Downgraded to Level One from Level Two Due to Not Responding to Spam

[meldawn9]

Fiverr is so unfair at times. I received two spam messages this week and marked accordingly, but since I took so long to do that, I went down to an 89% response rate. Because of that they have informed me that I have lost my Level Two Badge, after 12 years of being on here. All other stats were 100%. 

I'm also shocked that failure to respond quickly to two messages (I need to sleep 8 hours!) would even get me down to 89%. But keep in mind that I only get about 17 orders a week now, so that may account for a bigger impact on my response rate. 

I've literally earned this company 6 figures of income and this is what they do to me. I guess they don't want another 6 figures of income from me. 

[theratypist]

Sorry to hear on the downgrade, but if the message does come through and you actually see it regardless of the intention of the message (spam, or actual business) you will have to respond with some kind of message. I usually just say "Please don't spam" then report it. 

The stats are all automated and no one is manually going through if the message was really spam or not. You can try talking to Customer Support or your Success Manager if you're on the seller plus subscription. Perhaps they can do something about it.

[vickieito]

@meldawn9, I'm sorry to hear that happened! Last month, one of the sellers I buy from went from a Level 2 to a New Seller because of multiple messages that she didn't mark as spam. I didn't know sellers could drop down two levels in one evaluation period. Luckily she is back to a Level 1 seller today.

This seems to be happening a lot, and all because spam messages are not getting marked in a timely manner.

1 minute ago, theratypist said:

no one is manually going through if the message was really spam or not.

The biggest surprise is that Customer Service is pretty firm on this, so sellers just have to get demoted. They do manually go through the messages and they do mention that it's specifically spam that's the cause of the low response rate. But it isn't something that they are willing to take action on. 😟

[theratypist]

2 minutes ago, vickieito said:

They do manually go through the messages and they do mention that it's specifically spam that's the cause of the low response rate.

Wait whaaat.. so someone manually goes through spam messages?

I just mean, like a scenario wherein some blasts a.. "Hey contact me here (outside of Fiverr)" -- This usually gets detected as spam by the spam filter and goes directly to the spam inbox.  (Is said spam filter really a person manually checking these? This is where I assumed "no one manually goes through spam messages")

Anyhow, lets say this time the message "Hey contact me here (outside of Fiverr)" manages to go through the spam filter so it appears in your main "inbox". 

Anything that appears in your main inbox, you will have to respond to that no matter what, even if it was a supposed spam message that should have gone to the spam inbox.

36 minutes ago, meldawn9 said:

since I took so long to do that

I assumed it went to her main inbox. Because from my experience, you can totally ignore the spam inbox (This doesn't appear at all in your main inbox nor do you get notified about this). I've tinkered around and I can see a lot of unreplied stuff in my spam inbox from weeks to months ago and it hasn't affected my response rate since I was never notified on the message, it just directly went to the spam inbox.

 

[vickieito]

1 minute ago, theratypist said:

I assumed it went to her main inbox. 

I think what happened for my seller (and another seller I was talking to earlier), they were using the "flag" to block the buyers, not the "spam" button. I've seen other sellers who "unmark" the spam in the spam box and then get dinged that way.

[visualstudios]

45 minutes ago, meldawn9 said:

I'm also shocked that failure to respond quickly to two messages (I need to sleep 8 hours!)

Spam shouldn't count towards response rate, obviously, but this is simply not true. You have 24 hours to reply to messages, so you can sleep 8 hours all you want and never get a late response.

Also, 12 years? Are we in 2026 and I wasn't aware of it?

Edited September 15, 2022 by visualstudios

[theratypist]

2 minutes ago, vickieito said:

I think what happened for my seller (and another seller I was talking to earlier), they were using the "flag" to block the buyers, not the "spam" button. I've seen other sellers who "unmark" the spam in the spam box and then get dinged that way.

Ahh I see.. Yeah just respond (for the first time) on whatever message that appears in your main inbox right away. Then report right after if necessary! Don't touch anything else. 😆

[best_cv_guru]

Yeah I just got my stats back up from not quite understanding how this worked. But we do have a whole 24 hours to respond. I responded within just 2 minutes of 24 hours to save myself from a ding last week. I didn't know the message was there because I must have viewed it previously and it was no longer showing as unread. So, now I go to my inbox everyday to be sure I don't have anything unanswered going on 24 hours. Also, I respond to spam messages and then I immediately block them.

[yannisenglish]

That's rough. Sorry that happened to you. This site has tons of issues with their system I'm just accepting at this point that my percentages are never going to be 100% across the board.

Someone messaged me to write about their crypto/blockchain game and before I even knew the message was there, they also placed an order. In my haste to get it cancelled because I don't write about blockchain, silly me didn't respond to their inbox message and used the order chat instead. Lo and behold, response rate is now 98%. Like, I'm not going to message them in both places for the same thing.

Quote

But we do have a whole 24 hours to respond.

How merciful of Fiverr to give us a whole 24 hours 😄 Kidding aside, it is common practice in business and work circles to wait a bit longer than that. We do have lives outside of this platform and they don't even exclude weekends from this system.

Edited September 15, 2022 by yannisenglish
Wanted to include a quote

[meldawn9]

Thank you everyone for your support! I've been super busy this week. Usually I keep on top of it. I guess the AI grading bot didn't know they were spam messages, so I'll have to keep on top of it in the future. 

[meldawn9]

3 hours ago, visualstudios said:

Spam shouldn't count towards response rate, obviously, but this is simply not true. You have 24 hours to reply to messages, so you can sleep 8 hours all you want and never get a late response.

Also, 12 years? Are we in 2026 and I wasn't aware of it?

Eight years, not twelve, LOL! 

[newsmike]

4 hours ago, meldawn9 said:

(I need to sleep 8 hours!)

But Fiverr gives you 24 hours in which to respond. I hate what happened to you, but I don't understand why you say Fiverr is unfair. It has always been the requirement that if you don't respond within 24 hours, they ding you. 

[meldawn9]

3 hours ago, newsmike said:

But Fiverr gives you 24 hours in which to respond. I hate what happened to you, but I don't understand why you say Fiverr is unfair. It has always been the requirement that if you don't respond within 24 hours, they ding you. 

I did actually respond within the 24 hours, so don't know why they dinged me either. 

[newsmike]

12 minutes ago, meldawn9 said:

I did actually respond within the 24 hours, so don't know why they dinged me either. 

Then that is ridiculous. I hope you continue to bug CS and get it reversed. 

[carolinamaria]

I think it is not needed to respond to messages which Fiverr automatically detects as spam and informs that it will not affect the response rate. And if you get a message which seems to be spam, it is supposed to be your responsibility to mark it as spam.

When I find a message that seems to me as spam but not detected by Fiverr, either I reply informing Fiverr TOS or mark it as spam or do both. Is it the right way to address these kind of messages? Please let me know if I make any mistake in the way of responding to messages.

Thanks and best regards,

Carolinamaria

[Alex.M]

13 hours ago, meldawn9 said:

Fiverr is so unfair at times. I received two spam messages this week and marked accordingly, but since I took so long to do that, I went down to an 89% response rate. Because of that they have informed me that I have lost my Level Two Badge, after 12 years of being on here. All other stats were 100%. 

I'm also shocked that failure to respond quickly to two messages (I need to sleep 8 hours!) would even get me down to 89%. But keep in mind that I only get about 17 orders a week now, so that may account for a bigger impact on my response rate. 

I've literally earned this company 6 figures of income and this is what they do to me. I guess they don't want another 6 figures of income from me. 

It might be unfair but you only need 30 days to get back to level 2, I'm sure that you can easily achieve this. It won't really affect you much on the long run.

[picbuzz]

Hello Mam, 
Sorry that happened to you. 

But I have same experience this week. A user ask me Facebook ID, which I never replied and mark as spam immediately. 

Day before yesterday morning I notice that my response rate decreased 100% to 99%! (When I reply 100% query of my clients). I capture screenshot, and writes in detail to my success manager. She did a close review immediately and fix my response rate within an hour after I emailed her. I was super happy really. 

 

My suggestion will be if you never replied the spam, and only reason Fiverr found on your response rate, then you can take screenshot and talk to your Success Manager. I hope if that is a wrong count for spam message, you can get your Level 2 as well as your response rate like before. 

You can try. I will be more than happy if this help you. 

Thanks and love from Bangladesh. 

 

 

Edited September 16, 2022 by picbuzz

[strategist_ceo]

Your experience has been different from mine (so far), and I thought they did so for level 2 sellers (my guess). Many people whom I didn't reply to over a certain number of hours were marked as spam, to the extent that sometimes there is an actual seller that was marked by the algorithm.

Some people who inbox me also appear to have been placed in the spam folder automatically. They seem to be scammers too. 

My opinion is that when enough users mark a seller as "spammer" or problematic, they will be automatically diverted.

[sunboatrecords]

I have kept my response rate constantly at 100% since I started selling on Fiverr.

For spam messages, I open the message and mark it as spam. I never respond.

Some of you are mentioning issues with responding in time. You can get the app on your phones!

In any case, the rules are set before us and we have to play within their limits.

Hope this helps.

Edited September 18, 2022 by sunboatrecords

[meldawn9]

Update: Not only did I get a Level One back, but also my Level Two, so all is back to normal. It happened about the day after my last complaint above, so I guess Fiverr was reading and fixed that glitch.