Important Update: Some canceled orders now qualify for buyer reviews

[newsmike]

5 hours ago, Shiran.M said:

In order to create a more accurate review system and to increase transparency and trust on our platform, starting next week, buyers who cancel an order will also be able to leave a review and share their experiences. 

This applies to cancellations of orders in which a delivery was received and/or orders that involve lateness or unresponsiveness. Of course, this option won’t be available for orders made by mistake.

Following this change, we will decrease the rating score threshold for all levels from 4.7 to 4.2 in order to help sellers maintain their rating levels.

We encourage our sellers community to use this feedback as an opportunity to improve your services and address any issues that may have led to cancellations. As always, you will be able to add a public response to the review on your Gig page.

We believe that this update will yield long-term benefits for both buyers and sellers, especially those who provide quality user experiences.

Click here to learn more about this upcoming change.
The Fiverr team
 

Good move. An important first step in removing poor quality sellers from the platform. 

[bad_robot]

Great, it's time to focus on Upwork with their new tasty 10% commission.

[simo_messek]

@corvoace Trust me they don't seem to give a single F about us running this platform and making them money! we should seriously cancel this platform and see if they will actually listen this time!

[aysekoker]

This update is quite frustrating because I can not even understand why cancellations affect our completion rate, it is already something stressful. Because if you think from the perspective of a seller why would a seller want to cancel an order if there is not any problem with the communication or requirements from buyers' side. Like there are so many buyers in this platform whom can not even understand how rating system is important to sellers. They casually order and casually cancel orders without even caring about stats meanwhile sellers are the ones who did effort and could not get paid. Instead of these buyer centric updates they should bring partially refund options to protect sellers' efforts. I understand unresponsiveness and late orders but unsatisfactory order? How can you measure this? Because we all know there are some buyers who will never get satisfied with any product 😕 demotivating.

[skydesigner]

Again another terrible update for the sellers, I don't mind getting honest reviews but work for $0 and get a bad review that is next level.

The biggest issue is that buyers can get a refund simply by contacting support if they are unhappy with the delivery there is zero protection for sellers in cases like this and now is even worse. 🤮

[gwyneth_galvin]

😂 what left is there to say? Fiverr becomes more of a hostile environment for sellers every year I stay on. What a joke. I very much look forward to all the backlash being ignored by Fiverr while your top sellers continue to make you millions. 👍

[gwyneth_galvin]

4 minutes ago, bad_robot said:

Great, it's time to focus on Upwork with their new tasty 10% commission.

I think it's finally time for me to switch

[simo_messek]

@newsmike Oh really!! what about removing poor quality buyers and thieves? and focusing on making the platform more professional and requesting portfolios of previous work when registering sellers instead of accepting everyone!

[newsmike]

Amazing watching so many argue against transparency and accountability.  Absolutely amazing. This only affects people who get their orders cancelled.  

[newsmike]

Just now, simo_messek said:

@newsmike Oh really!! what about removing poor quality buyers and thieves? and focusing on making the platform more professional and requesting portfolios of previous work when registering sellers instead of accepting everyone!

That is also a good step to take. Overdue indeed.

[gwyneth_galvin]

3 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Amazing watching so many argue against transparency and accountability.  Absolutely amazing. This only affects people who get their orders cancelled.  

I think this is really unfair to be honest. I rarely cancel orders but sometimes you have to, as someone else said, to stay sane. We've all had vindictive buyers who would absolutely leave a bad review for trivial reasons after cancellations. Ive cancelled orders for buyers because they were insulting me or making unfair demands. It's realistic to expect that this means we will have zero recourse for this now.

Edited June 14, 2023 by gwyneth_galvin

[newsmike]

4 minutes ago, simo_messek said:

@newsmike Oh really!! what about removing poor quality buyers and thieves? and focusing on making the platform more professional and requesting portfolios of previous work when registering sellers instead of accepting everyone!

As I said, also a good move. I also support a monthly fee in order to sell on Fiverr

Edited June 14, 2023 by newsmike

[zeecreations]

Your competitor has halved the commission and charging 10% only now, and you come up with this?

You're making the decision for many sellers who were already thinking to move there. 

[newsmike]

Just now, zeecreations said:

Your competitor has halved the commission and charging 10% only now, and you come up with this?

You're making the decision for many sellers who were already thinking to move there. 

I'm thinking that Fiverr knew exactly what they were doing.  Sending all the folks who get their order cancelled to Up****.  Brilliant. 

[newsmike]

3 minutes ago, gwyneth_galvin said:

I rarely cancel orders but sometimes you have to, as someone else said, to stay sane.

I know you and I have discussed this before, however I still disagree. 

[simo_messek]

Just now, zeecreations said:

Your competitor has halved the commission and charging 10% only now, and you come up with this?

You're making the decision for many sellers who were already thinking to move there. 

Am literally opening an account over there right now! am not gonna sit and watch them do things without even taking us into consideration and how abused we will be! funny enough i make 3x more from LinkedIn directly with respected/pro clients then being here. Fiverr will hit rock bottom in few years i believe

[donnovan86]

5 hours ago, Shiran.M said:

buyers who cancel an order will also be able to leave a review and share their experiences. 

@Shiran.M, can you please confirm one thing for us?

In the article it says "Buyers (excluding first-time buyers) can leave a review for canceled orders within 14 days from cancellation if the case involved lateness, unresponsiveness, or an unsatisfactory delivery.".

Does that mean if someone orders from you for the first time, and they cancel, they can't leave a review for a canceled order? I hope so, because otherwise you can have a random competitor sending an order, then asking for a refund and trashing you with a very bad review. Can you please confirm that only return clients can leave a review for a canceled order? I think that's the case, but many sellers are very confused about this in another forum topic regarding this change. So if you can let us know what that means (first time buyer for you or for the Fiverr platform), that would help us better understand this change. 

[simo_messek]

17 minutes ago, newsmike said:

As I said, also a good move. I also support a monthly fee in order to sell on Fiverr

Oh, of course! Why not take the absurdity to new heights and increase their fees to a mind-boggling 50% per order? It would be the cherry on top of this circus act! I mean, who needs sanity and fairness when you can just squeeze every last penny out of the hardworking sellers, right? It would be sensational indeed, like a twisted game where Fiverr gets to laugh at the expense of its own users!

But really, let's not stop there. How about charging sellers for the privilege of even being on the platform? That way, Fiverr can truly cement its reputation as a money-grabbing, seller-oppressing machine! Who needs skilled professionals when you can just exploit them for every ounce of talent and effort they possess?

Oh, Fiverr, you never cease to amaze with your ingenious ways of making a mockery of fairness and professionalism. Keep up the "good" work!

[imamiopial]

This might be a scammer's power tool to abuse sellers and get free work done also demolishing the sellers on their way home.

[newsmike]

16 minutes ago, simo_messek said:

Oh, of course! Why not take the absurdity to new heights and increase their fees to a mind-boggling 50% per order? It would be the cherry on top of this circus act! I mean, who needs sanity and fairness when you can just squeeze every last penny out of the hardworking sellers, right? It would be sensational indeed, like a twisted game where Fiverr gets to laugh at the expense of its own users!

But really, let's not stop there. How about charging sellers for the privilege of even being on the platform? That way, Fiverr can truly cement its reputation as a money-grabbing, seller-oppressing machine! Who needs skilled professionals when you can just exploit them for every ounce of talent and effort they possess?

Oh, Fiverr, you never cease to amaze with your ingenious ways of making a mockery of fairness and professionalism. Keep up the "good" work!

Were you a drama major in high school? 

[smashradio]

It seems that a lot of sellers are fearful of their buyers, transparency, and honest feedback. The fact that so many people are rattled by this, tells me something about how necessary this change was. 

If you're an actual professional, you'd welcome honest, transparent feedback about your customer's experience, because the service you provide is top-notch.

One gripe I've always had with Fiverr is their rating system: five stars can mean anything from "mediocre" to "decent" to "phenomenal". That's simply not how it should work.

A quick browse through the search results will reveal countless sellers who have been meticulously sanitizing their reviews, dodging negative reviews for years, simply by cancelling orders when the going got tough.

As a buyer, you're completely unable to trust the public reviews. They mean nothing. 

This is a good change if you're a true professional. That entails knowing how to deal with not just your deliverables, but people. 

 

[smashradio]

55 minutes ago, aysekoker said:

This update is quite frustrating because I can not even understand why cancellations affect our completion rate, it is already something stressful.

So you can't see how not completing an order should affect your completion rate? 

Good lord. 

46 minutes ago, newsmike said:

I'm thinking that Fiverr knew exactly what they were doing.  Sending all the folks who get their order cancelled to Up****.  Brilliant. 

I think you hit the nail on the head. 

[vickieito]

I think this will give transparency about what is happening behind a lot of canceled orders.

Many sellers use cancelations to avoid confrontation, tough conversations, and stress and this will allow sellers to tackle the issues causing their canceled orders.

For example, I used to have cancelations due to my own stress until I eliminated unlimited revisions and extended the delivery times on my orders. I also had to learn how to stand up for myself by setting clear expectations and saying "no." It looks like Fiverr is pushing for sellers to increase the quality of their services, which will decrease cancelations and increase buyer satisfaction.

Not only will this push for sellers to improve communication during orders, but sellers will also be expected to respond professionally to any negative feedback that a buyer may leave on a canceled order. This is also a sales opportunity if used correctly. Like many buyers, I like to see how a seller will respond to a negative review because that will tell me more than any of the positive reviews that they get.

[visualstudios]

20 minutes ago, smashradio said:

That entails knowing how to deal with not just your deliverables, but people. 

Yep, that's exactly the problem. The quality of buyers on this platform is, unfortunately, not that great. Unreasonable people can't be dealt with. I really dislike this change, and for a very simple reason - if I do work and it's canceled, I make $0 for my efforts. That's already unfair. That on top of it I can get a bad review is just... wrong, sorry.

And btw, I have had ZERO cancelations in the past year. I think very few sellers around here can say the same.

So no, I'm not "gaming the system". That's not the point. It's a matter of principle. If you don't pay, you're not a client. If you're not a client, you don't get to leave a review.

Can sellers use the system to cancel problematic orders and not get a review? Sure, and then they get hit on the order completion metric and be demoted anyway. And that's bad, yeah.

Can buyers have someone work for free by canceling (claiming "I didn't like it", which is obviously subjective), and now leave them a bad review on top of that? Apparently yes, and that is much worse.

However:

If we got fair cancelation policies, and a buyer couldn't cancel an order when the seller delivered what was agreed, then I would have no problem with this. 

A seller is scamming people, gets their order canceled and a bad review on top? Yes, that will improve the platform - no issues.

A seller claims to do X but does Y instead, and cancels to avoid a review? Sure, makes sense not to allow that.

A seller fails deadlines, delivers late, and then cancels? Yes, they should still be reviewed.

 

But what about other cases, where the seller does nothing wrong, and the client wants to cancel? This also happens. A buyer can always cancel, if they push it far enough, even if the seller did the actual work. A buyer can always say "I didn't like it", and Fiverr won't force them to accept the order, even if it was according to spec. A seller can never force an order to complete. This is the real problem.

 

Conclusion:

What this change will do is that me (and most serious sellers) will be even more strict with the clients they accept. Any red flag at all will mean too big of a risk to work with, since I can't cancel if they turn out to be unreasonable. So those clients will be turned down, and only sellers that just want to make any sale at any cost will be willing to take them - and sellers like that won't be any good. This will be worse for the experience in the platform.

Edited June 14, 2023 by visualstudios

[smashradio]

14 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

Yep, that's exactly the problem. The quality of buyers on this platform is, unfortunately, not that great. I really dislike this change, and for a very simple reason - if I do work and it's canceled, I make $0 for my efforts. That's already unfair. That on top of it I can get a bad review is just... wrong, sorry.

And btw, I have had ZERO cancelations in the past year. So no, I'm not "gaming the system". That's not the point. It's a matter of principle. If you don't pay, you're not a client. If you're not a client, you don't get to leave a review.

Can sellers use the system to cancel problematic orders and not get a review? Sure, and then they get hit on the order completion metric and be demoted anyway. And that's bad, sure.

Can buyers have someone work for free by canceling, and now leave them a bad review on top of that? Apparently yes, and that is much worse.

Our experiences regarding the quality of buyers differ. I've encountered perhaps a couple of unfounded cancellations during my nine years on the platform.

I've run into my share of troublesome buyers, and those encounters have taught me strategies to avoid the majority of them. I agree that there are cases where orders might be unfairly cancelled, but in my view, these instances are relatively rare.

Let's say you own a store and manage to upset a particularly irritable customer—let's call her Karen—with your service, product, or the lack thereof.

Karen is entirely within her rights to vent her frustrations on Google, Yelp, or Trustpilot with a one-star rating about your business, refund notwithstanding.

Could the current system be refined to mitigate unnecessary cancellations? Absolutely.

However, I genuinely believe that in the rare occurrence of a professional receiving such a review post-cancellation, they should be equipped to handle it.

The buyer cannot simply exploit the work for free, as they don't possess the rights to use it, as per the terms on Fiverr. As a seller, you always have the option to pursue legal action.

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by smashradio
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