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When sellers send buyer requests.


mave_mohiuddin

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There's a concern among sellers on Fiverr. It's about "buyer request from another seller", and like many other problems, new sellers are the most affected. While it doesn’t cost or harm anyone badly, It's frustrating and annoying to say the least.

Here's a few points regarding, why some people do it, How to identify one and what to do when you see such a proposal. 

So, when do people do it?
1. They are both legit buyers and legit sellers at the same time.
2. They took an order and got stuck. So, they hire somebody to do the heavy lifting.
3. It's an outright scam.

And Here's why they do it-
1. They are legit buyers and legit sellers at the same time. They take jobs from other buyers, usually at a higher price, and offer them to newer sellers for a lower budget, and make a profit out of it for doing virtually nothing. It's unethical in my opinion.

I have to mention here, they don't always take the jobs from Fiverr, sometimes from other platforms, but offer them to Foverr. In a way, they are creating new job opportunities on Fiverr, but I don't think it justifies their action.

2. Sometimes, sellers take a job slightly(or even drastically) beyond their skill. Soon enough, they see there's no way they can finish the job in time(if finish at all), and offer the tricky part to someone else through buyer request.

It can happen by accident when the seller overlooked a requirement of the job and thought they would work around it somehow but fail to do so. This kind of makes sense but it's still a bad thing. 

3. Sometimes it's outright scam.
a. I've seen buyer requests with some description and an URL. Guess where the url leads to. It leads to one of their GIGs. They do it to get some exposure for free.

b. I know a couple of sellers who did this for experimentation. Mostly to see how other sellers react to it and how they send buyer requests. They don't really have a job to offer in the first place.

While It's an effective way to observe competitor strategies, it's not a great one. There’s plenty of materials out there in fiverr forum, youtube, blogs and whatnot.

c. One time, someone I knew posted the same fake buyer request. When I asked him why, he said, his response time had risen from 1 hour recently. He posted the buyer request because he knew that a few people would find his profile and send texts directly to inbox. By responding them fast, he'd be able to reduce the average response time to 1 hour again.(note: he didn’t have a job to offer anyway)

It seemed silly and funny to me. And it was harmless(mostly) so I gave it a pass and told him not to do it again.

I'm sure there are other reasons and perspectives why people do this. These are just the most obvious and common ones.

So, How to identify these buyer requests from legit ones?

1. They have an attractive(at least decent) profile picture. Because they have to approach their buyers as sellers.

2. Their profile has plenty of reviews as both buyer and seller, and both reviews are frequent.

3. Their profile may show "Top Buyer" or something similar in chatbox while "Level two seller" etc on profile.

4. You can tell the difference when talking to them. They approach you as buyer, while they have exceptional knowledge on the topic like a seller. True that, a legit buyer will know what they want and what they are talking about, but a middleman will know far better.

The 4th point requires experience, but the first few are free for all.

So, What should you do when you see these buyer requests?

First and formost, they are job potentials. Read the requirements very carefully. Discuss with the buyer everything. Make sure that it isn't super hard for you. And when you know you can do the job, you can take the job. Unless, the money isn’t worth the effort at all. 

Another thing, which is more disgusting than anything is when people share links to thier gigs for free exposure. That's straight up cheating. I usually report their account, selecting "Others" option and write that they shared their own gig in buyer request. Basically, inform the authority of it, and let them handle it if they do.

That's it for now. Take care.

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7 minutes ago, mave_mohiuddin said:

There's a concern among sellers on Fiverr. It's about "buyer request from another seller", and like many other problems, new sellers are the most affected. While it doesn’t cost or harm anyone badly, It's frustrating and annoying to say the least.

Here's a few points regarding, why some people do it, How to identify one and what to do when you see such a proposal. 

So, when do people do it?
1. They are both legit buyers and legit sellers at the same time.
2. They took an order and got stuck. So, they hire somebody to do the heavy lifting.
3. It's an outright scam.

And Here's why they do it-
1. They are legit buyers and legit sellers at the same time. They take jobs from other buyers, usually at a higher price, and offer them to newer sellers for a lower budget, and make a profit out of it for doing virtually nothing. It's unethical in my opinion.

I have to mention here, they don't always take the jobs from Fiverr, sometimes from other platforms, but offer them to Foverr. In a way, they are creating new job opportunities on Fiverr, but I don't think it justifies their action.

2. Sometimes, sellers take a job slightly(or even drastically) beyond their skill. Soon enough, they see there's no way they can finish the job in time(if finish at all), and offer the tricky part to someone else through buyer request.

It can happen by accident when the seller overlooked a requirement of the job and thought they would work around it somehow but fail to do so. This kind of makes sense but it's still a bad thing. 

3. Sometimes it's outright scam.
a. I've seen buyer requests with some description and an URL. Guess where the url leads to. It leads to one of their GIGs. They do it to get some exposure for free.

b. I know a couple of sellers who did this for experimentation. Mostly to see how other sellers react to it and how they send buyer requests. They don't really have a job to offer in the first place.

While It's an effective way to observe competitor strategies, it's not a great one. There’s plenty of materials out there in fiverr forum, youtube, blogs and whatnot.

c. One time, someone I knew posted the same fake buyer request. When I asked him why, he said, his response time had risen from 1 hour recently. He posted the buyer request because he knew that a few people would find his profile and send texts directly to inbox. By responding them fast, he'd be able to reduce the average response time to 1 hour again.(note: he didn’t have a job to offer anyway)

It seemed silly and funny to me. And it was harmless(mostly) so I gave it a pass and told him not to do it again.

I'm sure there are other reasons and perspectives why people do this. These are just the most obvious and common ones.

So, How to identify these buyer requests from legit ones?

1. They have an attractive(at least decent) profile picture. Because they have to approach their buyers as sellers.

2. Their profile has plenty of reviews as both buyer and seller, and both reviews are frequent.

3. Their profile may show "Top Buyer" or something similar in chatbox while "Level two seller" etc on profile.

4. You can tell the difference when talking to them. They approach you as buyer, while they have exceptional knowledge on the topic like a seller. True that, a legit buyer will know what they want and what they are talking about, but a middleman will know far better.

The 4th point requires experience, but the first few are free for all.

So, What should you do when you see these buyer requests?

First and formost, they are job potentials. Read the requirements very carefully. Discuss with the buyer everything. Make sure that it isn't super hard for you. And when you know you can do the job, you can take the job. Unless, the money isn’t worth the effort at all. 

Another thing, which is more disgusting than anything is when people share links to thier gigs for free exposure. That's straight up cheating. I usually report their account, selecting "Others" option and write that they shared their own gig in buyer request. Basically, inform the authority of it, and let them handle it if they do.

That's it for now. Take care.

Thanks for your message.

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1 hour ago, mave_mohiuddin said:

Another thing, which is more disgusting than anything is when people share links to thier gigs for free exposure. That's straight up cheating.

Absolutely right. I have found many sellers who give buyer request with their gig as attachment. This is totally a bullsh*it  work. They are really capable for report.

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