Before you agree to cancel...

[newsmike]

One of the most common posts we see is when a buyer demands a cancellation after work has been delivered and the seller has to deal with the cancel request. The TOS actually provides solid guidance and is actually on the seller's side with one major caveat.

If you have done everything that is promised in your gig description and offer, the order is not eligible to be cancelled, period.

TOS states:

• Orders are not eligible to be canceled based on the quality of service/materials delivered by the Seller if the service was rendered as described in the Gig Page. You may rate your experience with the Seller on the Order Page, including the overall level of service quality received.

If you have not done all that was promised, cancellation is valid, but if you promise nothing more than "I will draw 5 cows", the buyer cannot come back and complain that they were the wrong color, or all 5 cows should have been different drawings, etc... UNLESS, they specified that in their requirements.

Make sure you deliver all that has been promised and agreed to, then stick to "hell no" when someone invents a right to review and cancel, which exists solely in their mind, but not in TOS.

Note: you have to be willing to fight, professionally, to defend this position, including not caving to threat of a bad review or else you will be doomed to blackmail and performing free work forever. This is intended for those willing to defend a job well done. 

You may give me a bad review, but I will keep your money and my dignity:

Edited April 17, 2023 by newsmike

[smashradio]

25 minutes ago, newsmike said:

You may give me a bad review, but I will keep your money and my dignity:

People need to stop being so afraid of negative reviews. If you're a new seller, I get it.

Starting your Fiverr business with a one-star review and negative private feedback can be devastating, with little to no hope of ever building a reputation, simply because the algorithm will oust you from this universe combined with the one-star review ensuring no buyer ever orders from you. 

Nonetheless, starting your career working for free is hardly a better alternative. What use is a paid gig if you're not getting paid? 

Paradox. 

As a new seller, I highly recommend avoiding pricing yourself too low.  Pricing is a crucial instrument for filtering out bad buyers. It's not foolproof, but it can help you avoid this type of situation in the first place. Positioning yourself as a premium seller will attract premium clients. 

As a seasoned seller with a good amount of reviews under your belt and lots of repeat clients, a negative review is just part of doing business, unless you cancel your way out of it. Getting some negative feedback is just another aspect of conducting business. 

What did you call it, Mike... Review Sanitation?

Anyway, I am more inclined to trust a seller with a few negative reviews among hundreds of positive ones, who defend their right to fair payment and respond professionally to the feedback they get. 

After all, you have the chance to explain your side of the story in both your review of the buyer and in your response to their review of your gig. Giving honest feedback about your buyers helps other sellers to avoid these dunderheads. 

 

[catwriter]

13 minutes ago, smashradio said:

Giving honest feedback about your buyers helps other sellers to avoid these dunderheads. 

...and puts you at risk of getting a bad private feedback that can tank your sales for months.

[newsmike]

58 minutes ago, smashradio said:

What did you call it, Mike... Review Sanitation?

Yes. You see someone with 3,000 orders completed and 100% 5 star reviews, you know, without a doubt that they have agree to cancel and give work away free every time someone even threatens a bad review. I do not accept that volume sellers have never encountered a scammer or bully. This is sanitizing your reviews, completely dishonest and misrepresents your actual performance. Fortunately it is also a huge red flag if you watch for it. 

This is iPhone 13 on Amazon. This is what honest reviews look like:

Edited April 17, 2023 by newsmike

[miiila]

53 minutes ago, newsmike said:

you know, without a doubt that they have agree to cancel and give work away free every time someone even threatens a bad review. I do not accept that volume sellers have never encountered a scammer or bully

Well, scammers, "I'll give a bad review if you don't do x for free" wannabe blackmailers, and the like may choose to opt out of leaving a review, though, if you stand up to them, as they may be able to tell which way the wind is blowing, and fear you'd leave them feedback that would reduce their chances of ever finding a seller who'd want to work with them again, or report them to support, or both. So, no bad feedback can also mean that the seller was more threatening than the buyer 😅

[visualstudios]

Mike, I have been saying that FOR YEARS. 

You can't compare amazon reviews to Fiverr reviews, because the system is exceedingly skewed and punitive here.

A 4.4 average should be good. But it is not. You can't be a TRS with a 4.4 average. You have to be better than the iPhone 13 to get anywhere here. 

Of course this isn't true - it's not that you're better than the iPhone, is that the reviews are artificially inflated. By design. The cutoff for demotion being at 4.7 tells you everything you need to know. Fiverr expects (nay, demands) 5 star reviews. Or else.

That's all there is to it.

 

As for the principled approach of "don't cancel, don't work for free"... It's not that simple. Making $100 now by possibly foregoing $1000 going forward (due to demotion, drop in stats removing you from search, etc.) is not worth it. It's not about principles, it's about business strategy. My business principle is very simple - keep the business growing. If I believe I can make it grow more by canceling than by getting a bad review, that's what I'll do. It's the smart thing to do.

Edited April 17, 2023 by visualstudios

[visualstudios]

1 hour ago, miiila said:

Well, scammers, "I'll give a bad review if you don't do x for free" wannabe blackmailers, and the like may choose to opt out of leaving a review, though, if you stand up to them, as they may be able to tell which way the wind is blowing, and fear you'd leave them feedback that would reduce their chances of ever finding a seller who'd want to work with them again, or report them to support, or both. So, no bad feedback can also mean that the seller was more threatening than the buyer 😅

This doesn't work, for two reasons:

1)They can leave a bad private review that you can't respond to, or even see

2)They can create a new account if their stats get bad. A buyer account is worthless, you can just keep creating new ones, you lose nothing.

[asifemon0]

Awesome bro thanks for sharing but eventually it affects the profile so yeah sellers are doomed anyway

[omniks]

Unfortunately, the seller on the Fiverr in any situation remains in an unfavorable position, the motto is "the customer is always right" even though he is a scammer. You either waste your time and earn $ 0. Or you earn and get a bad review, and you are turned off for 60 days from the search.

I had a situation where I did not have problematic buyers (as I thought), and bad public reviews, but I was still turned off for 60 days from the search, most likely due to a bad private review. And all this time I worked with regular buyers, because new ones simply could not find me, although I used to have new buyers every day. Now everything has been restored and new buyers have returned again.

So if you don't have a lot of regular buyers, think carefully about whether you can wait 60 days without orders, and earn now, or return this money and earn several times more with other buyers. Because the Fiverr system is not on our side. For Google and Amazon, a rate of 4 - 4.5 is good, but not here.

[gayanchamira]

What is the satisfaction level of a Drawing, Poster or any creation. So clients can say like " you can draw five cows but i don't like this kind of cows i need this kind, this colour, like" 

[smruhulkuddus]

Recently One seller without discussion with me, submitted an order to me. The buyer does not fulfill my requirement to complete this order. After that, she canceled the order.
After canceling this order, I can not get any message or order from buyers.
Can you help me? What I will do right now?
Thank you in Advance. 

[kawsar_log]

👍 Great man, thanks for sharing! However, it ultimately affects the profile, thus sellers are Done For 💔. Whatever, you must do your best to avoid cancellation! 🙏

[mabelma]

On 4/17/2023 at 9:16 AM, newsmike said:

One of the most common posts we see is when a buyer demands a cancellation after work has been delivered and the seller has to deal with the cancel request. The TOS actually provides solid guidance and is actually on the seller's side with one major caveat.

If you have done everything that is promised in your gig description and offer, the order is not eligible to be cancelled, period.

TOS states:

• Orders are not eligible to be canceled based on the quality of service/materials delivered by the Seller if the service was rendered as described in the Gig Page. You may rate your experience with the Seller on the Order Page, including the overall level of service quality received.

If you have not done all that was promised, cancellation is valid, but if you promise nothing more than "I will draw 5 cows", the buyer cannot come back and complain that they were the wrong color, or all 5 cows should have been different drawings, etc... UNLESS, they specified that in their requirements.

Make sure you deliver all that has been promised and agreed to, then stick to "hell no" when someone invents a right to review and cancel, which exists solely in their mind, but not in TOS.

Note: you have to be willing to fight, professionally, to defend this position, including not caving to threat of a bad review or else you will be doomed to blackmail and performing free work forever. This is intended for those willing to defend a job well done. 

You may give me a bad review, but I will keep your money and my dignity:

This is a great post, and I am glad to see that the TOS actually protects the seller in this instance. I would personally suggest giving a couple of revisions in order to ensure a good review, but nothing major like full re-draws or anything like that. Sometimes a bad review is better than a cancellation after spending tons of hours of work on an order. At the very least you will be compensated for your work. It's very good to share this information so new sellers can defend themselves.