Gigs/Offers with no deadline or revisions

[charlsmcfarlane]

There are certain services where both delivery deadlines and revisions make no sense.

This is very relevant to some of my key gigs, but I’m sure there are other offerings for which this would be useful.

I offer training sessions. Often a buyer will purchase a gig and then not be available to meet for a session for days or weeks. Other times, the buyer just disappears for months (or years!).

Therefore, this kind of order is delivered only when the buyer and seller agree on a session time – rendering the delivery timer 100% arbitrary and useless. I set a 30 day delivery deadline on my training gigs to reduce the need for me to request extensions all the time. But, even that is messy because I’ll have customers ask me, “why do I have to wait for 30 days for a training session?”, which they absolutely don’t.

How many buyers have skipped over my gig because they think that a 30 day delivery means they have to wait for 30 days for a session? Probably lots. On the other hand, I used to have much shorter deadlines on these gigs to entice buyers who need to be seen soon. However, this just resulted in lots of occasions where I was just requesting extensions all the time, so I could find a time that’s convenient for the buyer.

Having a delivery deadline also creates unnecessary confusion in another way, where the buyer doesn’t understand the distinction between the deadline and the agreed session time. For example, I’ve had buyers request a date and time after the arbitrary delivery deadline. So I request an extension. Then, I’ll have buyers reject the extension request because they think I’m trying to reschedule the agreed session time, which I’m not. It’s clunky operating in this way. This kind of order should just not have a deadline at all.

I have two possible suggestions for a better way for this to work.

1. a seller defines a ‘from’ date. For example “session availability in as little as 5 days”. That then means fast delivery of 24 hours, for example, can still be an add-on. This wouldn’t be a deadline. This will be a minimum amount of time that the buyer must expect to wait for a session to be available. If there’s one available sooner, then great! – under-promise, over-deliver!

2. Integrated calendar support like we see in the consultation feature. So rather than a delivery deadline, the buyer actually books a specific time and then the order deadline is directly tied to the calendar event. Then a seller or buyer could request a reschedule using a similar process to a delivery extension. This could also have fast delivery add-ons available where the price increases the closer the session is to today.

Also, the option to request revisions should be completely disabled for this offering because the work is the session. Once it’s delivered, the work is objectively done. I can’t go back in time and give them my time again. I’ve delivered sessions like this over 500 times on the platform and have been fortunate enough to work with some excellent buyers. Therefore, I’ve only ever had one buyer start requesting revisions after a session is complete. So, while it’s not been a huge issue for me, I can still see the benefit. I’m sure there are also other kinds of services that could also benefit from this option.

Obviously certain services like logo design, voice overs and video explainers need a revision system but, for some services, it makes no sense at all.

Please allow sellers of certain (relevant) services to set unlimited delivery times, or at least have a relevant timing system like the ones I defined earlier.

Please also allow sellers of certain (relevant) services to disable revisions completely – not just set 0 revisions on the gig/offer, which doesn’t affect anything.