Top Clients Verification on Fiverr: Enough's Enough

[smashradio]

When Fiverr launched its Top Clients verification, I was thrilled. It was an overdue cleanup for a feature exploited by pretenders claiming to be big-league vets. But after seeing two of my star clients chucked off the list (clients I'd done solid work for on Fiverr, mind you, and could prove it with a boatload of completed orders), I've had it up to here with this feature. 

Jumping through hoops, backtracking orders, wrestling with elusive and generic responses from support and my success manager, who didn't even want to help initially... Fiverr's requirements would be fine if the team looking into it did their job properly. But spending more time on this than I already have? I'm not even gonna bother. They can have my Top Clients. Enough's enough.

 

[rahulkajla1]

19 minutes ago, smashradio said:

But after seeing two of my star clients chucked off the list (clients I'd done solid work for on Fiverr, mind you, and could prove it with a boatload of completed orders), I've had it up to here with this feature. 

Three of my "top clients" were not accepted. One was declined, and they requested more information for the other two. What more information do they need? I provided the order page links. And there is no option to write or add anything other than links. It took me around an hour to find all the buyers and their order page links. I am not bothering with it now.

Edited June 1, 2023 by rahulkajla1

[smashradio]

9 minutes ago, rahulkajla1 said:

Three of my "top clients" were not accepted. One was declined, and they requested more information for the other two. What more information do they need? I provided the order page links. And there is no option to write or add anything other than links. It took me around an hour to find all the buyers and their order page links. I am not bothering with it now.

Had to send in "added documentation" on the first one. It took me no less than three e-mails back and forth with support before I got something resembling a human response. I also got a canned response from my SM, so I had to do the same thing there. Then another client was axed despite a bunch of orders. Making top-rated pro sellers go through this hoop-jumping is pure nonsense. You'd think their team could do more than skim an order to verify it - or perhaps it's all AI these days. Either way, I'm not up for seconds on this. Not worth it. 

I'm usually not the type to complain, but this level of incompetence deserves a mention. 🫡

[smashradio]

And just to illustrate the level of incompetence here, this is the response I received today, after sending a thorough request explaining the issue to support, including screenshots and order lists as documentation. 

This is what they call "Priority Support" from a "dedicated Pro support team". 

Perhaps they should make the employees sit through one of the webinars for sellers on how to treat clients. 😀

(And yes, I know I can ask them to escalate, and they'll have another look. It's automated. I know. It's still not ok. It's the support experience that rubs me the wrong way here, mostly.)

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by smashradio

[leannelrivers]

1 hour ago, smashradio said:

two of my star clients chucked off the list

My entire list is deleted today. I'm now trying to get them approved again. It's backfired somewhat. I'm just going to list my top clients in my descriptions and CS has confirmed that I can share my VO Youtube portfolio as it doesn't have any contact details on it, so at least buyers can actually see for themselves who I've worked for. 

[leannelrivers]

4 minutes ago, smashradio said:

this is the response I received today,

I got this same response too. I imagine they'll be getting quite a few emails about this. 

[smashradio]

Just now, leannelrivers said:

My entire list is deleted today. I'm now trying to get them approved again. It's backfired somewhat. I'm just going to list my top clients in my descriptions and CS has confirmed that I can share my VO Youtube portfolio as it doesn't have any contact details on it, so at least buyers can actually see for themselves who I've worked for. 

Indeed. You're also a Pro/TRS seller. After jumping through all those hoops, one would expect a degree of trust from Fiverr. It begs the question: if Fiverr doesn't have faith in its own validation process, how can they expect buyers to have it?

As sellers, we go through rigorous vetting to earn badges meant to reflect trustworthiness and professionalism. Still, we're inundated with requirements to document and prove everything (one might say rightfully so). But when we do, we're met with ominous emails filled with threats of losing access to the feature. When we seek assistance from support, we are met with responses that could well qualify for the Canned Response of the Year-award due to their sheer unhelpfulness. It leaves a lot to be desired. 

[leannelrivers]

17 minutes ago, smashradio said:

one would expect a degree of trust from Fiverr.

You'd think so. I'm also second-guessing adding my Youtube portfolio. Even though I've been assured by two separate Fiverr team members that it's OK, provided there is no contact information on there, Pedro had his gig shut down until he removed his YT portfolio link. And YT is on the list of approved Fiverr links. I can't be bothered with it anymore. I'll edit my descriptions to include my top clients and be done with it. I feel like I spend as much time avoiding doing something wrong as I do on my actual job. 

Edited June 1, 2023 by leannelrivers

[rahulkajla1]

Just now, leannelrivers said:

Pedro had his gig shut down until he removed his YT portfolio link.

What?! Someone's gig was shut down due to YT links? I guess its time for me to edit my descriptions and remove the YouTube and Vimeo links.

3 minutes ago, leannelrivers said:

I'll edit my descriptions to include my top clients and be done with it. 

That's what I've done. 

[leannelrivers]

Just now, rahulkajla1 said:

What?! Someone's gig was shut down due to YT links?

That's what our friend says. I believe the gig was made active again once he removed the link, but he was forced to. 

[vickiespencer]

Meanwhile:

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by vickiespencer

[maitasun]

Ohhhh, but problems don't end there... If you haven't delivered in the last 24 hours, your profile will show that your last delivery was 6 months ago. This includes Pro sellers like @newsmike or @frank_d... 🙄

[uk1000]

4 minutes ago, maitasun said:

your profile will show that your last delivery was 6 months ago.

It does that for some sellers but not others. I've reported that to CS this afternoon. It was okay 4 days ago.

Edited June 1, 2023 by uk1000

[smashradio]

On 6/1/2023 at 1:01 PM, vickiespencer said:

Meanwhile:

And this is the problem. Meksells and liars are still free to roam the platform, while actual business professionals get their top clients removed, are forced to remove Youtube links, and get random warnings that later have to be removed by support because it's a mistake. It's becoming increasingly frustrating to work on Fiverr, and I'm saying this keeping in mind that only about a year ago, I told someone I loved Fiverr because of the frictionless experience. 

[terrygrantvo]

4 hours ago, smashradio said:

Indeed. You're also a Pro/TRS seller. After jumping through all those hoops, one would expect a degree of trust from Fiverr. 

(sigh...) Yep.

They continue to treat us all like children who are just dying to stick our finger in the light socket because the entire system is designed to do that and they don't have a way to differentiate. 

They're fine to let 13yr olds with an iPad sign up, and the only way they can think of to combat the problems that causes is to treat us all like 13yr olds.

 

It's exhausting.

[smashradio]

I just got this from support regarding them removing Mercedes, which I have worked with on multiple orders as of late. They were removed today. 

Read this one carefully. Apparently, only URLs to the client's website containing the actual work will now be accepted. 🙂 That excludes radio commercials, tv commercials, and all internal projects not posted to the client's website.

No mention of the fact that the threatening e-mail I got said I could lose access to the feature if I keep submitting and it gets declined again - the agent is telling me to re-submit and hope for the best. 

I'm confirming this one a second time with support, and they finally decided to check the screenshot I've been attaching to every single message: 

Edited June 1, 2023 by smashradio

[newsmike]

@smashradio  I linked directly to National Geographic's YT page hosting the video, plus the 2 Fiverr invoices from when they hired me, and they are asking for further verification. I swear, interns are running the place. 

[terrygrantvo]

You know, for a site that is so hell bent on us never having contact with clients outside of fiverr, they sure are going to some pretty great lengths now to ensure that we more or less have to do that in order to even use this feature.

 

What a mess.

[smashradio]

17 minutes ago, newsmike said:

@smashradio  I linked directly to National Geographic's YT page hosting the video, plus the 2 Fiverr invoices from when they hired me, and they are asking for further verification. I swear, interns are running the place. 

Good lord. Next I bet we have to physically show up in Tel Aviv with the CEO of the company to meet with Mr. Kaufman personally in order to verify the client. But first, we have to get past the Gen Z Brigade of dedicated pro-support representatives with baseball bats and an attitude.  

9 minutes ago, terrygrantvo said:

You know, for a site that is so hell bent on us never having contact with clients outside of fiverr, they sure are going to some pretty great lengths now to ensure that we more or less have to do that in order to even use this feature.

 

What a mess.

Yeah. Like I said earlier...

5 hours ago, smashradio said:

It begs the question: if Fiverr doesn't have faith in its own validation process, how can they expect buyers to have it?

And they're going after verified professionals here. If their own verification means so little, why bother?

[terrygrantvo]

This just goes to show (once again) how little they actually understand freelancing... and apparently advertising as well.

I'd say roughly 95% of the ads I do never end up on the company website because that's not how advertising works.

 

This is mind boggling, even for them.

[filipdevaere]

Maybe they are just focussing now to clean up the "big and famous" top clients. And later the rest of the top clients.

[donnovan86]

I never received this feature, despite being here for a very long time. I saw a lot of people with similar pricing receiving it, even if they are way newer. Considering what you guys are saying, I guess it's for the best and even if I get this, I don't think I will add any meaningful client there even if I had quite a lot of those.

[catwriter]

3 hours ago, filipdevaere said:

Maybe they are just focussing now to clean up the "big and famous" top clients. And later the rest of the top clients.

And yet some people are still being allowed to falsely claim that they have worked for Amazon or Fiverr.

[filipdevaere]

@catwriter

I think that Fiverr has not enough employees to handle it. And not only handling the “top clients issue”.
It looks like they do have not enough employees for the Custom support team, success managers,  …….

[leannelrivers]

12 hours ago, terrygrantvo said:

never end up on the company website because that's not how advertising works

And many big companies utilise sites like YouTube and Vimeo to showcase their commercial and brand videos, but now YouTube links don't seem to be accepted as proof of work. I'm sure they'll remove the sneaky TCs from other profiles, but that will take a while. If my new entries get denied again, there's a chance I'll have the feature taken away altogether, and that's fine. It's not worth the back-and-forth. I managed to get hired by big clients before I had the TC feature, and I'll get more without it. 

Edited June 2, 2023 by leannelrivers