No Seller Protection

[hoojinny]

I have been using Fiverr for 3 years and I was always satisfied with the resolution their got. But this time, I am very disappointed and I found that Fiverr's seller protection is very faulty.
 

So after months of work with 2 extensions, half of the work is done, my buyer suddenly cancelled the order without any discussion with me. She never complained to me about anything, everything seemed work perfectly, so this was very sudden to me. And the reason of cancellation was about the overall satisfaction about the work (which was something that she could tell me earlier, the work was half done!). 

We were a bit busy, and also she was going back and forth making change to the work, that's why the work was a bit slow. I have discussed that with her before and she said she was fine with it, she was busy too. And so there was no complaint about time either.

I emailed the customer support to ask if I can get some compensation (because I did half of the work), or at least my completion rate back. They said they can't do it because my order was marked as late, they can't prevent this to happen, the buyer had to accept time extension on time, and that I should not accept any order if I was busy.

That is RIDICULOUS because if their system still mark an extended order as late, then the extension button is useless. If the buyer cannot accept the extension on time, that is also NOT my fault. And hell did they know how many new inquiries that I have rejected while working on that order? I would say tons. 

Let's say I am late, but does that mean the buyer can freely scam the seller that are using time extensions? With this flaw in their system, basically buyer can cancel anytime they want, walk away with half of the work done for free, while the seller got nothing but level demotion and a huge waste of time and energy, for something that is not completely our fault.

I hope they improve their timer system and their seller protection.

[priyank_mod]

1 hour ago, hoojinny said:

They said they can't do it because my order was marked as late, they can't prevent this to happen, the buyer had to accept time extension on time, and that I should not accept any order if I was busy.

Been through multiple similar situations where the support team RIGIDLY ASSUMES that seeking order extension/being marked late is definitely seller's fault!!🫠

They don't make any effort to hear our POV/check if the buyer was not responsive for weeks OR whether buyer delayed sending required input/feedback for the work. 

This seems to be the default internal policy and some buyers exploit it by cancelling the order once the timer expires.🙃

[meldawn9]

I've been forced to refund about $4000 over the past decade for scammer orders. Some were orders that I delivered a month earlier. I have seen a few of my articles posted on my former clients' websites after the fact. It is frustrating for sure. Now what I do after a refund is I post my unpaid articles to my own website. Google downgrades websites that steal content, so I make sure that mine shows up first. It also looks bad if the scammer resold my article to another site, and once they find out they will not order from them again. I don't accept many orders from Fiverr anymore, just enough to keep me occupied during my free time. 

[ailsamcx]

23 hours ago, meldawn9 said:

I've been forced to refund about $4000 over the past decade for scammer orders. Some were orders that I delivered a month earlier. I have seen a few of my articles posted on my former clients' websites after the fact. It is frustrating for sure. Now what I do after a refund is I post my unpaid articles to my own website. Google downgrades websites that steal content, so I make sure that mine shows up first. It also looks bad if the scammer resold my article to another site, and once they find out they will not order from them again. I don't accept many orders from Fiverr anymore, just enough to keep me occupied during my free time. 

I have, just yesterday, experienced the same for the first time after a full year on Fiverr - the buyer submitted a chargeback 3 weeks after delivery was physically accepted (not automatically..) and Fiverr accepted and said I'm not covered by their protection policy. I'm not even going to bother with customer service, but have uploaded the article to my own website instead. Do you find this a regular occurrence - or any tips for how to avoid this in future please? 

[meldawn9]

On 12/16/2023 at 3:02 PM, ailsamcx said:

I have, just yesterday, experienced the same for the first time after a full year on Fiverr - the buyer submitted a chargeback 3 weeks after delivery was physically accepted (not automatically..) and Fiverr accepted and said I'm not covered by their protection policy. I'm not even going to bother with customer service, but have uploaded the article to my own website instead. Do you find this a regular occurrence - or any tips for how to avoid this in future please? 

If you have a successful order with a client then encourage them to order again. As for those who message you, it can be a red flag if they are making all these unreasonable demands, particularly for a cheap order. For example, when messaging you they may say the gig must be of a certain length with all these keywords and not AI-generated, must pass copyscape, must use 40 keywords, must not contain one grammatical or spelling error.... a few demands are fine, but when you see that they have copy and pasted the entire terms and conditions from another writing site, then you know they are reselling your work, and chances are they are going to file a claim at the end whether the work is accepted on the other end or not.

I have on one of my gigs (I only have one active at the moment), that says "I only work directly with small business owners." It doesn't screen out everyone, but most scammers or corporate people will likely go elsewhere at that point.

You can check and see what their feedback is like too. 

[fastadking]

Cancelled orders are usually or almost always cranks or scammer types who confuse custom created services with Walmart product returns. I typically have about $1k in cancelled orders each year due to this problem. But since they changed it so buyers can leave a review on a cancelled order and sellers can't - I never cancel delivered orders. It's like pulling teeth to get me to do that. Sorry, the rules changed.