My 'Delivered on time' reduced due to client mistake.

[harshj2005]

I got a order where I started the work and showed the draft to client to which he approved but he asked me that he need to confirm about the final text so I waited for him to respond but he didn't respond in a day so I missed the delivery time and my delivered on time got declined to 90%, I even contacted support but they said that they can't help in this, how do you deal with situations like these?

[nikandco]

2 hours ago, harshj2005 said:

how do you deal with situations like these?

I have occasionally had a client ask for more time to get me info I need to complete the project. In this case, I visit the resolution center and extend the due date to allow client the extra time they need. I recommend doing this in the future so it keeps your numbers protected. 

With regard to delivery on time percentage, all you can do to bring that back up is to deliver future orders on time.

[cs_evans]

You didn't go late because of a client mistake; you went late because you didn't manage the job properly.  You can request more time, you can be diligent about making sure the requirements are correct in the beginning, you can give the client a quote for the updated work with more time, i.e., there are options.  

[johanessurya]

This is my suggestion for you, it better to keep delivery with dummy thing rather than waiting for client response. It always has "revision time" for you and your client. 

[rachelbostwick]

10 hours ago, johanessurya said:

This is my suggestion for you, it better to keep delivery with dummy thing rather than waiting for client response. It always has "revision time" for you and your client. 

No. Really, really bad advice. If you deliver a dummy order you will get a warning on your account and you will be in danger of losing your account in the future. Do not do that under any circumstance. Instead ask the customer to extend the delivery time. If they don't accept, contact customer service way before the delivery is due. You have to take charge of the order and not let the customer drag you around. 

[cs_evans]

12 hours ago, johanessurya said:

This is my suggestion for you, it better to keep delivery with dummy thing rather than waiting for client response. It always has "revision time" for you and your client. 

Wait.  Did you just say turn in an incomplete or false delivery in order to game the system and get more time?  If so, it is comments like that which show how low the ethics are for some "sellers".  I put sellers in quotes because that is being extremely gracious for what these people actually bring to the platform. No wonder the ethical people on the platform have to work 10x as hard when they are competing with this level of..... I don't even know what to call it. 

 

[harshj2005]

Thankyou for the suggestions, I did forget to extend the delivey in resolution center, Another question what if the client is not able to accept the extended delivery request in thime? Will it still affect my on time delivery percentage?

[harshj2005]

On 1/24/2022 at 12:53 AM, cs_evans said:

You didn't go late because of a client mistake; you went late because you didn't manage the job properly.  You can request more time, you can be diligent about making sure the requirements are correct in the beginning, you can give the client a quote for the updated work with more time, i.e., there are options.  

How do you make sure the requirements are fully understood, If a client says that they need XYZ but when you show them XYZ they ask you to wait so that they can just confirm it.

[mariashtelle1]

1 hour ago, harshj2005 said:

If a client says that they need XYZ but when you show them XYZ they ask you to wait

Because if they client asked for XYZ you have to deliver it with a deliver button and not through messages. From there client can request a revision to wait and that wouldn’t affect your time or they will have 3 days before order will autocomplete itself 

[harshj2005]

1 hour ago, mariashtelle1 said:

Because if they client asked for XYZ you have to deliver it with a deliver button and not through messages. From there client can request a revision to wait and that wouldn’t affect your time or they will have 3 days before order will autocomplete itself 

Yes but the client was a old client so I showed them the initial draft before delivering, I understand I should've maybe been more professional

 

[leannelrivers]

The overt willingness displayed by some sellers to cheat and game the system never ceases to amaze me. And then encouraging others to do it as well...

[johanessurya]

12 hours ago, cs_evans said:

Wait.  Did you just say turn in an incomplete or false delivery in order to game the system and get more time?  If so, it is comments like that which show how low the ethics are for some "sellers".  I put sellers in quotes because that is being extremely gracious for what these people actually bring to the platform. No wonder the ethical people on the platform have to work 10x as hard when they are competing with this level of..... I don't even know what to call it. 

 

Don't get me wrong. I'll try to reach my buyer as possible as I could. Situation got different if she/he didn't response 2 -3 days even a week. 

No, I'm not try to "game" the system. I'll do that IF ONLY IF my buyers didn't response me for 2 - 3 days, which for example almost reach my delivery time.

Remember, all requirement has already filled out before order is started. So, as a seller, I'll use that as references. 🙂

[timothykoen]

I added a day to all my delivery times. What once took me 1 day to complete is now 2 days. What was a 3 day delivery is now 4 days. I do this because everybody takes a day or 2 off. I call these weekends, holidays and emergencies. I wish I could have revolving delivery times to account for weekends, holidays and emergencies. But that is not possible. Instead we can use the resolution center or add time up front. 

[cs_evans]

2 hours ago, johanessurya said:

No, I'm not try to "game" the system. I'll do that IF ONLY IF my buyers didn't response me for 2 - 3 days, which for example almost reach my delivery time.

You are just digging a deeper hole.  This statement essentially says that you will turn in something you know not to be complete under certain circumstances.  

Step 1. Get all the requirements you need before starting an order. 

1a. if the customer submits an order without all the requirements and your clock is ticking, immediately work it out with the buyer to get the exact requirements. 

1b. If 1a is not possible immediately, reach out to CS. 

Step 2.  Deliver the agreed upon work by the deadline. 

2a. if the customer asks for additional work, give them a quote for it, with a deadline you can meet, or request an extension for the project.  If the customer doesn't accept the additional quote/extension, then deliver the original requirements which were agreed upon.  

I just can't understand how one would ever turn in anything that wasn't complete.

[donnovan86]

54 minutes ago, cs_evans said:

I just can't understand how one would ever turn in anything that wasn't complete.

You would be amazed what people do here for quick money. In the case of writers, I had a lot of people coming to me because most people they worked with used AI tools to generate text on the topic, and they sold it. So yeah.. people are very creative when it comes to quick money. I am not amazed to see people turning in stuff that's incomplete just to make a quick buck. 

[words_to_wow]

1 hour ago, donnovan86 said:

a lot of people coming to me because most people they worked with used AI tools to generate text on the topic,

What in the heezy? I've never heard of people using AI tools for written content. That is awful. Maybe what's just as awful is that I am so behind in technology. That takes so much creativity and personality from the art of writing. Terrible...

[donnovan86]

8 minutes ago, words_to_wow said:

What in the heezy? I've never heard of people using AI tools for written content. That is awful. Maybe what's just as awful is that I am so behind in technology. That takes so much creativity and personality from the art of writing. Terrible...

Yep. There are many AI tools out there, but they obviously create crappy content. However, that's what many people do, either that or they use a spinner tool. I've been around for quite some time in this field myself so... I know about these tools. I wouldn't use them, but that doesn't stop others from using them 🙂
 

[sesoru]

On 1/23/2022 at 11:23 AM, cs_evans said:

You didn't go late because of a client mistake; you went late because you didn't manage the job properly.  You can request more time, you can be diligent about making sure the requirements are correct in the beginning, you can give the client a quote for the updated work with more time, i.e., there are options.  

 

10 hours ago, cs_evans said:

You are just digging a deeper hole.  This statement essentially says that you will turn in something you know not to be complete under certain circumstances.  

Step 1. Get all the requirements you need before starting an order. 

1a. if the customer submits an order without all the requirements and your clock is ticking, immediately work it out with the buyer to get the exact requirements. 

1b. If 1a is not possible immediately, reach out to CS. 

Step 2.  Deliver the agreed upon work by the deadline. 

2a. if the customer asks for additional work, give them a quote for it, with a deadline you can meet, or request an extension for the project.  If the customer doesn't accept the additional quote/extension, then deliver the original requirements which were agreed upon.  

I just can't understand how one would ever turn in anything that wasn't complete.

I have some questions about this actually. 

 

I've never had to work with deadlines before since I've never gone through Fiverr until now, but I definitely had cases where a client would give me any pertinent information they had at the time and then thereafter, I'd get the work done and then turn it in and they'd then ask me to wait for whatever reason to finally say yes or no to the art being to their liking, and this definitely would sometimes take several days.

 

So I guess what I want to ask is if Fiverr has ANY protections at all against buyers who may do something similar? Let's say you have a client that wants 1 revision and your listing states very clearly you will do that 1 revision, but they then do not get back to you with what that revision should be for several days and your attempts to contact them result in no word back. Someone else mentioned here that you can extend your time period or delivery date or whatever if you work it out with the client before hand how much time they will need, but what happens in the cases where a client simply does not reply back or give you that information? I currently have my gigs set to 1 day delivery because I am new and trying to generate prospective buyers, but reading stuff like this does make me a bit hesitant to do that. 

 

Furthermore, will CS always get back to me on this issue if I do your 1b solution? I'm so used to customer service taking literally weeks to ever get back to me with anything (not from Fiverr, I have as of yet needed CS from fiverr, but this is just a general experience of mine from various platforms and even ones like patreon or other services that help you gain revenue will often take time to reply x.x)

Something else I thought of as well is let's say you do get the deadline extension but your client still doesn't give you any information, and so you deliver the art as-is by the deadline. Are they able to mark you down later for bad completion? Someone mentioned a 3 day sort of grace period after delivery of the artwork that the client must get back to you in, but what if the client is just unable to get back to you for whatever reason? (Heck, we could assume maybe that the client fully intended to get back to you with whatever was needed, but then they maybe got sick or something and suddenly became unable to contact whatsoever due to this unforeseen thing? Just an example)

Sorry if these are noob questions btw. I am very new here and just trying to get a feel for things so I know how to handle things in the future, so if you read this and reply, I appreciate any information. Thanks!

[cs_evans]

10 hours ago, sesoru said:

I've never had to work with deadlines before since I've never gone through Fiverr until now

Welcome to the freelance, and corporate world, where you will live and die by deadlines.  

10 hours ago, sesoru said:

but they then do not get back to you with what that revision should be for several days and your attempts to contact them result in no word back.

Rapid and clear communication with customers is essential for success on this platform.  However, in this case if the buyer requested a revision but didn't supply requirements, depending on how the rest of the order was going I would either contact CS or my success manager for guidance, or resubmit the work against the original requirements since there were no new ones. 

 

10 hours ago, sesoru said:

will CS always get back to me on this issue

They are very responsive, but do not sit on your hands and wait for an answer if the clock is running out.  You are a small business owner now and it is your responsibility to manage your customers. 

 

10 hours ago, sesoru said:

Are they able to mark you down later for bad completion?

Once an order is either accepted by the customer, or auto-completed due to time, the customer is free to give you any rating, or none, they choose to. 

 

10 hours ago, sesoru said:

Someone mentioned a 3 day sort of grace period after delivery of the artwork that the client must get back to you in,

I don't know the context of the grace period you are referring to, but I'm assuming it was about the 3-day auto-complete.  For example, if your project was due on the 10th, and you turned it in on time, even if the customer takes no action the order will be marked as complete automatically by Fiverr 3 days later on the 13th. 

[sesoru]

13 hours ago, cs_evans said:

Welcome to the freelance, and corporate world, where you will live and die by deadlines.  

Rapid and clear communication with customers is essential for success on this platform.  However, in this case if the buyer requested a revision but didn't supply requirements, depending on how the rest of the order was going I would either contact CS or my success manager for guidance, or resubmit the work against the original requirements since there were no new ones. 

 

They are very responsive, but do not sit on your hands and wait for an answer if the clock is running out.  You are a small business owner now and it is your responsibility to manage your customers. 

 

Once an order is either accepted by the customer, or auto-completed due to time, the customer is free to give you any rating, or none, they choose to. 

 

I don't know the context of the grace period you are referring to, but I'm assuming it was about the 3-day auto-complete.  For example, if your project was due on the 10th, and you turned it in on time, even if the customer takes no action the order will be marked as complete automatically by Fiverr 3 days later on the 13th. 

I sadly don't know yet how to break up a quote the way you did, but that's definitely a cool feature. Ahem, anyway~

 

I will hopefully not be one to die by them as long as I manage my stuff, but it definitely does make me a little nervous as in the past my clients have generally been pretty lax with when they needed things done (usually giving time frames of 1 week all the way up to 'man just give it to me when it's done idc!'). Thankfully the stuff I've asked about here is definitely not a norm, and I really hope it won't be here either and that the cases are nonexistent or close to.

 

I don't know what the success manager for guidance is (Is this a feature this place has for others? If so, is it paid, or is it earned, or is it free for everyone interested?) but I definitely would be contacting CS. I also agree that I wouldn't want to rely on them 100% especially if they may not be able to get back to you as fast as needed. It's always good to be able to have your own judgement on these things for sure as an independent artist. 

 

By marked down or whatever, I didn't necessarily mean the client. Though that does bring to question then... Have there been cases where a client gave a very obviously unfair review? (Example could be the artist clearly delivered precisely what was asked for, but the client claims they hate it and will not resolve it peacefully and then they mark you as negatively as possible. I've thankfully never encountered this with my art, but as a customer service rep for most my life I can say this happens a LOT sadly because you are being held subject to the client's whims and mood at the time lol) And if so, what can be done, if anything, about them? I'm just gathering information here to arm myself if rare things happen as imo it's better to ask now so I know what the protocols are etc.

 

Thanks for clarification on the 3 day thing. That is precisely what I meant when I mentioned it.