Seller has delayed multiple times. What to do?

[booksofwar]

Hi.

The seller has delayed order several times. I have said OK each time. The seller is a muslim and currently they have or have had ramadam. That is fine with me, since I haven’t been in a rush. On the 22th of April, seller asked for 9 more days to deliver website. I said fine. Then, the deadline is passed, he gives no excuses, but says he is trying to upload his code to the website. From this point on, I hear nothing. I ask him if he is okey and get this response:

“Hi, My cousin’s uncle son is died due to covid. He was admitted in a private hospital. They were paying much everyday but still he died. Because everything is in hand of God.”

This is in Pakistan, and I understand they are heavily affected. I have given him my condolences and left it at that. 3 days have passed now, and I now I am wondering how to proceed from here. Can I expect any delivery or should I just give him time? I don’t mean to be rude, since it very well may be this has affected him and his family in a major way, but on the other hand, I do suspect he is using this a as another excuse.What do you think?

[miiila]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I’ve had something like the first situation too when I bought a Gig a while ago, and something like the second situation (not Covid-related but death of a family member) when I bought another Gig, so not both in one. In both cases, I got the delivery after the first time extension.

Did you give the seller an official time extension, i.e. did he request one? If not, and his delivery is getting later and later, that can’t be good for his account.

If you don’t want to be harsh in case it’s not an excuse, you could ask him how many more days he’ll need, and see if you’re okay with that but make clear that you’ll have to cancel and order from someone else if he won’t deliver then.

You could also ask him if he did any work yet, and if not, offer to cancel, since he doesn’t seem able to work on your order. Canceling an order isn’t good for sellers, of course, but if he can’t, or doesn’t want to work on your order under his current circumstances, there isn’t really a way around it, he can’t expect from you to wait for many days beyond the original and even extended deadline.

It’s an unpleasant situation to be in, in any case, I feel with you.

I’m also trying to figure out what “my cousin’s uncle’s son” would be to me, wouldn’t that just be another cousin (almost sounds like one of those riddle questions, as it also could be me, if that uncle of my cousin was my father, and I was male (?)).

[booksofwar]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I’ve had something like the first situation too when I bought a Gig a while ago, and something like the second situation (not Covid-related but death of a family member) when I bought another Gig, so not both in one. In both cases, I got the delivery after the first time extension.

Did you give the seller an official time extension, i.e. did he request one? If not, and his delivery is getting later and later, that can’t be good for his account.

If you don’t want to be harsh in case it’s not an excuse, you could ask him how many more days he’ll need, and see if you’re okay with that but make clear that you’ll have to cancel and order from someone else if he won’t deliver then.

You could also ask him if he did any work yet, and if not, offer to cancel, since he doesn’t seem able to work on your order. Canceling an order isn’t good for sellers, of course, but if he can’t, or doesn’t want to work on your order under his current circumstances, there isn’t really a way around it, he can’t expect from you to wait for many days beyond the original and even extended deadline.

It’s an unpleasant situation to be in, in any case, I feel with you.

I’m also trying to figure out what “my cousin’s uncle’s son” would be to me, wouldn’t that just be another cousin (almost sounds like one of those riddle questions, as it also could be me, if that uncle of my cousin was my father, and I was male (?)).

Regarding your last sentence: I have thought the exact same. But I do know that family is tight in Pakistan. I’ll send him a message and clarify it.

[helenabester]

Wow, I wish I had more buyers like you! You seem like a sympathetic and caring person.

I am a seller here on Fiverr and have been here for almost 4 years. In those four years, a lot has happened in my personal life. My daughter has been diagnosed with epilepsy and has been hospitalized twice, a dear friend died from Covid, and I had a knee operation. I also had the usual small ailments that everyone faces: the flu, headaches…

My point? Life happens. BUT - it should not mix with business. As a seller, you are here to provide excellent service and only that. Your buyers should, as a rule, not know about your personal life.

If you cannot deliver due to a personal reason, it is ok to ask for an extension - but only once.

I think you’ve done more than enough in this case. Your seller is not professional anymore. It is within your right to cancel the order and get someone who can do the work.

[miiila]

Regarding your last sentence: I have thought the exact same. But I do know that family is tight in Pakistan. I’ll send him a message and clarify it.

Yes, but I didn’t mean “just” in the sense of “just a cousin”, only in the sense of you could just say “my cousin” instead of “my cousin’s uncle’s son”. Of course, you could be very close to your cousin.

But it might be a language thing, perhaps in the seller’s native language, there are different terms that refer to sons/daughters of one’s uncle, one’s aunt, and so on, while it might just be “cousin” in all cases in English.