I lost 500 USD for nothing

[dangtiendung]

I want to build a website, and hire a developer on Fiverr. He said he could build this website for 2000 USD. I give a reference website, and I emphasize that I want my website to be exactly like the reference website (2 times). He insisted he could, and urged me to transfer the money. He said he will create 4 custom offers, each offer is 500 USD. And he said he needs to get 500 USD upfront to start working (he created a custom offer for 500 USD, and told me to agree and confirm it was done immediately so he could withdraw the money, and also give hime a 5 star review). Since he has a lot of good reviews, I agreed with that. 

So naively, I transferred him 500 USD.

After two weeks, he said he had finished the architecture of the website. And tell me that my website is expected to need 10000 USD to complete (and maybe even more). I disagreed with that, and asked him again why he offered 2000 USD and now it has increased in price 5 times. I don't have enough money for that.

He said it was because he couldn't dig through the reference website I sent him. I asked him so why you said "yes" when I asked twice if you had thoroughly researched the features of the reference website. He asked me back how he could find out the details in one day, and asked me if I could list Facebook full features right now, he would give me my money back. Of course my answer is "no", I don't understand, what kind of behavior is this? 

If you don't know the details of the website, why would you say "yes" right away to take the job?

He made a new offer for 2500 USD. I asked what features it would have, he sent me a text description, and I discovered it was copied from a plugin advertisement page. I feel he has no credibility anymore, and I don't trust him. I felt quite desperate, and begged him to give me some of the money back. He said it's not possible, he doesn't work for free. He said he would send me the architecture of the website, and it was worth 500 USD, although I don't even know a line of code.

It's like you buy an iPhone for $400, deposit $100, and after it arrives, the seller says the actual price of this iPhone is $2,000, for $100 I'll just give you the battery. Even if this battery is really worth $100, I don't need it, what I need is a $400 iPhone. I'm not an iPhone repairman, what am I going to do with this battery?

Should I post Fiverr messages and s***e chat history here? I don't want to reveal his identity because I still want to settle things peacefully.
I just want part of the money back. What should I do now? 😞 

@He also talked about how he designed a coming soon website for me, however I found out he just downloaded a template on the Internet, edited the logo with the one I gave him. He said that he spends a lot of time on this coming soon page, when I know it doesn't take that long. Partly because of this, I don't really trust him anymore.

[mariashtelle1]

And that’s the reason why you always should follow any platform rules and never mark any orders complete upfront with no work done. 
 

1. open a ticket to support and report a seller for sending you an empty delivery. It’s a TOS violation what your seller did. 
 

it’s been over 14 days so that’s were it gets tricky to get your money back because fiverr gives you 14 days to review your purchase. Anyway after reporting a seller ask them to cancel your order as the seller didn’t deliver anything in his delivery. 

[Guest freelancerjabir]

16 hours ago, dangtiendung said:

I want to build a website, and hire a developer on Fiverr. He said he could build this website for 2000 USD. I give a reference website, and I emphasize that I want my website to be exactly like the reference website (2 times). He insisted he could, and urged me to transfer the money. He said he will create 4 custom offers, each offer is 500 USD. And he said he needs to get 500 USD upfront to start working (he created a custom offer for 500 USD, and told me to agree and confirm it was done immediately so he could withdraw the money, and also give hime a 5 star review). Since he has a lot of good reviews, I agreed with that. 

So naively, I transferred him 500 USD.

After two weeks, he said he had finished the architecture of the website. And tell me that my website is expected to need 10000 USD to complete (and maybe even more). I disagreed with that, and asked him again why he offered 2000 USD and now it has increased in price 5 times. I don't have enough money for that.

He said it was because he couldn't dig through the reference website I sent him. I asked him so why you said "yes" when I asked twice if you had thoroughly researched the features of the reference website. He asked me back how he could find out the details in one day, and asked me if I could list Facebook full features right now, he would give me my money back. Of course my answer is "no", I don't understand, what kind of behavior is this? 

If you don't know the details of the website, why would you say "yes" right away to take the job?

He made a new offer for 2500 USD. I asked what features it would have, he sent me a text description, and I discovered it was copied from a plugin advertisement page. I feel he has no credibility anymore, and I don't trust him. I felt quite desperate, and begged him to give me some of the money back. He said it's not possible, he doesn't work for free. He said he would send me the architecture of the website, and it was worth 500 USD, although I don't even know a line of code.

It's like you buy an iPhone for $400, deposit $100, and after it arrives, the seller says the actual price of this iPhone is $2,000, for $100 I'll just give you the battery. Even if this battery is really worth $100, I don't need it, what I need is a $400 iPhone. I'm not an iPhone repairman, what am I going to do with this battery?

Should I post Fiverr messages and s***e chat history here? I don't want to reveal his identity because I still want to settle things peacefully.
I just want part of the money back. What should I do now? 😞 

@He also talked about how he designed a coming soon website for me, however I found out he just downloaded a template on the Internet, edited the logo with the one I gave him. He said that he spends a lot of time on this coming soon page, when I know it doesn't take that long. Partly because of this, I don't really trust him anymore.

For getting your money back you can contact with Fiverr team just opening a ticket, and then you have to explain all things, if you're all words are valid then you will get your money back 

[dangtiendung]

4 hours ago, mariashtelle1 said:

And that’s the reason why you always should follow any platform rules and never mark any orders complete upfront with no work done. 
 

1. open a ticket to support and report a seller for sending you an empty delivery. It’s a TOS violation what your seller did. 
 

it’s been over 14 days so that’s were it gets tricky to get your money back because fiverr gives you 14 days to review your purchase. Anyway after reporting a seller ask them to cancel your order as the seller didn’t deliver anything in his delivery. 

I have this Fiverr account for a long time but this is the first time I'm using Fiverr to order something. I don't know all its rules and this was probably a hard $500 lesson for me. Thank you for the advice, I have submitted a ticket to Fiverr.

[dangtiendung]

2 hours ago, freelancerjabir said:

For getting your money back you can contact with Fiverr team just opening a ticket, and then you have to explain all things, if you're all words are valid then you will get your money back 

Thank you, I have sent Fiverr the full story and all the evidence I can gather. I don't know if I'll ever get my money back but I think I learned a lesson for life.

[miiila]

20 hours ago, dangtiendung said:

Fiverr messages and s***e chat history here

If that means you talked to the seller off-Fiverr too, you should be aware that that's against Fiverr's ToS and might have consequences up to account ban not just for that seller but also yourself.

[dangtiendung]

Here are some messages between me and him as well as some illustrations.

[mariashtelle1]

54 minutes ago, dangtiendung said:

have sent Fiverr the full story and all the evidence

I find it best to keep it very short and factual with fiverr CS. It was quite long just reading your post and might confuse CS agent. 
the facts are simple that your seller sent empty delivery, asked for communication outside of fiverr and asked you to leave a review. Those are three violations he committed. But fine, you already submitted your ticket so just wait for the outcome. 

[dangtiendung]

54 minutes ago, miiila said:

If that means you talked to the seller off-Fiverr too, you should be aware that that's against Fiverr's ToS and might have consequences up to account ban not just for that seller but also yourself.

I just found out about it yesterday. Like I said above, this is my first time using Fiverr to buy something, I don't really know the rules of it. Also, I don't speak English, everything I write is through Google translate (it also mentioned this in the message I told the seller), so I thought Fiverr's warning was an advertisement of some kind.

Now I understood the risk and I have the wrong part in violating Fiverr's policies, I was starting to think I would lose money (and even account) in return for this lesson.

[miiila]

18 minutes ago, dangtiendung said:

just found out about it yesterday. Like I said above, this is my first time using Fiverr to buy something, I don't really know the rules of it.

Yes, I'd read that, which was why I mentioned it, even though I only saw your thread now, so you'll be aware next time. The rules do apply, never mind if you read them or not, because you accept them by registering and using the site, same as for all other websites.

If your English isn't good enough to completely understand the terms of service, you should translate/get them translated, or maybe ask someone who speaks your native language and English well enough to relay everything to you. There may be other things that aren't "intuitive", as the communication off-Fiverr apparently wasn't to you, so you may unknowingly break other terms and endanger your account.

The terms are for all users, by the way, no matter if buyer or seller (of course, some obviously only apply to the one or other group), but there aren't two different ToS versions.

But good luck in any case, that lesson, if you won't get your money back, would be indeed an expensive one. I hope your future experiences will be far better.

[dangtiendung]

Update 1: I submitted a ticket to Fiverr customer care and told the whole story. I also said now I learned Fiverr's terms of discussion. So I know I'm wrong too and willing to take any punishment from Fiverr. At this point, I don't think I can get my money back, so I just want a fair verdict for both of us. After few hours, Fiverr contacted me again and said that he had looked into the matter and decided to cancel the order and refund me the full amount.

Happiness and surprise filled my body. It's hard to describe my feelings at that time.

Update 2: Right now the money has not been refunded to my Credit card (they said it will take 5-7 days), but when it comes to the account, I plan to refund part of it to the seller, since he sent me the architecture. Although I honestly don't understand how to used the architecture, and definitely not planning on learning how to use it, I think he also took his time to make it. He's very angry and difficult to talk to right now, so I haven't told him about it yet. I think after this both he and I will learn a hard lesson.

Thanks to everyone on the forum!

[cs_evans]

You have learned a valuable lesson.  I recommend you now honor that lesson and help others understand to 1) take ownership of your own mistakes, 2) work for a mutually satisfactory outcome, 3) make sure you understand the terms of a contract, and 4) be humble. 

[olyasr]

You can try to get your money back, but try to text to CS team MUCH shorter story, just like: This seller delivered empty order. Because CS team can be very confused about the full story.

You still have a chance to get your money back, also, in my opinion, this "seller" should be blocked on Fiverr, so good luck in your communication with customer support team.

[bimples_cre8]

You made the right decision to have contacted customer support; lesson is, don't always hesitate to ask for help.