Any advice for an unfortunate situation?

[mayanksusngi]

Hey.

My next door neighbor in my apartment tested positive for Coronavirus and so have 2 others from my building which has essentially put my building in quarrantine with no one allowed in or out. To make matters worse, my computer has stopped working and there’s no way for me to fix it.

Thankfully, I only have 1 order in queue right now compared to the usual 3-4 but I’ve had perfect ratings and stats till now and am genuinely concerned. I’ve been on the platform for almost 2 months and have been quite successful, with constant work throughout.

I’ve offered the client to find someone else that I can order from and cover the costs of (even if it costs me more) since the stats mean more to me than the money at this moment but haven’t heard from them yet.

It might take a week/longer to fix the system/buy news parts and I have at least 5-7 other people who are waiting on me to work for them but hadn’t placed orders yet. I’ll be contacting them, but do I additionally pause my gig? Do I use the out of office feature? Do I change my gig description to state my current scenario and leave it as it is?

What do you think would be the least damaging for my profile in the long run? Thanks a lot for the time you’ve spent reading and any inputs. It’s appreciated!

Mayank

[hinajehan]

So sorry to hear that happened to you, You can send time extending request to your buyer for the current order and you should increase your price so no one can buy your service,It will not effect your gigs states.

If you pause your gigs or choose out of office option then your gig will take time to comeback in search result.

[mayanksusngi]

So sorry to hear that happened to you, You can send time extending request to your buyer for the current order and you should increase your price so no one can buy your service,It will not effect your gigs states.

If you pause your gigs or choose out of office option then your gig will take time to comeback in search result.

Thanks for your insight. I hadn’t considered an extension since I’m not sure when it might end up being fixed, but I’ll float that idea as well. Thanks again!

[rana4944]

Are you okay? How are you doing?

I think you shall use the Limit orders in queue option. That might be helpful to you.

[miiila]

Thanks for your insight. I hadn’t considered an extension since I’m not sure when it might end up being fixed, but I’ll float that idea as well. Thanks again!

If an extension won’t work, and you have some kind of document to prove that you may not leave your house due to the situation, “a quarantine note”, you could try asking support to cancel for you without harming your completion rate.

No guarantees there, but trying doesn’t hurt, and while support response times currently seem low, the very fact that that’s also due to COVID, might make them sympathetic of your request.

I think pausing your gig is more effective than out of office mode; as far as I’ve read, people with a direct link to your gig (say, they saved your gig in their favorites) could still order, and as long as you have internet and can reply to inquiries, maybe you could get some orders with long enough delivery times to counteract the possible effect of pausing your gigs.

But most importantly, good luck, stay healthy.

[markhallva]

Are you okay? How are you doing?

I think you shall use the Limit orders in queue option. That might be helpful to you.

Limit orders in queue option

What’s the point? If they aren’t able to work at all then it would be better to use out of office.

[rana4944]

Limit orders in queue option

What’s the point? If they aren’t able to work at all then it would be better to use out of office.

For example He can limit orders to one.

If he get order within a week from now, until he said he will have the computer fixed.

Or if the buyer first contacts him then he may direct him to another seller.

[markhallva]

For example He can limit orders to one.

If he get order within a week from now, until he said he will have the computer fixed.

Or if the buyer first contacts him then he may direct him to another seller.

They have an order in queue right now.

All the other orders they talked about are from buyers they are currently in contact with, and haven’t yet placed an order.

So what happens if they complete this order (OP suggested they get another seller to do the work), and then get another order whilst still not having a fully functioning computer? It doesn’t make sense to risk that by limiting orders in queue instead of just going out of office.

@mayanksusngi Use out of office mode until you’re ready to start working again. What will hurt your profile is if you continue to get orders while you can’t fulfill them, and end up having to cancel or deliver late. Simply changing your description isn’t enough as not everyone reads it completely before ordering.

[rana4944]

They have an order in queue right now.

All the other orders they talked about are from buyers they are currently in contact with, and haven’t yet placed an order.

So what happens if they complete this order (OP suggested they get another seller to do the work), and then get another order whilst still not having a fully functioning computer? It doesn’t make sense to risk that by limiting orders in queue instead of just going out of office.

@mayanksusngi Use out of office mode until you’re ready to start working again. What will hurt your profile is if you continue to get orders while you can’t fulfill them, and end up having to cancel or deliver late. Simply changing your description isn’t enough as not everyone reads it completely before ordering.

Okay Thanks @markhallva for the information.

There’s no more option then to use the out of office option. @mayanksusngi

[mayanksusngi]

If an extension won’t work, and you have some kind of document to prove that you may not leave your house due to the situation, “a quarantine note”, you could try asking support to cancel for you without harming your completion rate.

No guarantees there, but trying doesn’t hurt, and while support response times currently seem low, the very fact that that’s also due to COVID, might make them sympathetic of your request.

I think pausing your gig is more effective than out of office mode; as far as I’ve read, people with a direct link to your gig (say, they saved your gig in their favorites) could still order, and as long as you have internet and can reply to inquiries, maybe you could get some orders with long enough delivery times to counteract the possible effect of pausing your gigs.

But most importantly, good luck, stay healthy.

This makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the detailed and very thoughtful reply! Pausing will give me the option to explain to past clients about the situation who might otherwise wonder why I’ve disappeared from the site. Thanks a ton! You’ve been very helpful 😀