Seeking advice on how to handle a client that is mean

[mendesyo]

@mendesyo - females are often brought up to “be nice”, “don’t rock the boat”, “be kind and helpful” … and the result is we all have issues with boundaries.

In business, you need boundaries: say “no” to buyers who tell you they only have $x to spend - what they’re really saying is “are you a soft touch … let’s try it with presenting as a victim”.

Say “no” to buyers who treat you badly - be honest with your response to that person’s review: polite and professional, certainly, but honest.

Don’t be afraid to hurt someone’s feelings - they aren’t afraid of hurting your feelings so say “no” before they start.

Some buyers on Fiverr are scummy. They prey on new sellers. They take advantage of sellers who want to help. Learn to recognise them - and say “no”.

Far better to say “no” than have a lot of cancellations on your profile …

@coerdelion I understand, thank you for your tips 😇

[humanissocial]

Hello Everyone, I have completed 13 orders on FIVERR and got rated 5 stars for all my orders so far and I am loving the work environment on FIVERR, I am enjoying every part of the orders I receive and doing all the projects to the best of my ability and I am overjoyed to see that my clients love my work.

Unfortunately, I have come across a Buyer who recently ordered a Business Card service and like always I was more than happy to take in this order. He wanted me to do this service for $3 USD and I understand that the minimum amount for a service is $5 USD and explained the same to him after which he was insisting on 3 artworks for that rate, but when we came to a mutual decision I offered him 2 revisions on his order with the lowest budget I could go. He also said he wants it within an hour which I agreed although it was 4am where I was at and thought I’d rather stay up and complete the work rather than let down the order, so I tried my best to make sure I will complete this as soon as possible with no compromise on quality. The offer was for 2 concepts and that’s what I did making sure I followed his instructions on what he wants. He said he didn’t like both because he wanted more luxury and so I made him 4 more concepts with the revisions he asked for. He said he liked 1 of them but needed a few changes and I was glad we were getting somewhere with this order. By now it was 6am with 2 deliveries done and he mentioned he is ok with giving me more time and so I grabbed the opportunity and promised to deliver the next day. I woke up knowing what was needed and made changes and submitted the third delivery. This time he got a few more requirements and asked for revisions. As far as I knew his 2 revisions were done but I wanted to have this order completed keeping client satisfaction as my priority so I made the changes and delivered once again.

This time he didn’t say anything and waited 2.5 days after my delivery and didn’t even get back to me after me making the changes as he asked. He then replies on day 3 stating that he changed his mind and wants another revision this time contradicting what he chose in the last revision and that’s when I offered him extra’s to pay for additional revisions as I gave him 4 deliveries (including 3 revisions) in total when he was entitled to 2 revisions. He clearly stated he didn’t want to pay for any more revisions and so I offered him a refund on cancellation since that was what I was left with (although I know this will affect my scores) but kept being rude and calling me a scammer which made me actually open his profile and that shocked me because I realized he was rated 2 by 2 sellers and he probably tortured the life out of them to have them rate him bad and I also seen his reviews and he seems to have ruined their scores too.

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The above screenshot is proof that 2 sellers have had a hard time with him and so rated him this way 😦

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The above screenshot is the review he left for another seller that is so similar to what he is taking me through right now.

I understand everyone has different preferences but people with such trends ruin the community, I have never had such a rude client and I understand what others went through with him demeaning them and rejecting them time and again and yet coming back to make more purchases to be rude and mean to someone else.

Such people spoil the community and I don’t know what to do, If he cancels this order this will ruin my scores and if he orders extras it will again ruin my scores because he is a mean man who has been taking every seller through the same process so far and so is going to end up giving me a low score ruining my stats, please advise.

Also, my intentions of writing this is not to put anyone down or speak ill about any client, I just want to understand if someone else faced a situation similar to this and what could I do at this point.

amount for a service is $5 USD and explained the same to him after which he was insisting on 3 artworks for that rate, but when we came to a mutual decision I offered him 2 revisions on his order with the lowest budget I could go

No one who does this turns into a nice person. He was mean from before the order and you gave him the power to do additional mean things.

And you don’t get paid to negotiate. So he’s not only being cheap and exploitative. He asked you to chat unpaid so he could ask you to entertain an extremely exploitative offer.

Why even consider working with someone who would do that to you?

You should never have taken this order. Don’t do it again or this will keep happening.

[mendesyo]

amount for a service is $5 USD and explained the same to him after which he was insisting on 3 artworks for that rate, but when we came to a mutual decision I offered him 2 revisions on his order with the lowest budget I could go

No one who does this turns into a nice person. He was mean from before the order and you gave him the power to do additional mean things.

And you don’t get paid to negotiate. So he’s not only being cheap and exploitative. He asked you to chat unpaid so he could ask you to entertain an extremely exploitative offer.

Why even consider working with someone who would do that to you?

You should never have taken this order. Don’t do it again or this will keep happening.

@humanissocial I understand, still learning 🙂 Thanks for your advice.

[humanissocial]

@humanissocial I understand, still learning 🙂 Thanks for your advice.

You’re welcome. The noun is advice, not advise. Advise is a verb.

[greystorm2]

Looks like you’ve already gotten a lot of good advice here, I just hate to see situations like this.

Everyone who encounters abusive buyers like this should absolutely band together and do the following:

Decline (or cancel)
Report
Block

1. Decline. Just Say No. Do it nicely and professionally, of course, because you don’t want to put yourself in danger of getting YOUR account suspended, but you have every right to say no. Trust your gut when someone is being pushy, demanding a bunch of revisions, demanding the work be done in a ridiculously short amount of time, demanding it be done for a ridiculously tiny budget. Pay attention to the tone of their messages, and to impolite, demanding wording like, “you will do,” “this needs to be done,” “I need this now.” Even if there’s a language barrier between the buyer and seller, or perhaps even a cultural difference, a demanding tone from someone who is trying to manipulate, intimidate, and take advantage of a new seller is very noticeably different from polite wording like, “I understand my budget is tight,” “I know I’m asking for a short turn-around,” “I was hoping you could help me out,” and even the simple things like “please” and “thank you.”

If you did actually try to make an order with an abusive buyer work out and it’s gotten to this point, cancel. Cancellations drop off from your stats after so many days. You absolutely do NOT need to put yourself through that kind of abuse and stress, and you will very likely never get a good review out of someone like that.

2. Report the abusive buyer to CS. I feel this is extremely important. CS can investigate to determine whether the buyer is abusing the platform to demand free work outside of the scope of the gig offerings, and engaging in harassment, among other possible violations, but they need to know the behavior is happening in order to look into it.

It may seem tedious, but it benefits and protects us all if we all carefully read through the TOS to recognize behavior that is not allowed and to familiarize ourselves with the actions we can take when we do encounter situations like these.

3. Block them after you’ve politely but firmly declined to do business with them or to have any further correspondence with them. Don’t give them an opportunity to continue to harass you through messages or to damage your stats further by placing another order.

By refusing to tolerate fraudulent and abusive behavior, rather than simply trying to push through a horrible transaction for the sake of a temporary stat, you’re helping to protect the community, and to improve the reputation of the platform.

[mendesyo]

Looks like you’ve already gotten a lot of good advice here, I just hate to see situations like this.

Everyone who encounters abusive buyers like this should absolutely band together and do the following:

Decline (or cancel)

Report

Block

1. Decline. Just Say No. Do it nicely and professionally, of course, because you don’t want to put yourself in danger of getting YOUR account suspended, but you have every right to say no. Trust your gut when someone is being pushy, demanding a bunch of revisions, demanding the work be done in a ridiculously short amount of time, demanding it be done for a ridiculously tiny budget. Pay attention to the tone of their messages, and to impolite, demanding wording like, “you will do,” “this needs to be done,” “I need this now.” Even if there’s a language barrier between the buyer and seller, or perhaps even a cultural difference, a demanding tone from someone who is trying to manipulate, intimidate, and take advantage of a new seller is very noticeably different from polite wording like, “I understand my budget is tight,” “I know I’m asking for a short turn-around,” “I was hoping you could help me out,” and even the simple things like “please” and “thank you.”

If you did actually try to make an order with an abusive buyer work out and it’s gotten to this point, cancel. Cancellations drop off from your stats after so many days. You absolutely do NOT need to put yourself through that kind of abuse and stress, and you will very likely never get a good review out of someone like that.

2. Report the abusive buyer to CS. I feel this is extremely important. CS can investigate to determine whether the buyer is abusing the platform to demand free work outside of the scope of the gig offerings, and engaging in harassment, among other possible violations, but they need to know the behavior is happening in order to look into it.

It may seem tedious, but it benefits and protects us all if we all carefully read through the TOS to recognize behavior that is not allowed and to familiarize ourselves with the actions we can take when we do encounter situations like these.

3. Block them after you’ve politely but firmly declined to do business with them or to have any further correspondence with them. Don’t give them an opportunity to continue to harass you through messages or to damage your stats further by placing another order.

By refusing to tolerate fraudulent and abusive behavior, rather than simply trying to push through a horrible transaction for the sake of a temporary stat, you’re helping to protect the community, and to improve the reputation of the platform.

@greystorm2 Thank you for the advice and tips! 👍

[mendesyo]

Thanks Everyone for all the lovely advise and tips, I just thought I’d post an update stating what happened… FIVERR Customer Service was kind enough to make sure the order was cancelled, although I lost out on the cash for this ORDER I was still happy that I didnt get any bad rating (From this client looking at the trend he was upto) However, I literally had no orders since 2 weeks and I am guessing it was only a result of the impact this cancellation had on my account stats (EVEN Though I still show 100% on everything)

Well the good part is that its been more than 2 weeks now and Fortunately I have started receiving orders like before so seems like with all the awesome tips you lovely people gave me and all the support customer service gave me, I managed to get through this and maintain my stats and now back to business…THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE! 😇