Jump to content

Cancellations. How many do you have?


Recommended Posts

452 completed, 17 cancelled. Most of the time it’s buyers asking for topics I don’t write about. A lot of times it’s from people doing some crazy mental gymnastics. I once had a person who wanted me to write an article about their product which was gamer tea. I mean, I am a games writer but a) I don’t write promo material, I write articles, b) tea falls under the realm of nutrition and c) the article sort of fell under the realm of review for which my policy is that I don’t write about products and games I haven’t used/played.

I have had a couple of cancellations that were what I like to call “paying for my lesson”. Essentially, I initiated cancellations on orders that I thought I could take on but in the end they were too much of a hassle to make them worth it. One time, a regular wanted me to write a series of tweets for his game studio’s twitter. He gave me a range of topics to cover. First few tweets I gave him he came back to me saying they were “topics we already tweeted about several times” (but you gave me the list of topics!). I ended up biting the bullet and cancelled the order. I accepted it was my fault for taking on something that wasn’t within the service I typically provide.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 out of 37 orders I’ve worked on have been cancelled.

Cancellation #1: buyer ordered something not really pertaining to my gig, failed to respond during the first 24 hours, so I had it cancelled by Support. Didn’t harm my stats.

Cancellation #2: buyer was being nasty on my cheapest gig, had the audacity to lie and even call me unprofessional for the dumbest possible reason, while I even went out of my way to throw a sort of quick freebie in the delivery. I decided not to finish his order (50% complete by that point) and to request cancellation. Did harm my stats and made me lose my level.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you tend to complete orders even if the buyer is being The Worst ™️? Or have you just had pretty chill buyers?

Most of the time I’m lucky and have sane and understanding buyers, but I’ve had some nutjobs and “choosy beggars” as well. Apologies for the incoming story… 😅

I remember one nightmare buyer fairly early on when I was selling. It was a 20 buck order for like 1200 words for a VO for a mobile game character (will never price myself that low again!). He was incredibly nit-picky and particular about the VO sounding just right in his head. I delivered the entire audio, but then he wanted everything in a different style than discussed.

I bit my tongue and bared with it since this was early on in my selling and I didn’t want a disgruntled buyer, and I also offered a free revision on orders (don’t do that anymore either!). I re-recorded, re-edited, and resubmitted the entire audio, only for him to go through every line recorded with a fine tooth comb and ask once again for about half the lines to be done in slightly varying tones, as if this was a live, directed VO session…

I was done. My voice was getting shot. I wanted to rip into the guy right then and there. But I once again grinned and bared with it. With another round of revision recording and editing, I submitted the audio. The buyer was very happy with the results, closed the order quickly and left a review. I left a scathing 2 star review of the buyer and immediately blocked him from ordering from me again, which caught him by surprise as he left a 5 star review and was already talking about the next script for me to voice…

This was a rare instance of a buyer being ambushed by a ninja-posted bad review, instead of the common occurrence of a seller getting ambushed. 😈

Since I’ve added a couple disclaimers in my gig description and in my requirements section I’ve noticed buyers are usually pretty crystal clear on what to expect nowadays and there’s almost never a need to cancel.

My FAQ, Order Requirements page, and even all my spokesperson gig videos either reference or directly list a disclaimer of all the things I am unwilling or unable to do. I think it’s a bit overkill, but it definitely removes any ambiguity from buyers who can actually read or watch a video. 🤓

This was a rare instance of a buyer being ambushed by a ninja-posted bad review, instead of the common occurrence of a seller getting ambushed. 😈

YESSS we love to see it! I left a 2-star review last week after an absolutely infuriating experience with a buyer. They were a nightmare, and I was prepared for a bad review from them, too. They left me a 4.3 star review and, like your buyer, mentioned more projects.

Sometimes you really can’t tell which way it’s gonna go! Haha!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This was a rare instance of a buyer being ambushed by a ninja-posted bad review, instead of the common occurrence of a seller getting ambushed. 😈

YESSS we love to see it! I left a 2-star review last week after an absolutely infuriating experience with a buyer. They were a nightmare, and I was prepared for a bad review from them, too. They left me a 4.3 star review and, like your buyer, mentioned more projects.

Sometimes you really can’t tell which way it’s gonna go! Haha!

👏

I think 2 stars is much more effective to leave than 1, as 1 is normally perceived as being outright vindictive or retaliatory. While 2 makes one think, “Oof, what happened here?” and gives it more validity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...