Official feedback thread re: the new leveling system

[sshublaq]

1 hour ago, abeljimenez271 said:

My gig is still missing, and my success score remains at 4...

I've had 4 new orders since the installation of the new system, external customers of mine that I've managed to persuade to order through Fiverr to try to resolve this, but everything remains the same.

Despite my requests, they have given all 5-star ratings, including the internal survey afterward, and yet nothing changes!

I'm in the same situation. I'm sorry, but I don't think it will ever change unless you bring clients outside of the platform to boost your score to 5 or above. No one knows how much time that will take. Alternatively, you can continue working with your clients and indirectly encourage them to give you 5 stars. My advice is to explore other avenues to increase your income and not rely on fiverr entirely. If you don't take action now, it will affect you in the coming months. I encourage everyone to have multiple channels for their work. Don't rely on one client, one platform, or even one source of income if you choose to be a freelancer. Wish you all the best of luck

Edited February 28 by sshublaq

[sshublaq]

41 minutes ago, abeljimenez271 said:

I should bring in outside traffic to my gig...

Exactly what I mentioned when I responded to your post earlier. I didn't even ask them how to solve this issue, but it's SO CLEAR that this is what they're trying to do. GO FIND CLIENTS AND BRING THEM HERE. Haha, HOW IRONIC!!! Sorry, why should I bring clients here when I can simply work with them DIRECTLY without any extra fees or weeks to get paid?

[carineb]

A friend of mine who only uses Fiverr as a buyer asked me yesterday what's happening to sellers on Fiverr because this is the 2nd time in a few days that he's been contacted outside of Fiverr by sellers. They explained that they want to stop working on Fiverr.  1 seller is TRS (+900 reviews), the other one is Level 2 (+500 reviews).

My friend never gave his email address. He assumes they took it from the contact page of the website he asked them to work on.

One of the sellers offers to invoice him only when the work is finished. The other suggests to place the order on another freelance platform.

I wonder if these are 2 exceptions, or the start of a new trend 🤔

Edited February 28 by carineb

[cucinavivace]

4 hours ago, sshublaq said:

Exactly what I mentioned when I responded to your post earlier. I didn't even ask them how to solve this issue, but it's SO CLEAR that this is what they're trying to do. GO FIND CLIENTS AND BRING THEM HERE. Haha, HOW IRONIC!!! Sorry, why should I bring clients here when I can simply work with them DIRECTLY without any extra fees or weeks to get paid?

This is a sign of how delusional Fiverr is and always has been about how valuable they are as a work platform. I'm in finance with a tax specialty, mostly international compliance for US taxes. None of my regular clients would ever work on Fiverr, and of course you're right that there's no reason to encourage them to do so just so Fiverr can take 25% after fees on all sides and make the work delivery process longer and more cumbersome for them.

When they first launched with the "Now share your gig!" social media shares at the end of posting a gig, I thought well, they need to get the word out. It's smart to do that. But somewhere along the line they started believing their own sales hype that this platform is convenient for us and that the workflow assistance is their real product, not hooking us all up. It's not convenient at all, for buyers or sellers, and in my experience it doesn't add value to the workflow process for anybody. Maybe some protection for buyers, but not efficiency in the process. If they can't give us buyers based on solid performance and ratings (public ratings ... not some whiner who scurries off to leave negative private feedback after telling us we did a great job - perhaps just to try to get a discount from Fiverr), there's no reason to be here.

I think these folks should be required to work as a freelancer on their own platform for six months before they get hired to make decisions or provide support. They don't seem to understand what we do. LOL

Edited February 28 by cucinavivace

[Alex.M]

36 minutes ago, cucinavivace said:

When they first launched with the "Now share your gig!"

you're right .. also sharing your gig on social media has almost 0 impact 

[melanielm]

 

Someone mentioned at some point the idea of decimals to see if we're trending up or down. Perhaps this tiny space before the full 5.0 is our decimal indication? Anyone else see this at a different level?

Regarding bringing people to Fiverr from the outside... I think that's always what they've wanted! It was obvious from the push for 'First Time Buyer' increases a while back. I agree with the comment above, though. Why on Earth would we do that if we don't have to pay fees out there? I don't only work on Fiverr. No way I'd suggest other clients join the platform so I can earn 20% less.

[cucinavivace]

9 minutes ago, Alex.M said:

you're right .. also sharing your gig on social media has almost 0 impact 

For me it would be absolutely 0. Anybody following me on social media already works with me and follows me to see tax code updates that might apply to them. There's no reason for them to sign up here.

But mostly, Fiverr needs to understand at some point that "project workflow" is not their product. Matchmaking is. Their workflow product is tedious, inefficient, technically immature, and annoying. That's not what anybody is paying for. They're kidding themselves if they think anything they do beyond bringing buyer and seller together is the primary objective, and when they fail at that they fail overall no matter how fancy they try to dress themselves up with the rest of this nonsense.

Edited February 28 by cucinavivace

[leonormiserol]

It should be noted that other platforms give you free commission when you bring a client from outside.

[virgoca]

1 minute ago, leonormiserol said:

It should be noted that other platforms give you free commission when you bring a client from outside.

I'm sure other platforms also don't take 20% from your tips 😆

[Alex.M]

11 minutes ago, melanielm said:

Regarding bringing people to Fiverr from the outside... I think that's always what they've wanted!

yeah..bring your friends on Fiverr to order from us then accuse us of fake/paid reviews 

[donnovan86]

2 minutes ago, leonormiserol said:

It should be noted that other platforms give you free commission when you bring a client from outside.

I think you can get a comission via Fiverr too, don't they have an affiliate program? You send that person an affiliate link to purchase your gig, and you get a comission. 

 

[cucinavivace]

6 minutes ago, Alex.M said:

yeah..bring your friends on Fiverr to order from us then accuse us of fake/paid reviews 

That's actually happened.

I don't know if you were being sarcastic or saying that's a real possibility, but just FYI for all, that's happened.

[leonormiserol]

1 minute ago, donnovan86 said:

I think you can get a comission via Fiverr too, don't they have an affiliate program? You send that person an affiliate link to purchase your gig, and you get a comisión. 

 

They give you credits to spend within the same platform, you cannot withdraw them and they do not give you benefits for bringing a client.

[donnovan86]

21 minutes ago, leonormiserol said:

They give you credits to spend within the same platform, you cannot withdraw them and they do not give you benefits for bringing a client.

Are you sure that's for the affiliate program? https://www.fiverr.com/partnerships/affiliates because from what I see here, they give you 25% of first order A CPA of 25% for the initial purchase amount and 10% of future orders A 10% revenue share of each purchase the buyers make in the next 12 months. 

I think you are talking about this. https://www.fiverr.com/referral_program, which only gives you Fiverr credits. 

But you can become an affiliate, share your affiliate link and you won't get paid in credits. Do read the terms of service for affiliates, just to be safe.  

 

[emmaki]

52 minutes ago, melanielm said:

 

Someone mentioned at some point the idea of decimals to see if we're trending up or down. Perhaps this tiny space before the full 5.0 is our decimal indication? Anyone else see this at a different level?

Regarding bringing people to Fiverr from the outside... I think that's always what they've wanted! It was obvious from the push for 'First Time Buyer' increases a while back. I agree with the comment above, though. Why on Earth would we do that if we don't have to pay fees out there? I don't only work on Fiverr. No way I'd suggest other clients join the platform so I can earn 20% less.

I have this. Now, my eyes aren't the best, but it looks like 4.9 (very trustworthy 🎢) is the same as 5.0 (suspicious 👢)

Sorry about the emojis. My keyboard magically attaches them to all Fiverr-related scoring systems now. I must be in some sort of beta test.

 
 

[newsmike]

57 minutes ago, virgoca said:

I'm sure other platforms also don't take 20% from your tips 😆

Do you understand why they do? 

[newsmike]

57 minutes ago, donnovan86 said:

I think you can get a comission via Fiverr too, don't they have an affiliate program? You send that person an affiliate link to purchase your gig, and you get a comission. 

 

True, but why let facts get in the way of mindless b**ching? 

[virgoca]

8 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Do you understand why they do? 

Enlighten me

[newsmike]

39 minutes ago, virgoca said:

Enlighten me

There are probably hundreds of references already posted here, but the quick version is as follows:  If Fiverr did not charge the same on tips as they do on services, how often would the following scam be played out?

A seller wants to quote a job at $100, but knowing that Fiverr will take $20, leaving the seller only $80 decides to send a message to the buyer offering to discount the job to $90 if they agree to the following:  I will quote you the job for $5, then you tip me $85.  This way, the seller makes an extra $4, the buyer saves $10, and Fiverr makes $1, instead of $20.

With the volume of scammers here, this would be done to the tune of millions of dollars in lost revenue for Fiverr. 

Edited February 28 by newsmike

[virgoca]

Just now, newsmike said:

There are probably hundreds of references already posted here, but the quick version is as follows:  If Fiverr did not charge the same on tips as they do on services, how common would the following scam be played out?

A seller wants to quote a job at $100, but knowing that Fiverr will take $20, leaving the seller only $80 decides to send a message to the buyer offering to discount the job to $90 if they agree to the following:  I will quote you the job for $5, then you tip me $85.  This way, the seller makes an extra $5, the buyer saves $10, and Fiverr makes $1, instead of $20.

With the volume of scammers here, this would be done to the tune of millions of dollars in lost revenue for Fiverr. 

since fiverr already flags words we say in the chat (you can't mention money or email without getting this little pop up) and now they have a super intelligent AI that's able to know even what the buyer is thinking and decide whether they were happy or not despite what they say in the reviews (apparently), I'm fairly sure that scenario is an issue of the past. Easily avoidable today, specially now that they are so trigger happy banning accounts for any perceived violation of TOS

 

[newsmike]

Just now, virgoca said:

since fiverr already flags words we say in the chat (you can't mention money or email without getting this little pop up) and now they have a super intelligent AI that's able to know even what the buyer is thinking and decide whether they were happy or not despite what they say in the reviews (apparently), I'm fairly sure that scenario is an issue of the past. Easily avoidable today, specially now that they are so trigger happy banning accounts for any perceived violation of TOS

 

Seriously, you can easily attach a word document or txt file with the scam details. 

[virgoca]

1 minute ago, newsmike said:

Seriously, you can easily attach a word document or txt file with the scam details. 

with that logic what's stopping me from doing that and taking every single buyer I get through fiverr outside of the platform and have them pay me straight through PayPal? If THAT's the scam they are worried about, they should be doing way more than taking 20% from tips to avoid people "playing the system"

[newsmike]

I am simply answering your question as to why they charge 20% on tips. It seems your position is "it's not fair," which you are entitled to believe, however, you agreed to it when you signed up, and there is a very valid reason for it.

Pointing out that there are other scams as well is hardly a reason to dismiss what I have explained. Either scam will get you suspended from the platform.

Edited February 28 by newsmike

[cucinavivace]

13 minutes ago, virgoca said:

with that logic what's stopping me from doing that and taking every single buyer I get through fiverr outside of the platform and have them pay me straight through PayPal? If THAT's the scam they are worried about, they should be doing way more than taking 20% from tips to avoid people "playing the system"

Yeah, I've heard the tip scam argument many times and I get it. But, if you're approaching new buyers asking them to pay $5 for a gig and $95 for a tip, you are just asking to end up with $5 total on that job. LOL

I don't think you'd end up with the full tip amount often enough to justify making it common practice, and I think Fiverr knows that and can of course catch it otherwise most of the time if they wanted to. It's just a nice, clean, rational excuse.

Edited February 28 by cucinavivace

[virgoca]

  

Just now, newsmike said:

I am simply answering your question as to why they charge 20% on tips. It seems your position is "it's not fair," which you are entitled to believe, however, you agreed to it when you signed up, and there is a very valid reason for it.

Pointing out that there are other scams as well is hardly a reason to dismiss what I have explained. Either scam will get you suspended form the platform.

I did agree to it, and I am a willing participant in Fiverr. I can be a part of something and still be critical of it. I've managed to build a business and grow a lot here, but that doesn't mean I don't want this place to be better or fairer for the sellers or that I shouldn't voice my issues with the site.

I do believe it's unfair to take money from tips, and I do see how it can be abused, however I don't think making us all pay for what some people may do is the correct way of dealing with it (funny how that applies to many of the things they are doing with the new system). I don't think anyone here would be happy to hear a restaurant is taking money from a waiter's tips because they are afraid they might sneak extra stuff out of the kitchen for the customer paying them under the table (I am aware this isn't a perfect match for the example, in case you want to dissect every single minute detail on how it's different, you still get the general idea).

In my experience working here these past years, I'm fairly sure that If I send a very sketchy file to every buyer I get detailing how to scam the platform for my own benefit, most of them will be VERY worried of working with me. Not to mention the amount of people that will probably straight up report me.