New Buyers should buy from Established Sellers

[newsmike]

2 hours ago, webcrews said:

Need to give chance new seller.

No one needs to give you anything.  "You have to work to succeed...Owner of a Lonely Heart."

[ahead1]

Thank you for the great suggestions! As a new buyer, I wish I would have read this sooner. 👁🙂

Fiverr should recognize new buyers with a link to this community forum. My initial sense is that Fiverr heavily focuses on a user becoming a seller as the business model.💰 How about a prominent 'Become A Buyer' section since most new buyers will have to discover awesome tips such as this helpful thread by research before swimming through the ocean of gigs.🏊‍♀️

[adaaguilar987]

I Wish I Had Found This Forum Earlier

A few weeks ago I hired an illustrator from Fiverr to illustrate my first children's book ever. I had many sellers respond but I finally settled for a new seller who claimed to speak English fluently and who would also format my book for KDP. A win-win, right? No. It has been a very bad experience. He cannot follow directions at all and the deadline has come and gone. I believe he doesn't understand English and even with a translator, the messages are lost. When the seller asked me to approve one image, ungrudgingly I did.  Although it was not what I had envisioned, it took so long to get this point that I agreed. This approved the WHOLE project which allowed him to get paid without doing the project (I don't know if this was done on purpose as the seller is new also). The seller did continue to try to get the illustrations done but they were all wrong. Sometimes he reverted back to errors which had taken weeks to correct, the same revision requests were submitted numerous times without him being able to make modifications, and he confused the characters in the book, just a mess which wasted time. Later, the seller also claimed that the format was not included in the $15/ page price.

Fiverr Support helped a little, they communicated with the seller and gave me a small discount for future projects. They communicated with me a lot but no real support was given. I felt trapped. You have 14 days to submit a complaint after project is completed which I did. 

Lesson:

Spend the $5. on the test illustrations. Try at least three sellers.

DO NOT approve anything until the project is completed in full.

Experienced sellers will save you a lot of time and aggravation

Make sure the seller puts the deadline you want on the order (mine put a later date than agreed upon) 

Edited January 2, 2022 by adaaguilar987

[melissaharlowvo]

Your first children’s book must have been an effort of love, sweat and tears! Your experience is such a bummer for you and the seller. 

I have traveled the world and feel for someone wanting to provide for their family at all cost. The lesson I have learned on Fiverr is that most sellers are good people but some may lack the experience of a platform like Fiverr …which is serious stuff!

Also you are right… language and cultural differences can play a part in communication. Sometimes buyers sound abrupt and rude but as I get to know them, I realize it’s just the differences in style and language because it doesn’t translate correctly. 

While on a video chat with one of my returning buyers, I realized she was a woman (not a man) and she was kind not rude lol! 

When I get a custom request, before I send an offer, it’s important to me that the buyer communicate to me because as you found out, online communication can be tricky. It’s ok to feel that communication is priority. If a seller has figured it out, they have processes that will help them communicate to buyers… they will explain their challenges in an honest way.

This seller is hopefully learning some harsh lessons about success on Fiverr. It sounds like you are a very kind and tolerant person. When you get your private feedback survey, it may be helpful to explain some of your challenges. It’s the sellers job to anticipate communication issues and find solutions for a better workflow. 

In my personal experience, the Top Rated Sellers have figured this out. There is continuous monitoring of Top Rated Sellers too so no one gets a free ride! If your behavior is not stellar, you can loose your status. 

Anyway, ughhh my thoughts are with you and thank you for your valiant efforts to believe in your seller. 

[cs_evans]

Getting burnt sucks, but we have all been there. 

You posting a candid account, pointing out your own errors, goes a long way to help others not make the same mistake, so thank you for that.

Cliche's may be trite, but they are often so true: trust your gut, and you get what you pay for. 

[tanviruiux]

Sometimes some mistakes happen from the both side. Sometimes buyers meet with a seller without experience and without any preparation for his job. Some times sellers meet with the buyers who can't brief his requirements properly. Actually mistakes happen in any field of work. But we have to look forward. There are a lot of good and bad sellers in fiverr also there are a lot of good and buyers here. So please be patient. As a buyer you need your project to be done and as a seller you also need a project to be done. So discuss properly and keep helping both to complete a project successfully. 

Thank you.

[mr_magomed]

bad punctuation because not everyone understands the language, those who have no imagination steal from the Internet, we do everything in our own style, everyone has different tastes, it's not worth waiting for the same installation from everyone, it seems to me it's understandable to a fool🤔

[dupsy4]

I know this post is a bit old. But mind I add this.

As a buyer,

1. Do not hoard information from the seller. Keep a open mind and explain into details what you want done

2. Please be polite

[ozan_erdi]

I really like your attidute towards a new seller by giving them a chance and not accusing them right away. But anyone who claims their English is good, is to be avoided at all costs. As it must not be even mentioned. 

I am doing illustrations; and i must say im a little suprised. The unexperienced and/or dishonest people usually go for more basic stuff instead of a childrens book. But i guess they are everywhere.

Its a very bad experience, specially for your first try. But i will have some recommendations for your lessons;

On 1/2/2022 at 6:26 PM, adaaguilar987 said:

Spend the $5. on the test illustrations. Try at least three sellers.

Experienced sellers will most likely reject your 5 dollar test. To be honest, i wouldnt even open my tablet for 5 dollars and would have ended the conversation right there. But what you can do is, if you have a 10 page book, you can go with 1 page or 1 scene according to accepted price at the start and contune if you and the seller have a good energy. That would be fair to both of you.

On 1/2/2022 at 6:26 PM, adaaguilar987 said:

DO NOT approve anything until the project is completed in full.

Definetly. Anyone who demands otherways must be warned. This is a business, and should be taken seriously. Or you can use milestones as payment method, so you can pay page by page.

On 1/2/2022 at 6:26 PM, adaaguilar987 said:

Experienced sellers will save you a lot of time and aggravation

True. Also try not to forget the new sellers too. Maybe not a childrens story book, but for more basic things.

On 1/2/2022 at 6:26 PM, adaaguilar987 said:

Make sure the seller puts the deadline you want on the order (mine put a later date than agreed upon)

If i get a job that i can finish in 3 days, i would ask for 4. You never know what can happen. Anyone with the right mind would do it under normal circumstances. So, yeah. If you have agreed on a date, it should be the deadline. Seller should've had prepared themselves for it. (Unless there are some emergency matter happens)

I hope these are helpful.

Edit: Now i realised this is a 7 months old post. Well. 😄 

Edited July 22, 2022 by ozan_erdi

[tendento]

On 1/2/2022 at 4:26 PM, adaaguilar987 said:

A few weeks ago I hired an illustrator from Fiverr to illustrate my first children's book ever. I had many sellers respond but I finally settled for a new seller who claimed to speak English fluently and who would also format my book for KDP. A win-win, right? No. It has been a very bad experience. He cannot follow directions at all and the deadline has come and gone. I believe he doesn't understand English and even with a translator, the messages are lost. When the seller asked me to approve one image, ungrudgingly I did.  Although it was not what I had envisioned, it took so long to get this point that I agreed. This approved the WHOLE project which allowed him to get paid without doing the project (I don't know if this was done on purpose as the seller is new also). The seller did continue to try to get the illustrations done but they were all wrong. Sometimes he reverted back to errors which had taken weeks to correct, the same revision requests were submitted numerous times without him being able to make modifications, and he confused the characters in the book, just a mess which wasted time. Later, the seller also claimed that the format was not included in the $15/ page price.

Fiverr Support helped a little, they communicated with the seller and gave me a small discount for future projects. They communicated with me a lot but no real support was given. I felt trapped. You have 14 days to submit a complaint after project is completed which I did. 

Lesson:

Spend the $5. on the test illustrations. Try at least three sellers.

DO NOT approve anything until the project is completed in full.

Experienced sellers will save you a lot of time and aggravation

Make sure the seller puts the deadline you want on the order (mine put a later date than agreed upon)

 

 

 

The main problem for newcomers to Fiverr is the overestimation of their skills. Not knowing the exact timing of their work.

Many new sellers do not understand many of the principles of the site, respectively, they think that they are in a fairy tale where they will be paid a lot of money for a poorly done job.

I completely agree about the language differences. This is a rather thin line of communication, when the buyer and the seller understand each other through the word, or with the wrong manner of politeness.

Usually 2 steps can solve this problem: 🙂

Don't tell every customer how good your English is if you don't actually have that experience.

An experienced seller, even if he is a beginner, will definitely mention that he may be misunderstood or with the wrong manner of politeness. An experienced salesperson who does not speak the language will say this, knowing that his skill in his field of work will cover this problem.

[aziz_rohmani]

You are right.
But I think before place the order buyer should talk to the seller and discus about the project.
Then seller show some sample with the buyer description. If the buyer like these sample then place the order.

I think it is the right process. I always do it with every buyer.

You can try it with sellers.

[mickeyc17]

So, I am a buyer and a seller on Fiverr.  I have had such a terrible experiance buying on Fiverr.  I have noted several times that the seller must be in the United States (even filtering for this in my searches) and that they must use American English and common American English terminology/phrases.  Time and time again have hired someone only to find out that they are not who they say they are and are not in the US - most often telling me they have relocated to Mexico, Canada, etc...

Any advice on how to avoid this?

[mahendrasing981]

Overall Experience is great. I get my job done all the time. Sometimes I have constraints on budget and I am forced to choose the new sellers or sometimes I am providing the seller their first order. Sometimes sellers ask me ridiculous questions like I am trying to sell them something. I remind them I am offering the work. 

I like to work with people whom I can trust as copyright material is big issue for digital products. But once we trust each other then everything is super easy for everyone. 

[vickieito]

Hi @mahendrasing981, Welcome to the forum!

I'm glad to hear that you have a great experience as a buyer here on Fiverr! 😊

There aren't too many buyers on the forum (most are sellers), so I'm wondering if you would you be willing to share your experiences as a Fiverr buyer ...What advice would you give to other buyers who are building their teams here on Fiverr? Are you a regular buyer, a Fiverr Select buyer, or a Fiverr Business buyer?

I'm curious to hear what you have to say!

[mahendrasing981]

On 10/18/2022 at 8:13 PM, vickieito said:

Hi @mahendrasing981, Welcome to the forum!

I'm glad to hear that you have a great experience as a buyer here on Fiverr! 😊

There aren't too many buyers on the forum (most are sellers), so I'm wondering if you would you be willing to share your experiences as a Fiverr buyer ...What advice would you give to other buyers who are building their teams here on Fiverr? Are you a regular buyer, a Fiverr Select buyer, or a Fiverr Business buyer?

I'm curious to hear what you have to say!

Hi @vickieito

I am a frequent buyer. You know the key issue here is when two people do not know common language. I try my best to convey the requirements in best possible simple words. Latest I engaged with one seller from Belgium to provide me Food Videos and Recipes. What I got is the copied and pasted recipe from a site and link to YouTube video of 2020. I paid USD $10 for this work. I did not accept the delivery. On the other hand, I offered similar work to a seller from Sri Lanka, the seller did fantastic job in creating something unique for me and offered me brand new never used content with all copyrights. I would not blame anyone here. I think these are translation issues and language barriers. I will definitely get the team sooner or later all built with the finest individuals here. 

Best Regards - MS

Edited October 19, 2022 by mahendrasing981

[vickieito]

1 hour ago, mahendrasing981 said:

I try my best to convey the requirements in best possible simple words.

This is a great point! As a buyer, I've purchased over 100 gigs this year. I find that the clearer my requirements are, the fewer problems I tend to have. I also prefer going with sellers that ask a lot of questions throughout the order to see if they are in line with my vision. I have more problems with the sellers that don't communicate until they make a delivery (and then they find out it's not in line with my order requirements).

1 hour ago, mahendrasing981 said:

I did not accept the delivery.

Good for you! Since I'm also a seller on Fiverr, I had trouble doing this in the beginning. However, I'm now able to cancel orders if I'm not satisfied with the delivery.

1 hour ago, mahendrasing981 said:

all built with the finest individuals here. 

Fiverr does have amazing talent here! I was able to add a practicing doctor to my team as a subject matter expert for a project I was working on. I've also worked with some amazing voiceover talent, animators, video editors, data entry specialists, and writers. 

Thanks for answering all of my questions, @mahendrasing981! I wish the best for you and your business! 😊

[shibiyas]

There are a lot of good and bad sellers in Fiverr also there are buyers here. Sometimes some mistakes happen from the both sides. As a buyer you need your project to be done and as a seller you also need a project to get done.

[preow2022]

you want professional work so you should go with experinced seller. but you go with new seller. and the 5$ thing i dont think any professional seller will agree on that. you deserve draft design if you want to make sure about your work and you can ask for portfolio for their previous work. but always make sure go with professional seller. Thank you.

[bagasbrojo]

On 11/23/2021 at 1:41 AM, gina_riley2 said:

As an experienced buyer, I still find it daunting to filter thru thousands of gigs to find the right sellers. After hundreds of gig purchases, sometimes, I still get swindled by a newbie seller. Although, it's 2nd nature to me now, my 1st purchase was confusing and an overall bad experience.

A newbie buyer ordering from a newbie seller is basically, blind leading the blind. Neither one of you are sure how things work. One of you should have the experience to guide the other one on how to order, accept, and other questions.

Tips for new buyers:

1. Don't worry about levels, that's useless.

2. Look for sellers with at least 200 reviews. This will ensure the reviews are legit. Unfortunately, there are still scammers who buy or trade reviews.

3. Look at gig picture. Does it look nice or sloppy? Is it stolen off the internet (right click & reverse search) or original?

4. Actually read the sellers description on that gig. It doesn't matter what kind of gig you are buying, there is a universal sign for troublesome sellers:

* Bad grammar, misuse of punctuation, incoherent sentences, etc.

* Short description is a bad sign. The seller should write out what they will deliver and what they expect from you (the buyer).

* Sloppy description means sloppy delivery. If you see things like: Sir, Dear, etc. Not a good sign.

5. Do not message them via inbox, unless it's necessary.  As a buyer, once you contact a seller that way, they have unlimited access to contact you. It's a headache.

* Most established sellers should know better but not all of them follow the rules. You can get spammed with buy one get one free offer that you don't need or want.

* If you find a great seller that you are confident about then by all means have a convo with them about the order.

* If you have to message them, don't do a, "Hello, are you there." They may think you are a spammer. Add your question that wasn't answered in the gig description.

6. I know that there are different customs around the world where price negotiations are an every day thing. This platform is not one of them. Don't ask for a discount or offer them future work. There is no way to guarantee that. Established sellers will politely tell you to go away and then block you.

7. Regardless of who you hire, order a sample gig first. If they don't have a sample gig, it's okay to ask them, "Can I ask for a $10 or $20 sample?"

* They can send you a custom offer where they can do a small portion of your project. Afterwards, either you fit or not. Don't ask for modifications on a sample order.

* Don't ask for free samples. Time is money. You're not sampling wedding cakes for free, this is a freelance platform, pay for it!

* If sample is good or fits your need, discuss the project and place order.

* If sample isn't what you wanted, say thank you and go elsewhere. Just chaulk up your $20 as cost of doing business.

Note: In order for me to have found some really amazing sellers, I had to spend money on not so good and/or nightmare sellers. Don't let your first experience be a bad one. Buy from an established, well rounded seller.

After you've gained experience in buying, then you can trek into the pool of newbies to get yourself that diamond in a haystack. Many great and true professional sellers have to start here as a newbie and they need a chance.

Happy holidays everyone. 💙💛🤎

200 reviews? really? I've been a seller since 2018 until now I haven't reached 200 reviews, my gig is about dark art and horror illustration, maybe here is rarely anyone looking for 

it might be better for you to look for sellers who have a portfolio feature on their profile or in their gig.

[imagination7413]

3 hours ago, bagasbrojo said:

200 reviews? really? I've been a seller since 2018 until now I haven't reached 200 reviews, my gig is about dark art and horror illustration, maybe here is rarely anyone looking for 

Keep reading. The very next post questions that number, too, and the one after has an addendum.

[kazmi_creative]

I think its against the law of humanity. Because if the buyers only will go ahead with established sellers then how a new person will get the opportunity ?

[imagination7413]

20 minutes ago, kazmi_creative said:

I think its against the law of humanity. Because if the buyers only will go ahead with established sellers then how a new person will get the opportunity ?

You missed a word. New buyers, not all buyers.

This point is discussed later in the topic.

("Against the law of humanity" ... what? I think you might have mixed up some words.)

[kazmi_creative]

I think fiverr's algorithm of search is good for all. So it should not be necessary that new buyers must always buy from established sellers. Already when they search for some service from fiverr as per the fiverr's algorithm only those profiles show on top which are providing best services or has something selling for the service they are looking for. Its upto the new buyers how they choose. So i think we should not bind only new buyers for established sellers. 

[imagination7413]

4 hours ago, kazmi_creative said:

I think fiverr's algorithm of search is good for all. So it should not be necessary that new buyers must always buy from established sellers. Already when they search for some service from fiverr as per the fiverr's algorithm only those profiles show on top which are providing best services or has something selling for the service they are looking for. Its upto the new buyers how they choose. So i think we should not bind only new buyers for established sellers. 

Did you even read the post?

The point isn't about the algorithm nor skill or qualifications. It's about knowing how the platform works, the ins and outs and quirks of Fiverr, about how working with individual freelancers online is different than buying from a store in-person, about avoiding common pitfalls by (for their first purchase) working with people who are most likely able to guide the buyer through the entire process.

[manuelmarino]

I think the best way to find the right seller for you is studying their demos. a portfolio gives all the details you need to understand if that's the right choice or not. said that, competition is impressive, I understand new sellers have problems but they need to study and improve the most they can. said that there is also another issue, which is: Fiverr is not a beginners tool. it's to be considered in a career path, of a skilled professional.