24 hrs until delivery and no contact from the buyer, also unable to deliver

[vickieito]

I've been stress eating this afternoon. Voraciously munching on handfuls of almonds and walnuts while I'm waiting to see how this one plays out. Luckily I have a lot of orders to work on to keep me busy.

The cover letter and CV are finished. I'm just waiting for the buyer's approval to move forward as well as his LinkedIn information to optimize his profile. This order has been opened since the first week in May, and the delivery date has already been extended three times so far because the buyer wanted time to review everything before moving forward. The trouble is, he's busy. He is traveling right now (until May 31st) and I haven't heard from him since May 16th. It's not really a surprise because there isn't good reception where he's at right now. I have been reaching out to him several times through the chats, but not too much since I know he probably won't see the messages until he is finished traveling.

For the first three requests to extend the delivery date, the buyer approved it on the due date. So there is a possibility that the buyer will magically appear tomorrow and do the same for this fourth request. But there's always the possibility that it won't happen. And he might not make it within the 2 day window of time.

So it's just a waiting game right now!

Edited May 30, 2022 by vickieito

[williambryan392]

I'm not 100% on this, but I'm pretty certain that if you have an open delivery extension, and the order hits it's deadline, then it's not considered a late delivery, because you have attempted to extend.

Good luck!

[miiila]

I do think that applies if the customer eventually will accept the time extension request, so, if you're sure that they will, it will probably turn out well.

However... according to the Help Center:

Quote

Extend the delivery time
Select the number of days you would like to add to your delivery time and explain why it is required. This request will stay active for four days. If the other party fails to respond, the request will be withdrawn, and the order will return to its previous status, with no changes made to the delivery date.

So, if they need longer than those 4 days, this seems to say that they can't accept the request any more because it will be withdrawn, and the Gig would count as late? Which wouldn't really make sense in cases like yours, when a buyer would accept but literally can't, due to circumstances, so I still hope that what Will and I said above, will somehow apply.

In the improbable but possible case that they literally won't "ever" come back, I'd think support would be able to cancel the whole thing for you without effecting your ratings, but that would also mean a refund, which wouldn't be fair, obviously, if you already did at least part of the work, so I'm not sure what would happen then, whether Fiverr might refund the buyer's account but credit you some amount. Hopefully such things don't happen often, but it's a theoretically interesting question.

I've had kind of the "reverse case" once, a seller never delivered nor reacted to messages, and after waiting quite some time, I eventually cancelled one-sidedly, as offered by Fiverr - but I'm happy to say they did what they could, sent me notifications, making me aware that the order was overdue, then very overdue, but suggesting messaging the seller... :)) and so, the seller would have had quite a bit of additional time to do their job or respond before it came to the cancellation - provided they were, literally, able to. In retrospect, I thought that the most probable explanation was that they'd just abandoned their account, at least I hope it wasn't anything more serious than that.

Edited May 30, 2022 by miiila

[donnovan86]

4 hours ago, williambryan392 said:

but I'm pretty certain that if you have an open delivery extension, and the order hits it's deadline, then it's not considered a late delivery, because you have attempted to extend.

Nope, unfortunately that's not the case. I had this issue myself and I can tell you for a fact that the order is marked as late either right away or within the hour.

[williambryan392]

15 minutes ago, miiila said:

if they need longer than those 4 days

I would reach out to CS the day before this hits and request it be cancelled so as to not get hit with the stat issue.

 

[williambryan392]

2 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

Nope, unfortunately that's not the case. I had this issue myself and I can tell you for a fact that the order is marked as late either right away or within the hour.

Ah ok! Thanks for clarifying.

[miiila]

5 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

I had this issue myself and I can tell you for a fact that the order is marked as late either right away or within the hour.

You mean marked as late with all consequences, a drop of your delivered on time rating, not marked as late like when an order is in revision and is marked as late but doesn't really count as being late? Just confirming, as I haven't had this happen myself, but thought I've read on the forum several times that it was okay, once the buyer had accepted the request. That's too bad if not, of course, in cases like Vickie's.

[donnovan86]

25 minutes ago, miiila said:

You mean marked as late with all consequences, a drop of your delivered on time rating,

Yes, if it's late, it's late. It doesn't matter if you attempted to extend. If it passes the deadline, then the order is late. That request to extend is still there, and the buyer can accept it, but if the order passes its normal deadline, you will receive the late penalty. 

I am not sure what the other people said, but I can tell you 100% if the order is late, Fiverr will mark it as late and penalize you. If the buyer doesn't accept the extension, then it doesn't matter. Otherwise everyone would just ask for extensions left and right... Obviously the buyer has to agree.

I had my last late delivery 3 months ago and that was due to me having to go to an emergency doctor appointment, I was 5 minutes late and I tried to extend, the buyer didn't accept the extension and I ended up with the order being late. 

One thing here.. Fiverr doesn't seem to show if you have the late penalty or not, the way you know is by checking your email. If they sent an email that the order is late, then you know for sure you were penalized. Their new interface doesn't really show that, which makes things a bit confusing. Anyway, I can tell you for sure that if the buyer doesn't accept the extension, then you will receive a penalty. That's why if I do need to extend, I try to extend a day or two in advance.

[vickieito]

16 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

Yes, if it's late, it's late. It doesn't matter if you attempted to extend. If it passes the deadline, then the order is late. That request to extend is still there, and the buyer can accept it, but if the order passes its normal deadline, you will receive the late penalty. 

I am not sure what the other people said, but I can tell you 100% if the order is late, Fiverr will mark it as late and penalize you. If the buyer doesn't accept the extension, then it doesn't matter.

@donnovan86, you are absolutely right! Fiverr CS pretty much told me the same thing: If the buyer does not accept the request to extend the delivery date, the order will be marked late and it will result in a late penalty. Fiverr CS cannot undo that.

22 hours ago, vickieito said:

 

 

@miiila, I thought the buyer would have 4 days to respond, but now the buyer only has 2 days to respond ...is this part of the new features rolling out?

17 hours ago, williambryan392 said:

I would reach out to CS the day before this hits and request it be cancelled so as to not get hit with the stat issue.

This was really the only option. I was also worried because I had already given the buyer the CV and cover letter (and was just waiting to do the LInkedIn optimization). Here's what Fiverr CS said:

"The option to cancel the order is always open seeing as the Buyer is unresponsive, and if you'd like to go with this option, I'll make sure it's not affecting your Completion Rate. You're welcome to let the Buyer know that they can place the order again when they are ready...As for your work, once an order is cancelled the Buyer is not able to use the work that you have done as per our guidelines. In the case that they are using your work, I would recommend letting them know that they do not have your permission and if they do not cooperate please reach out to us and we'll help you further in this regard."

Since I still have not heard from the buyer, I opted to cancel the order. My order cancelation rate went down by a percentage (only because the number of orders in the last 60 days was decreased), but this cancelation did not count against me.

The only downside is I've performed work that I didn't get paid for, the buyer has the files (and I don't have any way of proving if he is using the files or not). There really isn't any motivation on his part to reach out to me to place another order. And if he does reach out to me, he is very busy and could take another two weeks or more to get back to me.

Well, lesson learned!

I'm thinking about turning my combo package into a 3-part milestones order to prevent something like this from happening again...

 

[donnovan86]

15 minutes ago, vickieito said:

I thought the buyer would have 4 days to respond, but now the buyer only has 2 days to respond ...is this part of the new features rolling out?

Yes, ever since they added the extension button right under the delivery button, buyers have only 2 days to reply, if not.. the deadline stays the same. 

[catwriter]

25 minutes ago, vickieito said:

I'm thinking about turning my combo package into a 3-part milestones order to prevent something like this from happening again...

 

There were complaints about milestone orders not working as intended, and I don't know if Fiverr fixed this.

Maybe not offer a 3-in-1 combo package as something that the buyer can order directly? Maybe offer it as separate services, and allow combos for custom offers only (if buyers ask for it), and warn the buyer before sending the custom offer that you're bound by the rules to send them everything at once?

Just an idea, I'm not sure whether it would work for you or if it would reduce your sales.

[vickieito]

Thanks @catwriter! Right now:

80% of my clients are ordering the combo package (CV or Resume + Cover Letter + LinkedIn Optimization) [Premium]

8% are ordering CV or Resume + Cover Letter [Standard]

5% are ordering a CV or Resume [Basic]

5% are ordering a package with an add-on (career consultation, background research on company, bio rewrite, additional cover letters, additional CVs or Resumes)

2% have custom orders (cover letter only)

... so it makes sense to have the combo package as my premium package.

I really don't like milestones orders, they are a headache to deal with.

So maybe I'll do as you suggest and just deliver everything at once and go through the normal revision process (since it can stay in revision as long as the buyer needs it). That way there is already an on-time delivery of all three deliverables and it's just revising at that point. Thanks for the suggestions!

[williambryan392]

For what it's worth, sometimes sh1t happens, you can't cater or plan for everything. 

If this is a one off / rarity then you don't necessarily need to take action because of it.

[miiila]

18 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

If the buyer doesn't accept the extension, then it doesn't matter. Otherwise everyone would just ask for extensions left and right.

Ah yes, sure, if the buyer does not accept the extension. I was just talking about cases when they do. 

Thanks for the detailed info.

 

Regarding the time, it says 4 days in some place, 2 in another, so they probably only updated partly, when they made changes. 

 

I've used milestones but found it confusing, and think the buyer too, so I stopped. If you try it out for your combo package, also, for your planning, keep in mind that the 3 days review time are 8 days for milestones (unless they changed that too). But I'd definitely rather do it like you wrote/Catwriter suggested than via milestones.

Edited May 31, 2022 by miiila

[vickieito]

On 5/31/2022 at 3:14 PM, vickieito said:

The only downside is I've performed work that I didn't get paid for, the buyer has the files (and I don't have any way of proving if he is using the files or not). There really isn't any motivation on his part to reach out to me to place another order. And if he does reach out to me, he is very busy and could take another two weeks or more to get back to me.

Here's an update! I still haven't heard from the buyer, but my Success Manager thought Fiverr CS didn't deal with this properly so she took it upon herself to have Fiverr CS credit me the amount of the order. The money showed up in my account yesterday. I'm super happy! It's nice having a Success Manager fighting for you. 😊

@smashradio, you might want to see if your Success Manager can do the same for you on your orders! I couldn't find your post ... but I know you were dealing with the same thing (not getting paid for your work).