Buyer selling my service?

[agustinbulzomi]

Hi everyone,

I've done 4 jobs for a buyer. He always comes with translation tasks for different people, absolutely unrelated: a person's resume, a machine's manual, another's ID, a certificate of someone else... He sends me their requests, admitting that they're not made by himself: "Hey, this person said that he wants this bla bla bla", and I get the feeling that he's selling. An additional argument: he always bargains the price because "it's not in my budget"; actually, he came to me 6 times, but we've only worked together 4 because 2 of them had a fee too high "for his budget". He calls this requests "projects" and sometimes he talks to me about them before they are confirmed: "I might have a project for you... give me a minute", and then he sends me the request that someone has. I have strong arguments to think that he sells a service for price X, then asks me to do it for less than X and gets the profit without doing anything.

Did anyone come across something like this? How can I investigate the situation?

[agustinbulzomi]

I've searched within the ToS and it's not only gray, it's actually not permitted: "Sellers warrant that any content included in their Gigs shall be original work conceived by the Sellers" (https://www.fiverr.com/terms_of_service under section "Gigs"). I've also read that the work is individual, and can't be done by more than one person.

I sensed that it was not so simple as "They pay, it's ok"... rules exist for a reason. With all due respect, the answers given here help to promote misinformation and the breaking of ToS. The same goes for the people who have been liking the comments. Some of them really surprised me... for example, Grand Master @mariashtelle1, with 7.7k posts in the community, has reacted with a mocking face on my comment and voted positively on the rest. It amazes me how she has managed to reach such a high reputation in this forum while mocking a serious question about ToS and not knowing an important rule that can be found in them.

I still appreciate the time you both took to answer my question and I value your input. Thank you for your patience and kindness. Have a wonderful day!
 

[catwriter]

Is that buyer also a seller on Fiverr, offering translations? You've mentioned that he's got the Fiverr Select badge, but that badge is for buyers, not sellers.

[Guest lloydsolutions]

Ownership

Ownership and limitations: When purchasing a Gig on Fiverr, unless clearly stated otherwise on the Seller's Gig page/description, when the work is delivered, and subject to payment, the Buyer is granted all intellectual property rights, including but not limited to, copyright in the work delivered from the Seller, and the Seller waives any and all moral rights therein. 

The above is from the Terms of Service at the bottom of the Fiverr main page.

Here is a topic where this is discussed: 

 

[agustinbulzomi]

Thank you for your answer @lloydsolutions. I've read about the buyer's intellectual property rights, my question is not on the buyer's side, but rather on the seller's side since -I believe- he's selling something that doesn't comply with the rule "Sellers warrant that any content included in their Gigs shall be original work conceived by the Seller".

[catwriter]

5 minutes ago, agustinbulzomi said:

"Sellers warrant that any content included in their Gigs shall be original work conceived by the Seller".

Wouldn't that matter only if your buyer sold your translation through Fiverr?

[olyasr]

And about this confusion emoji - it's not about mocking, it's exactly about confusion, about not understanding what you mean or what you want. Here at this forum we always try to help to each other, and confusion is just a part of communication - this emoji wasn't' created to offend anyone. Well, at least that's my vision

[agustinbulzomi]

Thank you @imagination7413, I'll keep on accepting some low paying jobs for a while until I get more reviews, but I'll definitely start saying no more often. I've already rejected 2 jobs from this person and I'm about to reject another one.

@catwriter indeed, or any other freelance platform (because I guess most of them will have this same rule).

[uk1000]

You could ask customer support at https://www.fiverr.com/support_tickets/new if you want an official answer on whether outsourcing is allowed. They should really mention it in the TOS.

I think a grey area that people mention is with revisions. eg. whether they're allowed to show the work in some form to their buyer (before they've completed the order with you) and then ask for a revision from you if their buyer wants a revision.

[mariashtelle1]

4 hours ago, agustinbulzomi said:

has reacted with a mocking face

Last I checked “confused” is not a synonym to “mocking face”. 😉 

 

[luisangel254]

You have every right to accept or reject any order. If you accept an order then why do you complain?

[agustinbulzomi]

@uk1000 thank you for your answer!

[agustinbulzomi]

1 hour ago, luisangel254 said:

You have every right to accept or reject any order. If you accept an order then why do you complain?

Please, read the post. That is definitely not the point of the question. Besides, that's far from being a constructive solution for someone who's asking about a ToS rule being broken.

@mariashtelle1 You're going to tell me that the emoji was not ironic, that you were really confused? And you continue to react with that emoji... at least be honest enough to recognize you were just trying to have some fun. Such a shame that passive-aggressive people like you participate in forums like this. Someone comes to ask a serious question and you just bother them, with no constructive input whatsoever. I'll just leave the conversation here.

[catwriter]

8 hours ago, agustinbulzomi said:

@catwriter indeed, or any other freelance platform (because I guess most of them will have this same rule).

If he's not selling on Fiverr, you have no way of knowing if he's breaking the rules of any platform or not. He might have an agency or something.

Outsourcing is fairly common on Fiverr. Normally it's done for a part of the work (for example, an article writer gets hired to write an article, and then hires someone to proofread the article they wrote; or, a video maker outsources the voice over and script writing), but some people outsource everything. You can ask Customer Support whether it's allowed or not if you wish to be certain.

[mariashtelle1]

7 hours ago, agustinbulzomi said:

Someone comes to ask a serious question and you just bother them, with no constructive input whatsoever.

Unfortunately forum was created with an ability to leave an emoji and you will have to accept that, anyone can react with emoji on your topic the same as anyone can reply to you here and putting emojis on posts is not forbidden just because you don’t like it. 
 

But you already created 3 relies because of my emoji so it looks like you are insisting on hearing my opinion. So here you go:

1. 

On 2/22/2022 at 4:56 AM, agustinbulzomi said:

The problem is he's not actually paying my normal fee... he's always asking for a reduction, and I give in because I need the reviews

The problem is that you are accepting a lower rate for whatever reasons and excuses you have. Even without reputation and reviews you can charge whatever you want and that’s the beauty of fiverr. 
 

2. 

14 hours ago, agustinbulzomi said:

I've searched within the ToS and it's not only gray, it's actually not permitted: "Sellers warrant that any content included in their Gigs shall be original work conceived by the Sellers" (https://www.fiverr.com/terms_of_service under section "Gigs"). I've also read that the work is individual, and can't be done by more than one person.

The work can be original even if it’s outsourced. As long as it’s created by the seller (original or outsourced) and it is not copied from the internet and doesn’t break anyones intellectual property. As for the “done for more than one person” is correct but only for buyers. If your client will be reselling your one piece of work for two clients then he is in breach of TOS. If he is reselling your original work the work still stays original and meant to use only by his buyer. 
 

But again as others advised you: you can always report any violations to fiverr CS and they will decide if it’s violation or not. 
 

[olyasr]

@agustinbulzomi I don't really understand your emotions and your actions - you try to understand if it's a violation of ToS or not, at the same time you say that you will keep working with this buyer, even if you are not ok with low budget. Then why you started all this conversation?

It sounds like "While I need good reviews, I'm ok with that, It's not violation of ToS. When I will get enough good reviews, I will report him".

I in no way want to offend you in any way, but I am really curious, what is your goal? What exactly are you trying to achieve? Again, I text it without any aggression or anything like that, I really try to understand what you mean and what is your goal