I am disgusted at Fiverr.

[cash4games]

Hello

I unfortunately don't know what other choice I have other than to make a forum post about my situation and seeing if anyone else has had anything similar happen to them. I've been ripped off by a freelancer on Fiverr and when contacting the support they have ignored me for a week.

In February I hired a freelancer to create a Shopify website for me, which included a premium theme according to the service description and our communications.
About a week ago I received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice from Shopify for using an unlicensed version of the theme given to me by this freelancer. The original theme developers had reported me for using their theme without a license, which I had no idea about.

The freelancer had not mentioned anywhere that this theme was unlicensed, violating Fiverr's guidelines for responsible digital creation. They had 191 positive reviews and 2 negative reviews. 1 of the negative reviews were explaining how they are in the exact same position as me. When I brought this to the attention of the freelancer, he claimed "That is fake from a fake buyer", "It’s from a fake buyer bro". He refused to accept that he has caused my business to be at legal risk. I've had to redo my entire website from scratch because of this.

I've contacted Fiverr for a refund and my email has been ignored for almost a week. I followed up with a message in the thread yesterday asking how long it will take to receive a reply, also with no response. Has anyone else experienced similar issues with Fiverr support? Any suggestions on how to escalate this situation to get a resolution?

Warm regards

Edited July 29 by cash4games

[Lena]

Hello @cash4games 

We understand you are worried about this issue. However, your ticket is open and is currently being handled by our Customer Support. They will reach out to you soon. We do apologize for the delayed response. Note that the only reason for this is because we are currently experiencing a high volume of inquiries. We kindly ask you to refrain from opening additional tickets as it will be difficult to keep up with multiple requests.

Thank you for your understanding and patience. 

[cash4games]

4 minutes ago, Lena said:

Hello @cash4games 

We understand you are worried about this issue. However, your ticket is open and is currently being handled by our Customer Support. They will reach out to you soon. We do apologize for the delayed response. Note that the only reason for this is because we are currently experiencing a high volume of inquiries. We kindly ask you to refrain from opening additional tickets as it will be difficult to keep up with multiple requests.

Thank you for your understanding and patience. 

How long can I expect to wait? I couldn't believe I've already had to wait 144 hours already.

[filipdevaere]

@cash4games

A free tip from me:

Never tell your budget. Almost all sellers will give you a price close to your maximum budget or a little bit more than your budget.

 

[cash4games]

2 minutes ago, filipdevaere said:

@cash4games

A free tip from me:

Never tell your budget. Almost all sellers will give you a price close to your maximum budget or a little bit more than your budget.

 

It won't matter, I don't think I ever want to use Fiverr again after this.
Thank you though, I appreciate that 🙂

Edited July 29 by cash4games

[filipdevaere]

8 minutes ago, cash4games said:

It won't matter, I don't think I ever want to use Fiverr again after this.

I understand your frustration.
There are indeed quite a few freelancers on Fiverr who don't belong here, but this is also the case on other freelancer platforms.
Not every freelancer is a scammer. I suspect you just didn't get lucky.

Didn't you see the bad reviews of this freelancer beforehand? This is what I personally always do first before I look at the rest of a freelancer's profile.

[Lena]

12 minutes ago, cash4games said:

How long can I expect to wait? I couldn't believe I've already had to wait 144 hours already.

We are so sorry but due to a backlog, we are unable to provide a timeframe.

[cash4games]

1 hour ago, filipdevaere said:

I understand your frustration.
There are indeed quite a few freelancers on Fiverr who don't belong here, but this is also the case on other freelancer platforms.
Not every freelancer is a scammer. I suspect you just didn't get lucky.

Didn't you see the bad reviews of this freelancer beforehand? This is what I personally always do first before I look at the rest of a freelancer's profile.

He had 191 positive reviews and 2 bad reviews, I'm not sure why I over looked the bad ones I don't remember seeing them, I am usually the type to look for the bad reviews as well.

[cash4games]

1 hour ago, Lena said:

We are so sorry but due to a backlog, we are unable to provide a timeframe.

Do you know how I can change my review about this person? It was a 5 star at first because no issues until now.

[Lena]

18 minutes ago, cash4games said:

Do you know how I can change my review about this person? It was a 5 star at first because no issues until now.

According to the Recent updates to Fiverr's Ratings and Reviews system, once a review is published, it can no longer be edited by the buyer, seller, or Customer Support. 

[cash4games]

1 hour ago, Lena said:

According to the Recent updates to Fiverr's Ratings and Reviews system, once a review is published, it can no longer be edited by the buyer, seller, or Customer Support. 

That is completely unfair because this person has deceived me over and there was no way of me knowing until months after the fact. Now my review is being used to promote his illegal activities on the platform. Can I at least remove my review? I don't want my review to encourage people to be in the same position I am. That's not right at all.

[Lena]

8 minutes ago, cash4games said:

That is completely unfair because this person has deceived me over and there was no way of me knowing until months after the fact. Now my review is being used to promote his illegal activities on the platform. Can I at least remove my review? I don't want my review to encourage people to be in the same position I am. That's not right at all.

I understand you feel you've been wronged but this is the question for our Customer Support. I know that the reviews will not be removed unless they violate our TOS. Surely you can reply to the email stating your case. 

[cash4games]

4 minutes ago, Lena said:

I understand you feel you've been wronged but this is the question for our Customer Support. I know that the reviews will not be removed unless they violate our TOS. Surely you can reply to the email stating your case. 

I've made a reply to the thread already over 24 hours ago with no response is there really any point in commenting on the support ticket thread again.

[markp]

 The cost of those themes is way outside your budget by a very long way and that should have set alarm bells off. There is no way these are going to be licensed themes for what you have been quoted & the seller cannot resell them to different people (there is no reseller license). Unfortunately, this is a very common issue everywhere. Next time you order from anyone, anywhere, make sure you ask if the theme is licensed and not "found" somewhere. themes like this cost a substantial amount, and if the offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you go to Shopify and look at the cost of the themes in the category they showed, you will see they are substantially higher than your overall budget & that's a clear indication there is something "dodgy" going on.

[vibronx]

It's disgusting that a seller can be allowed to scam more than 100 people on Fiverr without any intervention. I doubt this will lead to him getting banned either...

[cash4games]

27 minutes ago, markp said:

 The cost of those themes is way outside your budget by a very long way and that should have set alarm bells off. There is no way these are going to be licensed themes for what you have been quoted & the seller cannot resell them to different people (there is no reseller license). Unfortunately, this is a very common issue everywhere. Next time you order from anyone, anywhere, make sure you ask if the theme is licensed and not "found" somewhere. themes like this cost a substantial amount, and if the offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you go to Shopify and look at the cost of the themes in the category they showed, you will see they are substantially higher than your overall budget & that's a clear indication there is something "dodgy" going on.

I honestly had no idea about themes and I would have been more than happy using a free theme had I known the cost of the average theme. This was my sort of my first experience with Shopify and I had no design experience at all so I thought even the most basic design from Fiverr would be better than what I would have been able to do, and I didn't know much about themes or what they were or what they did. I've learned a lot now especially because of this incident but as I didn't know anything about it that's why it didn't ring any bells.

[cash4games]

4 minutes ago, vibronx said:

It's disgusting that a seller can be allowed to scam more than 100 people on Fiverr without any intervention. I doubt this will lead to him getting banned either...

It honestly is sad and he won't take any accountability or responsibility.

[catwriter]

19 hours ago, cash4games said:

It honestly is sad and he won't take any accountability or responsibility.

Scammers like these either pretend that they did nothing wrong and try to put the blame on you, or cry about having to feed their families and how you're going to ruin their lives for them.

[koolestpro]

On 7/29/2024 at 12:47 PM, cash4games said:

It won't matter, I don't think I ever want to use Fiverr again after this.
Thank you though, I appreciate that 🙂

Hi @cash4games

I completely understand your situation, as I'm experienced in this niche and have encountered similar cases. Many clients have approached me with the same issue.

The reality is that hiring a freelancer from another platform doesn't necessarily guarantee a different experience. Before the Shopify 2.0 update, it wasn't uncommon (though still not legal) for freelancers to reuse paid themes across multiple stores. Unfortunately, many freelancers haven't updated their practices to comply with the new Shopify guidelines.

I recommend that you don't pay a freelancer for a Shopify theme. Instead, ask for a theme recommendation and purchase it directly from [themes.shopify.com](https://themes.shopify.com). It's straightforward to buy a theme yourself, and this way, you ensure that the purchase is legitimate.

Alternatively, consider using page builder apps to create unique pages for your website on the free Dawn theme.

I hope this advice is helpful.

[arafatcoco]

Talk to the fiverr support.

[cash4games]

On 7/31/2024 at 1:13 AM, koolestpro said:

Hi @cash4games

I completely understand your situation, as I'm experienced in this niche and have encountered similar cases. Many clients have approached me with the same issue.

The reality is that hiring a freelancer from another platform doesn't necessarily guarantee a different experience. Before the Shopify 2.0 update, it wasn't uncommon (though still not legal) for freelancers to reuse paid themes across multiple stores. Unfortunately, many freelancers haven't updated their practices to comply with the new Shopify guidelines.

I recommend that you don't pay a freelancer for a Shopify theme. Instead, ask for a theme recommendation and purchase it directly from [themes.shopify.com](https://themes.shopify.com). It's straightforward to buy a theme yourself, and this way, you ensure that the purchase is legitimate.

Alternatively, consider using page builder apps to create unique pages for your website on the free Dawn theme.

I hope this advice is helpful.

I am not upset with Fiverr for having a Freelancer do this to me on their platform, I understand Fiverr just provides a way for Freelancers to connect with clients. I'm upset and frustrated with the amount of time having to wait for a response from Fiverr.

I wasn't paying this Freelancer for the theme, I was paying him for the design work. I was given a choice of which theme to use and didn't understand that normally a premium theme would cost a large amount. I assumed it was just a random theme he created as I didn't understand how they worked and I assumed 'premium' was just a way of selling his service.

This was a long time ago and I've done all my recent designs myself.

I am complaining about the amount of time Fiverr has ignored my email for.

[cash4games]

On 7/31/2024 at 1:26 AM, arafatcoco said:

Talk to the fiverr support.

Unfortunately, I have with no response for a week. Thanks for the reply 🙂