Update: Addressing new level system questions and feedback

[Kesha]

21 hours ago, gunawanguan said:

@Kesha

Hello Kesha.
Sorry for asking it here.

I just check my level page and got this warning messages.

Your level progress is on hold

You’ve received a warning about activity that violates Fiverr’s policies. Your progress in the level system is on hold until the warning expires on Feb 21, 2024.

What does it means?
I mean, where can I know what activity that I did that violates Fiverr's policies?
Thank you.

Hi @gunawanguan! Since this is an issue specific to your account, I would recommend reaching out to Customer Support so they can provide further clarifications and help resolve your concerns. You can open up a ticket via this link. 

[cheftychefty]

Kesha. I finally received a reply from customer service, after asking about the state of things days ago and they replied and gave me this message:

"After careful review, your account has been flagged due to activities indicating a connection to violations of our Terms of Service or location inconsistencies. 
 
Consequently, your participation in Fiverr's level system is permanently restricted."

WHAT

I have literally lived in the same place my whole life. I've never even left America. location inconsistencies? I mean I've traveled to other states to visit family and have used the cellphone app but what does that even mean????

I'm quite literally freaking out right now and I don't feel good. What do you mean my 6 year old account is now permanently restricted. FLAGGED FOR WHAT.

[vsjforall]

I think this is a bit harsh when it comes to new system. Look at my stats for last 11 years in fiverr and My most selling gig which I made revenues of around 80,000 USD apart from commission has a success score of 6 plus all metrics are like I am not doing anything for clients.. Remember I am making around 1000-1500 USD every month.

How can this be good crtieria to stay here if we are not rewarded for our service. I am anyways patiently waiting for improvements you make for the level system and see where it goes. Thanks. Have a great day.

Edited February 16 by vsjforall
Adding some more words.

[Kesha]

20 hours ago, kerpoostudio said:

Hello, @Kesha - We have been working on Fiverr for about 5 years as a team. We have done more than 1400 projects on Fiverr and have over 800 reviews here. Our account is flagged as well. However, we never had any location inconsistency or something like that. We are a part of the Fiverr community and are doing our best to keep Fiverr as the best freelancing website.

What is the reason for this situation? We are extremely nervous about our job. Fiverr is our primary job to do. If this is a bug, would you please remove it? I hope you will come up with some good news that this will be solved soon.
Thanks so much

Hi! @kerpoostudio This is not a bug, but it could be due to several different reasons. I would recommend that you reach out to Customer Support. They will be happy to help clarify things for you.

[ahunyady]

8 minutes ago, Kesha said:

@alanletsgo Yes, requesting to extend the delivery date can impact your score. I would recommend that when setting your original deadline, you do the best you can to account for potential delays including revisions and unexpected obstacles. 

My extension requests are usually because I'm working on something with the buyer and they need more time to provide the full complement of materials, for example, because they are a *business* client and are having trouble scheduling a zoom briefing with their coworkers. Are you suggesting that I stop working with business clients? Or  does Fiverr really want me to  automatically put extraordinarily long delivery times on business clients' jobs? 

[lostincode]

Hi everyone,

I've been a Fiverr seller for some time now (probably 2 years). I've only had a couple issues with the platform regarding the lack of customization for gigs, but that's a different topic. I haven't had any other issues, but this is quite concerning.

I mostly do game development here on Fiverr. It was always difficult for me to get buyers, and gigs can last multiple months, so the order count metric was quite problematic for me with the old level system. But, since I was progressing slowly, it was okay. It took me a long time to get from new seller to level 1. Eventually, I was half way there to level 2!

When I first heard of the new level system, I was excited. I mean, they dropped the number of required orders to just 20 for level 2! I thought I would qualify for it. However, it seems I don't even qualify for level 1 anymore. This is just depressing. ☹️

I had made my prices so cheap for the service I provide (no where near minimum wage in my country) in hopes of attracting more buyers and rising in levels, but I'm afraid there's no point in me working for less since there's no chance of me leveling up. I guess I just have to hope I get buyers as a level 0 seller or just quit Fiverr. 😔

For those who don't know, don't be fooled into thinking Fiverr had no idea this would happen. It's pretty much a guarantee that they checked the real-time data of their sellers with the new system before even announcing it. The programmers/data analysts knew how many sellers would suffer from the change, and they obviously talked it over with Fiverr's executives. The 1-month period to "adjust" to the new system is a result of the data analysts recommending this (because they knew of the damage it would cause) to those who ultimately make the decision to release the new system. The system gets released anyway because Fiverr's higher-ups don't care enough or want to have a little laugh as they watch the community negatively react.

But hey, those are just the thoughts and experiences of an irrelevant Fiverr seller.

Thanks for reading.

[terrygrantvo]

My best guess is that Fiverr has been (for a while now) trying to create volatility in the seller ratings to better allow their search AI or algorithm to decide who gets to put food on the table that week. I imagine that's what the private reviews were supposed to do, but so few buyers actually leave private reviews that they probably didn't have the desired effect, so now they're setting out to destroy public reviews as well, in order to introduce the level of volatility in personal ratings that they're after.

With more volatility in the seller ratings there can be more volatility in the search rankings and it gives them an easy out every time someone complains, because they can more easily say - 'You're not doing better in searches because of your rating. See? It's your fault'.

 

I mean, they've been saying that for ages now anyway, but this at least makes it an easier sell and it's easier to defend.

[kerpoostudio]

13 minutes ago, Kesha said:

Hi! @kerpoostudio This is not a bug, but it could be due to several different reasons. I would recommend that you reach out to Customer Support. They will be happy to help clarify things for you.

Dear @Kesha, The Customer service is not responsive at all. They say this is because of location inconsistency
They only copy-paste a preset response to thousands of sellers who are facing this issue. (Please check another topic that is about this issue) you can see many sellers have the same problem.
I never had any warning regarding location inconsistency, and I never changed my location for more than 6 months.

Please, please help. We are losing our jobs, and no one is responsive here. I've been doing this job for more than 5 years, doing more than 1400 projects, and have over 800 reviews. 

And in one night, everything will be ruined without any explanations.

Please, please, please help.

[visualstudios]

8 minutes ago, kerpoostudio said:

I never had any warning regarding location inconsistency, and I never changed my location for more than 6 months.

That's not what your website says - it claims to be in two places at once.

[kerpoostudio]

5 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

That's not what your website says - it claims to be in two places at once.

What does that mean?
I always joined from a specific location to Fiverr!!
Are there any problems with being a Studio but always connecting Fiverr from a specific location?!
I didn't know this was against terms of service!

Edited February 16 by kerpoostudio
Need more explanations.

[visualstudios]

Maybe so. The company (and its people) is clearly turkish though, which makes an account representing them state location as USA at least misleading imo.

[sunshine15]

50 minutes ago, Kesha said:

@alanletsgo Yes, requesting to extend the delivery date can impact your score. I would recommend that when setting your original deadline, you do the best you can to account for potential delays including revisions and unexpected obstacles. 

The only time I ever extend the delivery time is when a client doesn't provide enough details in my requirement boxes and instead writes something along the lines of, "will fill out later" and/or is unresponsive for several days. In both situations, this is a mutual agreement and understanding between my client and myself and nobody is upset about the extended delivery time. 

Now, Fiverr expects me to be a mind reader and predict situations when this happens? Impossible. How can a mutually agreed decision negatively impact your impact score? This makes no sense. In instances where the seller is at fault and if it is an issue for the buyer, they will clearly make this known in their review/private review. 

[virgoca]

50 minutes ago, Kesha said:

@alanletsgo Yes, requesting to extend the delivery date can impact your score. I would recommend that when setting your original deadline, you do the best you can to account for potential delays including revisions and unexpected obstacles. 

You do understand most of the time the reasons we have to extend a delivery is either not under our control, or it’s because of the natural process of the gig we are providing? Like in a creative gig, you never know how much a client will need to extend the delivery because they themselves want to keep reworking some stuff or their schedule does not allow for a smooth real time conversation that helps work on things on the time you’d normally estimate.

This metric is tone deaf, abusive, ignorant and shows a lack of understanding of the variety of the type of gigs and services we provide. I do not think it should be “changed” or “improved”. It should be eliminated. And I think it’s straight up disrespectful and, for lack of a better word, idiotic to even try and defend it just because some disconnected from reality shareholder thought it’s what the buyers want or what the platform needs.

[vhskid]

32 minutes ago, ahunyady said:

50 minutes ago, Kesha said:

@alanletsgo Yes, requesting to extend the delivery date can impact your score. I would recommend that when setting your original deadline, you do the best you can to account for potential delays including revisions and unexpected obstacles. 

My extension requests are usually because I'm working on something with the buyer and they need more time to provide the full complement of materials, for example, because they are a *business* client and are having trouble scheduling a zoom briefing with their coworkers.

That's exactly my case. The extensions in my orders are caused by buyers. I always add some time reserve but there is no way to anticipate everything and longer delivery times can easily scare off the client. 

[virgoca]

I truly hope Fiver is taking note on how the sellers are responding to these changes and are both wiling and humble enough to acknowledge the points where they completely missed the mark with this new system. I don't know who approved this or convinced whoever responsible for approving it that it was for the better of their platform, but I can tell you they were wrong, and the sentiment everyone is expressing here is the same. 

Edited February 16 by virgoca

[sunshine15]

1 hour ago, roulaerevos said:

Let's cry together... Happened to me too 2 days ago. They must have created the worst UX in the rating form for buyers. Users do not understand what they are doing, so lots of reviews are worse than the client wants to rate. 

This has been my exact experience too on multiple occasions now. Whether it is a language barrier or simply misunderstanding the wording, buyers are clearly intending to mark positive attributes (based on great written reviews and further clarification) yet its being marked in the section of "where you can improve"

[Alex.M]

''Great communication, fast and reliable!'' 

'' It was great! Communicated for months before getting the shots I was looking for ''

 

What can be improved ? - Your communication 😂

[Kesha]

20 hours ago, maddy216 said:

@Kesha 

I think the metric is skewed too heavily for gigs with a higher volume. My best selling gig is now at a 4, and I refuse to believe that all those 5 and 4 star reviews with repeat clients, tons of thanks and praise, tips, are secretly rating me poorly. I've been oscillating the last year for my OTD being at or around 90% due to having a bad day or two a month, usually conveniently right around the 14th or so of the month, plus my family suffering from massive health changes or passing away in the last year. So I get why my metric for that has a strong negative impact, but when it's been 90% and now at 93% according to the App for the last month and a half...? I literally just got the notification that I was back at level 2 yesterday. I think the new level metric needs to reflect that 10% of OTD for Level 2. 

It's honestly extremely demoralizing to be blindsided like this.  I thought I was doing the best I could and my work was reflecting that. This Success Score System being so heavily skewed is like being kicked in the face. How am I supposed to "do better" when I'm literally doing everything I realistically can for my clients? 

Also, @Kesha can you please confirm that when you pay for Seller Plus/Seller Plus Premium, it'll be reinstated if you lose your level and then eventually gain it back? It doesn't seem fair to me that something that I was paying for every month to lose willy-nilly based on metrics. That seems counterintuitive to get sellers to opt back into the program, especially if they originally got it at a discount when the program started.

 

Hi! I understand your frustrations with the new system and want you to know that we are hearing and considering it all!

I wanted to jump in to provide some clarity for you about the Seller Plus program. The eligibility requirements are changing for those who are not yet part of the program. But, If you are enrolled in the Seller Plus Program, dropping in levels will not cancel your membership. You will still be a part of the program and will be able to work with your Success Manager to understand the challenges and improve your metrics once again, but bare in mind that the ability of the Success Manager to assist you will depend on the reasoning for the drop in levels which will be addressed in a case by case bases. 

[maitasun]

1 hour ago, Kesha said:

Yes, requesting to extend the delivery date can impact your score. I would recommend that when setting your original deadline, you do the best you can to account for potential delays including revisions and unexpected obstacles. 

I'm in the writing and translation category. I have no fortune-telling gigs and clairvoyance has never been my forte, but I guess I could give it a shot. After all, it's never too late when it comes to learning something new... 🤷‍♀️

Edited February 16 by maitasun

[ahunyady]

3 minutes ago, virgoca said:

You do understand most of the time the reasons we have to extend a delivery is either not under our control, or it’s because of the natural process of the gig we are providing? Like in a creative gig, you never know how much a client will need to extend the delivery because they themselves want to keep reworking some stuff or their schedule does not allow for a smooth real time conversation that helps work on things on the time you’d normally estimate.

This metric is tone deaf, abusive, ignorant and shows a lack of understanding of the variety of the type of gigs and services we provide. I do not think it should be “changed” or “improved”. It should be eliminated. And I think it’s straight up disrespectful and, for lack of a better word, idiotic to even try and defend it just because some disconnected from reality shareholder thought it’s what the buyers want or what the platform needs.

Not only that, but I specifically asked customer service a while back if mutual extensions counted against our metrics. They said mutual extensions won’t count against our metrics at all, but avoid using seller-initiated extensions too often as it can result in a poor customer experience. Now Fiverr is penalizing us for those very buyer-initiated or mutual extensions that were done when at a time when they were perfectly acceptable.

[ntrxmusic]

My gig with the least ratings and all of them are perfect and in customer satisfaction ''Strong negative impact'' hahaha this system don't have anything of sense definitely

[charlsmcfarlane]

39 minutes ago, Kesha said:

Yes, requesting to extend the delivery date can impact your score. I would recommend that when setting your original deadline, you do the best you can to account for potential delays including revisions and unexpected obstacles. 

I'm dealing with a buyer right now who has asked me to extend the delivery deadline several times because they need more time. I’m more than happy to do so to help them out. I also have other buyers who have ghosted me for months so I request extensions to keep the order from going late. Are you telling us that accommodating customer requests or requesting extensions because the buyer has gone quiet can hurt our seller success score?

If so, that needs to be changed. The suggested solution of making the delivery date really long makes no sense, as a ridiculously long delivery date will be off-putting for buyers.

[virgoca]

1 minute ago, charlsmcfarlane said:

I'm dealing with a buyer right now who has asked me to extend the delivery deadline several times because they need more time. I’m more than happy to do so to help them out. I also have other buyers who have ghosted me for months so I request extensions to keep the order from going late. Are you telling us that accommodating customer requests or requesting extensions because the buyer has gone quiet can hurt our seller success score?

If so, that needs to be changed. The suggested solution of making the delivery date really long makes no sense, as a ridiculously long delivery date will be off-putting for buyers.

Hey, your (and our, for that matter) fault for not being able to tell the future on each encounter you have. At least that’s what fiverr’s official stance seems so be at the moment. Ridiculous!

Edited February 16 by virgoca

[ahunyady]

@Kesha I'm having trouble understanding why the feedback rating of 4 “very good” (emoji is smiling with rosy cheeks) is below the performance threshold for remaining a seller on the platform. This is deceptive to buyers. They need to know that any score below 4.7 means “if you don’t improve, I want you removed from the platform."

Edited February 16 by ahunyady

[ntrxmusic]

1 minute ago, ahunyady said:

@Kesha I'm having trouble understanding why the feedback rating of 4 “very good” (emoji is smiling with rosy cheeks) is below the performance threshold for remaining a seller on the platform?

Also I don't understand that, I have my 6 gigs with 4 success score, all with the same problem, and they want me to improve that, but they disappear my gigs of the marketplace, how I can improve if the people don't buy?. Just I have my return buyers, and is impossible to improve the score in just 1 month with return clients