Protect the sellers in milestone orders!

[linkbuilderphil]

I just learned the hard way that sellers have zero protection while doing the milestone orders.

 

I started the 4 milestone order with my client recently. After milestone #1, I quickly finished all 3 remaining ones, so basically now I just had to deliver them.
After I delivered milestone #2, my client went missing, and after 8 days of no response, the whole order was auto completed.

Now I can't deliver remaining 2 milestones and the only way to get my money is to pray that the buyer responds and agrees to open a new order with me so that I can deliver the work.

I can't believe anyone would design this system and think "yep this is fine". I have a lot of examples where Fiverr is being unfair to sellers but this one just ridiculous.
 

PLEASE REWORK THIS SYSTEM SO THAT SELLERS HAVE A WAY TO GET PAID IN MILESTONE ORDERS IF OUR CLIENTS DECIDE TO DISAPPEAR.

 

[donnovan86]

I wouldn't touch milestones with a first time buyer. You can't rely on a new buyer to stick to 3-4 milestones, I learned that the hard way too. The milestones system is fine, but you want to use it with a return client that knows how the system (and Fiverr) works. Otherwise, you will always have all kinds of issues. Fiverr also focuses more on first time buyer experiences, so canceling such an order can bring in some issues as well, at least for a few months.

[linkbuilderphil]

This isn't a first time buyer, though. My client already used Fiverr and isn't new to this platform. And besides, it doesn't really matter.

The point is that if you start working on milestones in advance, which many sellers will do, it leaves you totally vulnerable in case your buyer decides to ghost you.

I just spoke with Customer Support and they pretty much told me that system is working as intended, which just makes the whole situation more ridiculous.

I completed 1000$ worth of work that I currently have no way to charge. I'm going to avoid milestones like a plague from now on.

[theratypist]

20 minutes ago, linkbuilderphil said:

The point is that if you start working on milestones in advance, which many sellers will do, it leaves you totally vulnerable in case your buyer decides to ghost you.

Isn't a new milestone treated like a new order of sorts? The scope of the specific milestone should have been the only thing done and you just do the next scope until the payment for the next milestone is done. If you want to do the whole project ahead then you shouldn't have agreed to do the milestone project in the first place. I mean knowing the context of how a milestone could possibly not continue is while unfortunate, the reality of the situation.

You should just avoid milestones the next time if it hasn't been working well for you / doesn't suit your work style.

 https://www.fiverr.com/support/articles/8427072174097-Milestone-FAQs?segment=seller

When will I get paid?
Once each Milestone is completed, you’ll get paid. In the past, sellers were paid only once an entire order was marked as completed. This is no longer the case, and you’ll be reimbursed per Milestone in each order.

[linkbuilderphil]

When my client deposited money for all 4 milestones into escrow, I was under impression that I'll be able to access that money, as long as I deliver all the work.
Similar to how in regular orders you can deliver your work and get paid even if the client is absent the whole time - order will auto complete and you'll get the money.

So I thought that milestones would work the same - if the buyer doesn't respond, I can still deliver and wait a few days, and order would automatically progress to next milestone.

You can blame me here all you want but there should be SOME safeguards in place for sellers so that we never end up in this situation.

[donnovan86]

6 hours ago, linkbuilderphil said:

This isn't a first time buyer, though. My client already used Fiverr and isn't new to this platform. And besides, it doesn't really matter.

 

I mean new client for you. Not Fiverr. If it's the first time working with a person, I for one don't go for very large orders. I got burnt in the past.

[theratypist]

3 hours ago, linkbuilderphil said:

You can blame me here all you want but there should be SOME safeguards in place for sellers so that we never end up in this situation.

3 hours ago, linkbuilderphil said:

When my client deposited money for all 4 milestones into escrow, I was under impression that I'll be able to access that money, as long as I deliver all the work.

I'm not necessarily blaming you, I'm just saying the technicalities of how milestones work. If it was supposed to continually work on its own, it shouldn't have been a milestone, and just a whole order in the first place. If you read the documentation of how Milestones work in the Help section, it really was intended not to continue on its own. Thus why the Fiverr CS has responded to you "the system is working as intended".

And it really is working as intended unless you aren't receiving the funds for first 2 milestones you've completed.

https://www.fiverr.com/support/articles/4414438601873-Milestones?segment=buyer

Any potential confusion or delays can be prevented using Milestones—Milestone deliveries are always approved by you before the seller moves onto the next Milestone.  

Use this option for complex projects—and approve each project step. 

When should I use Milestones?
We recommend using Milestones for bigger projects to allow for more flexibility in the smaller steps. Milestones offer you a reduced risk, and these per-task payments also give sellers the incentive to keep up the good work.

Edited April 2, 2023 by theratypist

[miiila]

16 hours ago, linkbuilderphil said:

I completed 1000$ worth of work that I currently have no way to charge. I'm going to avoid milestones like a plague from now on.

That's the problem, Milestones are only a maybe somewhat good option if you don't need to do much work in advance, but only for however many $ the first Milestone, then the second, etc. is worth at a time.

I've used Milestones once, and then no more, it also was with a customer I already knew from several orders. The disadvantages and the hassle that I saw and can imagine when reading how Milestones work, are too big on seller side, from my perspective, already the 8 revision days (respectively the 10 days a buyer has to start the next Milestone) vs 3 with a standard Gig, can drag this out so inconveniently long, I don't know about you, but I sometimes need to plan my time. At the least, you should never take the complete sum of all Milestones for granted, but have Milestones that pay you enough as you go, if you use the feature. If it's not possible to set Milestones up in that way, I agree that it's best to avoid them (but, truth be told, I'm for avoiding them anyway; again, I just see too much hassle vs standard Gigs).

Support and the others are right, though it worked as intended, if you read the explanatory articles on Milestones, especially in the Buyer section, carefully, you'll notice (If you haven't already, I'd generally recommend reading not just the articles in the Seller section, but also those in the Buyer section, sometimes, technicalities might be clearer then, or stick out more, in different wording). 

 

Quote

Note: 
You’ll have 8 days from the delivery of each Milestone to request a revision/accept it, If you don’t, the order will stop, and be marked as completed. After you accept the delivery and complete the order ,you have 10 days to start the next Milestone.

Quote

 When will I be charged?
You’ll be charged for the first Milestone when you place an order. Once you approve a Milestone and initiate the next one, the associated payment will be made.

Ergo, if the buyer does not approve and initiate the next Milestone (for whatever reason that may be, from not liking the output or simply forgetting to start the next Milestone within 10 days (I think that's what happened with mine back), over several grimmer scenarios that prevent the buyer from doing so within 10 days, like Covid, or an accident, up to death, it stops right there. If the seller already did more work than the previous Milestones paid for, bad luck.

Milestones may work well for some kinds of jobs, if you can set it up in a way that you never do more work than each Milestone pays for, as you go. Even then, you still have the 8 (10) days vs 3, a buyer who might forget to initiate the new Milestone (would you want to remind them to initiate the next Milestone, just in case they forgot, so the order won't end, what if they didn't initiate, because they didn't want to, awkwardness ensues,...), etc. In my use cases, there simply aren't any advantages for me that would compel me to use a Milestone order over standard Gigs. 

Edited April 2, 2023 by miiila