Panic Stations....Please Help Me!

[kategething]

Hi guys, I’m hoping i can get some help on here (sorry if i’ve put this in the wrong place…newbie here!)
So I’ve not been selling on here for long, but the orders I’ve had have 5 star reviews and I go out of my way on each one to make it a good experience for the buyer. I have just had a really weird buyer though, I was creating a wordpress site for her and it was all going well then out of the blue I had a load of messages from her accusing me of communicating with another seller that she’d had a bad experience with and that I was getting her to do the work for me! I’ve tried to ask her why she thinks this and tried to assure her that this isn’t a thing but she point blank won’t accept it and has told me to cancel the order. I have spent 3 days making this whole site for her and now I’m guessing I wont get any payment for it. Does anyone know where I stand with this? Thanks

[imagination7413]

Welcome to the Fiverr forums.

That’s a new (likely) scam I haven’t heard before. Did you ask if there’s anything you can do to prove it? (Maybe get Fiverr Customer Support involved?)

[eoinfinnegan]

Buyers can’t just cancel orders without valid reasons.
However, there’s a couple of things to consider:

• Contact support and tell them what is happening and that you don’t want to cancel the order.
• If you push for them to let you complete the order, they may engage in “cancel tennis” with you - they will click cancel, you will reject over and over.
• Usually they will try contact support and ask them to cancel for them. If you have contacted first you should be ok to not get a cancellation immediately. Support usually ask buyers to work it out with the seller and so you can continue to discuss things with them.
• If the buyer accepts that you are continuing, unless they are really happy in the end, you are risking a bad review.

It’s something that happens from time to time and I have a policy of not cancelling orders I have worked on. Obviously I value my time too so if it was a small order, I may not be bothered with the effort of going through the above. I have only ever had 2 orders cancelled by support unfairly (in my view) and was compensated for one and offered half for another which I turned down to make a point (pretty sure the CS person thought I was nuts but anyway, I felt better).
The choice is yours.

[janeeditor]

Sadly, it sounds like a buyer with a well-established method of scamming sellers out of their pay. I’d report to CS, but I think the chances of getting paid for your work are not looking good 😦

[ziqbal1212]

It happen, though rarely but it is undoubtedly a matter of fact. In my opinion, you were lucky that you knew about your buyer during the development process. Had you you been completed the order and with existing state of affair you might have earned a bad review and feed back which would have been like ruining your freelancing career, as you are a new starter. So I would suggest you forget about this order, and work hard for your next order, by responding to buyers requests regularly and promoting your gigs in your social circle. You can also subscribe fiverr’s promote gig options to get more orders.
I wish you all the best and success in your future.

[kha1ed]

You can click on the buyer’s name to check her profile. See how long has she been on fiverr, how many ratings, try to copy her username and paste into google search and see what were her reviews on other gigs. You can get a good idea about if she is a legit buyer or not.

Next, two worst things can happen here:

1. She can cancel the order >>> you will not get any money + your cancellation rate will go down. However, you can recover from this.
2. You can contact the customer support for help and let’s assume they will sand with you (most likely they don’t) and you can complete the order >>> she will give you a negative review that will last forever, and being a new seller that means sending you to the last pages.

you can always contact the customer support for help and guidance. But they will tell you to try to work things out with your buyer.
It maybe a good idea to do a video call with the buyer to show her that you are real and not using a fake IP address etc? ( you need the customer support permission to do that though)

[enunciator]

Your buyer is either:

1. A nutjob.
2. A scammer.

Both possibilities are bad and unfortunately, you’ve already put time and effort into the order. Contact CS and hopefully they can assist you in this matter, but don’t hold your breath.

[kategething]

Buyers can’t just cancel orders without valid reasons.

However, there’s a couple of things to consider:

• Contact support and tell them what is happening and that you don’t want to cancel the order.
• If you push for them to let you complete the order, they may engage in “cancel tennis” with you - they will click cancel, you will reject over and over.
• Usually they will try contact support and ask them to cancel for them. If you have contacted first you should be ok to not get a cancellation immediately. Support usually ask buyers to work it out with the seller and so you can continue to discuss things with them.
• If the buyer accepts that you are continuing, unless they are really happy in the end, you are risking a bad review.

It’s something that happens from time to time and I have a policy of not cancelling orders I have worked on. Obviously I value my time too so if it was a small order, I may not be bothered with the effort of going through the above. I have only ever had 2 orders cancelled by support unfairly (in my view) and was compensated for one and offered half for another which I turned down to make a point (pretty sure the CS person thought I was nuts but anyway, I felt better).

The choice is yours.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate your help!

[kategething]

Your buyer is either:

1. A nutjob.
2. A scammer.

Both possibilities are bad and unfortunately, you’ve already put time and effort into the order. Contact CS and hopefully they can assist you in this matter, but don’t hold your breath.

i think they are more nut job than scammer but potentially both! I have contacted CS Thank you your help

[ziqbal1212]

Your buyer is either:

1. A nutjob.
2. A scammer.

Both possibilities are bad and unfortunately, you’ve already put time and effort into the order. Contact CS and hopefully they can assist you in this matter, but don’t hold your breath.

My experience, the Customer Support always support and help if you have genuine reasons. And they have their own way to ascertain the core reason of any problem. Contact customer support with all the details and surely they will help you.

[kategething]

Welcome to the Fiverr forums.

That’s a new (likely) scam I haven’t heard before. Did you ask if there’s anything you can do to prove it? (Maybe get Fiverr Customer Support involved?)

I have sent a message to CS so fingers crossed. I asked her to explain to me why she thinks this but she wouldn’t answer me and has deleted me out of the WordPress dashboard!

[eoinfinnegan]

I have sent a message to CS so fingers crossed. I asked her to explain to me why she thinks this but she wouldn’t answer me and has deleted me out of the WordPress dashboard!

I forgot to mention that having a cup of tea/coffee/wine is another step when dealing with these types. It may seem like time is of the essence here but really, once you have contacted support, take a breather and gather your thoughts.

[jalaluddin_lead]

Hope CS will help you and you get the payment

[kategething]

I forgot to mention that having a cup of tea/coffee/wine is another step when dealing with these types. It may seem like time is of the essence here but really, once you have contacted support, take a breather and gather your thoughts.

Wine always does the trick! Can I ask when you were compensated for your time, was it through CS? I have just asked them how it works if we can agree on a half payment and they said it has to be done by the buyer making another purchase through me, which in turn will potentially end in a bad review! I’m thinking cutting my losses at this point may be wise.

[eoinfinnegan]

Wine always does the trick! Can I ask when you were compensated for your time, was it through CS? I have just asked them how it works if we can agree on a half payment and they said it has to be done by the buyer making another purchase through me, which in turn will potentially end in a bad review! I’m thinking cutting my losses at this point may be wise.

The compensation was from support as they admitted fault for cancelling. With the “half payment” idea, it does leave you wide open to the buyer reviewing negatively. I haven’t checked your profile but a negative early on can hinder you. Its also a very hard sell to convince a buyer to pay more so that the original is then cancelled.

I have done that a couple of times too but not with customers who were likely to leave a bad review.

Your own time and mental wellbeing are valuable too so if you think cancelling is the best thing for you then go for it - being your own boss means you can move on from a bad client and leave them behind.

[kategething]

The compensation was from support as they admitted fault for cancelling. With the “half payment” idea, it does leave you wide open to the buyer reviewing negatively. I haven’t checked your profile but a negative early on can hinder you. Its also a very hard sell to convince a buyer to pay more so that the original is then cancelled.

I have done that a couple of times too but not with customers who were likely to leave a bad review.

Your own time and mental wellbeing are valuable too so if you think cancelling is the best thing for you then go for it - being your own boss means you can move on from a bad client and leave them behind.

Thank you, I really do appreciate your advice and help with this. I think moving forwards, cutting my losses is a much simpler and stress free option! Thank you!

[eoinfinnegan]

Thank you, I really do appreciate your advice and help with this. I think moving forwards, cutting my losses is a much simpler and stress free option! Thank you!

We have all been there and in the end, whatever suits you best is the right choice

[benedictrm]

Sorry to hear. It is indeed irrational behavior.

Maybe see if you can push CS into a half-payment thing seeing the “buyer” has locked you out therefore taking what they are otherwise not paying for.

Only do this if you can be assured by CS that they cannot Review as they will put something nasty for sure as an FU for not allowing them to totally scam you.

🙂

[looseink]

Sounds like your Buyer is an interesting bunch of people.