Beware of this buyer (unless you enjoy working for no pay)

[c_lucas]

I suppose I just had my first bad Fiverr experience, although it could have been worse.



I got an order yesterday from a buyer named FRAGGLESROCK asking me to edit a short letter. It seemed like a simple gig at first, but upon asking for more details, the buyer became increasingly unclear as to what “she” wanted. I should note that she also contacted me at 7-8pm saying she needed it done by midnight that night. Perhaps this should have been my first red flag…



She waffled back and forth telling me that she wanted the “essay” (it was a letter) edited, or that she needed it re-written. I asked her if she wanted it edited or re-written and she seemed completely incapable of giving me a clear answer. Her actual instructions she submitted with the order were this:



"I need it by Thursday 11:59 pm EST or before that time. The paper is completely written, I just need it to sound professional, no grammar errors, and must be clear, not repetitive. You can completely write the whole essay in your own words, or just take portions I wrote and make it a completely new essay, or even completely fix up the content i wrote. The essay is one page but you can cut it to how many paragraphs or sentences you think will work. Please let me know if you can help me. If you need more hours please let me know. Thank you in advance."



Her inability to be clear about what she wanted should have been my second red flag, but I went ahead with the order as per the instructions above. I proofread, edited, and completely re-formatted the letter, and re-wrote some of it.



Came to my inbox this morning to find this: “I wen over the work you gave me and you did not fix it. It sounds exactly the same and it contained grammar errors. I had to buy a gig from another tutor to help me with this.” Of course, the letter contains no grammar errors, so this was a clear giveaway she was lying. It was a very simple gig and I know what I’m doing.



I looked at her profile again and took a closer look at her picture. Based on the file name, it’s clearly a borrowed photo. “She” has no feedback and was probably looking for free work. Submit an order, get the work done, complain and cancel, not a dime spent! Cool, huh?



Note that while this is my first bad experience (i.e. having someone steal my labor), this is not the first problematic client I have had. Several people have tried to take advantage of me, demanding things way beyond what the standard gig offers, thinking that because they are paying me $5 (of which I will only see $4) I am their slave for 24 hours, etc. Sellers simply do not have enough control over the order process and we are forced to put up with these unruly clients, completely at their mercy. All we can do is hold our tongues and hope they don’t leave negative feedback or take our work and then cancel the order anyway!



I like fiverr for the most part (you can see all my clients are happy, and many of them are return customers), but not enough to put up with these thieving clowns. Be sure to check out your buyer and if you notice any red flags about their request, it may be better to politely turn down the order.

[venco83]

That happens to all of us, don’t worry about it. The good news is buyers like this on fiverr are 1-2% and the bad news is a seller feedback doesn’t have any impact on the buyers rating so the rest of the sellers would be more aware of the buyers history.

[nicolebeta]

That sounds like such a horrible experience. I’m new to this whole Fiverr thing, and reading horror stories like this really makes me want to keep an eye out for potential scammers. Sorry this happened to you! Thanks for sharing, though.

[c_lucas]

Yeah, I knew it would happen eventually. However most of my clients have been great. I just wish sellers had more control over the process. It seems we have little to no recourse against unscrupulous buyers taking advantage, which is very easy to do.

[thesexywriter]

Maybe it is just my experience with students, but I understand what she was looking for.

Several Asian students that have difficulty with English call letters “essays”. The woman was looking for a professional sounding letter with no grammar or syntax errors. It would appear that she was not happy with what you delivered and was asking for a total rewrite plus editing.

[Guest laughingcrow]

Reply to @thesexywriter: Question is of course, if the customer’s English was bad enough not to understand/be able to give instructions - how would the customer ever be able to adjudicate a professional letter?



In other words, the customer wouldn’t be able to cancel as it’d come down to “taste” if there are no grammer or syntax errors. So you could, if the buyer cancels it later, send the screenshots to Customer Service and ask for them to help you since the customer actually was incapable of judging the product they received.

[inkpetal]

Reply to @laughingcrow: Exactly what I was thinking. If they sent it out to have grammar corrected, how could they identify it as bad in the first place. The “buyer” was clearly a scammer who just wanted something for nothing.

[inkpetal]

Some clients are garbage, fortunately most are not. Really not looking forward to my first horror story, but I know it will come in time. I’ll definitely go on your advice of identifying red flags and letting my intuition tell me when to cancel.