Top Clients Verification on Fiverr: Enough's Enough

[e_benincasa]

I would like to share and provide feedback on my recent experience with having several "Top Clients" removed.  A few months ago, Fiverr required us to verify our top clients by providing the order# or link to show we worked with them.  To start, I found this extremely frustrating as I don't always remember Buyer's Usernames or when they placed the order, even though I had the completed file.  This caused me to comb through all of my orders to try and find the orders that matched up. 

I sent in the required information and yesterday was emailed saying a few of my top clients were declined and removed.  This was extremely frustrating for me.  I provided proof, why was this happening? 

I reached out to CS and while I generally have good experiences with CS, this was not the case.  I asked several questions which were not addressed and was simply told that the company they use to verify Top Clients, could not verify that Pfizer (one of my clients) was not a global company? All of my other questions were completely ignored and all of the other links to the orders I provided yet again for the other clients, were ignored.   I have since asked this issue to be escalated. 

Here is what I don't understand:  If you look at my stats you can see I have good reviews, have done a fair amount of orders and have met requirements to become a Top Seller. Does this not make me a credible seller? 

Fiverr is making 20% off of what I bring in, wouldn't we want to showcase our top clients in an effort to bring in more money?  I understand that Fiverr wants to prevent people from abusing this system and I agree, but there has to be a better way!

Fiverr, you are taking credit away from people that have worked hard and deserve it and combing through years of orders is very time consuming and frustrating if you are going to remove our top clients. 

Please reconsider this system. 

[filipdevaere]

In this topic the top client was Pfizer. As I said before, it looks like they are just focusing now to clean up the "big and famous" top clients. And later the rest of the top clients.

[midsummervoice]

If Fiverr's search function worked, then this likely wouldn't be an issue. It doesn't, so I can't search for clients or past orders...
The expectation and onus to audit thousands of orders seem odd, especially when the verification company doesn't have access to our orders anyway to confirm or deny them.

[kittyjayvoice]

I agree with everything @e_benincasa says here. I also had 2 of my top clients removed, though I did exactly what was requested by Fiverr at the onset. My biggest client to date, Coca-Cola, was booked right here on Fiverr! I even have a chat where I ask the buyer if I can use Coca-Cola in my credits, and am told yes! But CS told me this morning that the third party could not verify that Coca-Cola is a "global" company. LOL. Let that sink in. I was told that if I feel an error has been made, I need to completely resubmit that one, as well as my other that was removed. Oh, and I wasn't even able to try and add Novo Nordisk, who I also booked here on Fiverr, because the company wasn't recognized in the system (Psssst.... they make Ozempic.)

 

[vickieito]

6 hours ago, filipdevaere said:

I think that Fiverr has not enough employees to handle it.

....and that's why I think buyers should approve Top Clients not Fiverr (just like how they approve the gallery samples). Sellers are already supposed to have their buyers' approval before adding them as Top Clients anyways, so why not have that as the final approval (and streamline the process)? Then that would free up Fiverr's staff to approve the clients whose work was done elsewhere.

I still have Top Client approvals that were approved by my clients in June 2022, but Fiverr never approved them - both are still in 'pending' status. I submitted a help desk ticket when I was notified of the new changes to Top Clients and I was told that these clients will never be approved because of the new changes to the Top Client (my clients are too small to be considered top clients).

In my mind, here are the main issues with the Top Client feature:

1. If your client isn't on Fiverr's preselected list, then the client can't be listed as a Top Client.

Why this is a problem: Fiverr is creating this list, which means lots of good clients are being left off of this list (and it creates a lot more work for Fiverr). It also puts the client on the pedestal instead of the seller's skills (and I think it should be the other way around). Sometimes the best projects (showcasing the quality of a seller's work) come from smaller clients. 

2. Fiverr still isn't checking the buyers' approval of the Top Clients. They only ask sellers to check a box certifying that they received the client's approval.

Why this is a problem: This could lead to potential lawsuits if companies, especially the big ones, find out that there are a lot of sellers listing them as a Top Client without their approval (and especially if some of the freelancers are misrepresenting their skills by using this feature).

3. The Top Client submission form is extremely limited. Only URLs showing the actual work are allowed.

Why this is a problem: This sets both Fiverr's review team and sellers up for failure. Sellers can't attach the actual work, invoices, agreements, signatures, contracts, etc as proof of the work. This also creates more work for the review team because they can't complete an adequate review with just a URL (and all they can do is ask the seller to send more "proof" that can never be attached to the Top Client submission form). 

@Yoav.M and @lior_porat - can you take a look at this thread (as well as the thread by @e_benincasa)? I'm sure that there are plenty of sellers who would like to be part of the discussion on how the Top Client feature can be improved. Thanks in advance for all your help!

[wc_narration]

I luckily haven't had any of my clients removed, but I find that the list of top clients we can add now is very limited with no ability to add custom ones for review.  I did a job for Yves Saint Laurent, a very well known company, and they aren't an option.  

[nikoleta_dev]

I have been also waiting for a long time for one of my clients to be approved, and after months of waiting, I finally got the response why it hasn't been added to the list...

Quote

As for your top client, we recently updated our Top Clients feature, and you might see that some of your entries are currently in "pending" status.  This could be due to two reasons:

• If the entry was done before May 2023, it means your client’s name was not available on the dropdown menu when added, and you submitted it for review to be added.  Unfortunately, these entries will no longer be reviewed and you may delete them to add a new client.
• If the entry was done after May 2023, your client and the proof of work submitted are currently under review.  We don’t have a specific time frame for this review, but you will be notified as soon as a decision is made.

Hope this brings some answers and clarity to others with a similar struggle. ✌🏽

[e_benincasa]

1 hour ago, vickieito said:

....and that's why I think buyers should approve Top Clients not Fiverr (just like how they approve the gallery samples). Sellers are already supposed to have their buyers' approval before adding them as Top Clients anyways, so why not have that as the final approval (and streamline the process)? Then that would free up Fiverr's staff to approve the clients whose work was done elsewhere.

I still have Top Client approvals that were approved by my clients in June 2022, but Fiverr never approved them - both are still in 'pending' status. I submitted a help desk ticket when I was notified of the new changes to Top Clients and I was told that these clients will never be approved because of the new changes to the Top Client (my clients are too small to be considered top clients).

In my mind, here are the main issues with the Top Client feature:

1. If your client isn't on Fiverr's preselected list, then the client can't be listed as a Top Client.

Why this is a problem: Fiverr is creating this list, which means lots of good clients are being left off of this list (and it creates a lot more work for Fiverr). It also puts the client on the pedestal instead of the seller's skills (and I think it should be the other way around). Sometimes the best projects (showcasing the quality of a seller's work) come from smaller clients. 

2. Fiverr still isn't checking the buyers' approval of the Top Clients. They only ask sellers to check a box certifying that they received the client's approval.

Why this is a problem: This could lead to potential lawsuits if companies, especially the big ones, find out that there are a lot of sellers listing them as a Top Client without their approval (and especially if some of the freelancers are misrepresenting their skills by using this feature).

3. The Top Client submission form is extremely limited. Only URLs showing the actual work are allowed.

Why this is a problem: This sets both Fiverr's review team and sellers up for failure. Sellers can't attach the actual work, invoices, agreements, signatures, contracts, etc as proof of the work. This also creates more work for the review team because they can't complete an adequate review with just a URL (and all they can do is ask the seller to send more "proof" that can never be attached to the Top Client submission form). 

@Yoav.M and @lior_porat - can you take a look at this thread (as well as the thread by @e_benincasa)? I'm sure that there are plenty of sellers who would like to be part of the discussion on how the Top Client feature can be improved. Thanks in advance for all your help!

I agree completely! This has been so frustrating and to your point when I have tried to add other top clients, they are not listed but they are well known. So I'm left with top clients that are getting removed and others that I can't add.   Again, what still baffles me is if we are doing well as sellers we bring in more money for fiverr!  If we meet certain stats or criteria we should be vetted.  Either come up with a better system or get rid of it all together and ruin it for everyone else, but it's not working and I can't keep coming through hundreds of orders to find the order to show proof and then have it be rejected again, its a waste of time. 

[e_benincasa]

1 hour ago, wc_narration said:

I luckily haven't had any of my clients removed, but I find that the list of top clients we can add now is very limited with no ability to add custom ones for review.  I did a job for Yves Saint Laurent, a very well known company, and they aren't an option.  

I agree and this is also frustrating. We try to add new top clients and they aren't listed yet they are very well known and are other clients are getting removed.  

[bethanyvo]

I agree completely! 3 of mine have been turned to “pending” with an email saying they need more information. They are Fiverr orders with the order number included! What is really strange is that the ones that were accepted had the company name within the script and that script was pasted in the requirements instead of being in a file.  After talking with CS they asked me to upload supporting docs via Google drive or similar.
 

Are they not able to open files in our requirements to verify the company? Hopefully they fine tune this outsourcing task because as @e_benincasa said - it only benefits Fiverr to have more vetted client clout among its freelancers. There are SO MANY big name/Fortune 500 companies that subcontract smaller businesses for this VO work and that is a great marketing avenue for Fiverr!

[terrygrantvo]

11 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

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.

If it makes you feel any better, I seriously doubt any buyer has ever been swayed by a sellers 'top clients', especially seeing as how virtually everyone has had a murderers' row of cool names up there. (legit or not)

...and, I mean - we're all about to have no names at all up there, so... whatever.

[terrygrantvo]

There's no way on Earth that these are being vetted manually by humans (whether by Fiverr or any 3rd party), right? That would take an eternity.

If they're trying to get away with using AI to scrape these submissions, it would explain why the scope of acceptable proof is so narrow. A machine won't be able to interpret a Fiverr order page, or a youtube link, or an number of other legitimate sources, but they could pretty easily be programmed to recognize a link that has 'www.bmw.com' in it.

 

BTW - I'm selling tin foil hats over on Esty, if anyone is interested. The price is 5 positive private reviews.

[theratypist]

Ahhh, three of my top clients got removed and I didn't want to bother fixing it. All of my top clients were clients I got from Fiverr, went as detailed as I possibly could - provided all relevant links. Still got removed, meh. I am relieved knowing that I'm not the only one facing this. And it seems the cleaning still hasn't wiped up those who are putting the likes of Amazon on their top clients.

While I didn't consult CS regarding this, I noticed the ones that got removed on my end were the kind of projects that didn't have links that circled back to the client's website (e.g. the work cannot be found on client's website). But seriously, there are just some Fiverr categories that it's hard to purposely have that kind of data involved in a project. Some projects can also be confidential in nature and not for purposes of publishing (????).

I was happy with the idea of the clean up but disappointed to see that the system purges the wrong ones yet still seems to let faulty top client listings come through...

[e_benincasa]

CS just responded asking me to provide the the same information I HAVE ALREADY provided 3 times to prove I have worked with these clients.  This is ridiculous. I can't keep combing through these orders.  This is beyond frustrating and I have attached screen shots and order #s to all CS tickets.   I did exactly what I was supposed to do when Fiverr asked us to verify, I followed the rules.  Why am I as well as others dealing with this headache? 

Additionally, I asked other questions about 2 other top clients and CS just continues to ignore that part of my request. 

[smashradio]

7 hours ago, e_benincasa said:

that the company they use to verify Top Clients, could not verify that Pfizer (one of my clients) was not a global company? 

Interesting. So they're using a third-party company to check these things. That could explain why support is unable/unwilling to give us proper answers. 

7 hours ago, kittyjayvoice said:

could not verify that Coca-Cola is a "global" company. LOL. Let that sink in.

Maybe they found their employees here on the forum. The quality of their work would seem to indicate they picked the ones who posted the most "rank my gig" posts in a day. 

6 hours ago, vickieito said:

....and that's why I think buyers should approve Top Clients not Fiverr (just like how they approve the gallery samples). Sellers are already supposed to have their buyers' approval before adding them as Top Clients anyways, so why not have that as the final approval (and streamline the process)? Then that would free up Fiverr's staff to approve the clients whose work was done elsewhere.

 

I see specific issues with this approach, including making it impossible to add clients from outside of Fiverr. Fiverr would ask industry professionals who have spent years building their careers to go through rigorous vetting, only to tell them they can't display their top clients on Fiverr. I will continue to work with some of the biggest brands on the market, not just in the Nordic market, but companies like Nestlé and Pfizer, outside of the platform. I can't show that to my clients unless they order on Fiverr. 

To be honest, I believe the solution here is only to let TRS and Pro vetted sellers use the feature. 

It would clearly delineate between low-level and vetted industry professionals, eliminating the need for superfluous and repeated vetting. This costs Fiverr money and our time. It also helps avoid buyer confusion and would yield significant resource savings for Fiverr since they wouldn't have to continually vet top-rated and pro sellers (or their top clients). We're already vetted. If Fiverr has faith in the process they created, it can all be solved easily. 

3 hours ago, terrygrantvo said:

If it makes you feel any better, I seriously doubt any buyer has ever been swayed by a sellers 'top clients', especially seeing as how virtually everyone has had a murderers' row of cool names up there. (legit or not)

True. But they could be. If the feature was reserved for sellers who are already vetted. 

 

[visualstudios]

On 6/1/2023 at 3:10 PM, rahulkajla1 said:

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.

It was me. I was able to remove the links (they were in the FAQ, actually, so I didn't even notice them), and got the gig back no issues.

I advise EVERYONE to remove any YouTube links - YouTube channels are linked to your e-mail, so it counts as outside contact. That's their reasoning. By the way, the gig can remain active for years, and one day, out of nowhere, it gets suspended until you fix it. That's what happened to me.

Edited June 2, 2023 by visualstudios

[leannelrivers]

10 hours ago, visualstudios said:

and one day, out of nowhere, it gets suspended until you fix it.

Can anyone from the Fiverr team clarify this? YouTube is on the list of approved Fiverr links. My Success Manager told me I can add my YouTube portfolio link to my gigs, descriptions and messages so long as my email isn't public on YT (heaven forbid that a client should discover we exist independently of the platform). CS told me two days ago that I can add my YouTube link, yet @visualstudios had a gig shut down until the YouTube link was removed. Most of us are just trying to showcase ourselves, we're not trying to nick your 20%! 

[donnovan86]

What's funny to me is that I just received access to Notable Clients a day or so after complaining here I never got it. 

Anyway I am still confused if I should use the feature and if it makes any difference. With so many issues being shown here... I don't feel confident in adding any notable clients.

[smashradio]

12 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

What's funny to me is that I just received access to Notable Clients a day or so after complaining here I never got it. 

Anyway I am still confused if I should use the feature and if it makes any difference. With so many issues being shown here... I don't feel confident in adding any notable clients.

Spending time adding them now would be like taking a piss outside in a hurricane while trying to balance on a unicycle. I'd wait until they figure out what to do about this mess. 

[terrygrantvo]

3 hours ago, smashradio said:

would be like taking a piss outside in a hurricane while trying to balance on a unicycle.

Not that I've ever done that... on a thursday night in Nashville... because some college kid bet 20 bucks that I would chicken out.

[donnovan86]

7 hours ago, smashradio said:

Spending time adding them now would be like taking a piss outside in a hurricane while trying to balance on a unicycle.

Now I was trying to image how that would be :))

I agree, I don't think it's meaningful. And honestly I am not really seeing a huge benefit from adding this feature honestly.  

[reikichristy]

On 6/1/2023 at 6:25 AM, smashradio said:

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.

 

I had a top client removed because the 'third party' verification said is wasn't a global company. The client is in over 200 countries. If that isn't global, I don't know what is!

 

[smashradio]

20 minutes ago, reikichristy said:

I had a top client removed because the 'third party' verification said is wasn't a global company. The client is in over 200 countries. If that isn't global, I don't know what is!

 

Yep. I know of sellers who got the same message about Coca-Cola! Pretty amazing. You should reach out to your Success Manager if you have Seller Plus. 

[saimii]

I had Top clients I worked with. I just ignored the notification considering it was for those who have put companies like Fiverr, up etc. 
After due date they removed it and on enquiring I was told that I didn't provide them Order page links. 

well I have again added all with Order page links, Website link and selected from their provided options in the dropdown. But all are still Pending. Lets see. 

[theratypist]

So I was shopping around for some services and as usual I am amused at how some top clients are still........there.

Mhmm, last time I checked University of Toronto wasn't a major e-commerce website. 🤣