Chrageback of $800

[saylmayn]

Hello everyone, I hope everybody is doing great. I am a second level seller, close to be top rated, and a couple of days ago one of my repeat buyers initiated a chargeback on a $800 order. It was a long term task which took around 2.5 months to complete. The order had multiple revisions and when I made the last revision and the buyer and I were dead sure that the final work met all the requirements he put it in revision asking for time for review. I was fine with it and next day I woke up to a chargeback. I was not aware of chargebacks until now so I thought the CS had cancelled the order.  I immediately contacted the buyer and the CS. The buyer played innocent and said he did not do anything. While the CS informed that it was a chargeback, something very new and strange to me. The CS suggested to take the buyer on board and re-place another contract. I messaged the buyer (At that time, I was seriously not thinking that he scammed me) but he did not respond to any of my texts despite being online. I contacted CS again and they said they can't do anything about it. Apparently, the buyer has taken all the money and now using my work for free with all impunity. He is not responding to my texts anymore and CS is not being helpful as well. I am not sure what should I do. This was not some $5 or $10 order but $800 and it had totally devastated me. Is there anything I can do to bring my funds back?

[theratypist]

If you're still able to see (or visit) the buyer's profile - it's likely a (legitimate?) chargeback. Legitimate is a loose term here (for lack of better word), because usually what happens if the buyer did a chargeback on his/her own with their bank, his/her profile automatically gets banned and you can't see their profile anymore. But if in this case you can still visit their profile, it's likely they talked to Customer Support about it and CS approved it.

Of course those are just my thoughts and I can't conclude that is the case - but it is a known fact that if a buyer did a chargeback with their bank (and not consulting CS), a buyer's profile gets automatically banned. 

Fiverr has something called Seller Protection, you can read more here:

https://www.fiverr.com/support/articles/360010978618-Chargebacks-and-seller-protection

"Fiverr may protect you, under its sole discretion, from fraudulent chargebacks, and the funds might be added back to your account, but it is not guaranteed. This does not affect your order completion rate."

 

[saylmayn]

12 hours ago, theratypist said:

If you're still able to see (or visit) the buyer's profile - it's likely a (legitimate?) chargeback. Legitimate is a loose term here (for lack of better word), because usually what happens if the buyer did a chargeback on his/her own with their bank, his/her profile automatically gets banned and you can't see their profile anymore. But if in this case you can still visit their profile, it's likely they talked to Customer Support about it and CS approved it.

Of course those are just my thoughts and I can't conclude that is the case - but it is a known fact that if a buyer did a chargeback with their bank (and not consulting CS), a buyer's profile gets automatically banned. 

Fiverr has something called Seller Protection, you can read more here:

https://www.fiverr.com/support/articles/360010978618-Chargebacks-and-seller-protection

"Fiverr may protect you, under its sole discretion, from fraudulent chargebacks, and the funds might be added back to your account, but it is not guaranteed. This does not affect your order completion rate."

 

Well, I do not think any chargeback is legal or legitimate. There was a point at first when the buyer played innocent and said he did not do anything and told me after some days that his bank did it without his knowledge. Keeping in mind our history of contracts and my lack of knowledge regarding chargebacks, I believed him at that time and I think so did CS (which is ridiculous). Now that I am sure he did it on purpose, I contacted CS again and they said they have put him on "increased monitoring" which is also very strange. I made them contact the buyer on my behalf as well and he did not respond to CS texts as well. I am of point that getting him banned won't bring my funds back so I am exploring options to get my funds. Now that CS has given up, I am unable to think any. Below is the image where I  believed the buyer and CS did as well, at that time the buyer was communicating with me.

[theratypist]

8 hours ago, saylmayn said:

Below is the image where I  believed the buyer and CS did as well, at that time the buyer was communicating with me.

So it appears to be that the buyer really did do with their bank. It is strange if their profile is still live and not banned. Anyway, I've read cases where sellers were still compensated by Fiverr but it's really a case to case basis. You can search "chargeback" on the forum, and you'll see other cases about this as well.

[nika_3dartist]

I know it can be stressful, but I'd still try to (politely) talk to the CS explaining that you really need your funds back, as the amount of money is rather high and the work has been completed regularly.

I did notice in my 3 years on this platform that the agents in charge are not always on the same page. Someone might not even read the previously posted messages and provide the same useless, automated response that has been written at the beginning of the conversation. I had agents telling me they could help me recover my stats after a glitch with the platform (an extra perk applied to the order didn't register the additional time although I added it correctly), but the person who jumped in after told me they couldn't do anything, resulting in a late order that I couldn't fix.

Keep trying, it's the only way to go I'm afraid. Someone who is willing to side with you might show up and talk to the related department. I had my funds restored when a client cancelled an approved order after a disagreement we had in the inbox, because what I did was in the scope of the original request and thus I deserved to still be compensated.