The Tip feature needs to be rethought and completely optional.

[misscrystal]

If you charge $100 and hope to get a $30 tip, why don’t you just charge $30? I would happily pay $130. I would not be happy if I planned to pay $100, and then felt llike I was guilted into paying another $30. It’s probably b/c FIverr made it an option so they could get more money themselves.

If you charge $100 and hope to get a $30 tip, why don’t you just charge $30?

You are missing the entire point. I don’t hope to get a $30 tip. I don’t hope to get any tip.

I am simply talking about my experience with tips and the motivations behind tipping.

I’ve been here a long time, and noticed a distinct change in how people tip when they changed that wording and added the service fee to tips. It’s had the opposite effect they had hoped in my experience although others might have a different experience.

[altair0315]

The joke is on them: this is the LAST time I’m using “Fiverr”. They can stick their 20% bullshit fee. It’s called “fiverr”, not 6er or 7er…

[cferry1]

Fiverr takes 20% of our tips to ensure we don’t abuse the system. If it wasn’t in place a seller could simply charge $5 for a $100 order and receive the other $95 as a tip. So instead of Fiverr making $20 off that seller, they would only make $1.

Yes the tip wording should be revised.

I believe that providing a () Tip is appropriate on a case by case basis. Providing a Tip is Equivalent to providing a lengthy Positive Text Feedback. ( IMO ). I will provide a () Tip rather than providing a lengthy Positive Feedback ( sometimes ) , to save myself some typing.

[davidd999]

I totally agree. It would be better to ask customers if they wish to leave a tip. Telling them it is “customary” to leave a tip is not true and kind of “guilts” customers into leaving one. Besides, I do not appreciate charging the buyer a service fee for the tip when they already paid a service fee when purchasing the service.

Also, recording artists, for instance, have so much to pay for: creation of the instrumental, recording of the vocals, hiring of one or more background singer (in quite some cases), vocal engineering, mixing, mastering, creation of the record artwork + all the paid promo, photoshoots, production of music videos, tours, transportation, accommodation, etc.

Buyers should be allowed not to tip or to tip accordingly to their means without any guilt.

[dickwarner]

A $2 service fee when I offered a $5 tip???
What??? I’m not tipping YOU

[itaiyasur]

Allowing for tips is important. It’s pretty clear that Fiverr fosters a culture of underbidding to get work. Most of the gigs on Fiverr are way undercharging what the same service would go for outside of Fiverr and there’s a cost/benefit to that, you might get less per order than you usually would but hopefully you’re more than making up for that in amount of orders. So if a buyer pays less than what they would have if they were dealing with you directly they’re probably also willing to settle for a lower grade of work, if you absolutely blow them away with the quality of the delivery then of course they should be able to tip – you probably undercharged out of necessity and now they want to compensate you for that.

Now, of course tips should go entirely to the seller. Fiverr facilitates me receiving orders so it’s sensible for them to take a cut of those – it’s what pays for the site (I’d still argue that charging the buyer more than the official price while also giving the seller less than the official price is convoluted double-dipping and should be handled better.) But a seller earning a tip has nothing to do with Fiverr – it’s entirely up to our own professionalism, skill and time and just like in any other industry it’s bad form to take any part of peoples’ tips away from them.

As far as the service charge being there to prevent abuse of the tipping system – that argument simply doesn’t hold water. First, there’s nothing a seller can do to require a tip from a buyer. I’m not going to undercharge massively for my gig in the hopes that buyers will agree to tip afterwards, and even in a custom offer scenario any seller trying to pre-negotiate tips is just looking to get burned and they’re probably better off just pulling the same trick but with extras. Second, it’s easy enough to just solve the issue by capping the tips at a reasonable percentage of the overall order, or simply limiting them to predetermined options. If a buyer just had the option to tip something like 10, 20 or 30% at the end of the order, like plenty of freelance services have done for years, there wouldn’t be the option for a seller to try and get the majority of their payment through the tip.

And yeah, the wording is bad and clearly there because Fiverr wants that service charge. If Fiverr wasn’t triple-dipping with the tip service fee they’d probably be wording it better.

[lytemedia]

Theres no issue with the word tip, you can call it whatever you want, its still money given to seller by the buyer to show appreciation for his/her work. So call it bonus, add on, extra cash whatever, it dont change anything.
The real problem here is charging a service fee on tips which actually suck. But the system will be abused if it wasnt so.

[shireen_mcf]

Maybe a better wording would be something like “do you want to give your freelancer a bonus for a job well done?”

Bonuses are ok … tips are for low paid workers. And bonuses are taxable.

Tips are not for “tips are for low paid workers”.

I know every country does not have/give tips but in the UK it’s how we show appreciate to people that have done a good job.

No, tips should not be mandatory but they should not be frowned upon either.

[sal_strazzullo]

Maybe a better wording would be something like “do you want to give your freelancer a bonus for a job well done?”

Bonuses are ok … tips are for low paid workers. And bonuses are taxable.

Bonuses are ok … tips are for low paid workers. And bonuses are taxable.

Well, we Fiverr sellers who don’t get many orders are indeed low paid workers.

If I’ve done a very good job for a low price, I expect a tip and a 5-star review.

[smarkevans1]

Allowing for tips is important. It’s pretty clear that Fiverr fosters a culture of underbidding to get work. Most of the gigs on Fiverr are way undercharging what the same service would go for outside of Fiverr and there’s a cost/benefit to that, you might get less per order than you usually would but hopefully you’re more than making up for that in amount of orders. So if a buyer pays less than what they would have if they were dealing with you directly they’re probably also willing to settle for a lower grade of work, if you absolutely blow them away with the quality of the delivery then of course they should be able to tip – you probably undercharged out of necessity and now they want to compensate you for that.

Now, of course tips should go entirely to the seller. Fiverr facilitates me receiving orders so it’s sensible for them to take a cut of those – it’s what pays for the site (I’d still argue that charging the buyer more than the official price while also giving the seller less than the official price is convoluted double-dipping and should be handled better.) But a seller earning a tip has nothing to do with Fiverr – it’s entirely up to our own professionalism, skill and time and just like in any other industry it’s bad form to take any part of peoples’ tips away from them.

As far as the service charge being there to prevent abuse of the tipping system – that argument simply doesn’t hold water. First, there’s nothing a seller can do to require a tip from a buyer. I’m not going to undercharge massively for my gig in the hopes that buyers will agree to tip afterwards, and even in a custom offer scenario any seller trying to pre-negotiate tips is just looking to get burned and they’re probably better off just pulling the same trick but with extras. Second, it’s easy enough to just solve the issue by capping the tips at a reasonable percentage of the overall order, or simply limiting them to predetermined options. If a buyer just had the option to tip something like 10, 20 or 30% at the end of the order, like plenty of freelance services have done for years, there wouldn’t be the option for a seller to try and get the majority of their payment through the tip.

And yeah, the wording is bad and clearly there because Fiverr wants that service charge. If Fiverr wasn’t triple-dipping with the tip service fee they’d probably be wording it better.

Well said! Totally agree. Plus, Fiverr already made their service fee and double-dip commissions off the original transaction, so charging a full-price second service fee is just greedy and lowers the incentive for buyers to reward sellers. I get it if they need to retain ~3% of the tip to cover the credit card fees, but $2.25 of $5 is 45%!!! That’s MUCH more than “covering the costs of the website”; it’s greed!

DO BETTER, FIVERR!

[crowell_designs]

What I’m wondering is how much of my tip actually gets to the seller? If I mean to give a $5 tip, but get charged $7.28, does the seller get $5 or something less?
 

Would suck if 5r is also taking 42% of the $5 too! That would mean 60% of my funds went to to 5r. 

[theratypist]

1 minute ago, crowell_designs said:

does the seller get $5 or something less?

The seller gets $4, which is 80% of the $5. The same cut as a regular order, if the order was $5, the seller would still get $4...... 

Basically there is a fee for everything, 5.5% of the purchase amount. For purchases under $50, an additional $2 small order fee. Hence the $7.28 I guess. 

[psychicbunny]

Fiverr needs to find a way to remove that $2 fee in general. It's bad for gigs that are small like mine. Who wants to pay $10 plus another $2 for a psychic reading that's only a few sentences. That fee really messed things up..

[saint_777]

its their website, their rules

[designs_taskbar]

Service fee

[x7xhawkx7x]

I always try tip for services.  The fact that Fiverr makes the tip a completely separate transaction is BS.  I'm not paying $12.50 after fees included so that my seller gets $8.  Hopefully the sellers are adjusting their prices to not count on tips.  Very disappointed with Fiverr's methods

[yanike]

The current Tip section can come off rude to buyers. Seriously, "Show your appreciation to XX by leaving a tip"? Didn't a buyer show their appreciation by paying for the agreed amount they asked for? In my case, I required less than what the service detailed and paid more than what was originally asked. The current Tip section can make a buyer feel like buying a service is not enough.

This section needs to be optional and the message should say, "Would you like to leave XX a tip?" or Would you like to leave a tip?" with the action options below being
"20%, 40%, 50%, Custom",
"Tip Now"  "No Tip".

(I graphic designed and attached an example "fiverr_tip_suggestion.jpg")

This way the buyer doesn't feel like it's gratuity instead of tip. Especially, if the service was bad.

[enunciator]

First time seeing this (since I just sell on Fiverr and have yet to actually purchase).

The wording definitely could use more finesse but Fiverr profits off of tips as well so that may very well be the reason why they present tips in such a "forward" manner...

[beijingerbob]

 The tipping prompt.  I HATE the tipping prompt telling me tipping is customary. Maybe for Americans who are used to this 'voluntary extra tax" but not for everyone.  I'm paying someone to do a job for me and it is expected that they will do it well. I should not have to tip for that. I do not like having to write a review either if I don't want to. If you've had a difficult time with the seller why am I going to leave a tip? On the tip page it asks if you want to leave a tip? the only other choice they give you is to click Later.  Where's the NO button?

[melanielm]

This disturbs me as a seller. I get tips semi-frequently, and sometimes wonder if my buyers were 'bullied' into it from overzealous prompts to do so. I certainly don't want my buyers to feel pressured to pay me more than my price. The money is nice, of course, and I appreciate it, but I don't want them to think I'm pushing for more.

Hearing it from your perspective is an eye opener. Buyers should easily be able to bypass tipping.

[gurmanov]

100% agree. Charging service fees for a tip is roberry. 

[mirkomil713]

I'm already dissatisfied with the service fee being $5 every order no matter if its a $100 job or a $25 dollar addon on. That doesn't make sense. The cherry on top is the service fee for tipping. That's where it gets greedy for me. It really discourages tipping for me. Next time I will just arrange to etransfer them money off site. 

[vickieito]

50 minutes ago, mirkomil713 said:

Next time I will just arrange to etransfer them money off site. 

Don't do that! Taking payments off the site is against Fiverr's ToS, so you risk shutting down your sellers' Fiverr accounts if you take them off site.

If you don't agree with the fees, just don't use the site. There are other options you can use instead that don't have fees. For me, I'm fine with the fees because they seem small compared to the value I get from using this site, either as a buyer or seller.

[sandyroseus1]

I'm not agree with you. If there is no fee for tip then some illegal money entire in this platform. 

[etrnlflame2]

I'd leave the freelancers a tip if I wasn't charged a service fee for each tip. $5 tip with a $2.50 service fee? Nope. Plus, I read that they take 20% of tips anyway... why do they need a tip service fee on top??