Fiverr should finally abandon $5 gigs

[newsmike]

23 minutes ago, maitasun said:

 

Then that's the same crap response you would have given an actual buyer right? 

[maitasun]

2 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Then that's the same crap response you would have given an actual buyer right? 

Certainly not, but that's the ugly truth of what will happen if you, as a seller, get to mess up—intentionally or not.

[newsmike]

5 minutes ago, maitasun said:

Certainly not, but that's the ugly truth of what will happen if you, as a seller, get to mess up—intentionally or not.

But since you won't know if you are speaking to a potential buyer or an AI test it is a good test of how one actually responds, no? 

[maitasun]

21 minutes ago, newsmike said:

But since you won't know if you are speaking to a potential buyer or an AI test it is a good test of how one actually responds, no? 

It would be, yes!

Although, in this particular case, I wasn't responding to an AI but to @donnovan86. 😂 Because Fiverr has no mercy with sellers. 😉

[maitasun]

I find many, many sellers live in some kind of Narnia they have created for themselves. People should land, softly or otherwise, and know the ground they're standing on. It will save them lots of headaches.

[donnovan86]

I don't see Fiverr being that strict. Poeple make mistakes when typing, especially on the go. Being penalized for that would be cruel. 

[newsmike]

39 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

I don't see Fiverr being that strict. Poeple make mistakes when typing, especially on the go. Being penalized for that would be cruel. 

I think AI could be trained to recognize the difference between a simple typo and improper verb tenses with jumbled sentences full of gibberish as we see here in the forum every day. If I were responding on the mobile app I might type:

"Hi, Thanks for contacting me, I'll take a look when I retrn later."

I would never say:

"Hello Dear, thank your knocking me, I will later get backs to you."

It's easy to differentiate a mistake from gibberish. 

Edited January 4, 2023 by newsmike

[donnovan86]

3 minutes ago, newsmike said:

I think AI could be trained to recognize the difference between a simple typo and improper verb tenses with jumbled sentences full of gibberish as we see here in the forum every day. If I was responding on the mobile app I might say:

 

Don't get me wrong, I agree with this. I just said that there can be honest mistakes. 

[newsmike]

Just now, donnovan86 said:

Don't get me wrong, I agree with this. I just said that there can be honest mistakes. 

Thank you for knocking me. 😀

[juanpost]

On 12/31/2022 at 7:34 PM, moonstaredits said:

Thank you for such an interesting topic.

In my opinion the problem is not the 5$ tag. Not even the unskilled people from third-world countries trying their luck in the site. 

The problem is Fiverr doesn't check your qualifications. Sure, they have the tests, but that's not enough. They need to make these mandatory: tests for every gig category to really prove how skilled you are in it, language tests,  uploading certificates and college diplomas or at least something that proves you are the student/professional you claim to be, a portfolio (5 past works, even if they are mocks) and adding some bank info (no matter if you choose to get paid with PayPal.).

The greatest weakness of Fiverr and the reason they are the quintessential website for scam sellers is the poor filters they have when people sign up. Other freelance websites ask you for a portfolio or certificates that prove your identity, and they take some time to verify it.

Not even a paywall would stop people that steal from others. There are resellers, for example. They already have some money to "invest" when they outsource their work. The only reasonable way to stop them was adding a rule to the ToS that prohibits selling services you bought from another seller "as they are". Scam buyers also have money beforehand.

Oh, I wanted to add something to the low prices and the freelancers from third-world countries. I am from Venezuela. Inflation here is off the charts. I offered my gig at a starting price of 5$ when I joined Fiverr, and back in 2020 the 4$ I got from a sale would be useful for me. Not anymore, thanks to inflation. Also I got the reviews I needed to have, so a 5$ price was bringing me more trouble than good. I raised my prices. Some people from third-world countries are in fact skilled enough to offer a gig for a fair price. They just don't because buyers tend to be wary of them, or because they need to build a proper reputation first with the low prices on the site to get somewhere. Some, like I did, don't have Fiverr as a main source of income, or they are students looking for some extra money while they put a portfolio together. All those categories of people I mentioned will offer good quality service in exchange of a low rate just because they don't need anything else. 

Cheap buyers that come after those services need to be purged as well. They should have also an identity verification and no anonymity. We sellers need to be certain too that we're not going to be scammed with the good old refund method.

But most importantly, if Fiverr hasn't removed the 5$ tier is because they get a lot of income out of it. They are not going to drop it anytime soon. I get your point that they can't be both a cheap and a high quality marketplace, but I disagree. There are buyers and sellers for everything. A website is smart enough if they acknowledge that and offer both cheap and expensive services. If I were a buyer, if I came looking for a Pro seller, I am going to buy from them even if I see the site offers way lower prices, as long as I get the high-end service I payed for. If I came looking for low prices and get sh***y work, well, I deserve what I ended up getting. 

The bad buyers and sellers don't originate from the low prices per se. Is the lack of a verification process that makes scammers thrive here. Raising the price won't make a significant difference if they don't address the underlying issues.

I very much agree with your comments. With the change in the algorithm, sales have become a roller coaster. Now I see a lot of resellers from India and Pakistan, who team up to attract the client and then subcontract the service. Already at $5 you must pay a fee that is the fiverr commission and now the fee for promoting your gig is added. Building a reputation is hard enough. Since you can have 1000 sales and your performance metrics do not go up. But it is enough that you have a cancellation in many cases because the client requests it and for one they already lower your score. Other pages you are right 1) They ask you to check your skills 2) They do NOT have a Refund policy. I happened to a very famous when I created my profile that just by placing the phrase satisfaction guaranteed or you have a refund they made me rewrite my notice on said page. Alleging with good reason that they do not have a free work policy.