A disaster, my best selling gig with 3200+ positive reviews was deleted by fiverr!!!

[nativechina]

Yesterday, I received a notice from fiverr that my gig "provide professional English Chinese translation" was removed permanently and cound not be restored.

Your Gig Was Removed

Unfortunately we had to remove your Gig provide english chinese translation due to the following reason/s:

Please remove: "top-level Chinese translator 3200++ positive reviews" Please do not use a Fiverr seller badge, your seller level, or the stars that represent your rating within your Gig images, video, profile picture, or any other Gig components. A seller’s level and rating are not permanent and may change on a monthly basis. Therefore, the actions mentioned can mislead our buyer community. It seems that your Gig was not updated according to our previous recommendations or Gig correction reminders. We kindly ask for your awareness and responsiveness if your Gigs require modification in the future.

For more information please visit Fiverr’s Help and Support.

Thanks, The Fiverr Team

I had to admit, this gig voilates fiverr's rule because I forgot to delete the words " 3200++ positive reviews" in the gig description while uploading the correction. It did be my fault. However, what I want to say today is I think the action fiverr did is really  beneath the human character, not people-oriented at all. After all, I have been a seller on fiverr since 2011. In the past ten years, I worked very hard every day and tried my best to provide best service, that was why I accumulated more than 3200 positive reviews and keep 5.0 rating all the time. This gig has become the career I rely on for a living, will I intentionally to voilate fiverr's rule? Is it really necessary to give me such a  harsh punishment? Why not leave me a chance to correct my mistake? 

Now I have no other choice but to create a new gig, the result is it likes a stone dropped into the sea, no impression, no click, nothing but wait...

To be honest, I am very disappointed at the ice-cold penalty decision from fiverr. Yes, I am nothing in millions of sellers here. But if fiverr always insists on this inhuman policy, nobody will have a brilliant future.

I hope my experience can be a negative example for every seller. Good luck to every reader!

[mariashtelle1]

Why do you think it’s harsh if fiverr already gave you a warning and you failed to comply? “I just forgot/missed etc is not an excuse when they already gave you explicitly one warning. 
 

If you sell on fiverr for so long then you should know that fiverr take harsh actions on second time violations. The same as if you violate the same rule twice your account will be disabled. And it’s only your gig that was removed instead of a ban. So do you still think that it’s “inhumane”? 
 

But I agree that’s it feels horrible to loose your gig. And it’s a tough lesson to learn. But no one else to blame. 

[nativechina]

9 minutes ago, mariashtelle1 said:

Why do you think it’s harsh if fiverr already gave you a warning and you failed to comply? “I just forgot/missed etc is not an excuse when they already gave you explicitly one warning. 
 

If you sell on fiverr for so long then you should know that fiverr take harsh actions on second time violations. The same as if you violate the same rule twice your account will be disabled. And it’s only your gig that was removed instead of a ban. So do you still think that it’s “inhumane”? 
 

But I agree that’s it feels horrible to loose your gig. And it’s a tough lesson to learn. But no one else to blame. 

I do agree with your opinion, but I still think this is too harsh, as anybody makes unintentional mistakes. Maybe suspend my gig for 3 months or even 6 months as a panalty is good than deleting it papermanently. 

[uk1000]

50 minutes ago, nativechina said:

I had to admit, this gig voilates fiverr's rule because I forgot to delete the words " 3200++ positive reviews

Though Fiverr has not shown a rule anywhere on the site saying you're not allowed to say you've had x positive reviews. Other sellers do it or say something similar (eg. in their profiles), including multiple TRS.

I can see why they would say "Please remove: "top-level Chinese translator" as you are level 2 and people could confuse "top-level" with TRS. If you've had x thousand positive reviews on a gig that's generally not going to decrease (unless Fiverr decided to remove some). So I don't know why they say to delete that whole line of "top-level Chinese translator 3200++ positive review" when the latter half should always have been correct.

It's usually just the badges on images showing ratings/level that they don't allow. I also agree they shouldn't have deleted the gig - they could have paused it instead or something similar where it could later be reinstated.

Also if saying "x+ positive reviews" isn't allowed why are they allowing it on profiles?

[mariashtelle1]

21 minutes ago, uk1000 said:

I also agree they shouldn't have deleted the gig - they could have paused it instead or something similar where it could later be reinstated.

They did it the first time and when OP didn’t remove it they deleted the gig. 
Come on @uk1000 you yourself perfectly know that gigs are deleted if they are reuploaded without all changes that fiverr asked to add first time they paused the gig. 

[uk1000]

44 minutes ago, mariashtelle1 said:

They did it the first time and when OP didn’t remove it they deleted the gig. 

I don't see where it says the first post that they paused it. But even so, they could have put it into a state that could later be reinstated. He might have forgotten about one part they mentioned, so permanently deleting the gig that has thousands of reviews seems harsh (especially if it's something someone just forgot to edit while editing other things). And nowhere on the site is there a rule about saying x+ positive reviews" in the description is not allowed (it only says things like ratings in badges aren't allowed) - at least as far as I know. And like I said, it can never really go less than the stated amount of positive reviews (unless Fiverr decides to delete one or more but even then it's unlikely the Fiverr deleted reviews would make it go less than the x thousand+ positive reviews the seller wrote.

The whole point of not putting in your level badge or rating in gig images is that your level or average rating can change at any time. But the number of positive reviews can normally never go less unless Fiverr themselves intervene.

TRS are supposedly checked but they are allowing them to keep their "5000 5 star reviews" or "5000 positive reviews" in their profile description. The very thing it seems they permanently deleted the OP's gig for. Would they delete the TRS's account for saying that? I doubt it, they'd allow them to remove it from the profile description if they had an issue with it.

[miiila]

Well, if it really just was 

1 hour ago, nativechina said:

because I forgot to delete the words " 3200++ positive reviews" in the gig description while uploading the correction

and provided that there's not more that we don't know, I have to say I somewhat agree with OP (not on the "inhumane" bit, but generally), and with uk1000 here. Does seem too strict to me.

Why? Because Fiverr wants and prompts sellers to promote themselves, "name-drop", etc.

I don't think it's a big stretch to think it's a good idea to put your number of positive reviews on Fiverr into your Fiverr Gig description, if you earned them (and didn't just copy-paste that bit from someone else's Gig description, of course, as unfortunately gets done, as we've often seen on the forum - in those cases, I'd agree that dealing with it strictly, would be called for). I get that the seller level shouldn't be mentioned, as that might change before the seller can update their Gig accordingly, but as far as I know, your reviews stay, even if you delete the Gig/it gets deleted, so that review number, in form of xxxx+ reviews, should always stay correct.

Of course, if Fiverr explicitly warned OP for that very thing and did not just mention Gig images and profile, but description too, there shouldn't have forgotten to also check and adjust their Gig description, but if the description wasn't mentioned by Fiverr, I think that another warning instead of deleting the Gig would have been in order, and I generally think things like this should very clearly be spelled out. IMHO, there's a big difference between mentioning the number of positive reviews in your Gig description - again, especially in the light of Fiverr wanting sellers to promote themselves - and stuffing five golden stars, "TOP SELLER", and the like, into your profile or Gig images, which I always thought was the actual issue they take and wanted to prevent.

However, if it wasn't just

1 hour ago, nativechina said:

because I forgot to delete the words " 3200++ positive reviews" in the gig description

but actually, as OP quoted support,

1 hour ago, nativechina said:

Please remove: "top-level Chinese translator 3200++ positive reviews"

that's a bit different, as the "top-level" obviously is a bigger issue than the review number, because of the potentially fleeting nature of the "top-level".

Anyway, props to @nativechina for posting their experience with this here, hopefully it will help some sellers to avoid this pitfall. Some people might want to check all their Gigs now, just in case they have something similar in there somewhere.

[mariashtelle1]

23 minutes ago, uk1000 said:

I don't see where it says the first post that they paused it.

Exactly in their email as a third point that they already warned him once (with pausing the gig or without but they did give a first warning). 

[uk1000]

Thanks. I understand they gave a message to him before, it's just that it's not mentioned on the site anywhere as far as I know (like in the TOS or a policy/rules page), so people generally can't see that it's against their (undisclosed) rules to say what was said in the gig description.

They're probably deleting the gig at that point because 1) they've warned once 2) they probably don't want to keep having to manually re-check everything multiple times.  But permanently deleting a gig with thousands of reviews seems still too harsh, even with the previous warning. Maybe they could change it so after 2  (or 3?) warnings it gets deleted instead.

For the bit above about them having to manually check (giving more work for Fiverr staff), the profiles and gig descriptions could be checked automatically by the system for phrases like that. So instead of staff checking the text the seller could just be told by the system (it could automatically be re-paused as many times as they want until it passes an automated system's check of the text, then only go to staff to do a check after it's passed that automated one, so less work for Fiverr staff).

[bigbeardvo]

Fault aside.

It's unwise to rely upon one platform as your sole source of income. As you have now learned, it gives one entity too much power over your business and livelihood. Focus the extra time you have on diversifying and expanding your reach.

[uk1000]

1 hour ago, newsmike said:

one complains that Fiverr is doing the right thing

Part of what the OP was told to delete (ie. including "x,000 positive reviews") is what Fiver has allowed and is allowing TRS and at least 1 Pro seller to have in their gig/profile. When TRS and Pro sellers are manually verified. Also it's not really the right thing to permanently delete a gig, when they could have put it into a state that the user could correct any misleading info. The OP edited the gig the first time and just missed some things (and everyone can make mistakes/miss things when editing).

Why can Pro sellers say "with [hundreds]+ positive reviews" in their gig description or "PRO Top Rated Seller with x,000+ satisfied customers" and TRS (who have been manually made to TRS) say "Over x,000 5 star reviews" in their profile but you think it's good that a level 2 seller gets their gig description deleted when they did the same (apart from also having the "top-level" bit in it)?

Why is it one rule for Pros/TRS and another for level 2 and below?

I agree the "top level" bit is misleading but I don't see why they require the rest of the line (review count+) deleted (the OP wasn't being misleading about the amount of reviews he had) when they allow other sellers to have it and when it can never normally go less (eg. if you say 5000+ reviews and you've actually got 5035, Fiverr is really unlikely to manually delete >35 of them to make that statement incorrect - I don't know whether it decreases the review count on the gig/profile when that happens either).

Yes the OP was asked to edit it (just once) but also there's no rule on the site like I said, so if saying x isn't allowed (eg. x+ positive reviews), and if there's no rule in the TOS/policy pages they probably wouldn't have known before that first message about it. If it was in the TOS many more people would know it is not allowed. And if it's not allowed they shouldn't be allowing TRS and Pros to do the same thing.

[miiila]

On 1/22/2022 at 10:54 AM, newsmike said:

Kinda like those women who write love letters to serial killers.  Fascinating. 

What some people read into some posts, too.

[newsmike]

On 1/22/2022 at 11:42 AM, uk1000 said:

Why is it one rule for Pros/TRS and another for level 2 and below?

I don't know, but all I can say is when Fiverr makes a rule, I damned sure follow it. Can't imaging winning in a battle with them.

On 1/22/2022 at 1:33 PM, miiila said:

What some people read into some posts, too. 

Sorry, let me explain further for you. People often make excuses for others who do the wrong thing, which I feel is silly.

[gina_riley2]

4 hours ago, uk1000 said:

Why can Pro sellers say "with [hundreds]+ positive reviews" in their gig description or "PRO Top Rated Seller with x,000+ satisfied customers"

I am guessing that since these sellers are vetted and 5r is vouching for their authenticity, it's less likely to defraud buyers.

Many sellers with 1000's of review have poor quality gigs. Because they sell cheap and probably to non native speakers, they get away with it. TBH, I have to question the legitimacy of the OP translation.

I'm glad 5r have different rules for different level of sellers. Those with high quality work have earned the right to be treated better.

 

[uk1000]

52 minutes ago, gina_riley2 said:

I'm glad 5r have different rules for different level of sellers.

But that rule isn't written on the site anywhere. And if a level 2 seller and a TRS both have 5000+ reviews on a gig surely if a TRS is allowed to say that in their gig description, the level 2 seller should have just as much right.

Fiverr themselves show the review count though. If you think it's likely to defraud sellers by saying how many reviews they have on their gig, Fiverr themselves are saying that too by showing the  review count at the top of each gig and and the bottom just before the reviews themselves (as well as the counts for 5 stars, 4 stars etc. even though those aren't accurate as they are rounded somehow eg. rating counts for 4.7 stars probably get counted towards the "5 stars" total). They also show the total review count for the seller (eg. Reviews as seller 4.9 [stars] (9,782) [review count]). So saying the number of reviews in the profile/gig description isn't saying any more than Fiverr already does, it's just drawing more attention to it.