"extend review time" - Test

[goldentones]

22 hours ago, rockitbat said:

Again I don't mind having this feature for buyers but there should be some rules for them as well. Like the first extension is free and they have to pay for the 2nd extension and onward. (not to the seller but to Fiverr) or allow a limited number of days to extend the time period. I think in that case buyers won't misuse this. 

I like your thinking on this.  In situations where a review-time extension is requested, it is almost certainly going to be for one of three reasons:

1.  The buyer is working for, or working with, a larger company where the chain of command makes it difficult to quickly get approval.  It's a case of "approval by team" or committee.  That means they have money, and can certainly afford to pay a small surcharge when they request a time extension.

2. The buyer is working with a smaller, difficult client of their own.  While I can sympathize, the buyer needs to find their own way forward in that situation.  A review-time surcharge will motivate them to get their act together and put necessary pressure on their client to get things wrapped up.

3. The buyer is the cause of the problem.  They have trouble making their minds up about things, or are just stalling and hoping to get out of paying.

In all three of those cases, it makes sense to charge for review-time extensions.  In the first two cases, it's just a matter of fairness.  In the third case, it keeps them from using it as a stalling tactic.

[shayaan499]

 

As i can see fiverr is just ignoring the seller thoughts & situation and only trying to provide more power to buyer and abusers

I read complete 6 pages comments but didnt found any comments from the fiverr team that say yes we will make changes or do anything about it so buyer couldn't abuse this system..   

 its look like they just implemented this feature and close their eyes... 

 I am also a TRS and working on fiverr from more than 3 years.. but now i am thinking to move on from the fiver, because its not safe for any seller.

 

[whildebrand]

When a buyer now extends the review period, I don't even get notified by Fiverr any longer!

Fiverr just silently updates the message "seller has until _______ to approve this delivery". Fiverr adds 5 days and that is it.

I get no notification! No message! Nothing! I am being treated like I don't exist!

Since this feature is very unpopular among sellers, it seems like Fiverr is trying to be very sneaky when the review period is updated.

How would buyers feel, if sellers just extended the delivery date by five days without consent and then don't even get notified about the change? Sorry, but how is this treatment "balanced" - as suggested in the introductory paragraph? 

What a disservice and total disregard of the seller community here on the platform. I am just speechless; this is just so bad, and just getting worse and worse! When our freedom and our concerns are disregarded in such a way, what still seperates us from being digital slaves?

Nomen est Omen. Fiverr. Five days extension. Never ending story ...

Edited April 12, 2023 by whildebrand

[whildebrand]

@mart_gart - I am struggling to understand your buyer's concerns:

You seem to forget that Fiverr is the equivalent to a low-cost carrier. If you book a $45 flight on Ryan Air, Easy Jet, India Express or JetBlue, you don't get to re-schedule your flight as you see fit. You don't even get peanuts. On some flights, you don't even get water any more. Period. But the ticket will cost you 1/10th of any regular fare. If you're one pound over the luggage limit, you pay. If you want to re-schedule your flight, you will loose your ticket, or you pay. 

The only way airlines can survive, is by efficiency and by charging extra for extra services. There is no "but I want to extend, I want a steak, I want champagne. I want to fly two days later, I want, I want, I want and I want it all for free!! Imagine you call the airlines and ask them to re-schedule a flight for free, because your corporate decision making process is so slow, you won't make it to the airport in time? Or because you need to play golf on the weekend? Really?

How much can you expect when you're paying $ 45 for a flight and how much more do you expect from a 10 dollar logo gig here on Fiverr?

Why should we as sellers, being paid a lot less than what your classic agency is charging, concern ourselves for the interest of large wealthy coorporation and their time schedule? If buyers require agency-style corporate treatment, they can pay 3000 dollars for a logo at an ad agency, where they can sip champage and extend deliveries as much as they like. If Fiverr wants to start handing out champagne and candy to buyers, they can do so, but not at the seller's expense. Pay for extensions, yes. Hand out freebies at the sellers expense, no thank you! 

If Fiverr takes "efficiency" out of the equation and keeps squeezing sellers hard, then Fiverr will not remain an attractive option for sellers; The best sellers can properly afford to leave first. The platform will loose quality services and eventually become a trashy spam platform with no real quality left to attract any buyers. 

As Freelancers, we get paid a third and in some cases only 10% of what we would get paid as an agency. But Fiverr also deducts a 20% commission from the seller. The only reasons this can still makes any sense (although barely) is efficieny and a system that properly manages buyers expectations. If you keep giving buyers more and more, and keep squeezing sellers harder and harder, the system will eventually fail. Fiverr is breeding a new generation of high-maintainance buyers who keep wanting more for less, while Fiverr will struggle to keep sellers and good services on the platform.

Edited April 12, 2023 by whildebrand

[mandyvo]

Urgh... I am not a fan of this. Whilst I do see the reasoning behind it (especially during long weekends), I predict that it will be abused. Yes, most buyers I've dealt with are wonderful... but there are a good number that love to abuse the system and exploit the unbalanced power of sellers compared with buyers.

It's also not fair to delay payment for work we've diligently done on time just because clients aren't equally prioritizing the order at their end. I agree with others that it needs to be mutually agreed by both sides... and maybe even added as a buyable extra. Its then a win all round. Fiverr earns more, we earn more and genuine clients get bonus time they can purchase. (The non-genuine ones or tire-kickers, in my experience, soon change their priorities when it may cost them more money!)

Personally, from over 500 orders, I've only had someone use the revision button twice to delay a closure because they needed more review time... and both times they didn't actually need any revisions after all. (That was after I had been left sitting in limbo for a good week at least!) 

[andrewcarpen756]

If a feature can easily be abused, then it will. 

[magneticwp]

On 10/3/2022 at 11:10 PM, mjensen415 said:

At Fiverr, we’re continually listening to feedback from members of our community. One of the frustrations for buyers has been when an order automatically completes before they’ve had a chance to review their delivery. As a seller, you might have seen revision requests that are not for actual revisions, but just asking for more time to review deliveries.

We’ve learned that these requests are often due to weekends, the need for approval from co-workers, or…just busy schedules. To help ease this frustration, we’re running a test to allow buyers to request more time to review their order before it automatically completes.

Of course, we want to ensure a win-win situation for both buyers and sellers, so we will only roll out this feature after closely monitoring the implications of this test: he number of orders completed, cancellations, disputes, tickets with Customer Service, and other quality metrics.

Tell me one good logic how is that gonna be a win-win situation? 

This totally gives a favor to the buyer and I don't see any single benefit for the sellers. The logic is that sometimes buyers need more time, OK, that's fine. Without the consent of the sellers, they do it instantly. Then why not give the seller the same feature that they can extend the delivery time without buyer consent instantly? Don't you think sellers aren't sometimes facing crisis moments? 

OK, let's skip this part, sellers don't have any value to this platform for a long time!

It will allow buyers to extend the review time 5 days more which means now the total review period will be 8 days. Where is the seller's benefits here? Why doesn't Fiverr instantly release the fund after 8 days then? Fiverr again takes additional 7 days to release the funds. So the total duration for such a project will be 15 days. This is really disappointing. 

[fahimfoam1111]

This has now further inclined the platform in the buyer's favor and made it as he now not only potentially can abuse Revisions (infinitely) but also the review time before that.

It has also made the platform into a more "MIDDLE MAN" Friendly one. Where the actual creator will not be paid in time regardless of the good work he has delivered.
 

 

My suggestion is that the review period should be pre-determined Mutually upon ordering process and not at the end.

Edited May 25, 2023 by fahimfoam1111

[dereck_s]

I'm not sure how long the extension would be, is it different depending on the type of gig? With logo design most start to finish delivery windows are 3 days and the review time after the job is delivered is 3 days. Also in most cases the only time you'd be delivering files is if the buyer has given approval right? In that sense the art is already approved so I'm not sure how much additional time you'd need to approve the art you've already approved. 3 days seems more than enough in most cases and if the buyer needs more time just saying so is a simple request I couldn't imagine a seller wouldn't grant.

[lenasemenkova]

 

Now when I have some statistics to back it up, I get these extension requests 0-2 times a month. We’ll see how it goes in summer with all the vacations but the update appears to be not as catastrophic as I originally imagined it to be. It doesn’t affect my fiverr experience and I mostly forget it was ever implemented. 

[melissaharlowvo]

It’s a good idea to have the clarity from the beginning about the auto completion.  If I feel someone needs more time just from the conversation back and forth… like they mention other team members or they will be going on a business trip or whatever, I will mention that the order may auto complete but I am still here if they need tweaks or a small revision even if it auto completes.
 

You can also clarify this in your order requirements by making them agree that they have 3 days to review before the order auto completes. This is an excellent way to help them understand while they place the order. 

[charlsmcfarlane]

On 10/3/2022 at 6:10 PM, mjensen415 said:

At Fiverr, we’re continually listening to feedback from members of our community. One of the frustrations for buyers has been when an order automatically completes before they’ve had a chance to review their delivery. As a seller, you might have seen revision requests that are not for actual revisions, but just asking for more time to review deliveries.

We’ve learned that these requests are often due to weekends, the need for approval from co-workers, or…just busy schedules. To help ease this frustration, we’re running a test to allow buyers to request more time to review their order before it automatically completes.

Of course, we want to ensure a win-win situation for both buyers and sellers, so we will only roll out this feature after closely monitoring the implications of this test: he number of orders completed, cancellations, disputes, tickets with Customer Service, and other quality metrics.

I can understand the reason behind this but I don’t like the way it can just be unilaterally used by buyers to extend the order for as long as they want. They can already request an infinite number of revisions when the gig includes only one (for example).

Sellers are obliged to deliver on time or face damaged metrics and, potentially, impacted impressions and sales. I think it’s only right that buyers are held to the same standard.

I do, however, understand that each buyer has specific needs.

This is why I think, instead, the review time should be something that a seller can define. So, if a buyer needs to run it through a colleague, that could be accommodated with a custom offer, where the seller sets the review time to 7 days, for example. For complex work, that requires more review time, the seller should be able to define a longer period in their gig offering.

I do think a minimum makes sense, so it can’t be abused. 3 days is probably still a reasonable minimum time.

Thanks.

[hamamd_402]

So how many times can a buyer extend the review order, and for how many days should the seller be waiting for the payment? 

[bilha2018]

I personally don't like the 'Extend Review Period' feature very much. Here's why:

Most of my clients are misusing the feature. I've had a client extend their review period four times now. Each time with 2 or 3 days. It's frustrating every time they do that. I have tried to communicate with them via inbox to find out if there are experiencing certain issues, but there's no communication from their end. 

So, I agree with the majority here. This feature should work two-way through the resolution center. The buyer should communicate and let you know they need more time to review your order, and at that point, you can agree on how many days they can get. The same thing happens when we sellers need to extend the delivery date.

Otherwise, some buyers are likely to misuse this feature. Some sort of moderation should be set in place. Or a limit to how many times they can use the feature. 

[numan_seo]

11 hours ago, bilha2018 said:

I personally don't like the 'Extend Review Period' feature very much. Here's why:

Most of my clients are misusing the feature. I've had a client extend their review period four times now. Each time with 2 or 3 days. It's frustrating every time they do that. I have tried to communicate with them via inbox to find out if there are experiencing certain issues, but there's no communication from their end. 

So, I agree with the majority here. This feature should work two-way through the resolution center. The buyer should communicate and let you know they need more time to review your order, and at that point, you can agree on how many days they can get. The same thing happens when we sellers need to extend the delivery date.

Otherwise, some buyers are likely to misuse this feature. Some sort of moderation should be set in place. Or a limit to how many times they can use the feature. 

Yeah, It should be done via 'Resolution Center' with the consent of both seller and buyer. Some of the clients are misusing the feature for extending the 'Review Period' unnecessarily without any communication. 

[engshimul]

It is completely a one sided feature for a buyer, but not good in any way for a Fiver Freelancer,

[chellerose]

I am so horribly opposed to this idea. There is no restriction on the amount of times they can do this, or it doesn't seem to have one. It makes doing business here now more a pain than pro-active and even as a Top Rated Seller, my team and I are seriously considering moving our services to other platforms instead. This impacts businesses like mine when a buyer can repeatedly extend and weeks have passed before I'll receive pay for work done. Absolutely HATE this new implementation. 

[fitnesseducator]

While I acknowledge and appreciate the difficulty of managing everyone's satisfaction on a platform like Fiverr, from a seller's POV here's my 2-cents...

• I feel this may be abused by the buyer and agree it should be a decision between buyer and seller.
• Modifications can throw my timeline for other projects off - this impacts my ability to maintain an efficient schedule when the revision timeline could require attentiveness and promptness for a longer period.
• I am also confused when the buyer modifies close to - or now after - the delivery date and red letters are warning me that my delivery is now well past overdue.

[lenasemenkova]

On 5/26/2023 at 10:08 AM, lenasemenkova said:

We’ll see how it goes in summer with all the vacations

Not good.

I have $800(ish) of delivered work being held up due to “vacation” extensions now. 

I made an effort to work more and deliver faster because I needed some extra funds this month and it all came to this anticlimactic halt. 

December’s going to be a mess. 

[dusuacangmon]

On 8/25/2023 at 10:06 PM, lenasemenkova said:

Not good.

I have $800(ish) of delivered work being held up due to “vacation” extensions now. 

I made an effort to work more and deliver faster because I needed some extra funds this month and it all came to this anticlimactic halt. 

December’s going to be a mess. 

I can feel your pain, same here, Buyer ask for fast delivery but go vacation  1-2 weeks with high budget order. Pain.

[rjhknitwear]

On 8/25/2023 at 5:06 PM, lenasemenkova said:

Not good.

I have $800(ish) of delivered work being held up due to “vacation” extensions now. 

I made an effort to work more and deliver faster because I needed some extra funds this month and it all came to this anticlimactic halt. 

December’s going to be a mess. 

Same here. And now the extension date the buyer has requested falls right in the middle of MY planned vacation.

I made sure to complete all my orders in good time before taking much needed, planned time off and now, IF I will have to do any revisions, it will be during my vacation in order to meet the new revision deadline.

If a buyer is on vacation/away/needs team approval, they get a review period extension no problem. 

As this is now the case, sellers should be able to ask for revision extension without penalty if it was due to an buyer extended review period. Otherwise how the hell are you supposed to plan your life/workload?

I have already marked myself as unavailable during my vacation period but as this one's an existing order I don't think that will make any difference.

Not to mention the payment will only clear in October as I am only a Level One seller.... 

[rjhknitwear]

On 8/1/2023 at 5:23 AM, chellerose said:

I am so horribly opposed to this idea. There is no restriction on the amount of times they can do this, or it doesn't seem to have one. It makes doing business here now more a pain than pro-active and even as a Top Rated Seller, my team and I are seriously considering moving our services to other platforms instead. This impacts businesses like mine when a buyer can repeatedly extend and weeks have passed before I'll receive pay for work done. Absolutely HATE this new implementation. 

I feel like this policy has been left wide-open to abuse by some buyers.

There needs to a limit on how many times they can ask for extensions, or there needs to be a Fiverr service fee attached to it based on the value of the order.

I think that would make people think twice before extending their review period if not really necessary.

I think buyers forget there are humans behind the gigs that use the platform to earn a living.

[dusuacangmon]

Buyers cont press Extend time continously and no respond to seller message lead to the order can't complete. Plz bring back to 3 days delivery auto completed.

[mikimedia1]

On 10/9/2022 at 2:47 PM, samanimran said:

I fear this 'test' is going to go the same direction as the 'review' change which we know is unfair to sellers and going to go permanent.

What review change? Please link me to this

[ydrawing]

I don't like this. 3 days are more than enough to review. If I can deliver within the agreed time, then you should also review it within the given 3 days time.

If you want a middle ground, then maybe they should ask the seller to extend the delivery time, similar to sellers requesting to extend the delivery time.