Customer threatening to "cut ties" and "chargeback" order after all work has been completed, what do?

[liamdormon]

I have a customer who placed an order like usual, we went through and set up a trello board and a git with a plan of where we were going to develop his server, all is normal so far, buyer is very cooperative. After around 5-6 hours of work, I’ve completed all of his requirements in the scope plus some extras that I felt were fundamental to the security of the server and at this point I noticed I’m kicked from the trello board and git. I queried the customer about it and 48h later he replied saying they wish to cut ties due to quote, “we saw how you talked to people on discords” end quote and that they will be charging back. I’m not sure how this has any relavance to my professional account especially since my discord is not only an external account but is in no way linked to my fiverr profile, does not have the same name, picture or anything but regardless I have not in my personal opinion verbally abused any person in a public discord whilst representing either myself or my pseudonym. What should I do in this situation, am I going to lose out on my time and money here or is this a salvageable situation?

Edit: I do have screenshot evidence of all the work done on the trello board and github as well as proof that the customer removed me and proceeded to ghost me.

[cubittaudio]

Sounds like a rough situation to be in.

My advice is to ignore the client from this point on. If you’ve submitted the work, the client either has to request a Cancellation via Fiverr (which you can dispute) or the order will auto complete after 3 days of you submitting the work.

If the client charges back (via PayPal), they will automatically forfeit their Fiverr account, and be banned from creating new ones. Fiverr will automatically deduct the earnings from you. But, you can challenge this with Fiverr Customer Support. Keep friendly and professional with them, show them all evidence you have that the client had been planning this chargeback, and all evidence that you completed the work, as requested in the order. If Customer Support agree that you’ve stuck to your side of the bargain, they will refund you the charged back funds. My understanding is they keep an ‘insurance fund’ to cover such instances.

Where this could come undone is if Customer Support do not agree that you’ve completed the work as requested in the order. Is there any way they could see it that way? With the work being on an external server, what kind of proof can you gather to show you’ve done what the client paid for?

[liamdormon]

Sounds like a rough situation to be in.

My advice is to ignore the client from this point on. If you’ve submitted the work, the client either has to request a Cancellation via Fiverr (which you can dispute) or the order will auto complete after 3 days of you submitting the work.

If the client charges back (via PayPal), they will automatically forfeit their Fiverr account, and be banned from creating new ones. Fiverr will automatically deduct the earnings from you. But, you can challenge this with Fiverr Customer Support. Keep friendly and professional with them, show them all evidence you have that the client had been planning this chargeback, and all evidence that you completed the work, as requested in the order. If Customer Support agree that you’ve stuck to your side of the bargain, they will refund you the charged back funds. My understanding is they keep an ‘insurance fund’ to cover such instances.

Where this could come undone is if Customer Support do not agree that you’ve completed the work as requested in the order. Is there any way they could see it that way? With the work being on an external server, what kind of proof can you gather to show you’ve done what the client paid for?

The problem here is that they’re refusing to accept the delivery or cancel, they’re requeting revisions over and over again. I have a 2 page PDF document detailing the work done and screenshot proof of the commit history of the git the work was done on.

[cubittaudio]

The problem here is that they’re refusing to accept the delivery or cancel, they’re requeting revisions over and over again. I have a 2 page PDF document detailing the work done and screenshot proof of the commit history of the git the work was done on.

When they request a revision, what specifically do they ask for?

[liamdormon]

When they request a revision, what specifically do they ask for?

Nothing, they just hurl abuse at me saying I “ruined everything” and they will be “cutting ties”.

[cubittaudio]

They clearly don’t know what “cutting ties” means if they keep requesting nonsense revisions from you!

I would open a Notepad on my computer, and type out a polite response. Something along the lines of “As I’ve completed all of the work requested in our original Order agreement, and no new revisions have been requested, I’m resubmitting proof of work.”

Then resubmit the work. And strap yourself in, as you may have to do this until the client realises you’re not going to take no for an answer. Honestly, they sound like they want you to get bored first, and request a cancellation from your end.

[liamdormon]

They clearly don’t know what “cutting ties” means if they keep requesting nonsense revisions from you!

I would open a Notepad on my computer, and type out a polite response. Something along the lines of “As I’ve completed all of the work requested in our original Order agreement, and no new revisions have been requested, I’m resubmitting proof of work.”

Then resubmit the work. And strap yourself in, as you may have to do this until the client realises you’re not going to take no for an answer. Honestly, they sound like they want you to get bored first, and request a cancellation from your end.

This is the strategy I’ve been using up until now but the customer keeps on going. It doesn’t look like they have any intention of doing anything but waste my time.

[cubittaudio]

This is the strategy I’ve been using up until now but the customer keeps on going. It doesn’t look like they have any intention of doing anything but waste my time.

You’re just going to have to keep going.

Right now, their money is tied up in the system. Playing this game is a waste of both time and money for them as well. If they want a refund, they have to either request it from Fiverr, or ask PayPal to charge back. I’ll be honest, they sound like they don’t really know what they’re doing.

Just don’t engage them. Keep communication factual and professional, don’t get drawn into arguments or responding to them trying to bait you. If you lose your temper, that’s probably ground for them to request a cancellation. Just keep going. I’ve seen some sellers on the forum report that they did this for a few weeks before the buyer eventually stopped.

Of course, the other option is to cancel, YOU walk away and block the buyer. Not a great option after all your work, but you need to decide if this is worthy of your time.