Unfair customer (Customer service is no help)

[stinekoch]

Hey there,

I'm a freelancer on Fiverr offering translation services. Recently, a buyer requested me to translate their website, and despite their tight budget, I offered a generous price and completed the task. However, things took a turn when the buyer demanded me to do more work. I explained to the buyer that this extra task would require additional payment since it involved using unfamiliar software and was beyond our agreed scope. The buyer got upset, insisting I do the extra work for free. When I refused, they threatened to leave a negative review and repeatedly tried to cancel the order.

Unfortunately, the buyer succeeded in canceling the order. Furthermore, my account got flagged since the buyer must have reported me. When I contacted Fiverr support, they mentioned that my delivery message lacked proof of work, although I had used markup.io to share the translation. According to Fiverr's guidelines, each delivery should contain all materials requested by the buyer, even if they were provided earlier. This meant that my delivery message was considered incomplete and that the delivery button was misused, leading to the warning.

I disagreed with Fiverr's decision. I delivered the translation as agreed, but the buyer's actions led to the cancellation and the subsequent flagging of my account. It's frustrating because I put in hours of work, and now I'm not getting paid for it, and on top of this I am getting a warning. 

This is the first time anything like this as happend after two years working here on Fiverr. Up until now I have only had good experiences, but I can't help but feel that this is such unfair treatment. It doesn't make sense for me to get punished when I simply didn't do anything wrong in this case. Now my account is flagged and I don't get paid for hours of work. What should I do in this situation??

Edited January 6 by stinekoch
More information needed

[donnovan86]

Most likely you got the warning because the buyer went to customer support and complained you did incomplete work. I can only assume that the Fiverr team checked and for some reason, decided your work was incomplete according to the requirements. To be honest, canceling would have been the best option, if you see that the person is extremely hard to deal with. There's nothing you can do now other than move forward, unfortunately. Read the Terms of Service a few times to update yourself on what you can't do (they added some stuff over the past few years), and good luck going forward. I had a random warning (of another nature) coming in that made no sense, but I just moved on. It seems Fiverr already made their decision to send you a warning so.. fighting against them right now is futile and it might lead to even more issues. 

[milos_siena]

Hi,

I agree with @donnovan86, since you had no such problems in 2 years, it's best to cancel if you sense this kind of behaviour from a buyer. You can tell the support team to check your chat with the buyer and point out certain parts of the chat, but the decisions about warnings are generally final. 

[strategist_ceo]

51 minutes ago, stinekoch said:

When I contacted Fiverr support, they mentioned that my delivery message lacked proof of work, although I had used markup.io to share the translation.

 

 

Having previously worked as a translator on Fiverr, I always made sure to submit my work in .doc or .pdf form, intentionally steering clear of cloud services due to potential complications like this.

It's worth discussing this issue with customer service and asking for a review. However, from my experience, they usually offer a generic response, as it might appear to them that you haven't delivered any work. This is because they do not have access to the platform you used and can't verify your work.

While technically their decision may seem correct, you could discuss the fairness of the situation with them, emphasizing the cancellation that happened without any verification from your side.

I faced a similar situation once. After Fiverr cancelled an order without consulting me, Fiverr credited 50% of the amount to me after the review.

Edited January 6 by strategist_ceo

[catwriter]

In addition to what others have said, for future reference, it might be best to avoid buyers with "tight budgets". They're always suspicious. Your prices are  clearly displayed on your gigs, and if the price doesn't work for them, why contact you in the first place? Why not contact a seller with lower prices?

[stinekoch]

For some reason the buyer was also able to leave a one star review even though the order was cancelled? I am so sick to my stomach. Because of this I don't get paid for the job I did, I get a warning and a bad rating which affects my profile. My response to the review also doesn't show up and customer service is absolutely not helping. How is it possible that Fiverr doesn't protect their sellers? So upsetting ;(

Edited January 6 by stinekoch

[stinekoch]

Buyer on Fiverr able to leave bad review AFTER cancellation of order + getting my account flagged (Customer service is no help)

I'm a freelance translator on Fiverr, and my recent experience has shed light on a concerning issue within the platform.

Recently a buyer needed their website translated within a tight budget. Despite me offering a generous price and delivering quality work after spending a lot of hours and putting a lot of effort into it, things took a turn. The buyer demanded extra work outside our agreed scope, involving unfamiliar software. Politely, I explained that the additional task would require require additional payment, which the client refused.

The situation escalated when the client threatened to cancel the order unless I completed the extra work for free. In tandem, the client repeatedly attempted to cancel the order, ultimately succeeding without any verification from my side. But as if that wasn't enough, the same buyer had reported my profile, resulting in a warning and my account getting flagged for partial delivery.

When I reached out to Fiverr support, their response was shocking. They mentioned that my delivery message lacked proof of work, although I had used markup.io to share the translation. According to Fiverr's guidelines, each delivery should contain all materials, even if they were provided earlier. This meant that my delivery message was considered incomplete and that the delivery button was misused, leading to the warning. I have spent a long time writing back and forth to customer service trying to remove the warning, but they are unable to help and simply say that they are sure this won't harm my account in any way if I keep providing the best service I can and follow the guidelines. They also can't give me compensation.

The most unfair part? Even after the cancellation, the client could leave a one-star review, which as a seller you are unable to. The only thing you can do is respond to the review. This review, significantly affects my profile and future opportunities on the platform.

This situation isn't just about a canceled order; it's about the lack of safeguards for sellers against unjust actions by buyers post-cancellation. I'm left unpaid for my hard work, faced with a warning and get a damaging review.

I've been working on Fiverr for two years and this is the first time I've had a bad experience with a buyer and customer service is in no way helping. It's very unfair and I think this experience highlights the urgent need for more equitable policies to protect sellers.

[oymusafir]

21 minutes ago, stinekoch said:

But as if that wasn't enough, the same buyer had reported my profile, resulting in a warning and my account getting flagged for partial delivery.

Maybe you used the 'Deliver Again' button to showcase additional work to the client, which you did later for free, and that might be why your account got flagged. This is the only way I believe partial delivery works. I've also received that notice once, so that's not a problem. Just avoid that mistake in the future.

[vickieito]

5 hours ago, stinekoch said:

My response to the review also doesn't show up

I can see your response @stinekoch and I think it shows clearly that the buyer was trying to threaten and manipulate you to do work for free. Fiverr recently started allowing reviews on canceled orders.

Although I wouldn't dispute your warning, I think you could also report the buyer for their uncalled-for behavior, since that is a separate issue (and should be reported in a separate ticket). It will confuse CS if you include this dispute with your current ticket. They aren't the greatest at multi-tasking.

It is against Fiverr's Community Standards for buyers to threaten a seller to do extra work for free:

Quote

Not only did the buyer threaten to leave negative feedback to try to get you to do extra work for free, they also canceled the order (taking all of the work you did do for free) and took extra retaliatory steps by reporting you. Although Fiverr did end up finding a violation, this behavior by the buyer is not acceptible and should be reported. You should be able to include the screenshots of all your conversations. @Lena do you think you can help @stinekoch with this? Thank you!

[stinekoch]

Thank you so much 🙏

[Lena]

Hey there,

I'm a freelancer on Fiverr offering translation services. Recently, a buyer requested me to translate their website, and despite their tight budget, I offered a generous price and completed the task. However, things took a turn when the buyer demanded me to do more work. I explained to the buyer that this extra task would require additional payment since it involved using unfamiliar software and was beyond our agreed scope. The buyer got upset, insisting I do the extra work for free. When I refused, they threatened to leave a negative review and repeatedly tried to cancel the order.

Unfortunately, the buyer succeeded in canceling the order. Furthermore, my account got flagged since the buyer must have reported me. When I contacted Fiverr support, they mentioned that my delivery message lacked proof of work, although I had used markup.io to share the translation. According to Fiverr's guidelines, each delivery should contain all materials requested by the buyer, even if they were provided earlier. This meant that my delivery message was considered incomplete and that the delivery button was misused, leading to the warning.

I disagreed with Fiverr's decision. I delivered the translation as agreed, but the buyer's actions led to the cancellation and the subsequent flagging of my account. It's frustrating because I put in hours of work, and now I'm not getting paid for it, and on top of this I am getting a warning. 

This is the first time anything like this as happend after two years working here on Fiverr. Up until now I have only had good experiences, but I can't help but feel that this is such unfair treatment. It doesn't make sense for me to get punished when I simply didn't do anything wrong in this case. Now my account is flagged and I don't get paid for hours of work. What should I do in this situation??

Hello @stinekoch 

I opened a new ticket for you. Please be patient and wait for the email from our Customer Support. 

We appreciate your patience.  

[stinekoch]

Thank you Lena 😊

[stinekoch]

Unfortunately, Fiverr customer service is still not helping. 🥲

They answered this:

 

Hello Stine,
 
I'll be happy to take it from here.
Thank you for the follow-up. 
 
Please know that the warning you have received is for sending an incomplete delivery message to the buyer. I can see my colleagues have already explained that please keep in mind that every delivery must contain all of the materials that the buyer requested, to be considered complete, even if they were provided in a prior delivery. Therefore, the delivery button was misused.
 
We advise you always to make sure that you attach either a screenshot or a video to the delivery message which shows that you fulfilled the services offered within your Gig.
 
If you need more time to deliver an order or need additional information from a buyer, you can request a delivery extension, by clicking on the 'Extend Delivery Date' button under the 'Deliver now' button. In case an order turns late prior to the extension, extending the deadline can make the late status disappear if the added time is sufficient to surpass the original deadline.
 
Nonetheless, I'd like to assure you that we have a dedicated department that monitors the platform daily, and your feedback regarding the buyer will be taken into consideration.
 
I've noticed that you had another open ticket about this issue. I combined all the tickets into this one so we can continue our conversation here.
 
Please let me know if you need any other assistance. 

Kind regards,

Edited January 9 by stinekoch

[vickieito]

On 1/6/2024 at 10:54 AM, vickieito said:

Although I wouldn't dispute your warning, I think you could also report the buyer for their uncalled-for behavior, since that is a separate issue (and should be reported in a separate ticket).

24 minutes ago, stinekoch said:

I've noticed that you had another open ticket about this issue. I combined all the tickets into this one so we can continue our conversation here.

Hi @Lena, How was the ticket worded? CS still thinks we are disputing the warning but we are reporting a separate violation (this time by the buyer):

Quote

I've seen an increase in this type of behavior being reported on the forum but it doesn't look like CS is taking this as seriously as the Community Standard would like us to think. Here's another similar case that was reported within days of this one: 

 

These two cases are similar in that the buyer was requesting additional work and then "reported" the sellers for delivering partial deliveries. Although I believe the sellers should be taking as much precaution as possible to ensure a full delivery - both issues stemmed from the buyer first asking for additional (free) work and then the buyer not being satisfied and "reporting" the seller. Unfortunately for both of these sellers, Fiverr did validate the violations (but seemed to overlook the unacceptable buyer behavior). So the sellers were given warnings and the buyers' behaviors are only being "considered" (as the CS agent stated above). 

@technase summed up his feelings in this statement here:

Quote

I find it unjust that Fiverr provides significant leverage to buyers, potentially enabling them to intimidate sellers in doing free work. This situation worries me about refusing additional unpaid work from clients 

With the recent changes to Fiverr's cancelation policy (allowing reviews on canceled orders), updates to the review system (making it easier for buyers to rate sellers lower), and increased reports (at least in the forum) of sellers who were reported by unsatisfied buyers who were asked to do more free work, sellers may be less likely to stand up for themselves when buyers do ask for more work because they do not feel that Fiverr will protect them if they stand their ground. Part of this may be lack of knowledge on the sellers' part but I also wonder if Fiverr would have supported them if no issues were found with their delivery button.

@Kesha, Many sellers seem to be getting warnings about partial deliveries, and most of them are doing the full work (and buyers are receiving it) - yet they were found to have made partial deliveries. So there's a knowledge gap that many sellers have. This might be a good time for Fiverr to make a post about partial deliveries, common violations, and to reiterate Fiverr's expectations on how deliveries are to be made, especially when the work can't be delivered by attachment because work is done on another platform or application. Are the sellers with violations only including links (but no attachments)? Or are they sending a screenshot of the work with a link (and that's not enough)? If the latter is the case, I'd like to know what is acceptable. Thanks!

[mandyzines]

I agree with @vickieito. It would be great for us to know what constitutes a complete delivery, because the way that CS response is worded makes it seem like nothing previously delivered in the order is counted--only what's attached to the last time the seller clicked "deliver" within the order.

So, say I formally delivered a full voice over and the buyer requests variations of the last two words on a separate file. The email wording makes it seem like Fiverr would only consider the order complete if I attach the full voice over again plus the requested additional file with the two word variations the next time I hit the delivery button. That's wonky, but it would be good to know. 

[Kesha]

9 hours ago, vickieito said:

Hi @Lena, How was the ticket worded? CS still thinks we are disputing the warning but we are reporting a separate violation (this time by the buyer):

I've seen an increase in this type of behavior being reported on the forum but it doesn't look like CS is taking this as seriously as the Community Standard would like us to think. Here's another similar case that was reported within days of this one: 

 

These two cases are similar in that the buyer was requesting additional work and then "reported" the sellers for delivering partial deliveries. Although I believe the sellers should be taking as much precaution as possible to ensure a full delivery - both issues stemmed from the buyer first asking for additional (free) work and then the buyer not being satisfied and "reporting" the seller. Unfortunately for both of these sellers, Fiverr did validate the violations (but seemed to overlook the unacceptable buyer behavior). So the sellers were given warnings and the buyers' behaviors are only being "considered" (as the CS agent stated above). 

@technase summed up his feelings in this statement here:

With the recent changes to Fiverr's cancelation policy (allowing reviews on canceled orders), updates to the review system (making it easier for buyers to rate sellers lower), and increased reports (at least in the forum) of sellers who were reported by unsatisfied buyers who were asked to do more free work, sellers may be less likely to stand up for themselves when buyers do ask for more work because they do not feel that Fiverr will protect them if they stand their ground. Part of this may be lack of knowledge on the sellers' part but I also wonder if Fiverr would have supported them if no issues were found with their delivery button.

@Kesha, Many sellers seem to be getting warnings about partial deliveries, and most of them are doing the full work (and buyers are receiving it) - yet they were found to have made partial deliveries. So there's a knowledge gap that many sellers have. This might be a good time for Fiverr to make a post about partial deliveries, common violations, and to reiterate Fiverr's expectations on how deliveries are to be made, especially when the work can't be delivered by attachment because work is done on another platform or application. Are the sellers with violations only including links (but no attachments)? Or are they sending a screenshot of the work with a link (and that's not enough)? If the latter is the case, I'd like to know what is acceptable. Thanks!

Thanks for bringing this to my attention! I will work with the CS team so we can provide some clarity for the community on Fiverr's delivery standards. 

[stinekoch]

Hi.

I had a customer saying he had been trying to contact me on whatsapp. I am not sure how he got my number, but I said to him that I am having some issues with Whatsapp and that I prefer to keep communication on Fiverr since it is against Fiverrs TOS rules to communicate outside Fiverr. Now I just realized that I used the word "Whatsapp" and I have heard that it can trigger a warning if the system detects specific words fx "Whatsapp". I didn't think about this at all, since I don't think I was doing anything. Will I get a warning for this?