Advice: Lowering Mutual Cancellations and When Buyers Ask For Things Your Gig Does Not Offer

[voiceoverwork]

@malaika9

Hi and welcome.



I agree… and would like to add that I think a lot of the Sellers in this conversation also agree with what you say. Clearly we don’t do this for the $5. We do it for the relationships we build, the referrals and the satisfaction of doing what we love to do.



If you notice, the people in this discussion all have at least a Level 2 badge, and some are TRS. None could have achieved that rank by only “thinking about short term profit”.



However, what is being discussed here is the fact that many Buyers simply do not read our gig descriptions and order anyway asking (or demanding) us to do things not in the realm or scope of what our gig is, or something that is far beyond what anyone could reasonably be expected to do for $5. So rather than attempt doing something we can’t do or are not comfortable doing for $5, we’re asking why can’t we as Sellers simply initiate a cancellation and not be penalized for it ??

[shivettes]

Reply to @malaika9:



I agree with the idea of going above and beyond. However, anyone with a writing gig will attest to the fact that there are buyers who want long, researched articles for $5. I’m going to say no to that because I have to stick to my word limits otherwise I’ll end up writing all day for the equivalent of a couple dollars an hour. It also tends to be my experience that a seller who wants extras without paying is not the type of person who will be offering me a better, well-paying, long term project.



On the other hand, yes, I do provide customized extras if they are simple and within my means.

[Guest magicyn]

Hi,



I’m still new to Fiverr. I recently had one buyer who bought my gig by mistake and wanted to cancel it. I had to agree and accept the mutual cancellation.



However I have some orders which they have already submitted the requirements. Everything was agreed accordingly but few hours later, the buyer just cancelled the order without having me to mutually accept the cancellation.



Is there a difference in these 2 types of cancellation and which is the one that is affecting the ratio?



All the cancellation are not due to my fault, with no reason they just cancelled it. Although there is one in particular who cannot speak english (sentences do not form at all) and I suspect he didn’t know what I was asking.



I feel that it is kind of unfair for sellers if these situation occurs. 😦

[Guest magicyn]

Reply to @kjblynx: 😦 ok. I think I’ll just have to get more orders to reduce the %. However, there is a risk to it. What if I was already halfway done the job and the buyer just cancel it. Gonna waste my effort if that really happens… (I’m writing words with salt and will need time to make up the design)

[anarchofighter]

voiceoverwork said: we're asking why can't we as Sellers simply initiate a cancellation and not be penalized for it ??

 

I suggest why is because of the law of unintended consequences.

 

If it's a blanket system, the more ambiguously written gig descriptions the better.

 

And clearly with 3.5Million gigs. there's not "time" to review them in order to have some gigs be "approved" for consequence free cancellation.

 

Third, cancellations cause confusion for buyers. And buyer who demand things we don't sell are already more testy/low information buyers. So they come on the forum and talk about how VOW robbed them by 'cancelling but they can't get the money back to paypal'

 

...

 

NOW what does seem to make sense is that RATHER than have the consequences for cancellations be automatic, have the trigger initiate a REVIEW of the account for the reason. THEN the reviewer should have some power to modify the result and the next trigger event.

[c_stewart]

I like the “the customer is always right” attitude of Fiverr… BUT it leaves the door open for many abuses of their system by buyers. If you want to knock out your competition, then buy their gigs and leave bad reviews, requests for modification, agree to many mutual cancellations,ect. Some have figured out how to get FREE gigs by threatening bad feedback the seller cancels the gig because he was bullied into doing so. For those who think its smart to stand and fight will you risk your business on fiverr over $4 ? I wont.



How many sellers that have worked hard to get beyond level 1 only to lose that status from some mischievous buyers that has no other intentions except to take advantage of the seller, and the seller loses the status because of this and gives up as the business model of “the customer is always right” is not so good, so they move on to something else besides fiverr.



This is what will bring Fiverr down is losing good sellers who are competent, and play buy the rules.

[rashidali425]

A buyer order me a gig without discussing with me.I don’t mention the buyer particular problem in my gig.So i am unable to do this gig.if i cancel the order it will be bad for my profile. what i have to do …

[profitgroup]

Reply to @rashidali425:

hey! yea many of the new members have this question in mind.

Honestly THERE IS NO drastic effect to your profile when you mutually cancel an order. It won’t effect your rating at all. But, when someone looks at your gig, they find a detail called “cancellation ratio” if that’s high, then buyers don’t actually want to order your gig, because you kept on cancelling orders (let’s assume if your cancellation ration was high) however, its not that hazardous, if the cancellation rate is lower.

[trafficgeek777]

Great Tips! Initially, I would rather say NO to such requests considering the hurts associated with order cancellations. Truly, “the melting pot” gig extra solved that now on my newly earned level, I observed that on particular gig and did monetize such common requests on the Gig extras.

[Guest logodesigns01]

I have created a strict policy which buyer must accept they do accept the terms of my service but they still post negative feedback’s, contacting fiverr about it but they tell they can’t do nothing!

[patrick124]

i need tutor on how to walk on fiverr an make money in no destant time

[patrick124]

please how can state. And designing

[amberdwallace88]

Great tip! Thank you so much for sharing. I am new to Fiverr. I had no idea these issues could potentially affect me as a seller, but I now have information if it were to present it’s self and ways to avoid it! Great work!

[hotwebideas]

Reply to @oldbittygrandma: Thanks, Jo, and can you believe they have not made me a TRS yet? LOL

[hotwebideas]

Reply to @amberdwallace88: Thanks, Amber. I like your Victoria Secret robe gig and will order that 😉



Bruce

[jcommander06]

hotwebideas said: MAKE MORE MONEY FROM THINGS BUYERS ASK FOR WITH GIG EXTRAS

I agree this is a good way to make more money, even for a Level 1 or below Seller you can create another "MELTING POT" Gig as you call it to capture these extras that other sellers are more than likely not offering. It will make your Gig Asking price more valuable and worth the fee you are charging. I would caution, that you write the request down and find a solution before you offer it. Or maybe you could just put it in your "MELTING POT" Gig and make the delivery time very long and only $5 until you can figure out a quick solution.

[Guest itsyourthing]

hotwebideas said: like sex, destruction, government, etc,

Do you get a lot of these requests, hotwebideas?

 

[quentinventures]

After doing what this said and proposed, My gigs and customers are much happier! Thanks for giving your time to the community!

[print_it]

Hi



I often get buyers that haven’t thoroughly read and understood what my gig offers and not and they hastely place an order. Then I tell them that “this is actually in my gig extras so you need to add $5” they instead ask for a mutual cancellation.



What should I do? I’ve always agreed upon cancelling but now you say this may affect my ratings.

[writer99025]

Hi @hotwebideas, I am very new to Fiverr, and have had 20 odd sales so far, all 100% positive, over the last 10 days. I have some really simple questions for you - which I’ve also asked another experienced seller like yourself, but haven’t yet received a reply.

1. As I said, I’ve made more than 20 sales, 100% positive, but I’ve not yet been promoted to Level One. What should I do to get promoted ?
   
   
2. I have 3 mutual cancellations. Does a mutual cancellation affect my ratings on Fiverr ?
   
   
   
3. Paypal or local bank transfer - which is the cheaper option, given that I live outside the US ?
   
   
   
4. How and when can I add extras to my Gigs, like I see many people doing ?
   
   
   
   Thanks.

[tammy09]

Thanks, hotwebideas. I had to revise my gig description in order to be clear about what is offered and not offered. It is good learning experience. Plus like you said add those requests as gig extras.

[theslackjaw]

Great tips!



I also agree that we as sellers often try and deliver on requests that are outside of gig descriptions. But sometimes, as others have noted, we can’t. The example I give is when I do voice over work I only provide the “dry voice.” (No sound effects or background music.) I can’t provide those things right now as I don’t have access to a royalty free library of music and sound. I’m working on that but right now I just can’t do it. But I often get asked if I do that. One day I will be able to do it and I’m certainly going to add it as a gig extra.



Also I just wanted to note, @hotwebideas…I would only use a lifeboat as a last resort. Just saying. ;-D

[katylady77]

I know those are good ideas! I just added will post to your blog on a certain date for a $10 gig extra…and after one person asked me to add pictures, I added that to my gig as well. I did specify these would be from google etc …not original work and the buyer got all peeved…I submitted a mutual cancellation and contacted support. It was in my gig extras SPECIFIED that way and then I also advised along the way as the customer was nasty just politely answered knowing that it would be cancelled he was a jerk! I think it was another writer trying to sabatouge me …I had even requested during pre talks that he NOT order since I could not provide what he wanted. really, this should NOT count against me especially considering I asked him to not order!

[katylady77]

Reply to @writer99025: yes, cancellations do count. I can’t remember but you have to have a certain amount of gigs and percent. Also, due to cancellations I am at 94% and cant make offers this is an AWESOME source of orders. I do paypal but I am in the states…You can add gig extras when you get to level two.

[calisto2986]

Hey Guys 🙂



Well first I’d like to make a comment about the cancellations affecting your rating! I had kept my 100% rating for about 6 months, when a person asked me to sing a song that I CLEARLY outlined I would not do, so I asked for a cancellation! Without knowing, of course, that when the BUYER initiates a cancellation, it affects your rating. SO my rating dropped to 99% (which was unacceptable, since I had “100% Satisfaction rating!!” all over my gigs and didn’t want to lose it!)



SO What I did, was contact fiverr support! All I did was ask them to fix it, and guess what, they did!!! The next day, my rating was back up to where it was supposed to be!! Just wanted to let you know that it IS possible to fix your rating, you just have to be clear about what went wrong, and convince them that what happened was through no fault of your own! Not going to guarantee that this will work for everyone, but it worked for me 🙂



~Sidenote: I’m now back down to 99% and slightly cheesed about it 😦 I was sick for over two weeks (I’m a vocalist and voice over artist) and had a few buyers cancel on me because of the wait. Needless to say, I do my best NOT to get sick, and next time it happens I will suspend ALL of my gigs until I am better. Just not worth watching my rating slide any more!!