Fiverr Stealing Funds?

[quiffledesign]

Hey, so I've been a seller for about 6 months and had some good success. I recently noticed however that the amount of money I've made (net income) did not equal the other 4 categories of my earnings page as is shown in the screenshot. There seems to be almost $150 missing that has not been made available to me.

When I contacted customer support about this they initially denied it completely, telling me I was wrong and the amounts displayed were all correct. Obviously this was not a point of argument, this is maths, it's not questionable, these numbers simply do not add up. I explained this and as we often see with support they were extremely unhelpful and took more than 2 weeks, offering bland, template answers about things that were not really relevant. Eventually they came up with that it's just a "visual bug" that will be solved in a vague new update with no set time that could happen. This is not "just a visual bug" as I have not been allowed to withdraw that $150, it's not been made available. It is then a very practical issue.

Unfortunately support started to ignore my inquiries and constantly close the issue despite having done literally nothing helpful. It's completely ludicrous that at such an important time in the lead up to Christmas that they are essentially stealing sellers money and completely ignoring them if they question through support. 

[quiffledesign]

I've been selling on Fiverr for about 6 months, completing logo animations and motion graphics. Throughout that time my gig has done pretty well but recently when looking at my earnings page I noticed that there was an issue. My net income did not equal the other 4 categories on the earnings page. In fact there appeared to be almost $150 missing that I had earned which had not been accounted for as shown in the screenshot attached. 

When I contacted support about this they told me that I was wrong and the numbers shown were correct. Now, obviously this is not a point of argument, this is maths, the numbers did not add up. I explained this and eventually they agreed that the number was wrong but they offered no resolution. This went on for more than two weeks with the best excuse they could come up with being that it is just a "visual" issue that would be solved in a future update which no timeline was given. But it's not just "visual". The money is not there. I can't withdraw it and I don't have it. This makes it a very practical issue. 

They eventually started ignoring my messages and continously marked the support ticket as "solved". Support was awful to deal with, just generic, template answers that were irrelevant to the issue but that's nothing new. 

They've seemingly stolen my money, I don't have much hope that I will ever get it back. I wanted to get people's thoughts on this, ask why they have taken my money and suggest you double check your earnings to make sure nothing is missing. 

[mariashtelle1]

I have the same situation. It’s been over a year and a half and even involving my SSM didn’t help. 

[surajkartha]

Over 2 weeks? over 1 and half years? 

Dang.. I'd start by reporting this incident to the Whistleblower Hotline (because personally, I feel that it's one thing if there's an issue and another if the issue is being completely disregarded by the very team assigned with the task of addressing issues, in my books, that's easily misconduct)

https://irdirect.net/fiverr/whistleblower_iframe

Matters pertaining to payouts have to be handled sensitively, so I am shocked to hear about your ordeal.. logical explanation is the least one should be offered for these sort of concerns.. but if you are being denied even that, then I don't see any other option besides reporting this misconduct while simultaneously trying to get the answers via support in hope that someone does their job properly..

[quiffledesign]

Thanks, I think I will do that. It's certainly not the first time I've dealt with support ignoring my issues but this did surprise me how little they seemed to care, this is obviously a huge issue and was completely disregarded. In fairness I do think that the people working at support are not intentionally malicious but just completely inept for their job and geniunely have no idea how to solve anything like this so they make excuses that don't make sense and then ignore it. 

[sabinespoems]

Based on your thread I did the calculations for my own net income and I seem to be missing some money too....🤔 For me it's 'only' $50 but that's still money I earned fair and square, so needless to say I'm wondering what the heck is going on here! 

I think it's a bit of an easy way out to say it's a visual issue. Even if that was genuinely the case, they should have gotten some tech guys on that asap because it's a freelancing website where these matters are of high importance.

I'm very curious to know about any updates you may have (if any), so please let us know at some point in time! But this unfortunately does seem like a case of us just having to suck it up and deal with it. Even when this is a highly unfair (and illegal???) situation 😩

 

[quiffledesign]

11 hours ago, sabinespoems said:

Based on your thread I did the calculations for my own net income and I seem to be missing some money too....🤔 For me it's 'only' $50 but that's still money I earned fair and square, so needless to say I'm wondering what the heck is going on here! 

I think it's a bit of an easy way out to say it's a visual issue. Even if that was genuinely the case, they should have gotten some tech guys on that asap because it's a freelancing website where these matters are of high importance.

I'm very curious to know about any updates you may have (if any), so please let us know at some point in time! But this unfortunately does seem like a case of us just having to suck it up and deal with it. Even when this is a highly unfair (and illegal???) situation 😩

 

Unfortunately support has continued to ignore my inquires and won't offer any information on when or how it will be fixed. 

I'm glad to have raised this issue though as it appears this is occurring with many people. The "visual issue" excuse was really poor especially as they told me several times that I was just flat out wrong and all the money was correct, I think it was just a bad attempt to appease me concerns. 

Obviously I've seen some sketchy business practices from Fiverr in the past like promoting accounts that have a record of plagiarism and false reviews, charging both buyer and seller fees,  but actually stealing the money people have earned is definitely illegal practice. 

[quiffledesign]

I understand that this nothing new but support has been awful. I'm a level 2 seller which supposedly offers priority support though I have seen no change in at all. In the past when trying resolve situations they have always given template answers that more often than not weren't related to what I asked but recently support has been ignoring my inquiries all together. 

This started when I noticed that there was funds that I had earned that had not been available to me, with $150 seemingly missing from my account. At first they told me I was wrong and the numbers were all correct! Apparently they took no time to actually do some basic math and work out that there was obviously money missing. I pressed the issue and they eventually said I was correct but it was just a "visual bug". This of course is not true, it's not just "visual" as I have no access to it. When I inquired as to when and how this will be fixed they ignored my questions and will no longer respond to any inquiry I make. 

Obviously this is completely unprofessional and I just wanted to ask if anyone else has experienced this issue were support are ignoring your messages? 

[quiffledesign]

I've been a seller on Fiverr for about 6 months and had some real big ups and downs. Over that time I've noticed a number of things I thought seemed sketchy, the whole ranking system is unbelievably bad, they promote scammers, accounts that clearly have a history of plagiarism and always side the the buyer on any issue no matter what (which I understand from their perspective but this is abused by some buyers.)

Fiverr stole my money

But things got even worse when I was looking on my earnings page a few weeks ago. I realised that my net income did not equal the other 4 categories displayed on the earnings page (Withdrawn, Used for Purchases, Pending Clearance, Available for Withdrawal)

In fact it appeared that around $150 that I earned was missing/not made available to me. Of course this was concerning, especially at this time of year so I contacted support and inquired about the issue. At first they responded by telling me that I was wrong and the numbers shown were all correct. Now this isn't questionable, this maths, quite simply the numbers did not add up to my income as can be seen in the image attached. After explaining this to support, they eventually told me that I was right, amazingly enough someone there figured out how to use a calculator. There was some back and forth as they still couldn't grasp that this was a major issue which they termed innocent little "visual bug". Aww so it just looks like you took  almost $150 from account but it's actually there? No, this isn't just a visual bug, this is the money I earned not being available to me weeks before Christmas. They asked me if I wanted the request marked as solved and I said no as it has not been solved in any sort of way.

(4886.64 +28.58 +100 = 5015.22) 
5161.01 - 5015.22 = 145.79)

So there is exactly $145.79 missing from my account. 

Support Ignored Me

After this support ignored any further questions and inquiries I had. The refused to explain why this happened, when it will be fixed and marked the request as "solved". I kept asking over and over and they just would not respond. This has went on for 17 days, now they have it so when I respond the request is automatically marked as "solved". This was easily the most frustrating experience I have had with support and that is saying something. Seeing the word "solved" is horrendous, as though the bright minds at Fiverr support accomplished something with a genuine solution.

I posted my story on the Fiverr forums and got a few responses from sellers who have this same issue, just sums of money gone from their account. I would encourage everyone to check your earnings carefully and make sure that it all adds up. I don't think I'm ever going to get my $150 but maybe if enough people know about this something can change.

[leannelrivers]

Just keep bringing it up with CS until you get a satisfactory outcome. I'm guessing expected earnings doesn't count towards the earned figure?

[wordsfire]

40 minutes ago, quiffledesign said:

In fact it appeared that around $150 that I earned was missing/not made available to me.

Just to try and understand where the problem might be...

• Is there any chance you've bought any courses 5r Learn, paid for seller plus, or paid for clicks? 
• Have you summed up all the order prices to make sure the Net Income amount is correct?

I'm just another user on 5r. However, I believe, if you're able to direct the dev team to the exact problem. They might be able to resolve the issues. Hopefully.

Otherwise, you can always raise the issue on social media.

Xx

[quiffledesign]

On 12/17/2021 at 7:05 AM, wordsfire said:

Just to try and understand where the problem might be...

• Is there any chance you've bought any courses 5r Learn, paid for seller plus, or paid for clicks? 
• Have you summed up all the order prices to make sure the Net Income amount is correct?

I'm just another user on 5r. However, I believe, if you're able to direct the dev team to the exact problem. They might be able to resolve the issues. Hopefully. Otherwise, you can always raise the issue on social media.

Yeah I checked everything I thought could be a possible issue including summing up all the order prices. I haven't bought any courses or paid for seller plus, I used promoted gigs for a short while which accounts for the $28.58 on the used for purchases. 

I'm trying to raise the issue as much as possible.

On 12/17/2021 at 6:46 AM, leannelrivers said:

Just keep bringing it up with CS until you get a satisfactory outcome. I'm guessing expected earnings doesn't count towards the earned figure?

It feels pointless now that all my requests are auto-solved. They don't even look at requests any more which is unbelievably unprofessional. There's no other way to contact anyone at Fiverr either which is very frustrating. 

My expected earnings is currently at $0 so I don't think it has any impact on earnings. 

[wordsfire]

Just now, quiffledesign said:

I used promoted gigs for a short while which accounts for the $28.58 on the used for purchases. 

So the Used for Purchases amount includes the price paid for promoted gigs?

Boy, I just checked again, and there are missing $5.25 from my order page as well. 

Way to go, Fiverr. 

- sigh -

[mariashtelle1]

6 minutes ago, wordsfire said:

Boy, I just checked again, and there are missing $5.25 from my order page as well. 

I’m really surprised that people started noticing it only now 🤷‍♀️ 
here is the topic that opened over a year ago and those “19$” missing became much bigger figure by now. 
 

 

[wordsfire]

Just now, mariashtelle1 said:

here is the topic that opened over a year ago and those “19$” missing became much bigger figure by now.

Wow. It's strange how that post has pretty much no engagement whatsoever. Since, you've been experiencing the problem for a while, do you think we're losing real money here?

It's obviously intentional. There is no reason why they cannot get a summation right.

Ugh.

[mariashtelle1]

12 minutes ago, wordsfire said:

Since, you've been experiencing the problem for a while, do you think we're losing real money here?

I could not prove or disprove it. 
Ive been selling for quite a few years with thousands of orders so and accessing data from 4-5 years ago is a nightmare 

[quiffledesign]

1 hour ago, mariashtelle1 said:

I’m really surprised that people started noticing it only now 🤷‍♀️ 
here is the topic that opened over a year ago and those “19$” missing became much bigger figure by now. 
 

 

It's so disappointing that this has been going on for such a long amount of time because I can only imagine then there is no intention to fix it. I keep asking support but they still are refusing to reply. 

[creative_howl]

Thank you so much for brining this up on the forums. I have never thought that a place like Fiverr would have bugs like this. It's even more disturbing to hear how CS is handling your situation when they themselves have identified this to be a problem. I definitely hope that you'll get your money back as I understand how hard we work to get paid. Please don't keep fighting for it!

[yannisenglish]

Dropped a query with CS myself as I have nearly $50 unaccounted for.

I mean, I'm happy to believe that there's a reasonable explanation here. However, our balance needs to make sense or else what's the point?

[raghnalltuathai]

Does any of you use the Fast Payout feature? I'm missing some too when I do the math but I am using the payout feature since this year. Maybe the Net Income does not include the 1% fee that it costs?

[yannisenglish]

1 hour ago, raghnalltuathai said:

Does any of you use the Fast Payout feature? I'm missing some too when I do the math but I am using the payout feature since this year. Maybe the Net Income does not include the 1% fee that it costs?

Not me. Doesn't make sense for me to do so since I don't rely on Fiverr for my main income. It's possible, though, that they may have yet to roll out that 1% as part of Used for Purchases.

[quiffledesign]

1 hour ago, raghnalltuathai said:

Does any of you use the Fast Payout feature? I'm missing some too when I do the math but I am using the payout feature since this year. Maybe the Net Income does not include the 1% fee that it costs?

I hadn't considered that. I have used Fast payout on a couple occasions but it the 1% fee would only account for maybe $10 or so. 

I finally got a response from support though in which they are now telling me the funds do not exist! They've changed from what they said previously to now saying that the net income is showing more than I have actually made. I did however spend the time calculating all of the 160 orders I  have completed and they do in fact equal the total currently shown in my net income. 

I don't know if this is ignorance or blatant lies on the behalf of support but it's definitely worrying because it is completely untrue. 

[vovkaslovesnyy]

I am 99% sure it's a visual issue, and this issue took place in October (and several times before). 

There are moments, when Fiverr's analytical system is not recording your activity. It only affects the analytical part because funds are still there.  

I track all my orders and finances in a separate file, so I can easily see when something is wrong. 

I had one case, when the order would stay in "Pending clearance" state for 2 months, but it was solved by CS in a couple of minutes. 

In the middle of October I received ~$500 as a tip (screenshot 1), and it didn't appear anywhere.

I was able to withdraw it, and it was available on the earnings tab, but it wasn't added to the stats and the total amount for October (screenshot 2). 

If you have any doubts, I recommend dowloading CSV and checking everything manually. (screenshot 3).  

 

[sabinespoems]

On 12/17/2021 at 10:51 PM, vovkaslovesnyy said:

If you have any doubts, I recommend dowloading CSV and checking everything manually. (screenshot 3).  

Based on this thread I checked my own account, where $50 seemed to be missing too. I did your method, which was a lot of hassle since I'm in no way whatsoever an Excel expert and never use it. But! After some manual labor (it really was labor and took me hours) the net income was correct, so thank you for providing this checking mechanism @vovkaslovesnyy! 

I did message CS before I saw your reply and they forwarded it to the Tech team, so hopefully it will be visually sorted out too. 

[tahrim_nahian]

You can contact them via mail