Order cancellation after No/Late delivery and after evaluation time

[ernesto_beta]

Hi everyone.

I received an order on the verge of a weekend trip, so I told the buyer that I couldn't deliver on time and asked him what was his deadline. He didn't answer. Then I asked for a delivery time extension. He didn't answer to it so it was automatically rejected. The time was completed and my order appeared as LATE. Then I asked to cancel the order because of all of the above. Then came evaluation time and my delivery time average is already lowered. Afer that, he cancelled the order and he messaged me apologizing for not responding my messages and request. I told him that because of my apparently lowered rating, it would cost him a little extra if he ordered again, and I asked him when did he need this job done. I considered leaving him a low rating because of this, but two days later (one hour ago) he has messaged me again apologizing for the delay, he told me we have time for this and asked me if he shall re-send the order again.

 

My questions are:

1. Has this already affected me negatively?

2. If so, is it ok to send him a custom order for a higher price than the original order, honoring my promise of an extra cost? I don't think it's fair to simply forget it and tell him to re-order.

3. Obviously I don't want to lose this job and this buyer (this is a new buyer), so I've discarded the idea of a leaving a low rating on him. What do you think?

Thank you!

[sabinespoems]

13 minutes ago, ernesto_beta said:

1. Has this already affected me negatively?

The answer is yes, because you've delivered an order too late as well as a cancellation which affects your completion rate. 

14 minutes ago, ernesto_beta said:

I told him that because of my apparently lowered rating, it would cost him a little extra if he ordered again

I don't understand why you'd charge your buyer extra for a mistake you made...

15 minutes ago, ernesto_beta said:

I received an order on the verge of a weekend trip

Because as a freelancer, you need to calculate your own time incorporating when you can and cannot deliver. If you didn't adjust your delivery days or went Out Of Office, how could your buyer know you couldn't deliver? Of course you could attempt extending the delivery time (as you did), but the fact that the buyer didn't respond is inconvenient but not primarily their fault. So you even considering leaving them a low rating because of your own mismanagement of time just feels very wrong to me. 

17 minutes ago, ernesto_beta said:

2. If so, is it ok to send him a custom order for a higher price than the original order, honoring my promise of an extra cost?

You definitely could do it, but to me it just feels morally wrong. But that's your own decision and something you have to work out with your buyer.  

[melanielm]

About two years ago, I had to have emergency surgery. I had ten or so orders in queue. I requested cancellation on them all, and then requested more time on those who didn't honor my cancellation. Two people didn't agree, so I had to get those orders done while lounging in a hospital bed.

This isn't at all a "look how dedicated to Fiverr I am!" post. Not at all. My point is that yes, this has negatively affected your account. There is unfortunately no system in place for actually taking days off for whatever reason or handling emergent situations.

I absolutely agree with Sabinepoems about the idea of charging extra because you made a mistake. There is no call for that at all. The buyer ordered from you per Fiverr's TOS and should expect delivery on time. In fact, a discount as an apology makes more sense to me if you want to do anything.

[sabinespoems]

25 minutes ago, ernesto_beta said:

Thanks for answering. I didn't know it was my mistake. I didn't know about the Out of Office button. This situation caught me completely off guard.

No worries that's what the forum is for, to learn! 

25 minutes ago, ernesto_beta said:

I think there's an invonvenience about the clock ticking during the weekend. Is there a way to manage that?

I think it would be too much of a hassle for Fiverr to incorporate that, because some Sellers (like myself) don't mind working the weekends. Plus, pausing the delivery time during the weekend will give a 'fake' estimation of a delivery time. However there are some ways you could create a working environment that fits your schedule. 

As I suggested, you could adjust your availability (e.g. Out of Office option). How to do that you can read here: Setting Your Availability. This will avoid getting order placements on the weekends. You could include the Friday as well, to make sure you won't have to work on that order in the weekend. However, you do need to take into consideration that this might decrease your chances of getting orders. 

A second option is to increase your delivery days. If you put 5 days for example and someone orders on Thursday and you don't have time then or Friday, it will bridge the weekend and the latest you have to deliver is Monday. So you'll be able to work on it on the last day. However with this option you won't be able to include a Gig Extra of an extra fast delivery of 1 day like you have now. Because people might order on Friday with this extra, meaning you'll still have to work the weekends. 

How I circumvent this is putting a question in my FAQ that this extra fast delivery is an option, but people have to contact me first so I can see if it's feasible. That way people won't be able to include it as an Extra during a time I can't actually fulfill this promise.

I hope this helped!  

 

[miiila]

24 minutes ago, ernesto_beta said:

I didn't know about the Out of Office button.

In that case, I'd recommend reading through Fiverr's Help Center, before you encounter another situation that will or might badly affect you because you didn't know about basic platform features.

Just in case you haven't, also read Fiverr's terms of service thoroughly. I don't know how often I've seen posts here by people who got a warning or even banned, because they didn't know about a rule or other.

The ToS and Help Center articles are there, and "I didn't know" doesn't cut it. If you want to work on a platform and make the most out of it, read their info, it really helps. There are enough things already that can go wrong without any mistake/negligence on your side, so better try to avoid the avoidable things. 🙂 Best wishes, going ahead!

 

[ernesto_beta]

1 hour ago, sabinespoems said:

I don't understand why you'd charge your buyer extra for a mistake you made...

Thanks for answering. I didn't know it was my mistake. I didn't know about the Out of Office button. This situation caught me completely off guard. I think there's an invonvenience about the clock ticking during the weekend. Is there a way to manage that? I could've delivered if just the clock just stopped during the weekend. Thank you.

[kendal1747]

1 hour ago, ernesto_beta said:

1. Has this already affected me negatively?

2. If so, is it ok to send him a custom order for a higher price than the original order, honoring my promise of an extra cost? I don't think it's fair to simply forget it and tell him to re-order.

3. Obviously I don't want to lose this job and this buyer (this is a new buyer), so I've discarded the idea of a leaving a low rating on him. What do you think?

Thank you!

What has happened cannot be changed. Try to work with the buyer if that is possible. My motto is "Kill Them With Kindness". It will take some time to recover from the low rating and cancellation,  but you can do it.

Edited June 16, 2022 by kendal1747