Dealing with Difficult Clients on Fiverr - Share Your Experiences!

[hannakarlstrom]

Hey everyone, 🫠

I wanted to share my recent experience dealing with a challenging client on Fiverr and get some insights from the community on how you handle similar situations.

So, I've been working as a web designer on Fiverr for about two months now, and things have been going pretty well. I've put a lot of effort into crafting appealing gig descriptions and communicating effectively with potential clients. Lately, I've been getting orders almost every day, which is fantastic! I reached level 1 quickly and am soon approaching level 2!

However, I recently encountered a client who turned out to be quite difficult to work with. Despite setting clear expectations and outlining the scope of the project in a detailed agreement, they started making unreasonable demands and behaving poorly as soon as we began working together.

Despite my best efforts to resolve the situation and accommodate their requests, the client continued to push for additional work outside of our initial agreement. It became clear that they were attempting to take advantage of me and get as much as possible for free.

After much frustration and back-and-forth, I decided to cancel the order and offer a partial refund, along with delivering the work completed thus far. However, even this wasn't enough for the client, as they insisted on receiving everything without officially approving the partial refund.

Despite explaining Fiverr's policies and procedures multiple times, the client remained stubborn and unreasonable. Eventually, I reached a point where I felt exhausted and decided to cut my losses by refunding everything and letting go of the project.

Unfortunately, dealing with such clients can be draining and can negatively impact our order rates. I tried my best to handle the situation professionally and with patience, but sometimes it's just not possible to reach a satisfactory resolution.

I'm curious to hear from others who may have faced similar challenges on Fiverr. How do you handle difficult clients? What strategies do you employ to protect yourself and your business while maintaining professionalism?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences!

[priyank_mod]

Once in a while, we do stumble across buyers who are all nice till they place the order and their tone changes completely once we start sharing and delivering the work. 🤦‍♂️

You tried your best with utmost professionalism and even offered partial refund but some buyers also know how Fiverr's systems work and they circumnavigate through the loopholes to take advantage of the seller. 

There are no hardcore solutions or strategies as such because each case differs. One thing you can do for sure is that drop a mail to support when you encounter such a situation explaining everything clearly (but not overly detailed) and inform them that buyer is making unfair demands!! So that tomorrow if buyer escalates the issue or it comes to cancellation from buyer's end (after delivery), support would already be aware of the situation.

Some preemptive action is the best possible way to handle such situations.  

[hannakarlstrom]

Thank you so much for your response and sharing your experience!

Yeah i agree! It's really challenging because I always strive to deliver above and beyond for all my clients, and so far, all my reviews and clients have appreciated that I exceed their expectations.😀

We freelancers rely on positive reviews and recommendations, so when a client like this comes along and just tries to take advantage of everything, it ruins things. I usually can handle difficult situations, but with this client, no matter what I did, it wasn't enough, and despite all the days I worked, he didn't think he should pay anything. But I suppose we learn from our mistakes!

Regarding the order rate, I'm not sure how much it's affected by a canceled order or how it works?  I haven't had one before, so I'm unsure of its impact on me. Also, I wanted to ask you, I'm very meticulous about specifying a clear agreement and what's included and not before a client places an order, precisely to prevent situations like this. If the client then accepts those terms, and I refuse to back down, what happens then? Thanks for your response, I appreciate it!

[arafatcoco]

Communication skill must be more powerful.

[smashradio]

7 hours ago, hannakarlstrom said:

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences!

After a decade on Fiverr, I’ve learned not to let anyone push me around or expect me to work for free. I've had my share of tough customers (though not many), and in your situation, I'd simply send a custom offer and make it clear that I’m willing to do additional work—for a fee.

I don’t work for free, and I don’t offer refunds for work that’s already done, whether it's partial or full, unless it's my mistake. If I’ve completed the agreed-upon work, I just resend it if they're not willing to pay for extra revisions.

This approach quickly shows the buyer that I'm not someone they can bully or trick into working for free. It sets a clear boundary and expectation right from the start: you pay for my time.

If they refuse, I'm prepared to have a delivery button standoff until they cave, or until customer support steps in, whether in my favor or theirs. They can’t force them to accept a delivery, so it might drag out and as a worst case scenario, they might side with the buyer and cancel the order forcibly. That's one of the key metrics in the new success score, so I'm more careful about the buyers I chose to work with now compared to before. 

I once had to redeliver an order for two months (every single day) before the buyer finally backed down, but ultimately, I got paid.

Another time, a buyer chose to just complete the order rather than pay for my time, and left a one-star review. I’m okay with that. I'd rather take that hit than start down the slippery slope of letting people push me around.

Canceling an order just to avoid negative feedback is essentially review sanitization, and doing that means your pride goes down the drain along with your earnings.

[hannakarlstrom]

1 hour ago, smashradio said:

After a decade on Fiverr, I’ve learned not to let anyone push me around or expect me to work for free. I've had my share of tough customers (though not many), and in your situation, I'd simply send a custom offer and make it clear that I’m willing to do additional work—for a fee.

I don’t work for free, and I don’t offer refunds for work that’s already done, whether it's partial or full, unless it's my mistake. If I’ve completed the agreed-upon work, I just resend it if they're not willing to pay for extra revisions.

This approach quickly shows the buyer that I'm not someone they can bully or trick into working for free. It sets a clear boundary and expectation right from the start: you pay for my time.

If they refuse, I'm prepared to have a delivery button standoff until they cave, or until customer support steps in, whether in my favor or theirs. They can’t force them to accept a delivery, so it might drag out and as a worst case scenario, they might side with the buyer and cancel the order forcibly. That's one of the key metrics in the new success score, so I'm more careful about the buyers I chose to work with now compared to before. 

I once had to redeliver an order for two months (every single day) before the buyer finally backed down, but ultimately, I got paid.

Another time, a buyer chose to just complete the order rather than pay for my time, and left a one-star review. I’m okay with that. I'd rather take that hit than start down the slippery slope of letting people push me around.

Canceling an order just to avoid negative feedback is essentially review sanitization, and doing that means your pride goes down the drain along with your earnings.

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences! I learned a lot from reading about your journey, and you're absolutely right that if I allow someone to treat me that way, I'm letting them toy with me and take advantage of me.

I'll definitely take the things you shared and try to apply them to my own approach! I resonate with what you said about reviews. I've been afraid of receiving negative reviews myself. I know I always do my best and deliver quality work 100% of the time, so I never doubt my work. But I've noticed that some clients from the outset are only looking for the lowest price and push around. I've tried to explain to some that if they're only looking for the lowest price, I'm not the right fit for them and they won't get quality if they're only willing to pay a few dollars.

I've definitely learned a lesson from this, that I should only work with the clients who feel right in every way. In hindsight, you're right that I'd rather receive a 1-star review and maintain my pride than let someone walk all over me!

Thank you so much for sharing your story; I'll take it with me and learn from it!

[smashradio]

59 minutes ago, hannakarlstrom said:

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences! I learned a lot from reading about your journey, and you're absolutely right that if I allow someone to treat me that way, I'm letting them toy with me and take advantage of me.

I'll definitely take the things you shared and try to apply them to my own approach! I resonate with what you said about reviews. I've been afraid of receiving negative reviews myself. I know I always do my best and deliver quality work 100% of the time, so I never doubt my work. But I've noticed that some clients from the outset are only looking for the lowest price and push around. I've tried to explain to some that if they're only looking for the lowest price, I'm not the right fit for them and they won't get quality if they're only willing to pay a few dollars.

I've definitely learned a lesson from this, that I should only work with the clients who feel right in every way. In hindsight, you're right that I'd rather receive a 1-star review and maintain my pride than let someone walk all over me!

Thank you so much for sharing your story; I'll take it with me and learn from it!

Yeah, even though Fiverr isn't what it used to be – I remember when you could get videos of a guy singing with his goat for five bucks – you still encounter those  buyers occasionally. I checked out your profile, and I noticed you have a gig starting at only five dollars. That's just asking for trouble. In my experience, you can avoid most bad buyers simply by raising your prices.

I totally understand the fear of getting a bad review, especially when you're new, and you should be a bit afraid. I just find the idea of working for free even more terrifying, haha.

Glad I could help! (And sorry you had to learn this the hard way. I sure did, and it wasn't fun at all.)

[hannakarlstrom]

Absolutely, you're correct. I initially set the price at $5 to start accumulating reviews. However, now that things are going smoother and I'm receiving messages every day, I'll definitely remove it. Previously, I didn't see it as an issue since I only had clients from Sweden, and they automatically know the pricing and understand that it's just a form of marketing.

However, lately, it's been causing nothing but trouble and attracting the wrong clients who misunderstand! So, you're absolutely right, I'll remove that and adjust it to attract the right clientele again.

Thank you for your tips and insights; they mean a lot to me, and I genuinely want to learn the right way, so thank you!

[mandyzines]

On 4/20/2024 at 4:19 AM, priyank_mod said:

drop a mail to support when you encounter such a situation explaining everything clearly

I recall staff stating that affects the "conflict-free" aspect of success scores.

[priyank_mod]

11 hours ago, mandyzines said:

I recall staff stating that affects the "conflict-free" aspect of success scores.

Yupss, that's the aftermath (post conflict resolution!!) 🥲

 

Edited April 23 by priyank_mod