Deal with rude customers? What would you have done? :(

[martinacaraffa]

Hey! I'm new and I just got my first experience with a rude customer 😞 I was wondering if any of the more experienced freelancers could give me any tips.

This person contacted me about my virtual assistance gig, saying that he needed someone that could work for him longterm, 2-4 hours per day, 5 days a week, €30 per day. I'm not even sure if this is even possible or compliant to the guidelines, as from what I know there are no hourly/longterm options on Fiverr (?). Anyway, he says that he needs help with general tasks related to his business, like editing landing pages, writing the content with chatGPT, editing it, writing fake reviews or doing Canva designs. So basically we decide on doing a test run first, two hours of work done today for free (which already sounds bad enough T - T, but I'm a newbie and I am naive), which I agree on doing since this could turn into a more longterm opportunity.

At this point he sends me invites to join his team on all his softwares, including Asana, which he says will be used to give instructions and direct the workflow. I log in, follow what he wrote, which literally said "Edit landing page through Elementor. Change product price to €59", and then proceeded to give more instructions on some Canva designs he needed. So I do what he says and text him, and oh boy. He. Is. PISSED. He tells me he is shook that I only changed the price in the landing page. What about the rest? What about images and tags and reviews and descriptions? He calls me an incompetent and says he cannot believe I SERIOUSLY thought he would pay me just to change a single product price. 

So I try to keep calm and not freak out, and politely tell him that I simply did what the Asana instructions said, and that had they said anything about other areas of the landing page to edit, I would have done that too. He is pissed again. He tells me again he cannot believe how incompetent I really am, that we've been talking about titles and tags and descriptions and reviews for like an hour now and that I should have done that. Not true. He just briefly mentioned them when he first contacted me in a not-so-clear list of what would be rough examples of my daily activities. No instructions. No directions. What was I even supposed to edit? How did he want it to be edited? What style did he want? Which elements did he want me to edit/makeover and which ones did he want me to keep? I keep politely insisting that I simply followed the instructions on Asana like he said I should, and that I literally would have had NO ISSUE working on them IF ONLY THEY WERE IN THE INSTRUCTIONS. He insists I'm incompetent, revokes all access to the softwares and disappears.

What was I supposed to do? 😥This is messed up on many levels, now that I'm thinking about it again. From the fact that I agreed to do two hours of work for free (I was naive), to how he flipped out immediately and kept insulting me and calling me incompetent, to how he thought I was supposed to edit his ENTIRE landing page with no clear instructions or directions, and just because he had briefly mentioned it once at the very beginning of our conversations, before we even agreed to try out. Luckily there was no official order placed so I don't even think he can leave me a bad review (?), and I don' think my stats will be affected (?). What do you guys think about this? Any tips? I'm really new to this, as (despite having had my profile for years) I only started taking it seriously last month. This episode really made me feel bad, as I'm not used to such behaviours and such poor communication.

[priyank_mod]

I'm really sorry that this happened to you and like you admitted yourself, it was naive on your part to accept it. 

Please block him and move on. It is a good thing that he didn't place an order with you. A cancelled order or bad review would have been far more damaging for your account too. 

[imagination7413]

2 hours ago, martinacaraffa said:

I was wondering if any of the more experienced freelancers could give me any tips.

You seem to already know where you made the error, so I won't poke it beyond constructive reaffirmation:

https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/136314-the-power-of-saying-no/

https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/222069-stand-your-ground-setting-boundaries-as-a-seller/

https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/145429-the-art-of-saying-no-nicely/

https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/220973-top-5-tips-to-protect-yourself-from-badly-behaved-buyers/

https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/202647-guide-how-to-avoid-bad-buyers-and-how-to-deal-with-them-if-you-cant/

https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/282412-what-to-do-if-a-buyer-asks-for-endless-revisons/

---

As for dealing with the post-event emotions, those will fade some with time, depending on the 'trauma' level. The more you deal with the same type of occurrence (identifying trouble before it triggers, and standing up for yourself or others), the less each encounter with a rude customer will hurt. 

[blazegoldburst]

Never work for free or let anyone treat you badly. Respect yourself and make sure you’re compatible with who you work with. Some people might take advantage of you, so learn to say ‘no’ to things that don’t benefit you.

[sunboatrecords]

@martinacaraffa, I am sorry to read about this negative experience. Consider it a baptism of sorts.

Make sure to read the resources posted above by @imagination7413 and other useful topics on the forums. You will learn a lot.

A tip from me: consider adding a photo of yourself in your gig galleries or thumbnails. Clients appreciate seeing who they’re hiring, as it creates a more personable experience.

Best of luck with your freelancing journey, and raise your prices when you have built your profile. This alone will repel a good amount of bad prospects.

Warm regards,

Spyros.

Edited September 4 by sunboatrecords

[catwriter]

20 hours ago, martinacaraffa said:

What was I supposed to do?

As soon as he mentioned

20 hours ago, martinacaraffa said:

writing fake reviews

you should have said no. It's against Fiverr's Terms of Service, and even if it wasn't, it's highly unethical.

20 hours ago, martinacaraffa said:

He insists I'm incompetent, revokes all access to the softwares and disappears.

Count it as a blessing that he disappeared. Based on his behavior, it looks more like a power trip than someone actually looking to hire.

Block him, move on, and never agree to work for free.

[dponzio]

All those misbehaviours + his request of free work would deserve to be reported to Fiverr before you block him. I am sorry for what you endured. 

[martinacaraffa]

Thanks to everyone who replied! All the advice you gave me was very helpful, it helped me feel better about the situation and, most importantly, it will help me improve as a freelancer. @imagination7413 Thanks a lot for the links, I will read through all of them! @sunboatrecords I was actually planning on recording videos for both my profile and my gigs, so that I can briefly explain who I am, what services I offer, and people can actually see the person they would be potentially working with!

Edited September 8 by martinacaraffa