This is why correcting your rating feels hopeless

[cheftychefty]

It's been several months since fiverr rolled out the new success score and rating system. We were told to just power through it and work on the things that we could correct, in order to fix our rating.

In this time, I have gone above and beyond. I've turned in orders earlier than needed, offered extra stuff for free to clients just to boost their experience, and have had mostly all 5 star reviews. Yet my rating stays unchanged. I reached out to support to ask about about it and now, instead of "keep working on it, it'll go back up" they say "Oh, so your rating is based on everyone in your category and it's pretty stable as is." 

Which to me... Implies that the scores we have are what we will have forever... No matter how hard we try to correct it. It feels so hopeless. I've already had to trade in my car for equity to pay my rent last month lol. There's not much more hope I feel like I have left here.

This is an example of a recent review that I received. Keep in mind that I spent 3 weeks with this client when it should've been 3 days. They explained to me several times that they were so sorry for how much of my time they were taking up. They apologized for not knowing what they wanted. I just continued to smile and say "it's okay, my goal is to get you what you want. Just send me feedback and I'll revise it." He would express how thankful he was for my attention to detail and patience... I am also an English/Arts major from UVM, out of Vermont. The fact that he said I need to work on "Language Fluency" really throws me off.

I feel like his review was driven solely because he tried reaching out to me 4 days after the delivery was approved and I was out of town with family(which I told him about before the delivery) and since I never responded to his message quick enough, he submitted his review a few hours later, with a bit of spite because the things he said I needed to improve on contradict his entire written review....

It's stuff like this that really create a space where sellers just want to give up because we are held to such a higher standard than buyers are. All we get to leave is a 1-5 star rating and a brief message. Buyers get to fill out all of this whole form in great detail and bomb our ratings, on top of filling out a private feedback form that we don't get to see.

I almost guarantee that when he logs in and sees that he gets to fill out his private feedback, he's going to give me a terrible rating all because I was not able to reply to his DM as quickly as he wanted. It just really sucks. I don't get why this is a thing.

[suprmarketplace1]

I didn't see that you received any replies for this, so I wanted to say I understand and am going through the same frustrations.

A question: What is your current success score:

First and foremost, an improvement in score/future ratings takes time and perseverance. Fiverr won't let us know exactly how long so continue to do your best work on a consistent level and eventually you'll see improvements.  (I would advise against going to Support for help on any orders because it appears that is considered a "Conflict" and will have a negative impact).

I'll review your experience and the categories that need improvement and will make some suggestions about how to move forward shortly. 

[suprmarketplace1]

New Scoring System is Destructive, Disruptive, Unmanageable, and Unfair

Welp, I'm done here on Fiverr (due to SS), I got tired of fighting and the unnecessary anxiety, BUT I think it's only fair to myself that I get to express myself. It's upsetting to me that it feels like Fiverr doesn't care. 

I'm speaking on behalf of the honest hardworking Sellers who were recently thriving on Fiverr with great work and great reviews and are now struggling despite doing all they can to raise their SS (and Yes I'm fully aware of the new suggestions to increase SS).

Sellers, you know the new level system is scary when you unfortunately get a rare actual poor rating/review and it's the kiss of death.😩
I've been here for 10 years and am now forced to close my gigs and log off.  My formerly Level 2 status has been in a STEADY freefall since the new system took place and I see no fix. 
It should NOT be this hard. 

Thankfully I don't  financially rely on Fiverr to live, but I feel incredibly sad for those who do who've had their lives turned upside down. 


Some Things That are Unfair and Just Weird to Me:

-I fear that the definition of "performance" has changed rapidly with Fiverr. Introducing a HIGHLY impactful system change in mid February and giving us only 30 days to make any improvements started things on the wrong foot. With a system as complex and mysterious as this one, I suspect a 30 day fix was an impossible feat.

- I know private reviews hold weight, but do public reviews hold ANY weight anymore? I definitely can't tell. I, (as well as others) received glowing public reviews, but found myself still failing and struggling on Fiverr for the past few months.

- If Sellers are WINNING one week and STRUGGLING the next, without having made any changes, something is wrong (and it's not Sellers).

- If Sellers do everything they can to excel and improve, and their reviews and ratings visibly say they are excellent, why are so many fighting for their lives?

-Having Buyers place accidental/uninformed orders is an EXTERNAL factor that cannot 100% be controlled. Even if we instruct Buyers to contact us first in **ALL CAPS** some if them just won't. These are called accidents. We should not suffer for them. Since the new scoring system took place, a simple accidental order could be catastrophic. These really need to be waived in certain cases.

-Having any gig visibility against automated gig advertisements is virtually impossible. Sellers are falling from Level 2 to Level 1 en masse and can no longer promote their gig for reasons beyond their control. Not being able to promote your gig is basically a death sentence. Good Sellers should not be subject to Fiverr "death" so easily.  Exceptions must be made.

- The supposed impact of private reviews is destroying Seller morale, motivation and confidence.
I felt like I knew my Buyers (some, not all) better than anyone else that I had some small idea of when they were happy vs unhappy with orders and my work. The private review blame honestly felt more like an alibi to me.  I think it's too easy of an excuse to just blame a sudden decline of score and orders on a new revelation that our Buyers were silently unhappy.
Blaming such a damaging decline on something invisible that's "done in the dark" and that's in stark opposition to public reviews that are "done in the light" is wild. Private reviews felt like a scary Boogeyman and I felt like I was in Crazytown when my public reviews and Buyers told me me I was a very good Seller for years.
There should be more transparency with private reviews (I think that Sellers should receive notifications (not details) every month if they've received any negative feedback so it's not a complete shock when scores drop and so they can at least be aware).

-If revisions are now seen as "conflicts" then this is troublesome. Revisions are a regular part of any collaborative process and are not necessarily a bad thing. We should not be punished. If revisions are offered by Fiverr, then they should not be going against us.

-It's unfair that we're being punished in 2024 for things that were acceptable in 2023. I  asked for extensions twice last year because it was allowed. Fiver should apply punishment to future extensions, not for using them in the past.

-It's unfair that some Sellers are getting poor Communication scores despite being very effective, clear and frequent communicators. The amount of words used should not have an impact on scores and success and feels arbitrary.  If word count does have an impact, Sellers should at least be given a tangible number of characters that are required to succeed.



About Me: About 600 orders. Majority 5 stars and tons of reorders (I had a bad period of cancellations in 2014 when I was sick but that's it). 
I already fell to Level 1 in May where I've been stuck, then I got a rare 1.7 review last week which sent me packing because I can't even imagine the damage an actual BAD SCORE will have. 
 

Thanks for reading if you got this far.
Hopefully this vent might help others who are frustrated. You're not alone ♥️

[suprmarketplace1]

He did give you 5 stars for the work itself which is definitely a win for you.

Buyers aren't perfect and sometimes can be grumpy or be on a different page altogether. It stinks that we suffer the consequences.

It honestly sounds like you didn't make any blatant errors other than the amount of time spent and slow response time (even if you forewarned him you'd be away).  

Buyers don't like to wait so I advise to always checking your notifications regularly- even if away. Even checking once a day would have made the situation better for him. Buyers have short memories and sometimes don't pay as much attention to every detail of our  messages like we assume. He might have completely forgot what you told him and panicked and assumed you were gone for good and wouldn't ever respond, or worse, that you got your payment and ghosted. Sadly he had 4 long days to be concerned and possibly assume the worst.
If you don't already do it, you might want to add an auto-response letting people know that you'll be back in touch as soon as possible, but even that needs to be monitored. 


A question: What took the order from 3 days to 3 weeks? Where was the disconnect?

[suprmarketplace1]

Private Buyer Reviews: A Suggestion To Fiverr That Might Help Sellers

Hi Fiverr,
The impact of private reviews seems to have really wreaked havoc on Sellers' scores and success. They can literally be the difference between good and bad Level status. I feel that once Sellers finally discover that they had a dissatisfied Buyer, it's too little too late to take any action.

My recommendation to Fiverr:
Similar to the Level Warning emails, Sellers who receive any negative feedback should get a general Fiverr "Warning" notification every month (containing no specific details). The warning would just act as an alert that feedback was received in the last 60 days that might negatively impact their status and score and to tighten up.

A simple email with a Subject Like: "Alert: Get Back on Track on With Buyer Satisfaction"

This could help sudden and random-feeling declines in success scores not be such a complete and unexpected shock and allow Sellers the opportunity to be aware and vigilant moving forward.

I think that's transparent and fair right?