Success Score and Rankings – How do I deal with buyers ghosting without tanking my stats?

[charlsmcfarlane]

The Success Score has treated me pretty well since it was introduced. It was originally described as a way of providing more transparency about how sellers are evaluated by the Fiverr system. This post outlines an issue that could seriously affect my profile and I would love a transparent and clear answer, if possible.

Among other things, I offer training sessions. They are by far my most successful gigs. For some reason, every now and then, a buyer will order and then just stop responding completely, never scheduling a time to meet. For whatever reason, they seem quite content with Fiverr holding on to their money, and receiving nothing in return, indefinitely 🤷🏻‍♂️.

It’s a lot better now the system automatically approves extension requests. This ensures that the order never goes late, but I’m in this weird position now where I have hundreds of dollars worth of orders just sitting there, going nowhere. Some of these orders were placed more than a year ago – see below.

I’d love to actually schedule and deliver these sessions but for whatever reason, no amount of messaging the customers seems to help – even when I can see they’ve been online. Some of them even manually accept the extension requests but still won't answer my messages.

I’ve considered cancelling them as I don’t offer the services at those prices any more and I don’t like my list being filled up with orders that aren’t going anywhere. However, I don’t want my Success Score, my place in the search rankings, or my Fiverr’s Choice badges to be affected by cancellations that are not my fault. I've heard that Customer Support can cancel orders without affecting the Success Score, but then I've also heard that contacting Customer Support is perceived negatively by the Success Score as well, so I don't know what to do with that either.

So, what I’ve done so far is to just keep extending these orders until the buyer replies. Now, let’s say, one day they do and I can complete the orders – I don’t want my Success Score, my place in the search rankings, or my Fiverr’s Choice badges to be affected by a ridiculously long delivery time, which is again, not my fault. Furthermore, I keep hearing that Fiverr will automatically cancel orders after a certain time and, if true, I’m back at the same concern – I don’t want my Success Score, my place in the search rankings, or my Fiverr’s Choice badges to be affected by cancellations that are not at all my fault.

The gigs in question have near-perfect public ratings and 9s and 10s on the individual gig Success Scores, so I’m certain this isn’t anything to do with customers being unhappy. Importantly, as these are my most popular gigs, and therefore have the biggest impact on my success score, I’m very concerned about making the wrong choice here. I have a 9 out of 10 Success Score, so these heavily weighted gigs possibly could push me down to an 8 or lower. Then my Top Rated status will be at risk too.

In a previous, similar situation I contacted support and they suggested that they can reach out to the customer for me, which they did, countless times, with no results either. So, I’m not particularly convinced of the efficacy of that approach. Also, again, if the Success Score punishes me for contacting support, I don't really want to do that either.

I’m in this annoying position of analysis paralysis now where there is not enough information available on how the Success Score works to make an informed decision. And potentially doing nothing is just as bad. Basically I need more information.

So, that’s a detailed account of the issue. What should I do? Perhaps even someone from the Fiverr team can offer me some advice, based on how the Success Score actually works?

Thanks

Edited August 10 by charlsmcfarlane

[creative_howl]

I can see how these tiered services can get you ghosted by some clients. IMO you need to refund or spend your time sending all those extension requests.

These orders should be completed at some point, and payments cleared to you as the client going "no show" has nothing to do with you.

Regarding the success score, I don't think anyone will be able to give you a clear-cut answer since there's no clear information about this from the official source. So whatever you get from others is their own experience (which may or may not work for you).

If I were you, I would do whatever it is I'm gonna do from this point on with the expectation of losing something. So at least I won't be disappointed if things don't go my way.

Anyway... I hope you'll be able to come to a favorable conclusion to this problem.

Good luck!

 

30 minutes ago, charlsmcfarlane said:

I've heard that Customer Support can cancel orders without affecting the Success Score, but then I've also heard that contacting Customer Support is perceived negatively by the Success Score as well, so I don't know what to do with that either.

https://www.fiverr.com/cp/success-score-explained

Quote

Conflict-free orders

To assess the occurrence of disputes between you and your clients, we look into unresolved matters regarding delivery times and cancellations requests, as well as the number of disputes that had to be escalated to the Fiverr Customer Support Team. The score will also take into account any indications that the client had a bad experience and was unsatisfied with the delivery.

Well, now you've seen it too.

 

31 minutes ago, charlsmcfarlane said:

The gigs in question have near-perfect public ratings and 9s and 10s on the individual gig Success Scores, so I’m certain this isn’t anything to do with customers being unhappy.

Wait till someone pulls up with the "private reviews" debate.