From Top Rated to Level Zero: The Unfair Downfall

[deborafazliu]

I have been working on Fiverr since 2019. During this time, I have completed 1074 order, and have a 4.9 average with 628 reviews. Today, my profile is no longer eligible for promotions. Today, Fiverr has limited me to receive only projects from my existing clients, because I will hardly have any traffic at all - organic doesn't exist. 

5 years of hard work, 24 hour service to my clients, with so many amazing projects, today go down the drain. What used to be a platform that supported its sellers, has turned into a machine that doesn’t recognize talent, professionalism or hard work. My account has been unfairly punished for the past year when I was demoted from Top rated to Level two for no reason at all, but this was just the cherry on top, and unfortunately, this will most likely cause me to not be able to offer services for much longer. 

Ever since the new system has been implemented, despite delivering so many projects and receiving great feedback from my clients, my success score of 4 points out of 10 has not moved for a single moment. According to Fiverr, the success score is now based on our day to day performance, and it can change on a day to day basis, depending on how we do with our projects, however this is simply not true, because it has remained frozen ever since I got dropped from a Level Two account, into a Level 0 with the "new success score system update".

I was advised to focus more on communication, to reach out to clients often, to extend the delivery time to accommodate more revisions, to improve the quality of work, to consult with clients more often – All of which I have implemented, with absolutely no results. I would express my concern that something is wrong with the account, and the success score doesn’t seem to move, but I was faced with the same response every single time: Keep trying your best, it takes time for the success score to change.

Am I the only professional on Fiverr facing this problem, or is this a common issue?

I would greatly appreciate anyone’s feedback on this case. This has caused me a lot of stress, has forced me to fire my team, and it has basically ruined my quality of life, for absolutely no fault of mine.

 

 

[grayprogrammerz]

41 minutes ago, deborafazliu said:

I would greatly appreciate anyone’s feedback on this case. This has caused me a lot of stress, has forced me to fire my team, and it has basically ruined my quality of life, for absolutely no fault of mine.

This look harmful

Can you show screenshot of metrics affecting score ?

[deborafazliu]

Absolutely! These metrics are ridiculous. I have so many returning clients, which would absolutely not return if my communication, or any part of my service, was as negative as Fiverr claims it to be. 

The Kitchen and Commercial gigs have not even been used for a very long time, and for the time they were used, I received amazing reviews in both which proves that the work was amazing. Attaching screenshots for those as well. 

[pixel_editor197]

1 hour ago, deborafazliu said:

I have been working on Fiverr since 2019. During this time, I have completed 1074 order, and have a 4.9 average with 628 reviews. Today, my profile is no longer eligible for promotions. Today, Fiverr has limited me to receive only projects from my existing clients, because I will hardly have any traffic at all - organic doesn't exist. 

5 years of hard work, 24 hour service to my clients, with so many amazing projects, today go down the drain. What used to be a platform that supported its sellers, has turned into a machine that doesn’t recognize talent, professionalism or hard work. My account has been unfairly punished for the past year when I was demoted from Top rated to Level two for no reason at all, but this was just the cherry on top, and unfortunately, this will most likely cause me to not be able to offer services for much longer. 

Ever since the new system has been implemented, despite delivering so many projects and receiving great feedback from my clients, my success score of 4 points out of 10 has not moved for a single moment. According to Fiverr, the success score is now based on our day to day performance, and it can change on a day to day basis, depending on how we do with our projects, however this is simply not true, because it has remained frozen ever since I got dropped from a Level Two account, into a Level 0 with the "new success score system update".

I was advised to focus more on communication, to reach out to clients often, to extend the delivery time to accommodate more revisions, to improve the quality of work, to consult with clients more often – All of which I have implemented, with absolutely no results. I would express my concern that something is wrong with the account, and the success score doesn’t seem to move, but I was faced with the same response every single time: Keep trying your best, it takes time for the success score to change.

Am I the only professional on Fiverr facing this problem, or is this a common issue?

I would greatly appreciate anyone’s feedback on this case. This has caused me a lot of stress, has forced me to fire my team, and it has basically ruined my quality of life, for absolutely no fault of mine.

 

 

I'm also facing the same issue for the last 4 months. In my case client cancel other because he changed his mind and don't want it. 

[vickiespencer]

Developing a team and not overseeing the product they produced could have been your downfall. Would it help to fire your team and return to doing all the work yourself? 

[rabihumakhan]

Don't ever rely on your team, any team, any team member. 

I have been getting constant, regular, large orders worth 1000s of dollars elsewhere and have tried numerous times to outsource a portion of my work.  However, whenever I did that, the results were disappointing and now when I know I can't handle a task, I straight forward reject it. Remember, it's your account and you should've the passion for it. Nobody else (read your team) cares about your reputation and your career.  

[donnovan86]

2 hours ago, deborafazliu said:

Absolutely! These metrics are ridiculous. I have so many returning clients, which would absolutely not return if my communication, or any part of my service, was as negative as Fiverr claims it to be. 

Well customers can leave private reviews. And since you had a few 3 star reviews, those might have a negative review attached. Also a lot of people don't leave reviews at all, and they might leave a bad review privately, because they don't want to share their opinion publicly. So those can be a major factor. 

[iusmandev]

Don't worry we are also facing same issue .Hope for best👍

[deborafazliu]

4 hours ago, vickiespencer said:

Developing a team and not overseeing the product they produced could have been your downfall. Would it help to fire your team and return to doing all the work yourself? 

The same designer that did this project from start to finish has been working with me since day one. My team is doing great for sure, they are amazing architects and designers. What doesn't make sense, is the fact that out of 600+ amazing reviews, the "most relevant" one is the one with 3.7 stars. Let's say my quality of work went down, and you guys are right, does that mean that 5 years of experience, hard work and amazing projects are completely worthless and I deserve to be level 0? 

Considering that the past few months we have created some of our best projects to date, it definitely doesn't add up.

[rawque_gulia]

1 hour ago, deborafazliu said:

does that mean that 5 years of experience, hard work and amazing projects are completely worthless and I deserve to be level 0? 

Deserved to be zero? -- Absolutely not!
Are completely worthless? -- In Fiverr's eyes, absolutely yes!

Fiverr tracks your day-to-day performance compared to your competitors and your recent performance metrics have more weight than older orders. So Fiverr doesn't care what you delivered 2 or 3 years ago. What it cares about is what you're delivering now. Maybe your work is good, but maybe your competitors are outperforming you. So Fiverr will obviously give a chance to your competitors who are producing good results.

[grayprogrammerz]

15 hours ago, deborafazliu said:

First one points to disputes among orders. (Revisions,tensions and pulls in some orders...)
Second need improvement in stars of value for money.
Third states some clients shown dissatisfaction or anger in Inbox.

 

There's also private reviews, which we won't be sure as they hidden.

10 hours ago, deborafazliu said:

The same designer that did this project from start to finish has been working with me since day one. My team is doing great for sure, they are amazing architects and designers. What doesn't make sense, is the fact that out of 600+ amazing reviews, the "most relevant" one is the one with 3.7 stars. Let's say my quality of work went down, and you guys are right, does that mean that 5 years of experience, hard work and amazing projects are completely worthless and I deserve to be level 0? 

Considering that the past few months we have created some of our best projects to date, it definitely doesn't add up.

Please understand that AI lacks common sense. It calculates weight using force level and then sorts by date.

I hope following is enough to explain

[farshad19rodar]

I think this new level system is messy, After the new level system was published, my score was 8. It's been about 2 months now, and I've delivered around 20 projects, all with 5-star reviews, but the score has remained stuck at 8 without any change! I just pray for this and don't know how it can be improved!
 

[rolandsequeira]

On 5/19/2024 at 3:57 PM, farshad19rodar said:

I think this new level system is messy, After the new level system was published, my score was 8. It's been about 2 months now, and I've delivered around 20 projects, all with 5-star reviews, but the score has remained stuck at 8 without any change! I just pray for this and don't know how it can be improved!
 

You should be happy it has stayed 8 which is a very good score and not gone south. 

[gajuseidi]

I'm sorry this happened to you and it completely sucks. In my mind, there's absolutely no reason for a reputable professional with years of outstanding delivery to be demoted from TRS to level 0, unless they started running an obvious scam, but even then, they should be removed from the platform in that case, not demoted.

Fiverr doesn't seem to care about quality and professionalism, because if they did, they would promote your gigs instead of unjustifiably punishing their standing (and your profile as a whole).

I have one gig with around 450 reviews, 4.9 rating average. When I research SEO page for my niche, and filter by both "relevance" and "best selling", most gigs shown right at the top are :

1. ads
2. Gigs with barely any reviews or no reviews at all (also, gigs with 4.1-4.8 rating average)
3. Numerous gigs which blatantly copy my gig photos or description word for word, something which I stopped paying attention and taking action against some time ago.

Right now, my gig shows up on the first page, but it keeps regularly cycling between the first and fourth pages for seemingly no reason at all. And it stays on the fourth page for weeks at a time, while the first page is populated with new gigs with no track record at all.

I wouldn't jump to put the blame on yourself, Fiverr algorithms have been notorious for prioritizing low quality and low effort gigs instead of the ones which have a proven track record and trust from buyers. Even if Fiverr values profit above everything else (which it seems that it does), it doesn't make any sense to me.

Edited Friday at 02:42 PM by gajuseidi