Potential Sabotage by Competitors?

[typingservice]

This morning there were two new orders in queue for my book review gig. One of them caught my attention immediately. They didn’t actually include the ebook that needed to be reviewed. Usually my customers will attach it, provide a coupon code, or are offering it free for a limited time. I always want the book! How can you write a proper review without it? I’m not even sure why, but I clicked on this buyers name to check out his Fiverr profile. He’s offering the exact same gig. Sheesh. I wrote him back and was polite, yet straightforward about my concern. I put it in to be cancelled. I decided to check the buyer that just ordered right before him. Exact same situation! He is my direct competitor. Put it in for a cancellation. I start checking all my gigs…One that I just recently delivered (and he hasn’t left feedback yet) is a Level 2 seller focusing on book reviews. With the Level 2 seller, I’m going to cross my fingers and hope for the best. Maybe he was just so overwhelmed by work, he thought he’d outsource some of it to me? I hope that’s the case and not something more sinister. With the two new competitor orders, I’m a little more worried. They are pretty new and it doesn’t look like they have many customers. I made screenshots of their gigs. I hope it doesn’t go that far, but I may need to document and file a report with CS about what’s going on.

[Guest celticmoon]

This is something I read about on the forums. The problem that can occur is sabotage by those buyer-sellers if they go on to leave bad reviews. Although you can fight those, it takes time and effort on your part, and isn’t always successful. On the other hand, it’s possible they made a purchase to assess what other sellers produce in order to make improvements in their own gigs (we can hope!). Or, as you suggested, that they are overwhelmed themselves, and are outsourcing.



Some sellers don’t analyze the situation too much, though. They consider a sale a sale, whether it’s to another seller or a book author. I’ve seen some sellers say they don’t even care if other sellers buy their work, then turn around and sell it again! Maybe I’m too egotistical or a control-freak, but I’m not sure I would feel the same way, myself! 8-|

[typingservice]

My main concern is competitors that would leave bad reviews as a way to sabotage. If that’s not the case, I’d be happy to work with them. Actually, I wouldn’t even mind if they wanted to resell my service. With that Level 2, I noticed he had a few recent “seller failed to deliver on time” in his feedback. It might be that he has something going on in his life, and thought he’d just outsource a few. If I were in his shoes I’d probably put myself in vacation, but to each his own. As long as there is no negative intent, I’m grateful for the business. I just panicked a little this morning. 🙂 Hopefully, it will all work out. The one buyer that started all this this morning has not responded to my request for cancellation. That order was kind of strange. He did not provide the ebook that needed to be reviewed. All he had was an Amazon link that went to a book with a single one star rating. There is no information on this book, I don’t understand how I could write an actual review. In his message he sent that link, and then said he’s definitely giving me positive feedback for the gig. I’ve never had a buyer say that. Usually buyers are more concerned with getting the product they ordered, and feedback is just something secondary. That’s when I clicked on his name, and found he’s selling the exact same gig.



I just want everything to work out on Fiverr. I love doing the book reviews. I get free books, and genuinely enjoy reading them. The only ones I don’t completely read are lengthy books. Even with those, I still read enough to get a handle on the plot. It’s amazing to get paid for doing this. When I started on Fiverr, book reviews weren’t even part of the plan. Yet, it’s been wonderful! I’m so glad I discovered this niche. I also have a regular article writing gig that has been popular. I temporarily suspended it. I’m trying to see if I can reduce my hours at work a bit, and then I’ll open it back up. Anyway, isn’t Fiverr amazing? Hopefully, my competitors (or my own paranoia) won’t get the best of me. lol. 🙂

[eddycloyd]

what i do is when this happens to me I take a screen shot of their review and then i go to their profile with the order number and file it away. Yes it may sound like a little much but their has been times where it has paid off. some people on here will try to copy 99% of your gig. I had a buyer who said they were not happy with my service and wanted a refund or they would have all of their friends buy and trash my rating. After i called them out for copying my gig and for their abuse and told them i was forwarding the info i gathered to CS they changed their tune. Yes i love helping people on here but some are out to step on you thinking they will get ahead.

[naud1701]

As I see a couple of the people who I have worked with over the last 2 years are here with me on this page. I am writing this as to my recent experience on Fiverr. After doing over 100 orders with (5 cancelations all before the start) in over 2 years, I have always had positive and excellent experiences with all the Fiverr Sellers, that I have worked with. This extends to the point of very few modification requests and repeat business. We seem to get it right the first time! In the last couple weeks I have 5 cancelations out of 5 orders. I have never had such bad and negative experiences. I would like to share them with you. A loop hole in the Fiverr system is being exploited to the following extent. The loophole is that a Buyer can not Cancel with any effect on a Seller if the Seller does not Deliver. #1 Senario - I sent a Seller, after going over the order on the (Contact) screen. I prepared the Order to the Sellers specifications and paid $20.00 for the Seller to add 15 HD Vector Photos and Text to his Template and add my already done Intro and Tag to the Sellers Template. In short the Seller decided Not to Deliver any part of the order. I believe now, this did not go any further because I had never done a cancellation and had to contact Fiverr who got involved. #2 Senario - I, the Buyer ordered 3 Orders from a Seller who indicated he could Deliver at the Gig Pricing $20.00. An Intro-Short Video-Tag. In short, this order was comprised of 16 Vector Photos (not specified to be vector on the fiverr request screen) and 4 1080 x 1920 Video 15 second Clips (not specified to require editing) and some text. The Seller never Delivered. All 3 Orders were marked in the Fiverr system as Delivered but the Seller (level1?) attached a Dummy Link to each of the Delivery screens. This Seller wanted 10 Gigs-$50.00 To Edit the “Vector” (auto resizing) Photo’s? Also 8 Gigs $40.00 for to edit the Clips. And a little more to put the Text on the Tag Screen.?? I responded that the photos were all Vector the Clips were at 15 seconds and that my Name and Text should be added to the place privided on the screen. I received a barrage of messages from the Seller changing the terms a little. The last couple of messages read “HOW MUCH WILL YOU PAY” just like that. At that time I had already re-confirmed my Gig requests to meet the exact GIG guidelines on the Fiverr page, and Fiverr customer service was back involved on scenario#2. Well, to make long unpleasant story short, neither of these Sellers had any intent of doing their Fiverr Advertised Gig. Today was another first in my Fiverr buyers seat, I cancelled a gig because when I checked it out, I found, that after I ordered the Gig it was going to be almost 2x as much because the wording wasn’t clear on the Gig Extras. In this case the seller was upfront. Anyways this is not a complaint it is a concern. If these situations are not addressed by Fiverr it can affect all the Quality Sellers and buyers of Fiverr. I hope you concur.

[fonthaunt]

@naud1701 I am usually really good about reading long posts since I am bad about writing them. I tried twice to read yours, but it was so difficult to read without any paragraphs and so much over-complex wording that I couldn’t get through it enough to respond properly. I don’t say that lightly because I really mean it (and others would agree) that I write too much and too long!



If you can simplify this, I would be glad to respond if I can.

[Anna]

If there wasn’t an attachment, maybe the order was placed by mistake? It .happened to me as well I accidentally placed an order on my phone just by scrolling through gigs, since there is not confirmation button on placing order it can happen very quickly.

[julipalmer7]

You may very well need to report them ASAP!

[steveeyes]

He may be slitting his own throat if he gave you a negative review. All it would take is a message to CS showing he offers the same service as you and it looks like he bought from you so he could sabotage your business with a negative review. I’m sure CS would put 2 and 2 together and remove is account.

[eddycloyd]

Yes do what ulipalmer7 said the same thing happened to me and CS removed the review

[sincere18]

You are aware that it’s against the Terms of Use on Amazon for anyone to have paid reviews, right?

[biggeorge2k]

Yes sincere18 it is against the TOS for some of us, but apparently not for everyone.

[damon511]

You never really know for sure what their motives are. I have a competitor that has ordered from me several times to like and comment on his own personal videos. He gave me glowing reviews every time and really helped me get from a new user to a level 1 seller in a short period of time. Sometimes someone may be trying to help you out.

[kunee51]

I thought it was just me to felt about some buyer trying to sabotage my gig.
this actually happens to me few time… worst cases was bought my video gig and he did not sending any material to work with and didnt responded to any of my messages. as i’ve suspected something fishy going I did not ask for cancellations from fiverr admin as what i’ve done on similar cases earlier. I just want to confirm these are just plot to drop my gig rates.
I delivered a print screen of my gig and wrote “this is what you get… bla bla” and quess what? he did leave me with lowest rate.
from few experience i’m reckon they will take action when your gig were starts hired many time in a week… and their real intention is just to make your cancellation rates higher… their last attempt was with usd50 on my gig, she or he did respondrd but the way of explaining thing kinda different. stated to located in the State’s but her english is just doesn’t seem like that. there is few thing more seem odd but i did requested for cancellation this… did not want that bad rating no more…
Fiverr shouldn’t makes cancellation would affects seller rates anymore since this were taken advantage by bad people…
btw got tired with this dirty tricks, I get myself a fresh start on other freelancer site too just because of this bad experiences.