So....Fiverr Taking Their 20% Cut On Tips....Let's Talk About That.

[rachelbostwick]

5 minutes ago, izah_moh said:

I wasn't speaking for myself, 🤔 

I was only teasing, I'm sure you have lots of great tips 🙂 Your gigs look great. 

6 minutes ago, izah_moh said:

I can't be the only one that thinks this is a relatively simple enough problem to fix if the right minds (and coding experts) were brought together?

Truthfully, I just don't see it as a problem. There are lots of things I think should be improved on Fiverr, but I don't see this as one of them. Fiverr takes 20% of all the money that is sent to me, and I think that's fine. Any solution is just a rebalancing to try to make sure the seller gets a little more of it, and I appreciate that, but I don't think it's necessary. 

[vickiespencer]

29 minutes ago, rachelbostwick said:

They also have a cap on tips, by making it impossible to tip more than 100%. I sort of think they should get rid of the cap, since the 20% comes out of it anyway.

That must have been after I got a $50 tip for a order that was about $35. 🤔

33 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Thanks for bringing the perspective of a 5 year old.  

Oh, Mike! 😢

27 minutes ago, izah_moh said:

I swear to God I saw NONE of this when I looked through Google search and the forming for 2 to several hours straight for answers for this. Thanks so much though!

That's our @lloydsolutions! She knows how to research. 

18 minutes ago, maitasun said:

I just discovered a level 2 seller from Indonesia stole the entire description of my forex/trading translation gig!!! 😡

I am sorry to hear that. 

I wonder if he got his level 2 by cheating too! 🤔

[izah_moh]

17 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Some of us are running businesses here, so we take offense to people who don't give a damn about things like reading the rules, being serious about what they sell, or misrepresenting their race in their profile pic.

Sir, you're at an 11, I need you to come down to a 2.

1. What I choose to do on this platform and how I choose to present myself has not one single effect on you. If buyers don't like me (which a lot seem to do because they say I come off as genuine and fun) they are not obligated to hire me.

2. I was asking for other people's opinions, not starting a fight. That's why I chucked this in the "Casual Conversations" section.

And most importantly 3. What do you MEAN misrepresenting my race???

I'd like you to further clarify that last point because I don't want to jump to conclusions about your intent with that statement without first fully understanding what you mean by it.

This is supposed to be a casual and chill conversation, but you seem to be the only one treating this conversation like you're ready to go to battle for Sparta or something.

Edited September 1, 2021 by izah_moh

[newsmike]

3 minutes ago, izah_moh said:

Sir, your at an 11, I need you to come down to a 2.

I realize that I am wasting my time her since you don't even take what you sell seriously. Just don't have the time for yet another noob who hasn't even bothered to read the TOS yet offers silly suggestions as to how things should work.  Thank God for the ignore button.

[izah_moh]

1 minute ago, newsmike said:

I realize that I am wasting my time her since you don't even take what you sell seriously. Just don't have the time for yet another noob who hasn't even bothered to read the TOS yet offers silly suggestions as to how things should work.  Thank God for the ignore button.

Dear God Almighty, what is your problem?

Out of my entire statement THAT is what you focus on???

And you even have the audacity to call me a newbie when you literally went through my profile and you'd SEE I was on this platform for nearly 2 years now AND I'm a Level 2 seller.

So again, I'll redirect the conversation back to my 3rd point, which I'm honestly dying to hear you answer. Because you wouldn't bring it up if it wasn't a point of contention for you.

You were exactly the type of people I pointed out in my original post. People foaming at the mouth at the THOUGHT of talking about Fiverr and money in any other way that isn't blind praise.

This is just a regular conversation dude. Relax.

[izah_moh]

17 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Thank God for the ignore button.

This is also such a spiteful thing to say from a "respectable business owner". I don't know why you decided to make this so personal.

But since you've elected to ignore my statement, I'll just have to go off my assumptions and assume the worse.

25 minutes ago, izah_moh said:

or misrepresenting their race in their profile pic.

For the uninitiated, I am a Black African Muslim woman from Nigeria.

Longtime users of this forum may have seen me around the forum a whiles back just generally being stupid and getting into silly arguments. I USED to have my profile picture be my actual picture.

But it became a form of harassment where people will come in my DMs and say the most horrendous things to me. And others (because of the types of gigs I offer) would try and makes things s****l and uncomfortable and super creepy. I even made a post about it a long time ago trying to discuss it but, oh well, I don't wanna talk about it.

I removed my real face image and put in a drawn one because I see other sellers do it and the platform has no rule against having drawn profile pictures. People have logos for profile pics, why not drawn avatars?

Also another main reason I changed it is because I'm a YouTuber who hasn't fully come out to show my face yet so when fans started discovering my gig page I just decided removing my picture was the best course of action.

Luckily for me though, my religion and skintone has no major effect on my rate of getting buyers. It's the other sellers I always seem to have issue with 🤨

So thank you for being a condescending prick. I hope this interaction helps you to understand better that not everything you assume in your head is actually a reality.

I'm not "misrepresenting" my race. If anything I'd choose to portray myself as an attractive white (or Asian!) woman because they obviously get way more attention and gigs.

Anyway, I hope you have a good and pleasant rest of your day! 💕

[theratypist]

11 hours ago, rachelbostwick said:

Truthfully, I just don't see it as a problem. There are lots of things I think should be improved on Fiverr, but I don't see this as one of them. Fiverr takes 20% of all the money that is sent to me, and I think that's fine. Any solution is just a rebalancing to try to make sure the seller gets a little more of it, and I appreciate that, but I don't think it's necessary. 

I agree. I respect the system Fiverr has put in place for the 20% cut even on tips. As Rach said, Fiverr has made it convenient for us to receive orders with no ads running. I am happy to receive tips but I don't mind if I don't receive any, I still receive them quite often which is great.

I have a client who orders from me every week for the same project and always tips the same amount. Our only conversation was the first time they asked if I could do the project at least once a week. 😂

I also have one buyer who has a bit varied requests every week, but the project cost is the same. Also tips the same amount every time!

Both of them tip 50% of the order amount. So I am guessing there are really just buyers who don't mind the add-on costs of tipping.

I also have a few long time and return buyers every month that always ask beforehand a quote before we start a project and then tells me to add in a certain amount that they would consider a tip. 

I really don't expect tips, the only thing I have in my mind is I did my best in this project and I hope it aligns with their expectations.

But definitely nice to receive tips though! 20% from a tip isn't too bad. With everything Fiverr has set in place for us, its just a bonus. 😃

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by theratypist

[teckuillaxxx]

Mike sucks, and I’m completely against taking 20% off tips it’s honestly disgusting behaviour. Seems these old “buisness owners” can’t comprehend that fiverr doesn’t do shit for us. It’s already hard enough with the 20% cut off the actual commission. It’s not like fiverr is giving anyone more gigs or anything if I could find a different platform I would honestly Cus they’re just straight up stealing. It’s honestly a terrible thing to take money from tips and it’s something old people like Mike or Rachel make this even worse. They’re so annoying and are ok following these corporate bastards because they’re probably part of them. Like we’re the bottom of the barrel here even if we’re essential for fiverr they don’t care about any of us. 
what can we do about the said “problem” Mike dumbly brought up? Well for once get rid of him for being a racist freak and secondly ummm we’re not in 1970s anymore you should check yourself there’s other measures like caps and people who can investigate fraud. It’s honestly not that hard. What’s hard is getting it through your and Rachel’s head that this shit sucks to people who want to make a name for themselves yet can’t.

[symbolx]

It's no big deal to be honest. 

[newsmike]

1 hour ago, teckuillaxxx said:

It’s honestly a terrible thing to take money from tips and it’s something old people like Mike or Rachel make this even worse.

You are calling me names, but you have no argument. 

You have no idea how happy that makes me. 

If you want to get under my skin, you gotta dismantle my argument/logic. 

Your opinion of me means nothing to me, which makes your personal attacks super dumb. 

[aarontgladiator]

2 hours ago, teckuillaxxx said:

Mike sucks, and I’m completely against taking 20% off tips it’s honestly disgusting behaviour. Seems these old “buisness owners” can’t comprehend that fiverr doesn’t do shit for us. It’s already hard enough with the 20% cut off the actual commission. It’s not like fiverr is giving anyone more gigs or anything if I could find a different platform I would honestly Cus they’re just straight up stealing. It’s honestly a terrible thing to take money from tips and it’s something old people like Mike or Rachel make this even worse. They’re so annoying and are ok following these corporate bastards because they’re probably part of them. Like we’re the bottom of the barrel here even if we’re essential for fiverr they don’t care about any of us. 
what can we do about the said “problem” Mike dumbly brought up? Well for once get rid of him for being a racist freak and secondly ummm we’re not in 1970s anymore you should check yourself there’s other measures like caps and people who can investigate fraud. It’s honestly not that hard. What’s hard is getting it through your and Rachel’s head that this shit sucks to people who want to make a name for themselves yet can’t.

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today...

[ruthle]

On 9/1/2021 at 5:53 PM, newsmike said:

OK, so how do you get aroung the fraud issue that was brought up? There are plenty of scammers here, so how would you propose they prevent that?

First and foremost, apologies for bumping an old thread, but thought I'd share my opinion on this matter as this topic has been frustrating me for years.

I understand Fiverr's concern in regards to sellers exploiting/frauding the system where they can ask the buyer to pay most of the order via tips in order to avoid the fiverr's cut. 

"Tips are a gift or gratuity given as a sum of money tendered for a service performed or anticipated" therefore, why should Fiverr take a cut on tips when they've already taken a 20% from the seller's service

Fiverr already has a system to detect and ban sellers when they try to link an external payment, or when they try to arrange conversations/private deals outside the Fiverr platform.

To implement a similar system in order to detect sellers who are trying to abuse the system by asking buyers to pay the order through tips shouldn't be a difficult thing to develop considering all of these fraud preventions system they already have in place.

(e.g they can automatically detect when a tip is significantly higher than the base order for manual review; automatically flag a conversation when the word "tips" are involved before an order is made for manual review)

So my question for Fiverr is, exploiting sellers by taking 20% of their tips for an easy profit merely just guised as a "fraud/abuse prevention system" or say "it's in our TOS, you either agree it or don't come here" ?

Lastly, a bit of a moral/ethical question here, are the sellers the actual thieves/exploiters here? who are simply trying to obtain what they're entitled to have? Or is it fiverr? where it's easier for them to grab an extra 20% from the sellers' tips and create their own TOS for everyone to comply, than to allocate extra resources to develop a system to prevent tips abuse?

The only way for Fiverr to change is either through the law or public pressure, and speaking from experience, writing this paragraph will serve nothing to change this system unfortunately.

[proconsultn2035]

It should be a management policy that all earnings by sellers are cut by 20%. 

[newsmike]

3 hours ago, ruthle said:

The only way for Fiverr to change is either through the law or public pressure, and speaking from experience, writing this paragraph will serve nothing to change this system unfortunately.

I understand your point, but I think you nailed it when you essentially said "Don't like it, don't sell here."  There have been many sellers on both sides of this issue, and it is not something that a public company should waste resources sorting out. I guess it is like the Elon Musk/Twitter situation.  At the end of the day, you can buy Fiverr, or build your own.  Me, I am fine with things as they are because I know I cannot create the value that Fiverr brings to the table on my own. Others, have to make that decision. But I don't see this changing, nor do I see a single justification as to why they should.  The EXIT sign is above the door and illuminated in red. 

Now if you really want to start the fireworks, we should be discussing whether tipping is professional in the Fiverr 3.5 world or not. Tipping is customary for most jobs that a kid would take right out of high school, but hire a graphic arts firm, a recording studio, an author... pick a professional service. In the real world a contract is agreed upon, work is done, money changes hands. Tipping for these services in the freelancing environment is a remnant leftover from Fiverr when it launched as a silly "I will do anything for $5 site", but does not reflect the image of where they are going in the future. I would be fine with losing the tipping part completely in favor of a more professional look and experience. 

 

[ruthle]

18 hours ago, newsmike said:

I understand your point, but I think you nailed it when you essentially said "Don't like it, don't sell here."  There have been many sellers on both sides of this issue, and it is not something that a public company should waste resources sorting out. I guess it is like the Elon Musk/Twitter situation.  At the end of the day, you can buy Fiverr, or build your own.  Me, I am fine with things as they are because I know I cannot create the value that Fiverr brings to the table on my own. Others, have to make that decision. But I don't see this changing, nor do I see a single justification as to why they should.  The EXIT sign is above the door and illuminated in red. 

Now if you really want to start the fireworks, we should be discussing whether tipping is professional in the Fiverr 3.5 world or not. Tipping is customary for most jobs that a kid would take right out of high school, but hire a graphic arts firm, a recording studio, an author... pick a professional service. In the real world a contract is agreed upon, work is done, money changes hands. Tipping for these services in the freelancing environment is a remnant leftover from Fiverr when it launched as a silly "I will do anything for $5 site", but does not reflect the image of where they are going in the future. I would be fine with losing the tipping part completely in favor of a more professional look and experience. 

 

The "Don't like it, don't sell here" is true, you're right! but for me, that's my issue with fiverr - They can set their own rules and price, but is it the right thing to do? it's my belief that that saying is a good-ole-classic monopolistic statement that is immensely unjust. It's the same level of argument when people say "you should do what I say because I'm your manager and I said so" it's true they have authority, but it provides no productive valuable discussion. unfortunately that's just how capitalism works i guess. (unless like you said, a competitor rises up in the market and competes with fiverr, so fiverr has to change their way). 

Do you remember the public uproar against uber when they exploited their workers by classifying them as contractors even though they legally should fall under the catagory of employees? thus removing the workers from rights such as sick leave, insurance, annual leave, etc. Uber can use the "Don't like it, don't sell here" statement, but Uber then were scrutinised by the Fair Labor act and fortunately they are now changing their policy to be more fair towards their workers.

With that in mind, can you imagine the uproar the public will have if uber starts taking a % on their workers' tips? Fiverr is lucky that they aren't a big enough company to catch the general public's eye and lawmakers, but I hope that they will soon.

You're 100% right that tipping isn't a norm in a professional exchange, as they are normally bound by contracts and tipping is more common in hopitality etc.. But I'm not trying to discuss about whether tipping is professional or not, but when a buyer decides to tip, seller should keep all of it - it's the right thing to do. If a seller doesn't believe tipping is professional, they can choose to not accept tips.

From what I gather . I think it we just have a different fundamental belief in this matter. I'm trying to start a discussion with average people like us, so that sellers like you, me and everyone else here gets treated fairly and are protected against corporate exploitation. and it goes beyond fiverr taking a % of tips, but when and if they decide to create new rules that is unfair to sellers in the future.

 

[newsmike]

4 hours ago, ruthle said:

The "Don't like it, don't sell here" is true, you're right! but for me, that's my issue with fiverr - They can set their own rules and price, but is it the right thing to do? it's my belief that that saying is a good-ole-classic monopolistic statement that is immensely unjust. It's the same level of argument when people say "you should do what I say because I'm your manager and I said so" it's true they have authority, but it provides no productive valuable discussion. unfortunately that's just how capitalism works i guess. (unless like you said, a competitor rises up in the market and competes with fiverr, so fiverr has to change their way). 

Do you remember the public uproar against uber when they exploited their workers by classifying them as contractors even though they legally should fall under the catagory of employees? thus removing the workers from rights such as sick leave, insurance, annual leave, etc. Uber can use the "Don't like it, don't sell here" statement, but Uber then were scrutinised by the Fair Labor act and fortunately they are now changing their policy to be more fair towards their workers.

With that in mind, can you imagine the uproar the public will have if uber starts taking a % on their workers' tips? Fiverr is lucky that they aren't a big enough company to catch the general public's eye and lawmakers, but I hope that they will soon.

 

From what I gather . I think it we just have a different fundamental belief in this matter. I'm trying to start a discussion with average people like us, so that sellers like you, me and everyone else here gets treated fairly and are protected against corporate exploitation. and it goes beyond fiverr taking a % of tips, but when and if they decide to create new rules that is unfair to sellers in the future.

 

I very much agree that you and I will likely not find common ground. I say this because I have no problems with capitalism, nor do I feel the slightest bit exploited. As to fair treatment, I have no issues with Fiverr. I read and understood their terms prior to joining, and since then have made a lot of money, and only seen Fiverr operate within the TOS.  I'd suggest that in the spirit of fairness, if you didn't like or understand the terms, why join and complain about it later? It's like signing a lease on an apartment, then complaining about the rent, even though it was disclosed right in that lease that you could have chosen not to sign. You seem to be coming from a very different perspective. If you ever find "fairness", anywhere, please let me know, but I guess there are 6 billions opinions of what that would be. Good luck. 

[john__n]

Hi, Buyer here. 

I found a seller (voice-overs), we agreed a price and I admit to being surprised to be asked to tip.  As a professional, I think you specify what you want as clearly as possible, agree a price and pay it.  The seller was great and I've placed two more orders. 

Then Fiverr came back with a survey asking if I was happy with the seller.  I said yes, they were great.  Up pops a big message saying a "20% tip is Normal". 

No it's not and I find the whole approach annoying.  I will continue with fiverr for now because I found a great seller and want to finish a series of videos.  I will not come back again.

[peppur]

I haven't read all the comments...the problem is that when you are the one tipping, your entire tip is not going to the seller and I don't like that. (I'm a seller, too). 

It is a deterrent to tip, esp when I'm a repeat user. That stuff starts to add up 😕.

[vickieito]

16 minutes ago, peppur said:

I haven't read all the comments...the problem is that when you are the one tipping, your entire tip is not going to the seller and I don't like that. (I'm a seller, too). 

It is a deterrent to tip, esp when I'm a repeat user. That stuff starts to add up 😕.

There are many deterrents to tipping ... such as the spammy reminders to tip. As a buyer, I just tipped a seller 50% of the order after receiving the first automatic tip reminder. Not too long after I left the tip, I received the second "It's customary to tip" reminder to tip this seller again. So even if you tip, you aren't spared from the tip reminders.

As a seller, I've had buyers from non-tipping countries get mad or confused when they get the tip reminders because they think it's coming from me. I wish there was an opt out option for sellers and/or buyers to select for tip reminders.

[montaaz]

On 9/1/2021 at 5:53 PM, newsmike said:

This has been discussed many times over the years on the forum. So here is a question, if they stopped taking 20% from tips. Do you really think that people would not immediately start asking for a $200 order to be paid for as a $5 service and a sneaky $195 tip to avoid paying fiverr?

That would happen 5 seconds after they changed the rules. 

I was thinking about the same thing. The only legit solution I see is that fiverr suggest %s of the order value when the buyer wants to tip the seller. 

[japaholic]

That’s one of the reasons I don’t tip, if the seller does good work I want the seller to get $5 not 4.

 

Id rather use my money to hire the seller again.

[pjc2121]

On 9/1/2022 at 9:11 PM, vickieito said:

There are many deterrents to tipping ... such as the spammy reminders to tip. As a buyer, I just tipped a seller 50% of the order after receiving the first automatic tip reminder. Not too long after I left the tip, I received the second "It's customary to tip" reminder to tip this seller again. So even if you tip, you aren't spared from the tip reminders.

As a seller, I've had buyers from non-tipping countries get mad or confused when they get the tip reminders because they think it's coming from me. I wish there was an opt out option for sellers and/or buyers to select for tip reminders.

Hello and thank you for posting this. I'm a buyer on Fiverr and I have ordered many gigs from here, but I am very unhappy with Fiverr's tipping strategy. For instance, I have a seller who puts my images on a white background to sell on Amazon and I generally pay him 5.00 per image. But when I get the notification to tip the seller, it only gives me 3 options to pay and one option to select my own tip amount (CA$7.14CA$14.28CA$21.42). When I go to select my own tipping amount, it tells me that I cannot tip below 7.14. Why would I have to tip the seller a higher amount than what the gig cost me? This is a money gouging practice and if this continues, I will find other gigs from another website. Fiverr needs to stop this practice!! 

[vickieito]

4 minutes ago, pjc2121 said:

Why would I have to tip the seller a higher amount than what the gig cost me?

Fiverr should also not say: "It's customary to leave a tip." It makes buyers think they have to tip, when it's just optional. For many countries, tipping is not the norm and can be seen as rude.

If you're only ordering $5 gigs, you could tip every 5th or 6th order instead of every order.

As a buyer, I only tip if the work is exceptional and I want to show my appreciation for my seller.

And as a seller, I don't expect my buyers to tip at all, so I make sure to price myself right.

[mobilefreedom]

Hey Newsmike - Are you serious???   How many customers would anyone have if they asked “Hey Mr customer, please pay me $5 for the gig and before you even see the finished product, pay me a tip of $195 please!  Ok? Agree?”  🤣🤣🤣🤣.  Unreal.  20% from a tip is illegal in most countries! 🤣🤣. It’s abuse!  A tip is the customers decision to provide an extra 100% payment for the great work individually provided by that experience.  Fiverr is not providing that special individual experience to their clients.  It’s the sellers one time experience provided to the client and thus 100% their property to own….NOT Fiverrs.   It’s abuse of power.  Very ugly. Not to mention that any standard commission for any work is 10%.   Not 20%.  So it’s abuse not only of the tip but commission as well.   In this world what comes around goes around.   And as I was once a top seller here, my sales via my own avenues overtook all sales on Fiverr and yep…. They lost 98% of my work.   So you see……..due to charging 20% off the top, Fiverr has lost billions overall with their very Poot decision to do this.  Now Fiverr only makes 2% from my work.  And do you honestly think I’m the only one who decided to ditch Fiverr this way?   Absolutely not.  The people who run Fiverr are business idiots.  🤣🤣

[newsmike]

2 hours ago, mobilefreedom said:

Hey Newsmike - Are you serious???   How many customers would anyone have if they asked “Hey Mr customer, please pay me $5 for the gig and before you even see the finished product, pay me a tip of $195 please!  Ok? Agree?”

No, I do not agree. You have misunderstood completely what I said. Many of us have regular customers who order every week or every month. In fact more than 75% of my customers are regulars. My point is that if the 20% only applied to services and not the tip as well, you don't think people would cut deals all day that go something like this?  "Hi, I was thinking instead of you ordering from me at $500 every month, I will do the order for $450 if you will let me bill you at $100, and then tip me $350."  This way the buyer saves $50, Fiverr is cheated out of $80 and the dishonest seller pockets the extra. If you are naïve enough to think that this would not be common (given all the scammers on Fiverr) then I must ask, Are you serious? 

As to your decision to "ditch Fiverr" that is your choice, I could not care less, although most people take down their gigs when they do. I just wanted to clarify my position which you seemed to misunderstand. Good luck. 

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by newsmike