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Three days auto approval is TOO FAST


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I get voiceovers from different countries on Fiverr.  I am a frequent user. 

The system automatically approves deliveries in three days, including weekends!  This HAS to be changed.

It is not enough to get a voiceover from a different time zone, have it reviewed in the relevant language and get corrections requested.  It is literally physically impossible.

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2 hours ago, chocmoosemedia said:

I get voiceovers from different countries on Fiverr.  I am a frequent user. 

The system automatically approves deliveries in three days, including weekends!  This HAS to be changed.

It is not enough to get a voiceover from a different time zone, have it reviewed in the relevant language and get corrections requested.  It is literally physically impossible.

I can understand why you'd feel this way. As both a buyer and seller, I can certainly see that a more extended time window before auto-completion would be nice, especially on weekends. 

However...
Sellers here on Fiverr typically have to wait 14 days before they get paid by Fiverr (7 days for Top Rated sellers and Seller Plus members). That's in addition to the three days before the order auto-completes. Sometimes, it can take 17 days before we get paid for a project. 

To make matters worse, Fiverr extends this during the holiday season to allow buyers seven days instead of three. That means sellers must wait for up to 21 days around Christmas. 

From a seller's perspective, giving buyers even more time before the order autocompletes would not be popular. 
With all that said: you can get around this by simply explaining the situation to your seller before you make an order.

For example, you could ask if they would send the file but keep the order open since you need more time than the allotted three days to review it. They could account for this in the order delivery time. The seller may work with you on this, or they may not. That's up to them. 
The nice thing is that you also choose which sellers to work with. 🙂 

P.S. I'm a voice-over actor and have frequently bought voice-overs on Fiverr, so I know how this works on both sides of the order page. I understand your frustrations. However, I have repeatedly ordered voice-overs from different time zones, even on weekends, had them reviewed in their respective language, and requested revisions in less than 24 hours. So it's not "physically impossible."

I'd also like to add that you could solve a lot of this with some better planning. If you order a voice-over right before the weekend and expect your VAs to work on weekends, why shouldn't you do the same? You could always order the voice-over earlier in the week, or speak with the talent about delivering a couple of days later so you have weekdays to review it. 

You're basically asking us, as sellers, to wait longer for our payments, because you make orders that require us to work on weekends. If this was delivered on a monday and you still can't manage to review and provide feedback in three days, I'd re-evaluate my workflow. 

Edited by smashradio
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Well, then, sellers should ask for the 14days to be reduced.  The auto-complete has nothing to do with it - that can be extended to 5 days and the seller gets paid 5 days after that. 14days does sound long.

yes, it is impossible sometimes, depending on the time zone.  And no, I don't work on weekends nor would I ask someone to.

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21 minutes ago, chocmoosemedia said:

Well, then, sellers should ask for the 14days to be reduced.  The auto-complete has nothing to do with it - that can be extended to 5 days and the seller gets paid 5 days after that. 14days does sound long.

yes, it is impossible sometimes, depending on the time zone.  And no, I don't work on weekends nor would I ask someone to.

I think that would fall on deaf ears around here. So at the moment, it does have something to do with it. If a seller delivers today, it will take three days before the order auto-completes, followed by 14 days of "pending clearance" before they receive the funds. If they need to withdraw it to their bank, you can add 2-3 days in some cases for that to happen, depending on the seller's bank and country. 

But I totally understand why you think three days is too short. I just don't believe this is a big issue for most buyers. It's already a stretch making buyers wait 17 - 21 days for their money, and I don't think Fiverr would want to change that. If I were to guess, I'd say it has to do with the cash on hand making interest and providing a steady cash flow through the company. In addition, Fiverr holds on to the money in case the buyer decides to go the route via customer support for cancelation after the order has been completed. 

My point about the weekend is: if you don't receive any deliveries during the weekend, this shouldn't be an issue. That would at least leave you three days (plus/minus a few hours due to time zones).

If that's the case, I'd communicate with your seller before making the order. Arrange for them to send the files for review without closing the order and with a longer deadline. 

As your suggestion stands now, it would cause an even longer wait for sellers. Personally, I'm always planning my finances a year ahead, so I never have this issue and I don't live from paycheck to paycheck. But a lot of people do.

In these troubling times, with a financial crisis happening before our eyes, riots in several countries due to food shortages, rising gas prices, and potential civil unrest due to inflation, a looming gas crisis due to the war, and possibly more restrictions due to Covid if this "ninja" variant keeps making trouble, I think that's a tough ask. 

On a side note: most voice-overs you order here on Fiverr cost you a fraction of the going market rate outside of Fiverr. And I really do mean a fraction. You're basically getting a fantastic voice-over deal, perhaps saving thousands of dollars compared to what outside talent would charge for similar gigs. I don't think it's unreasonable to say buyers are getting a bargain. If they really want the full-service deal with revisions going on for a long time and a more open "framework," provided by the artist, that is available. But it will cost you. 

Edited by smashradio
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P.S. Just to add a bit of context to that "fraction" I was talking about: 

I recently did a voice-over job for a government agency via an agency. The script was 70 words, for one year of usage, and I earned 3500 USD on it minus my agency fee of 10%. If they want to use it again next year, that's 3500 USD more for me. 

Had they thought of visiting Fiverr, they would have gotten the same product (minus the live direction) for 35 dollars (of which Fiverr charges us 20%.)

It would have been recorded in the same high-end studio, by the same voice-over actor, and I would have chosen the same style as they asked for during the recording session anyway. 

Given that we're offering such a bargain, I don't think it's unreasonable to say that we, as sellers, shouldn't be asked to then wait even longer. I love your suggestion about faster pay-outs, but it's not realistically going to happen. 

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1 hour ago, chocmoosemedia said:

And no, I don't work on weekends nor would I ask someone to

Of you receive deliveries over the weekend then yes, you do ask sellers to work over the weekend because they don’t have a choice but to deliver your order within the order timeline if it falls on a weekend 

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In addition to what others have said: even if the order is closed, if you haven't used up all the revisions that the seller offers and if you ask for corrections within a reasonable time (say, you don't ask for changes a month or four months or a year after the order was closed), most sellers will do it.

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On 7/15/2022 at 12:21 AM, smashradio said:

I recently did a voice-over job for a government agency via an agency. The script was 70 words, for one year of usage, and I earned 3500 USD on it minus my agency fee of 10%. If they want to use it again next year, that's 3500 USD more for me. 

Had they thought of visiting Fiverr, they would have gotten the same product (minus the live direction) for 35 dollars (of which Fiverr charges us 20%.)

It would have been recorded in the same high-end studio, by the same voice-over actor, and I would have chosen the same style as they asked for during the recording session anyway.

May I ask why the huge price difference? Is 35 dollars on Fiverr your 'sweet spot'? Because asking 35 dollars for something worth hundreds of dollars (or in case of a government agency thousands of dollars) seems arbitrary. In that case, why not 50 dollars, or 100 dollars? It still would be a big bargain for any buyer.

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4 hours ago, cc_animation said:

May I ask why the huge price difference? Is 35 dollars on Fiverr your 'sweet spot'? Because asking 35 dollars for something worth hundreds of dollars (or in case of a government agency thousands of dollars) seems arbitrary. In that case, why not 50 dollars, or 100 dollars? It still would be a big bargain for any buyer.

After some experimenting, I've found that 35 is a sweet spot for me as a base rate (including commercial rights). Most projects are in the 70 - 300 dollar range due to word count or rights packages. So I rarely get an order for 35, but it gives me a great blend of clicks/conversions. 

It would indeed still be a bargain, but there are several differences between working on Fiverr and working with agencies. 

First of all, agencies tend to negotiate rates based purely on usage. The reach matters, a lot. 

Often, the client will have chosen your voice, specifically, based on your audition for the job. 

The recording session will be at a fixed time. We connect to the clients studio/engineer via Source Connect or similar service, and they will listen in on the session as it goes on.

Ofte,, the process will involve a creative director, audio engineer, and the voice over actor. 70 words will often take 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how soon you get it "just right". 

In other words, it's a more involved process, requiring more time, equipment/software and work. 

These jobs don't come along very often. Most agency jobs I get are between 500 to 1000 dollars, but they all involve more work and time. 

The process on Fiverr is very different: 

I receive the script. I record the script. I deliver. Done. 

The 70 words would take me 5 - 10 minutes of recording, about the same in editing. It's a much more straightforward process, rarely requires re-takes or revisions. Fiverr also deals with all the marketing, payment processing and acts as a CRM.

More importantly: I never have to audition for a job, meaning every second I spend in the studio when working on Fiverr is paid for, unlike doing auditions all day long, hoping for a big project. 

At the end of the day, 1-2 medium to big agency projects per month will net me a lot more per project, but the simplicity of working on Fiverr is unbeatable. 

I know VAs who struggle with cold calling, e-mails, marketing, ad budgets, getting agents, and hours on end doing auditions (which is basically unpaid work in the hopes of getting a job). 

So it's not as arbitrary as it might seem at first. 

 

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On 7/14/2022 at 9:45 PM, chocmoosemedia said:

The system automatically approves deliveries in three days, including weekends!  This HAS to be changed.

 

I think it's too long honestly. And a lot of buyers take advantage of this, they wait until the very last minute to ask for a revision. Some even ask for a revision without saying what they want changed.. 

I guess it does depend on the buyer and order size. If the order was very complex, I can see how it takes time to check everything. But for a short article, the type of stuff I offer, it shouldn't take 3 days for someone to check it. So I am sure the opinion varies based on the vertical and type of service people buy. As I said, for me 3 days seems like a lot of time, but I understand not everyone opens Fiverr every day. 

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