I'm a Ukrainian artist and citizen, I'm stuck in Moscow. In 9 days Fiverr will "permanently disable" my account. Help.

[yodich]

I'm desperate. I'm a citizen of Ukraine, this is the only citizenship I've got. My wife is from Kyrgyzstan, but she attends university in Moscow and currently lives there with her father. A month ago we spent a holiday in Kyiv and right after we went to visit her father in Moscow. I was in Moscow when the war started, calling my friends and family, crying over all that has begun.
That's how I got stuck here, but eventually I decided to continue working to earn enough money so we could start a decent life once we get out, since I can't and won't be spending any money here and I've already given everything I had to my mother and the Ukrainian military.
And now I got a letter from Fiverr, saying that my account will be "permanently disabled" because of "prohibited transactions from my region". I can't believe they'll just erase all the effort and care I've put into this account, I wouldn't even be able to access it. Please help me, the Support Team haven't said anything useful and I don't know what to do and where to go.

[yodich]

And just to clarify - I haven't made any unusual transactions recently, the last thing I did more than a week ago was withdrawing money to Payoneer and from there to my Ukrainian bank card. This is what I've been doing without any problems since getting my first 5$ on Fiverr.

[mariashtelle1]

@mjensen415 probably this is something to look at. 

[yodich]

I also wanted to note that my account was registered in Ukraine and most of the work there was done either in Ukraine or Kyrgyzstan. And right before that last devastating letter, I was getting Fiverr commission compensation for Ukrainian sellers and was asked (and agreed) to join the new Ukrainian sellers shop.
I've attached screenshots of such letters just to prove that they should've known I'm from Ukraine, which makes this whole this even more confusing and depressing for me.

[joyh97]

If you can afford to and are eligible, you might want to consider signing up for Seller plus temporarily in order to get access to priority customer support. I would also make sure your location is set to Ukraine on your account still, despite temporarily being in Russia. And definitely don't give up on writing to support, they can kind of suck sometimes but I've found if you're persistent with it, usually you'll eventually end up with someone who can actually help you.

[yodich]

13 minutes ago, joyh97 said:

If you can afford to and are eligible, you might want to consider signing up for Seller plus temporarily in order to get access to priority customer support. I would also make sure your location is set to Ukraine on your account still, despite temporarily being in Russia. And definitely don't give up on writing to support, they can kind of suck sometimes but I've found if you're persistent with it, usually you'll eventually end up with someone who can actually help you.

Thank you so much, I haven't thought of joining Seller Plus to get personal help - that's a brilliant idea! I will try it out and post an update here.

As to my location - it is still and always was set to Ukraine, and that's what's showing in my profile. But in "Security" section of Account Settings the connected devices do show up as connected from Moscow.

And yes, I am still waiting for a response from the Support Team, as basically all they've said so far was that they'll "follow up with me as soon as they'll have more information". And not from me, as not only didn't they ask for anything else, I've actually provided everything I could and can always send out whatever else they might need if only they'd say so. 

[yodich]

Here's a bulky, yet somewhat disappointing update.

Bought Seller Plus - no effect. Not sure if that's what made them respond, but they've responded with a word to word copy of a previous message, just left out the "sharing sensitive information" warning this time. No information, reassurance, care or support from the Support Team.

But I did get an email address of the Seller Plus team and sent a letter to them as well. Chris replied, and this was a nice response. Still not much information, but he did state that they'll need a little bit more time to dig into this properly and they'll follow up with me in the next couple of days.

And on Twitter they said that they "weren't able to find my support request" even though a link to my Fiverr profile is literally in my bio.

Still think this shouldn't have been like it is, but I don't know what else I can do. Seeing the "support for Ukraine and Ukrainian" all over Fiverr media kills me.

[joyh97]

Thanks for the update Yodich! Please do let us know if you hear more, I'm praying this all gets resolved for you without too much difficulty. 

[yodich]

Hooray! Finally got a response - and a wonderful one! Everything seems to be alright and I won't get blocked. Thanks to everyone who cared and helped, I'm incredibly happy to have all the work I've done back and safe! 💙💛

[yodich]

My god this would've been too easy, wouldn't it? Remember Chris from the Seller Plus team? He got me a response as well - a polar opposite one. And on the same day as well. And saying they're sorry they don't have a different answer for me. This just seems like a cruel joke at this point.

[mjaninea]

Hi, I'm sorry for what happened. You should try contact Maria and Chris again and inform them about the two different answers you got. Or you can also try to get in touch with mjensen415 who recently created a thread in support of Ukraine's sellers/buyers. I will share the link of this thread there, hoping it will help!

 

[gongor32]

I don't think customer support and seller plus team communicate instantly. I would try to show Maria's screenshot to Christ for further clarification.

[adsensewizard]

This is so sad to hear. You or any other seller who is not involved in decisions involved in declaring wars should not be affected by it. On the contrary, Russian citizens should be encouraged to join Fiverr, as their life is probably nightmarish with all the sanctions affecting them. Have at least something fun to do and earn some money as well. All Russians I know personally are all against the war, yet are suffering the sanctions.

It's also quite odd, as it says permanently, yet their intentions are to revoke the ban after everyone starts lifting sanctions.

I wish you good luck! There was some petition going on also on the forum to allow Russians to continue working on Fiverr.

[yodich]

1 hour ago, mjaninea said:

Hi, I'm sorry for what happened. You should try contact Maria and Chris again and inform them about the two different answers you got. Or you can also try to get in touch with mjensen415 who recently created a thread in support of Ukraine's sellers/buyers. I will share the link of this thread there, hoping it will help!

 

Thank you, this is exactly what I did and currently am waiting for a response from Chris. I don't want to open back the Support Ticket with Maria just yet. As @gongor32 said, she probably has nothing to do with what Chris said and I'm a little bit hopeful, but he might have just made a mistake of some sorts, right? 
Also, yes - I've got in contact @mjensen415 upon their first mention here. All they've said is to reach out to the Support Team, but just in case - I'll be sending them another message with updated info as well as a link to this thread.

[gongor32]

5 minutes ago, yodich said:

Thank you, this is exactly what I did and currently am waiting for a response from Chris. I don't want to open back the Support Ticket with Maria just yet. As @gongor32 said, she probably has nothing to do with what Chris said and I'm a little bit hopeful, but he might have just made a mistake of some sorts, right? 

Hopefully mistake. Customer support should be the one who is deciding flags like this. 

[yodich]

Well, I guess that's it - I'm losing my account.

I got a letter from Chris, shortly after another response came in on the same support ticket where they previously said that I wouldn't get blocked, but I guess we can now all be certain they will "disable" my account on March 21st.

My dearest thanks to all who cared, supported and helped me on this unfortunate journey. Farewell everyone and Glory to Ukraine. Stay safe, stay strong.

💙💛

[yodich]

And, well, I wanted to make sure - permanent disablement means pretty much what it sounds like. Sadly.

[gongor32]

Aww man. At least hope it will be solvable after changing location. 😌

[mjaninea]

This is so so so sad! But, is this happening also for other sellers from Russia? I cannot even imagine how hard this could be for them..

[cc_animation]

I don't understand why Fiverr is so rigid in this specific situation, even after you've shown proof you're not actually from Moscow. I think permanently disabling your account for something out of your control is ridiculous.

[mikavirtanen]

WTF they are doing? Are they going to PERMANENTLY ban everyone who was ever spotted in Russia?

I wonder what is the legal basis for banning freelancers for visiting Russia. This thing about bans becomes really savage.

[Guest nahidnazrul_]

may be its is regional problem .

[amelia_cole]

You will be fine bro, the war won't take long and everything will be resolved. I pray for peace upon you, your family, and the people of Ukraine.

[donnovan86]

On 3/16/2022 at 2:59 PM, cc_animation said:

I don't understand why Fiverr is so rigid in this specific situation, even after you've shown proof you're not actually from Moscow. I think permanently disabling your account for something out of your control is ridiculous.

These permanently disabled accounts can be brought back to life once the war is over.

Also, people from Russia whose accounts were disabled can try to change their region via a VPN. So I can see why Fiverr CS representatives stick to the guidelines. It sucks for some people, but it is what it is..

[ashiq646459]

I think Fiverr doesn't know what they say, they said that they are stay with Ukrainian but they disable your account. they are truly mad. I suggest you just withdraw your $ and left this fucking sight.