cancellation Buyer cancels 2 hours after placing an order

[gajuseidi]

Today I got a very unfortunate order. Buyer placed an order and opened a dispute to cancel it 2h and 15min after. They were expecting a very fast turnaround of an hour or two, as far as I understand. They did not contact me before placing the order and nowhere do I state, that I deliver my orders in such ridiculous time frame. While my gig has an extra for fast delivery, the turnaround time is 12h with that extra. The buyer opened up a dispute to cancel the order with a reason "The seller is not responding", stating: "Have a very quick deadline. Not clear from seller when the work will be done. Have found an alternative.", trying to put the blame on me. I was out from home when I got the order and I responded that I would follow up once I get back home, but the buyer canceled it before I even could do so. I have contacted the CS to hopefully cancel the order without it effecting my profile. What would you do in this situation? I will attach the chat with this post.

 

[theratypist]

1 minute ago, gajuseidi said:

I think it's best to cancel the order and block them so they do not order from me in the future.

Yes, I would agree with this just go with the cancellation. You haven't worked on the order and buyer has already informed you that they purchased from someone else. I don't think you'd want to waste your energy for someone not interested in getting your output anymore. Plus forcibly delivering something will just waste your precious time working on something that could potentially get cancelled (either through CS or even a chargeback)

Well, I don't know what the weight between a cancellation vs. a bad rating in terms of how it affects gig placement. But a bad rating can happen both privately and publicly (the buyer can rate twice).

Also as I mentioned earlier, the cancellation might not even affect your completion rate if CS assists you. And if it did, it would get back to 100% after 60 days. If you get a bad rating of 1 or 2 stars, you might not even be able to bid anymore in the buyers requests and that's usually something helpful for new sellers to gain more momentum. Add-on to whatever the buyer may have written on your review.

Totally not worth your time and energy. You are a new seller, whether we like it or not, good ratings matter a lot in that stage. It helps potential buyers take a decision with us more than a cancellation rate that cannot be seen and resets eventually after 60 days.

[theratypist]

4 minutes ago, gajuseidi said:

What would you do in this situation?

I would do the same thing as you and contact CS to explain to them what happened and request that it not affect my stats. I'm so sorry this happened to you though! Buyer should have contacted first if they wanted a delivery as quick as that.

[lenasemenkova]

Someone once sent me “The seller is unable to do this job” (I think it’s worded like that) cancellation request 20 minutes after placing the order. With a comment: “You haven’t given me confidence that you can do it.” Their last message to me via inbox before the order was placed was: “I’m so excited to work with you!” Who knows what happened in those 20 minutes but the person seemed to be adamant to conduct the cancellation in a way that would be the most punishing to me. 

The project was right up my alley and I’ve stated twice that I could do it and that it looked interesting. They looked like a legitimate buyer, too, not a fabled evil competitor wanting to tank my profile. Some people are just weird. 

I contacted CS, they cancelled the order without it affecting my stats. I agree that you should also try and do that. It’s obvious from the messages that despite having such a tight deadline the person is just running around wasting everybody’s time.

[looseink]

You asked the question, what would I do in such a situation?

Well, I've been there.

Clearly the Buyer did not read all they needed to read in your Gig details.

I wouldn't fret over it as it will likely happen again sometime.

You just have to expect freelancing to be great some days, not-so-great on others, and downright disappointing on a few more.

It's like that in any type of business.

Carry on, and move forward - which is what I've done in the same situation.

[gajuseidi]

5 minutes ago, theratypist said:

I would do the same thing as you and contact CS to explain to them what happened and request that it not affect my stats. I'm so sorry this happened to you though! Buyer should have contacted first if they wanted a delivery as quick as that.

Thank you, this is the first time it happened, but hopefully the CS will be able to resolve this issue. Boggles my mind that there is no system to solve such situations without the help of CS. I'm pretty sure if I just accepted the cancellation, I would be screwed.

[theratypist]

3 minutes ago, khalifacyrusuk said:

even if you're a new seller(?), it's better to have a bad review than a cancellation!

If you are a new seller, it's better to have a cancellation than a bad review to be honest. 

 

[khalifacyrusuk]

1 minute ago, theratypist said:

If you are a new seller, it's better to have a cancellation than a bad review to be honest. 

 

An interesting take, I respect your point of view!

However, consider this: a seller who has completed around 5 orders.

If the buyer delivers the order and gets a 1 star review (unlikely, I have found unhappy clients often don't review, or don't give 1 star) - as well as receiving 5 stars for the previous 4 orders (likely based on experience, and the effort put into your first 4 deliveries) - then you'll have an average 4.2 star rating.

If the buyer cancels, you will have 1 cancellation for 4 completions - meaning a completion rate of 80%.

Both of these circumstances are too low to achieve the next seller level. However, cancellations come with the caveat of severely affecting the performance of your Gig with respect to its affect on where your Gig appears in listings. Also note, one more 5 star rating would push you up to 4.8 star - whereas you would subsequently need 5 more completed orders to get back to 90% completion rate, which would be difficult having had the impact of a cancellation.

😉

[theratypist]

Totally fine! Always nice to see another take on the situation.

2 minutes ago, khalifacyrusuk said:

However, cancellations come with the caveat of severely affecting the performance of your Gig with respect to its affect on where your Gig appears in listings.

And a bad review (presumably 3 stars or less) would do something similar. A bad review sticks around forever, the cancellation rate returns to 100% after 60 days. Note that there is also a private review the buyer can fill in aside from the public review seen on your profile. Both those reviews will affect your gig placement as well. 

3 minutes ago, khalifacyrusuk said:

Also note, one more 5 star rating would push you up to 4.8 star - whereas you would subsequently need 5 more completed orders to get back to 90% completion rate,

If we follow your example, First 4 orders = 5 stars, 5th order = 1 star, 6th order = 5 stars... (5 X 5 = 25) + 1  = 26. 26 divided 6 = 4.33...  

Anyhow, potential buyers will never see your cancellation rate at 80%, but they can see the (likely bad) review by the previous buyer. 

The longer your ave rating is below 4.7 the harder it will be. It would be difficult since you won't be able to make an offer in the buyer requests section and you'd have to wait it out for a buyer to come up to your gig. At least with the cancellation you can still make bids to buyer requests. 

Remember, the cancellation rate resets to 100% after 60 days. To recover from a below 4.7 rating doesn't reset, the only way is to get more orders that are rated 4.7 above. Plus, not all buyers leave ratings.

Again, bad reviews aren't a big deal if you have several reviews, an established seller, repeat buyers, etc. I also think buyers would still make orders with new sellers even if they did have a bad review. But if we had to weigh in on a cancellation and a bad review for a new seller, I still would suggest the cancellation.

Maybe if it was a large order and if I've actually completed the gig I would think otherwise.

[gajuseidi]

@khalifacyrusuk and @theratypist thank you both for insightful answers and food for thought. I will have to wait and see what CS is going to do about this situation, but whatever the case might be, I am leaning towards order cancellation. The customer already ordered this service from someone else and even thought they did act unprofessionally, I think it's best to cancel the order and block them so they do not order from me in the future. I only have 8 reviews, with two reviews being 4 and 4.7 stars, 1 or 2 star review would really hurt my account. Although my gig is ranking very well recently, therefore the cancellation with a negative impact would really hurt my gig's ranking as well. But I think this would be the right choice. What do you think?

[gajuseidi]

Good news! The order has been canceled and it seems that it did not have an effect on my cancellation rate. 🎉🥳

[imtiazhu786]

hi, my buyer want to cancel order now. he ask me for 2 days to complete order and i said that i need 4 days, he didn't say anthing, and just accept offer. and now after every 30 minutes and an hour, "i am worried you will not be able to complete order within time". he also said he want to cancel order. the buyer is very new on fiverr, and he don't know fiverr policies and the effect that will happen on my profile after cancelation. what should i do?

[vickieito]

3 minutes ago, imtiazhu786 said:

hi, my buyer want to cancel order now. he ask me for 2 days to complete order and i said that i need 4 days, he didn't say anthing, and just accept offer. and now after every 30 minutes and an hour, "i am worried you will not be able to complete order within time". he also said he want to cancel order. the buyer is very new on fiverr, and he don't know fiverr policies and the effect that will happen on my profile after cancelation. what should i do?

If the buyer accidentally placed the order for 4 days (expecting 2 days), he can cancel the order with "Ordered by mistake" as the reason. This should not affect your seller stats because it was a buyer error (if it does, just submit a help desk ticket and they can adjust your stats for you).

If the buyer wants you to initiate the cancelation, clarify with the buyer that he ordered a 4-day turnaround by mistake. Then you can initiate the cancelation and send a help desk ticket to Fiverr CS with a screenshot of the buyer saying he ordered by mistake. They should make sure that your seller stats are not affected.

[imtiazhu786]

I don't know why he accepts the offer for 4 days, but now he tells me that he wants to cancel the order, and he doesn't want to proceed anymore.

 

[imtiazhu786]

he asked me to screencast for 15 videos, and every video length is more than 2 hours, but he needs videos immediately. how can i do this within a short time? that's why he said to deliver within 2 days otherwise order will be canceled.

 

 

[vickieito]

Hi @imtiazhu786 - the buyer accepted an order for 4 days. If this is a mistake, he needs to tell you that he ordered this by mistake. Then you can initiate a cancelation and Fiverr CS should be able to make sure your seller stats are not affected by this cancelation. 

[vickieito]

Don't even agree or try to work on this order because it isn't within the scope of your services. A 2-hour delivery is not what you both agreed on. 

[glow_writer]

Weird buyer or competition trying to screw you. Who knows.

[gajuseidi]

3 minutes ago, theratypist said:

Yes, I would agree with this just go with the cancellation. You haven't worked on the order and buyer has already informed you that they purchased from someone else. I don't think you'd want to waste your energy for someone not interested in getting your output anymore. Plus forcibly delivering something will just waste your precious time working on something that could potentially get cancelled (either through CS or even a chargeback)

Well, I don't know what the weight between a cancellation vs. a bad rating in terms of how it affects gig placement. But a bad rating can happen both privately and publicly (the buyer can rate twice).

Also as I mentioned earlier, the cancellation might not even affect your completion rate if CS assists you. And if it did, it would get back to 100% after 60 days. If you get a bad rating of 1 or 2 stars, you might not even be able to bid anymore in the buyers requests and that's usually something helpful for new sellers to gain more momentum. Add-on to whatever the buyer may have written on your review.

Totally not worth your time and energy. You are a new seller, whether we like it or not, good ratings matter a lot in that stage. It helps potential buyers take a decision with us more than a cancellation rate that cannot be seen and resets eventually after 60 days.

Thank you very much! Your input has been very helpful in this situation, I appreciate it. 😊

[all4tech]

1 hour ago, khalifacyrusuk said:

Note, even if you ask CS to cancel - I have noticed repercussions with respect to my Gig's performance.

Yep! I agree... it happened this to me also! Be very careful.

[khalifacyrusuk]

I've had this happen!

Stay strong - don't cancel the order. Fiverr is fantastic for sellers and is very clear that buyers enter a binding contract when they click 'buy' - meaning you have full protection. Buyers are NOT entitled to a refund if your order even vaguely meets the scope of the order request. Complete the order as best you can and deliver it - even if you're a new seller(?), it's better to have a bad review than a cancellation!

Note, even if you ask CS to cancel - I have noticed repercussions with respect to my Gig's performance.