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So today I had my first "Green thumb" hostage situation :(

dolly_donut

By dolly_donut
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dolly_donut Apprentice

dolly_donut

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And it wasn’t a very pleasant situation and I feel like my good nature has been completely been taken advantage of.



A buyer ordered two units of my voiceover gig, which has a 48 hour turnaround. Then he said what he actually meant to do was order my 400 word article writing gig (which has a 7 day turnaround) but oops, we might as well do our transaction here now.



I turned one of the articles around within the 48 hours of the voiceover gig deadline. But the second one was slightly late, given the amount of research that I had to do. I expected him to be understanding since he was expecting me to produce writing on an incorrect gig order. But no, just “Where’s the other article?” So I skipped lunch and wrote like a demon and submitted it to him.



Then he came back and said that they seem short and that he expects me to write more or he will be forced to leave negative feedback. I said that one was slightly under 400 words and that the other was actually nearly 500 words. So to be precise, I said, I will edit both so that they are EXACTLY 400 words each. Which is what I did and have resubmitted to him again.



I have over-delivered to make him happy. Something tells me that he will leave negative for this no matter what I do at this point. My feeling is that he’s a bit of a shyster, chancing his arm and that he doesn’t care about whose reputation he hurts on the way. Regardless of his feedback, I intend to tell him not to order from me again because I will not work with him. I shall block him on messaging.



I finally understand why sellers get so upset about this and feel disillusioned because there is very little that Fiverr seems to do to protect sellers in this situation.



From

"Disgruntled in Hampshire"

aka

Jane 🙂

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nickih Newbie

nickih

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Hi, Jane. I’m really sorry that you’re dealing with this. I’ve also experienced similar situations, and it’s really frustrating. Although the vast majority of buyers I work with are incredibly nice and easy to work with, there will always be the randoms that seem to go out of their way to be difficult and weasel freebies out of you, even when the specifications of your gig are staring them right in the face on your gig page.



For the most part, you’re right in pointing out that there’s really little that Fiverr does to resolve situations like this or promote policies that keep people from behaving badly and getting away with it. That’s just as frustrating. The best advice I can give is to keep up the good work and do your best to put this guy behind you. Just get him out of your hair and put him out of your mind – he’s not worth the stress.



This buyer may be a nightmare, but I bet that your next buyer will be the complete opposite – friendly and easy to work with. Like I said, while these types of buyers sure can make you frustrated, they’re definitely the minority.

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dolly_donut Apprentice

dolly_donut

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OK, I have opened a ticket with customer service. Looking back at my contact with him I notice that he says that he will not “green thumb” me until I have added several hundred words to each article. Since my gig is for a 400 word article, that is exactly what I delivered. Exactly.

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aingham69 Newbie

aingham69

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I’m sorry this happened to you. I used to get it all the time–some buyers would order my tip gig because it had a shorter delivery. In the end, I kept all my gigs to the same delivery time even if I know they don’t need it. Now when someone orders the wrong gig, it usually is by mistake and we clear it up pretty quickly.



You did right opening a ticket. Unfortunately, I’ve heard of Customer Support recommending that you give the buyer the extra work for free, even though it’s not in your gig description and they know the buyer is in the wrong. I hope that doesn’t happen to you.

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cheezees Newbie

cheezees

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Reply to @dolly_donut: I really hope Customer Support fixes this for you. Like Aingham69 said, there have been cases where support actually recommends that you cave in. Why? Why? Why?!?!?! The point is never to engage the bully. They could still turn around and give you negative feedback. Even AFTER you “comply”.



This buyer sounds terrible at best and no, there is no way to stop anyone from ordering 100 “wrong” gigs and canceling all of them. Your account will take a major hit even if the user is banned at that point. Customer Support’s response is that they cannot remove cancellations and you will just have to work hard to regain your status. 😦

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animusargentis Newbie

animusargentis

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I have never run into a customer like this, thank goodness. I’ve had a few people ask for some quick edits that I was happy to do and they were happy with the results…



What I have had, and what really ground my gears, was a recent customer who did not understand the concept of 'honest reviews.'



I sent her my review before posting it (She wrote an absolutely terrible book. For example, she wrote that a kid was wearing blue genes. GENES. GENES! My Inner Grammar n**i almost pulled a Hitler. This sort of writing was rampant. She skipped around and appeared to have copy and pasted sentences from one part of the book to the other… And on and on and on… I found three hundred potential edits in forty six book pages) and let her know that I really, honestly didn’t want to post it. I didn’t want to slam someone that badly, but I didn’t want to tarnish my reputation for honest reviews. I referred her to my other gig, for copy-editing and told her that we could work out a deal, because she had an interesting premise and it really could have been a great book with some professional editing.



She FLIPPED, told me I was insulting her, that her book had in fact been professionally edited and that I was a liar and cheat, trying to get more money out of her.



So I refunded her money. Figured the problem was over with, right? Nope.



She then went on a spree - downvoting every product I’ve ever reviewed and spamming the reviews on other people’s books saying that I was a liar and a cheat. She then got three of her friends to do the same thing.



I had to delete and repost all my reviews, losing over a hundred ‘helpful’ votes across three sites and dropping my reviewer ranking by almost TEN THOUSAND… In response to this, she went and posted fake reviews on MY BOOK with one star and then her and her friends voted them to the top of my most helpful reviews. These are permanent. There is absolutely NOTHING I can do about this.



I am enraged and hurt by this behavior. Nothing Fiverr can do about it, though. But some of the people here are so hurtful and inconsiderate it isn’t even funny.

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cheezees Newbie

cheezees

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Reply to @animusargentis: WWWHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAATTT???



Are you kidding me? For honestly stating that some editing needed to be done? Why did she not just take back the money and go away? It takes a certain kind of crazy to “retaliate” against an honest critique by a stranger that you paid, then received a refund from, causing you zero harm (a bruised ego does not count). I had only heard that this brand of crazy existed. Now it’s confirmed. 😦

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