is in the google docs and here is a screeshot attached.”

I remember there was a big time Psychic on this site who got her account shut down because she claimed she had an empty delivery.

I would atleast take a screenshot of the document on google docs, then put in the text box of delivery

Thanks for the tip, but the Google Docs guy doesn’t seem to be the case they mean (if there even is one). The only hint I’ve had was something about a revision request.

[uk1000]

Can this mean that a buyer has asked you to revise work when they have not been entitled to a revision?

i.e. I offer 0 revisions on most orders. However, I get quite a few people ask me for revisions. After 2, I refuse to revise work FOC further and re-deliver work. In theory, though, there is nothing stopping a buyer telling Fiverr that I have failed to deliver.

Technically, they would be right as I am delivering a file without any new changes. However, this would be my right considering no revisions are included in the order.

I don’t include revisions at all. If someone requests a change, I will generally do it to satisfy the client, but neither of my gigs includes revisions.

It hardly ever comes up. With proofreading and editing, the question of revision doesn’t really arise. I’ve had revision requests on formatting issues, and I’ve always accommodated them as far as I can recall.

I agree completely about the ridiculousness. It passed “absurd” some time on Saturday, and I’m not even sure what the right term is now.

Thanks for the sympathy.

So if you don’t offer any revisions in your gigs (though do them anyway if asked) could you dispute the warning reason:

you have replied to a revision request by delivering the order without the revision made.

saying that as far as you know you haven’t done that, but that if you had, that since you don’t offer any free revisions on your gigs, the buyer wasn’t entitled to a (free) revision (or however the best wording is). ie. could the warning be dismissed somehow because of that?

[misscrystal]

Was there any revision request made by anyone recently?

[cyaxrex]

So if you don’t offer any revisions in your gigs (though do them anyway if asked) could you dispute the warning reason:

you have replied to a revision request by delivering the order without the revision made.

saying that as far as you know you haven’t done that, but that if you had, that since you don’t offer any free revisions on your gigs, the buyer wasn’t entitled to a (free) revision (or however the best wording is). ie. could the warning be dismissed somehow because of that?

So if you don’t offer any revisions in your gigs (though do them anyway if asked) could you dispute the warning reason:

you have replied to a revision request by delivering the order without the revision made.

Just to clarify here. Isn’t it also the case that no buyer has received a refund from either you (OP) or CS?

If a buyer has proof that work hasn’t been delivered, an order would usually be refunded by CS. Then you would get a warning or worse.

As it is:

• No order has been refunded. (Though correct me if I’m wrong.)
• You can’t have failed to deliver a revision because you don’t offer free revisions.
• You are not being given any idea of what order this relates to.

There literally can’t be a breach of TOS for abuse of the delivery button if there is no refunded order and no proof of you failing to deliver anything. It really just sounds like you are being bullied by someone with a grudge to be honest.

[thetruemelissa]

Was there any revision request made by anyone recently?

Was there any revision request made by anyone recently?

Well, I had one this morning, which I sorted out in moments (the client just wanted a different format). Before that, the most recent one I see is from back in November. That one was fully handled, and the client has returned twice since, so can’t have been too unhappy.

Digging more, I have found one potential candidate from all the way back in September. The client got what he paid for, but was a huge jerk (left a nasty message that “she can not do the required job”), so might have popped back up with some crap to throw.

It wouldn’t be a valid case, since he did get what he paid for … and I’m feeling a little discouraged about proving my innocence of charges I have to guess at. Who knows if that’s what they mean or not? If I send proof that the jerk wasn’t ripped off, they’ll probably just say that’s not what they mean and refuse to say what they do.

[thetruemelissa]

So if you don’t offer any revisions in your gigs (though do them anyway if asked) could you dispute the warning reason:

you have replied to a revision request by delivering the order without the revision made.

Just to clarify here. Isn’t it also the case that no buyer has received a refund from either you (OP) or CS?

If a buyer has proof that work hasn’t been delivered, an order would usually be refunded by CS. Then you would get a warning or worse.

As it is:

• No order has been refunded. (Though correct me if I’m wrong.)
• You can’t have failed to deliver a revision because you don’t offer free revisions.
• You are not being given any idea of what order this relates to.

There literally can’t be a breach of TOS for abuse of the delivery button if there is no refunded order and no proof of you failing to deliver anything. It really just sounds like you are being bullied by someone with a grudge to be honest.

As it is:

• No order has been refunded. (Though correct me if I’m wrong.)
• You can’t have failed to deliver a revision because you don’t offer free revisions.
• You are not being given any idea of what order this relates to.

There literally can’t be a breach of TOS for abuse of the delivery button if there is no refunded order and no proof of you failing to deliver anything. It really just sounds like you are being bullied by someone with a grudge to be honest.

All three of your bullet points are correct. No refunds have been given, I don’t offer built-in revisions, and they won’t say what order they mean.

You know, you’re right. This charge literally can’t be true.

I might think it was someone with a grudge, but I’ve now been in contact with four different CS people (or at least different names), and all four of them insist that the charge is totally valid but they won’t say what it is. It’s pretty discouraging.

[audioboon]

Sorry for what happened to you and thanks for sharing. Hope you’ll come back from this quickly. Long post, but being active from recently on this forum, I must say I’m learning a lot from posts like this.

I have a theory on this, could it be: our profiles are not checked all the time, but when somebody complains, or when the algorithm detects suspicious activity, the CS can dig deeply in the past and uncover things for which we are (partially) guilty and use that to “punish” us. In that case almost everybody is at risk, because I guess we all unintentionally broke some rule we didn’t know of at the time? If you cannot find anything strange that happened recently…

[cyaxrex]

Sorry for what happened to you and thanks for sharing. Hope you’ll come back from this quickly. Long post, but being active from recently on this forum, I must say I’m learning a lot from posts like this.

I have a theory on this, could it be: our profiles are not checked all the time, but when somebody complains, or when the algorithm detects suspicious activity, the CS can dig deeply in the past and uncover things for which we are (partially) guilty and use that to “punish” us. In that case almost everybody is at risk, because I guess we all unintentionally broke some rule we didn’t know of at the time? If you cannot find anything strange that happened recently…

I have a theory on this, could it be: our profiles are not checked all the time, but when somebody complains, or when the algorithm detects suspicious activity, the CS can dig deeply in the past and uncover things for which we are (partially) guilty and use that to “punish” us.

I’ve had this exact impression more than a few times… :thinking: