Level 1 lost after a short time and Fiverr pushing for gig promo to keep the level

[litcornerbooks]

Hi all. 

I have decided to share my experience with the new level system, as many others did previously. I have started this profile last year in September and slowly gathered clients and reviews. When the new rating system came, I started seeing a strange thing about the orders. Before the new system, the orders seemed to come at a random pace. I would guess the people found me naturally and made an order. After the new rating system, I saw long weeks without any single offer. Then I would get a week full of orders. Then silence again. Then another week full of orders... I want to highlight that I have always finished the orders before the deadline, there were no problems with the orders... I got good reviews. I had two experiences where the clients marked the infamous "order value" as low and otherwise marked the order as great. But this brought two ratings down from five stars to four stars.

I reached Level 1 recently. I think about a month ago. I saw exactly ZERO effect of the new level on my orders or impressions. Everything stayed the same. And today I got the message that my level is threatened and I got the "grace period." And the very first thing Fiverr offered in the email to keep the level was the gig promotion to get more clients. Well, I cannot help but suspect this is a tactic and the whole level system seems to be a lure to get more money from the sellers. The new system is said to be very stable and the score is not supposed to change in a short time. This shows the opposite. And I have to say that I really do not care. Fiverr's biggest problem for me from the start was the inability to deny a customer order and the danger of being bullied by the buyers expecting super care and great deliveries for no money. I have always kept my Fiverr profile and my regular business strictly separate for this reason. I also found many people do not trust Fiverr and immediately suspect people working also on Fiverr to be not professional and scammers. My real money comes from my own clients and we have proper and detailed, elaborate contracts and invoices. But I enjoy the small jobs I have here on Fiverr as well and I like to help people. I have to say I have met also wonderful clients here on Fiverr and I enjoyed working for them. But that does not mean I am not starting to see Fiverr as a page as very unreliable and harmful. Now, after the warning, I see red warning texts on my profile and other pushy things. And I see it as very unpleasant and annoying.  I also think it is ridiculous. I never missed an order or had a late order. I have never had a conflict with a buyer. I am convinced I offer quality. I see no reason for this low assessment from Fiverr. And I imagine this can be very harmful for people who need Fiverr for a living. 

I have read in another discussion that Fiverr now seems to be a hobby at best. Not a place for a serious business. And I agree. What is your experience with getting and losing the levels?

 

[simonjonesmusic]

I've been on Fiverr for a few years and have grown both Fiverr clients and my own clients over the same period. This has been a full time, serious, professional endeavour for me.

The metrics that Fiverr uses to calculate the success score are extraordinarily poorly thought out. The success managers are also using these metrics to gauge seller performance. The metrics are essentially bad data, because they are calculated as percentages of total traffic/orders/messages etc - the scores will fluctuate wildly during a period of low orders or low traffic to your page.

I have ignored the level system entirely since seeing its flaw with using percentages over a fixed time period to calculate the scores.

The level system with it's warnings and punishments has deincentivised me from selling on the platform, I am now putting more time and money into growing my own clients and on other platforms. 

Since the level system was introduced I am only taking orders from the more professional clients who contact me on Fiverr - animation studios, indie game devs etc and I am filtering out individuals who present a risk to my level. Before the level system I was happy to work with 'challenging' clients both for the extra bit of income and as a matter of my own integrity and willingness to help. Not any more.

As you have noticed, this new system presents a seller with warnings and punishments triggered by poor metrics and flawed calculations, instead of incentivising professionalism, quality and integrity.