Learn to say NO – Detect the red flags

[wpmasterseo1]

4 hours ago, rawque_gulia said:

Back in the early days, I was a total idiot for accepting such an offer. I gave the client an $80 quote (after discounting) and he still rejected it saying the budget was too high. Then 2-3 days later, another client asked for the same model -- and I quickly realized it was another employee from the same company. This time, I removed the discount and simply gave them the original price which was $150, thinking they’d just go away since even $80 wasn’t in their budget. 

But surprise! No negotiations -- they agreed to the original price ($150). At that time, I didn’t know @filipdevaere (haha), so my brain was still in development mode. I accepted the work (and was dancing as the deal was confirmed without any discounts) but that order turned out to be a nightmare. 

Even after 5 deliveries, the client remained unsatisfied, constantly requesting revisions until I had to say a firm "no". And the main problem was that they were coming to ask for a revision after 3 days and that too just before 2-3 hours of auto order completion. They then tried to lure me with promises of "lots of future projects", but I made it clear the project was done and this was the last message on the order page:

I was literally lucky that after this delivery, the client just went offline and never came back. They were new to the platform, so maybe they weren’t aware of the review process (not sure), but they never came back to leave a review or mark the order as complete. The order got marked as complete after 3 days, and all was good! But now, I am never going to take another bet on such projects where the client’s budget is lower -- because then they will try to squeeze every drop of blood out of you.

oh then you are lucky so it will auto accepted then "Revision after 3 days and that too just before 2-3 hours" so it will also causing the late (delay) of your payment clearing.

[thejamuhh]

Just now, filipdevaere said:

I know that you speak Dutch. Do you think that the guy in the video speaks Fluent Dutch?

I only (slightly) understand what he is saying if I read the subtitles, and the voice sounds like the animated Tiktok voice over. 

This guy can't speak or understand a single word of proper Dutch. What a shame to see.

[filipdevaere]

Hello @uk1000, another Dutch speaking seller ( @thejamuhh ) just confirmed that the seller of the gig you found does not speak Dutch.

 

 

[uk1000]

Though it's still a gig offering that service. That was a gig I found. There might be others. The point was there is >1 gig offering that service that service. I didn't say they'd be as good as your gigs for it. Though the gig was for writing so whether he can speak it well might not be that applicable to what the buyer wanted. If that particular seller was faking it he'd probably get bad reviews or gig removed. So the buyer might have had a choice, even if all the other gigs weren't as good. Though we shouldn't recommend a particular seller go a buyer if we don't think that seller can do a reasonably good job for them. But they could still search for the gigs. eg. maybe you could have linked to a gig search that could bring up some of the other gigs, but also say you can't vouch for how well any of them would do the project.

We also aren't allowed to negatively call out particular sellers by name so we can't say too much about a particular seller eg. if linking.

Edited September 5 by uk1000

[dponzio]

Great @filipdevaere ! Very wise. Thank you!! I had similar conversations and once made the mistake of accepting an order (at my full price) following the refusal of a discount. I am pretty sure that that buyer tanked one of my gigs, which is very easy as Fiverr is a very small part of my business. 

As it has been pointed out already, I would not have done this person the favour of frankly explaining the reason of my refusal. My view is to remain more vague. And who knows what the AI is going to figure out from that?

Also, @uk1000 when I suggest to seek other freelancers on Fiverr, I prefer to remain on the safe side and am very general. I would not recommend someone that I do not know pretty well. I would not do a research for them either. It's not worth my time. Let them go out and find their great deal! 😂

[filipdevaere]

4 minutes ago, dponzio said:

I would not do a research for them either. It's not worth my time. Let them go out and find their great deal! 

Well said.

[visualstudios]

11 hours ago, filipdevaere said:

I have request to order and it is activated on all my gigs.

The buyer can contact me with another account and try to buy it for the price of $60. I have customers requesting the same translation because they sell the same products

RTO is only half the strategy. The other half is to heavily vet buyers if you have any suspicion. If I turned down someone, and a new account comes with a similar project... I'll take extra steps to ensure I'm not dealing with the same person, or someone under their orders.

Edited September 5 by visualstudios

[priyank_mod]

7 minutes ago, dponzio said:

when I suggest to seek other freelancers on Fiverr, I prefer to remain on the safe side and am very general. I would not recommend someone that I do not know pretty well. I would not do a research for them either. It's not worth my time. Let them go out and find their great deal! 😂

Yes, been doing the same since forever. But sometimes I feel if the buyer is lost, I just recommend what to search for i.e. category or profession. And then leave it to them. 

Also, this reminds me, long back, there was a conversation about Fiverr considering rewarding sellers for referring another seller on the platform as a response to an unrelated/can't fulfil buyer enquiry. But considering how people are up all the time to lie/pretend/manipulate the system, they would have trashed the idea. 🫠

[dponzio]

9 minutes ago, priyank_mod said:

Yes, been doing the same since forever. But sometimes I feel if the buyer is lost, I just recommend what to search for i.e. category or profession. And then leave it to them. 

Also, this reminds me, long back, there was a conversation about Fiverr considering rewarding sellers for referring another seller on the platform as a response to an unrelated/can't fulfil buyer enquiry. But considering how people are up all the time to lie/pretend/manipulate the system, they would have trashed the idea. 🫠

I see your point, but it is difficult to tell who is genuinely "lost". Also, in some specific cases, one risks to do damage down the way. Such as the cases when I am asked to research and contact suppliers / manufacturers in my market. I fail to understand how someone who wishes to contact honest companies overseas and place orders, might be pennyless and struggle to put $100 on the table. As a professional, I feel unable to facilitate contacts between exporters and unqualified people without a budget since the early stage of a project. It wouldn't make any sense to me! My latest response here - I found the request to "accommodate" hilarious 😅

 

Edited September 5 by dponzio

[wpmasterseo1]

14 hours ago, filipdevaere said:

Well said.

Hi, @filipdevaere I would also like to put some light on some people who get their task DONE and, at the end they would like to refund without any problem in the task.

[filipdevaere]

7 minutes ago, wpmasterseo1 said:

Hi, @filipdevaere I would also like to put some light on some people who get their task DONE and, at the end they would like to refund without any problem in the task.

I have never experienced this situation before, so I cannot show an example of it.

[sunboatrecords]

@filipdevaere There is something mesmerizing about this level of honesty. I think it's the air of integrity that it creates.

However, I do not believe that it is sustainable on online platforms without a feature such as 'Request to order'.