NEED ADVICE Dealing with Difficult Buyer

[williambryan392]

That last paragraph sounds to me like “howeverrrrrrrr… if it was originally agreed you had unlimited revisions…”

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have added that. I hope I’m wrong.

Because the buyer can always complain to CS that the seller “promised” revisions by stating “unlimited revisions”.

That’s what I thought initially, but after reading again it seems to me that if there is a revision request then that revision should be delivered after the autocomplete, but only if it was requested before the autocomplete.

Or with less waffle…

The revision should be carried out after the completion only if it was requested before the completion.

Makes sense to me.

[strategist_ceo]

If the old order had already “ended”, you can tell them that they need a new order… and if they are being unrealistic, I will recommend you to just block them. They can’t report you unless they pay for another order.

[zerlina84]

If the old order had already “ended”, you can tell them that they need a new order… and if they are being unrealistic, I will recommend you to just block them. They can’t report you unless they pay for another order.

That’s what makes sense. But we’ve had many sellers on the forum complaining that the buyers went to CS months after the order was completed and they cancelled the order. So it’s always better not to have unlimited revisions…

[strategist_ceo]

That’s what makes sense. But we’ve had many sellers on the forum complaining that the buyers went to CS months after the order was completed and they cancelled the order. So it’s always better not to have unlimited revisions…

I don’t think it makes sense that an order can be cancelled “months” after.

Fiverr terms of service is clear and it reads: " As per our Terms of Service, orders may only be cancelled within 14 days of the order being marked as completed. Orders that were completed longer than that may not be eligible to be cancelled . Any cancellation requests sent to Customer Support must include sufficient evidence of work not delivered."

That being said, if the work product turned out to be fraudulent (for example written work was discovered as plagiarized or… some elements were found to be illegal… or the seller disclosed confidential information.

There might be some reasonable explanations… but it should be rare, very rare… and hopefully Fiverr protects us, sellers.

[psykkopatte]

Yes, unlimited revisions is a big mistake to me, people could abuse of it to give unlimited work to refine.

[strategist_ceo]

Yes, unlimited revisions is a big mistake to me, people could abuse of it to give unlimited work to refine.

On a side note, I agree with the logic of giving “unlimited revisions” because I know what I am doing and there’s integrity in the work product. The only reason you should state “how many revisions” is to avoid being cheated… but if I made any common mistake that any expert can scrutinize, it deserves to be revised… unconditionally.

If the buyer is seeking unrealistic revisions and abusing the system, I will go to the CS and see if they can review it. If Fiverr reviews individual cases as they should, including a review of what was being discussed in the conversation exchange… and the product that was offered/revised (and whether they fit the description as requested in the revisions by the buyer). I believe they will protect the seller… or am I too optimistic about Fiverr?

[mjcagency]

On a side note, I agree with the logic of giving “unlimited revisions” because I know what I am doing and there’s integrity in the work product. The only reason you should state “how many revisions” is to avoid being cheated… but if I made any common mistake that any expert can scrutinize, it deserves to be revised… unconditionally.

If the buyer is seeking unrealistic revisions and abusing the system, I will go to the CS and see if they can review it. If Fiverr reviews individual cases as they should, including a review of what was being discussed in the conversation exchange… and the product that was offered/revised (and whether they fit the description as requested in the revisions by the buyer). I believe they will protect the seller… or am I too optimistic about Fiverr?

On a side note, I agree with the logic of giving “unlimited revisions” because I know what I am doing and there’s integrity in the work product. The only reason you should state “how many revisions” is to avoid being cheated… but if I made any common mistake that any expert can scrutinize, it deserves to be revised… unconditionally.

Exactly this!! I give unlimited revisions because I know I am going to deliver what the customer wants. If something is wrong, I revise it. A “Revision” is me fixing/editing what they want until it’s perfect. 3 months later wanting a whole new website is an outlier.

I have completed over 86 orders on my “unlimited revision” gigs and have only had this happen 2 times (at the exact same time, which is ironic).

[mjcagency]

Hi all, just an update, here is the message I sent to the client this morning. I will let you know how this all pans out:

I did go back and review all of our conversations and where we left off back in October. I feel I need to mention that if we are starting a website from scratch again, this will have to be a new order and not considered a revision.

Looking back through our previous messages and the order page, you can see where I delivered the original site and we did go back and forth making a couple of changes. You then said you were happy to approve the order and that within 10 days you will have the final content to plug into the site. In addition with the approval of the order you asked me to put up a coming soon site in it’s place and you accepted the ownership transfer of the main site.

I was not under the impression that the new content would lead us into a new full site build altogether, and since I have already designed 1 full site plus the small coming soon site for you, I just cannot consider a new site a revision under my revisions policy.

I hope you can understand, these websites take me several hours/days each, even the coming soon site takes a couple hours to set up the way you asked. I have absolutely no problem adding in content to fine tune up the original full site that I built for you originally, but if we are to start from scratch I will need to open up a new order.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this. I am not out to make a quick buck and leave you without a website you are unhappy with, but I also cannot build multiple sites from scratch under an order that is now over 3 months past when I was expecting and requesting the final content long after the order closed.

Thank you,
Mike

[mjcagency]

Can not thank all of you enough for your time, advice, and the alternatives you all provided for me!

[strategist_ceo]

Hi all, just an update, here is the message I sent to the client this morning. I will let you know how this all pans out:

I did go back and review all of our conversations and where we left off back in October. I feel I need to mention that if we are starting a website from scratch again, this will have to be a new order and not considered a revision.

Looking back through our previous messages and the order page, you can see where I delivered the original site and we did go back and forth making a couple of changes. You then said you were happy to approve the order and that within 10 days you will have the final content to plug into the site. In addition with the approval of the order you asked me to put up a coming soon site in it’s place and you accepted the ownership transfer of the main site.

I was not under the impression that the new content would lead us into a new full site build altogether, and since I have already designed 1 full site plus the small coming soon site for you, I just cannot consider a new site a revision under my revisions policy.

I hope you can understand, these websites take me several hours/days each, even the coming soon site takes a couple hours to set up the way you asked. I have absolutely no problem adding in content to fine tune up the original full site that I built for you originally, but if we are to start from scratch I will need to open up a new order.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this. I am not out to make a quick buck and leave you without a website you are unhappy with, but I also cannot build multiple sites from scratch under an order that is now over 3 months past when I was expecting and requesting the final content long after the order closed.

Thank you,

Mike

You then said you were happy to approve the order and that within 10 days you will have the final content to plug into the site. In addition with the approval of the order you asked me to put up a coming soon site in it’s place and you accepted the ownership transfer of the main site.

I think this is the misunderstanding, was there supposed to be an update 10 days after that? That being said… you are offering a very fair goodwill gesture by adding in contents (in Thailand, it would have been 5 - 10 USD per extra page) after completion.

You might also check the “order” on whether it includes any number of “pages”, I think many web developers will state that in the order. It should be taken into consideration as well, as to whether that order can be justifiably disputed. (Not in my opinion)

If you have both checked… just reply to the support team (CS) and stop dealing directly with the client.

[lenasemenkova]

On a side note, I agree with the logic of giving “unlimited revisions” because I know what I am doing and there’s integrity in the work product. The only reason you should state “how many revisions” is to avoid being cheated… but if I made any common mistake that any expert can scrutinize, it deserves to be revised… unconditionally.

If the buyer is seeking unrealistic revisions and abusing the system, I will go to the CS and see if they can review it. If Fiverr reviews individual cases as they should, including a review of what was being discussed in the conversation exchange… and the product that was offered/revised (and whether they fit the description as requested in the revisions by the buyer). I believe they will protect the seller… or am I too optimistic about Fiverr?

I agree with the logic of giving “unlimited revisions” because I know what I am doing and there’s integrity in the work product

The logic behind this statement honestly irks me because it implies that sellers who got themselves into an endless loop of revisions has failed to do the job properly and if you do your job properly, unlimited revisions won’t ever be an issue. And it is just not true.

However, I’m willing to entertain the idea that in some fields revising things is easier; that some fields are less prone to abuse. And I’m in no way advocating for the idea of slamming the door into your buyer’s face after you did 2 revisions that you offer when they need a few more minor edits. You should offer more than agreed upon if you want to, not because the client demands it out of nowhere.

(Also, I apologize if I’m repeating myself. The comment sounds familiar, I might have responded to it before in another post).

[strategist_ceo]

I agree with the logic of giving “unlimited revisions” because I know what I am doing and there’s integrity in the work product

The logic behind this statement honestly irks me because it implies that sellers who got themselves into an endless loop of revisions has failed to do the job properly and if you do your job properly, unlimited revisions won’t ever be an issue. And it is just not true.

However, I’m willing to entertain the idea that in some fields revising things is easier; that some fields are less prone to abuse. And I’m in no way advocating for the idea of slamming the door into your buyer’s face after you did 2 revisions that you offer when they need a few more minor edits. You should offer more than agreed upon if you want to, not because the client demands it out of nowhere.

(Also, I apologize if I’m repeating myself. The comment sounds familiar, I might have responded to it before in another post).

The logic is correct in most circumstances and is what you expect in life. If you want something done, if it’s fixed (and everyone else can tell it’s fixed properly)… there is little possibility of repair. You won’t get an IT technician to look at a working computer or a repairman to look at a working engine.

I guess some gigs do need to have revision limits (such as drawing and graphics)… beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[lenasemenkova]

The logic is correct in most circumstances and is what you expect in life. If you want something done, if it’s fixed (and everyone else can tell it’s fixed properly)… there is little possibility of repair. You won’t get an IT technician to look at a working computer or a repairman to look at a working engine.

I guess some gigs do need to have revision limits (such as drawing and graphics)… beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Yeah, I had a conversation about it with a friend of mine who is a developer. How in his work the end result either works or doesn’t work and there can be little debate about this. While the end result of my work is an abstraction based on a combination of factors such as mood swings and feelings.

But ultimately, long before fiverr I came to the conclusion that I can no longer afford clients who want unlimited revisions. It usually means that they have a serious disconnect between what they really want and what they told me they want.

For a fixed price project (I’m aware that paid revisions are a thing on fiverr but have fun trying to charge a buyer for 5+ extra ones), it’s a risky undertaking. As for “unlimited revisions” all over the gig description somehow implying “good product” or “quality”, I just don’t see it. I kind of see the opposite but we can agree to disagree on this one.

[mjcagency]

Hi Everyone, I wanted to update you on this situation.

I mentioned that this was happening with 2 buyers at once - the one above that I mentioned has not responded to me in a few days, which is fine by me.

The other client - I finally blocked them after they sent more ridiculous requests and their now third business plan. The next morning, the person emailed me asking why they could no longer contact me on Fiverr. (They find my email through the wix website transfer of ownership process).

I immediately opened up a case with Fiverr asking them to look into this buyer, saying that he was taking advantage of my revisions policy and that he also contacted me outside of Fiverr. Explained the entire situation about them asking for 3 websites from me etc. The Fiverr rep said not to worry, ecouraged me to block their email address.

Hours later, the buyer opened up a case against me saying I did not complete his work and that I am no longer communicating with him. I simply told the rep to refer to the case I had already opened, explaining this buyer and what was going on.

Long story short, Fiverr had my back 100%. They told the buyer that I owed him nothing more and they told me that while they would ask that I send at least one more message to the buyer before terminating the relationship/blocking, they understand if I did not want to send the last message and just keep them blocked.

I did not expect it, but Fiverr took care of me on this one, and I’m sure the buyer will be getting banned or at the very least warned for trying to contact me outside of here.

Thank you again for all of your help. Great outcome here, and now I feel more confident taking the same route with the original buyer I posted about above!

[williambryan392]

Hi Everyone, I wanted to update you on this situation.

I mentioned that this was happening with 2 buyers at once - the one above that I mentioned has not responded to me in a few days, which is fine by me.

The other client - I finally blocked them after they sent more ridiculous requests and their now third business plan. The next morning, the person emailed me asking why they could no longer contact me on Fiverr. (They find my email through the wix website transfer of ownership process).

I immediately opened up a case with Fiverr asking them to look into this buyer, saying that he was taking advantage of my revisions policy and that he also contacted me outside of Fiverr. Explained the entire situation about them asking for 3 websites from me etc. The Fiverr rep said not to worry, ecouraged me to block their email address.

Hours later, the buyer opened up a case against me saying I did not complete his work and that I am no longer communicating with him. I simply told the rep to refer to the case I had already opened, explaining this buyer and what was going on.

Long story short, Fiverr had my back 100%. They told the buyer that I owed him nothing more and they told me that while they would ask that I send at least one more message to the buyer before terminating the relationship/blocking, they understand if I did not want to send the last message and just keep them blocked.

I did not expect it, but Fiverr took care of me on this one, and I’m sure the buyer will be getting banned or at the very least warned for trying to contact me outside of here.

Thank you again for all of your help. Great outcome here, and now I feel more confident taking the same route with the original buyer I posted about above!

Long story short, Fiverr had my back 100%

Brilliant! And I’m not entirely surprised TBH. CS gets a really hard time here, people often complain of slow replies and poor template responses.

I think they base their response quality (rightly or wrong so) on the value you bring to fiver overall. You sell professional quality gigs to happy buyers on a regular basis, at a healthy/high price by fiver standards. Fiver likes that. They want to look after you, and of course, you’ve done nothing wrong.

[mjcagency]

All great points! I will say, I’ve almost always had a great experience with CS too. However for whatever reason, if you try to google any issues you’re having, all you see is horror stories from people. Maybe these are people who do not provide/perform well for Fiverr so they don’t care as much.

Nonetheless, I’m happy with how they handled this, and I have a lot less anxiety about a rogue client trying to ruin my standings here. Fiverr has quickly risen to be the main source of income for my business, and I plan on expanding upon my work inside this platform.

Best of luck to you all!

[mjcagency]

A little nervous this morning… earnings withdrawals have been disabled on my account.

2 Fiverr reps told me to block this client via Fiverr and email.

I had replied to the case about a separate issue (my response rate was showing incorrectly). A third CS rep reached out to me and asked for screenshots. She then continued to tell me I need to reach out to this client and tell them I am done working for them versus just blocking them. She also said that encouraging the customer to approve the order is a serious breach of the guidelines but did not say I would be penalized for it.

I kindly explained to her that I have since messaged the customer and that I had already delivered the complete order MULTIPLE times before telling the customer it was complete and to approve the order.

I didn’t go too into detail with her. But after that email I went to withdraw funds and it was disabled!!! I opened a new ticket, but I’m really nervous they are flagging me over this for some reason.

Now what?? Two reps tell me to block the guy. A third rep tells me I need to message him. Now no withdrawals??