Fiverr seems to have gotten harder for buyers (and new sellers)

[katakatica]

Hi everyone!
Sorry for the lengthy title; I couldn't come up with anything better. Today is a bit of a slow morning for my brain! 

But at least the title explains the point of my post. 

TLDR.: Buyers don't know how to use the site. 

I do want to give a couple of disclaimers here:

1. I don't know if much has changed - I have seen the UI change a bit over the past few months, I think (and the many new features pop up), but I personally haven't had many issues. However, I am not a buyer who's on here only a few times a year/etc. 

2. Some of this is likely due to user error. However, on a site as big as Fiverr, I would expect things to be smoother (and more intuitive on both sides.)

Anyway... There are a few main things I'd like to point out today, though, of course, if anyone else has anything to add to it, I'd be thankful! Most of these concern the order process itself since that's what I mostly see people struggle with. 

1. Many buyers seem unaware of the order page. Some don't seem to know where the delivery timer is (and have no idea when the deadline of the project is), while others just... don't find the order page's inbox. This can usually be fixed easily by pointing them in the right direction but it can still cause trouble (no one wants their experience to start rough, right? 

2. Quite a few buyers have complained about not getting notifications from the order page. As a seller, I need to update them on there (which is understandable.) However, I've noticed more and more people who miss notifications, often for a week! This affects the buyers' experience and can cause huge delays. I believe the biggest delay I've had so far was... 10 days or so (as I need buyers to acknowledge an update.) I tend to write to them in the inbox after a day or two of an update, and that seems to help, but I genuinely don't think it should be my responsibility to make sure updates go through. (I wouldn't be surprised if buyers could set up notifications for the order page (extra emails, etc.), but in general, it seems a bit wonky. 

3. The order page as a whole (the inbox part) seems unintuitive.) Someone pointed out to me a while back that they didn't like it because whenever a new message popped up, it'd shift the rest of the messages. It also hides older messages quite often - and buyers don't seem to know this. This has caused updates (and many, many, very important questions!) to go unread. While I know this one should be fairly obvious, the 'load more' button is very small - and people don't know if there were several questions/etc asked above! I think it'd be great if there was a bit bigger indication there since not everyone (including me!) has good vision. 

4. In general, it seems to be that many people don't understand the site's features, from searching for sellers to briefs, etc. Once in a while, I will get a huge influx of completely irrelevant messages asking for things I don't offer at all. Maybe some tweaks can be done on that front as well?

5. This is a bonus (as it concerns sellers), but it needs to be said: Spam has increased tenfold on the site. I know that some measures have been taken, but it's clear that just directing people to read the TOS (and having some info on new messages, etc.) doesn't seem to work when people are FAKING messages from the system. Something needs to be done. 

I believe that is all (for now)! 

I know this is a lot to read through, but there's just a lot I feel needs a bit of work. Obviously, I do work with a very varied clientele from game developers to grandma's looking for a present for their grandkids, so I've definitely seen a lot! However, I do believe it's important to think about how the user experience can be made easier. While as a seller, I'm happy to help teach buyers about the site, I don't think it should fall on us. (We also don't know every bug/glitch that can occur and so, many misunderstandings might happen, which can cause issues.

[donnovan86]

I agree.

Well, a lot of people just expect to place an order and you read their mind. They don't share requirements and they don't bother to check the site and see how it works. That's the main issue.

As for spam, it continues to be a problem mainly because those people can easily create a new account once they get banned. And I assume they continue because they found some victims and it's worth pursuing..

[uk1000]

One of my buyers didn't know how to ask for a free revision so bought the paid one (the standard gig extra for it). When I told him he could have used the free one it was a lot of trouble trying to undo the bought one that he didn't want/need and going through CS to get them to cancel one and having to add a big instruction text for it in the delivery quick response (even though we don't get to see it from the buyer's side and the help page doesn't give full instructions for the browser version), when Fiverr should be making it more clear on that order page to buyers.

Fiverr also removed the normal search for a seller by username/partial username option too (that used to show if you searched and a gig with that title wasn't found).

I agree the notifications part needs to be improved so buyers can more easily see where a new message or post/update is. They might not be getting email notifications about all updates (like I sometimes don't get notifications about new Fiverr briefs).

Edited Friday at 10:47 AM by uk1000

[atulcodex]

1 hour ago, donnovan86 said:

I agree.

Well, a lot of people just expect to place an order and you read their mind. They don't share requirements and they don't bother to check the site and see how it works. That's the main issue.

As for spam, it continues to be a problem mainly because those people can easily create a new account once they get banned. And I assume they continue because they found some victims and it's worth pursuing..

100% Agree

[priyank_mod]

To keep up (in spirit) with how new buyers struggle with the order page. Today morning, I sent work to a 1st time buyer (a 60+ lady who needs something for her family business) and then informed her in the generic inbox about it.

This buyer also complained yesterday about not receiving the custom offer and her texts not getting sent to me. 

 

 

 

[mateusbl]

Most of this issue are because buyers are using the app and not a computer. Also the buyer do not have a delivery timer display like on the seller account. There's only a little tiny informantion about the day buyer will receive the delivery.

Fiverr Should display in the request button the numer of revisions available (Request revision 1 of 3) this would be enought to the buyer understand the limits and when they need purchase extra revisions.

[vovkaslovesnyy]

2 hours ago, katakatica said:

Many buyers seem unaware of the order page.

I have no explanation for this. Sometimes, they come back in a week, just to say, "Where is my translation?!!"

2 hours ago, katakatica said:

Some don't seem to know where the delivery timer is

I am not sure about the current state of things, but a year ago, there was no timer on the buyer's side. 

2 hours ago, katakatica said:

Spam has increased tenfold on the site.

It's sad that I have only two hands to support you. I am tired of spam and irrelevant messages. 

My game translation gig receives dozens of messages from people asking me to develop a game for them (not to mention those "Hyyyy!" coming from promoted gigs). 

 

I will add one more thing. 

I don't use briefs. THEY ARE TURNED OFF. 

Still, I receive "We have carefully picked this brief for you" messages with 1000000% irrelevant requests (and even spam).

Edited Friday at 01:08 PM by vovkaslovesnyy

[katakatica]

2 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

Well, a lot of people just expect to place an order and you read their mind. They don't share requirements and they don't bother to check the site and see how it works. That's the main issue.

 

I agree! I've noticed that the few direct orders I do get often end up having some issues because people are really bad at explaining what they want somehow. 

However, having a more intuitive site/app could help with this issue, too. 

2 hours ago, donnovan86 said:

As for spam, it continues to be a problem mainly because those people can easily create a new account once they get banned. And I assume they continue because they found some victims and it's worth pursuing..

Unfortunately, this seems true as well. I don't know how, but they find the 'right' people to scam. What's interesting to me is they reach out to people several times at the same time. When I get the messages, I tend to get 3-4 in a row. You'd think that deters sellers from taking it seriously (and yet, 5-10 people still write about it daily, so...)

A small fun fact: the spammers I've gotten lately had the weirdest names (for TOS reasons, I won't write the full usernames, just the funny parts: I had fraudulent gasp, martial gold (I think) and creaking rumour. I wonder why they chose these usernames/display names... 

2 hours ago, uk1000 said:

One of my buyers didn't know how to ask for a free revision so bought the paid one (the standard gig extra for it). When I told him he could have used the free one it was a lot of trouble trying to undo the bought one that he didn't want/need and going through CS to get them to cancel one and having to add a big instruction text for it in the delivery quick response (even though we don't get to see it from the buyer's side and the help page doesn't give full instructions for the browser version), when Fiverr should be making it more clear on that order page to buyers.

 

This definitely sounds tricky - the buyer could even end up blaming you because they might not understand what's going on... I wonder if there is a way to have a simple but comprehensive 'quick HOW IT WORKS' tutorial before placing an order (or making a gig), something that doesn't take a lot to read but explains the order page, revisions, etc. 

1 hour ago, priyank_mod said:

This buyer also complained yesterday about not receiving the custom offer and her texts not getting sent to me. 

 

Sometimes, messages take a while to load - or get lost(?), which is bizarre to me. I had a buyer recently who got an update from me on the order page, responded (about something else important) there, and then couldn't find the update on their end. I reached out a few days later after starting to worry, and it turns out they never got/saw the screenshot I sent. This caused a potential several-day delay in the project, for which the system might blame me for.

26 minutes ago, vovkaslovesnyy said:

My game translation gig receives dozens of messages from people asking me to develop a game for them (not to mention those "Hyyyy!" coming from promoted gigs). 

 

I'm glad I'm not alone in this! I might be a dev, but I'm not a programmer - and NEVER have been. My gigs often get mistaken as art gigs or programming which has caused some odd conversations before. 

 

27 minutes ago, vovkaslovesnyy said:

Still, I receive "We have carefully picked this brief for you" messages with 1000000% irrelevant requests (and even spam). 

Briefs are weird. Period. I've just given up at this point, honestly. 

 

39 minutes ago, mateusbl said:

Most of this issue are because buyers are using the app and not a computer. Also the buyer do not have a delivery timer display like on the seller account. There's only a little tiny informantion about the day buyer will receive the delivery.

 

The apps should have all of the features the page has (or should at least look closer to how the site looks.) Still, people should be getting the notification then - the fact that those are missed so much (and that this seems to be universal and not just happen to 1-2 people) is definitely an issue though 😞 I hope they'll do something about it. 

[mrubaid820]

@katakatica Well, I totally agree with your thoughts. This month, I encountered some buyers who were completely clueless about where to find the order box, where the timer was displayed, and where the zipped folder (containing the final files) was located. Instead of fully guiding them, it even reached a point where I had to send one buyer's order directly through Fiverr inbox because they were so confused by the system. Last week, two of these buyers' orders were automatically marked as complete.

Moreover, two of these buyers gave me a 4-star rating, even though they were satisfied with my first draft. I had guided them for revisions, but they said they didn’t need any because the work exceeded their expectations. However, due to their lack of understanding of the system, things ended up this way.

As far as my suggestion goes, Fiverr should create a 'demo' video that provides buyers with a complete guide, from the first message to order completion. It should be similar to how 'Nokia' used to showcase a demo video of all the functions of their mobile phones during their peak days, helping users understand everything properly.

[katakatica]

3 hours ago, mrubaid820 said:

This month, I encountered some buyers who were completely clueless about where to find the order box, where the timer was displayed, and where the zipped folder (containing the final files) was located. Instead of fully guiding them, it even reached a point where I had to send one buyer's order directly through Fiverr inbox because they were so confused by the system. Last week, two of these buyers' orders were automatically marked as complete.

I think what concerns (or perhaps just confuses?) me is that to me at least it feels like this has gotten worse. In the past, I've gotten some confused clients which wasn't great, but now I feel like I have to explain everything everywhere several times (e.g. 'the order page is for the best spot for order requirements, please don't send me your 25 files (one by one) in the inbox if possible) and so on. 

Sometimes it feels like I'm both a teacher/tutor and a freelancer - and it's not a great combo somehow (in this case, that is.)

 

3 hours ago, mrubaid820 said:

As far as my suggestion goes, Fiverr should create a 'demo' video that provides buyers with a complete guide, from the first message to order completion. It should be similar to how 'Nokia' used to showcase a demo video of all the functions of their mobile phones during their peak days, helping users understand everything properly.

This sounds like a great idea! It has to be short and to the point but it could be very helpful!

[alexiscottray]

Totally agree with you guys. 

One major issue I have is that when you click on any PDF from the desktop chat, then you open a preview of the PDF where you can only see one page. 

From a seller side, it's a problem as you have to explain to the clients that they need to download the PDF then open it to see the pages.

As a buyer, I first had issues because I saw the client brief and thought there were only one page on the brief, then I realized the PDF had 10 pages of instructions.

[alexiscottray]

I've tried to create a ticket about the PDF issue inside Fiverr, first they could not replicate the issue for weeks and I had to record Loom videos to show them that the issue was occuring on both Safari and Google Chrome browsers. 

Then, after weeks of opened ticket, they say they could not fix it at the moment, that I had to say to the clients that they should first download the PDF and then open it, not click on it, if not they would not see all the pages. 

[katakatica]

7 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

Totally agree with you guys. 

One major issue I have is that when you click on any PDF from the desktop chat, then you open a preview of the PDF where you can only see one page. 

From a seller side, it's a problem as you have to explain to the clients that they need to download the PDF then open it to see the pages.

As a buyer, I first had issues because I saw the client brief and thought there were only one page on the brief, then I realized the PDF had 10 pages of instructions.

I'm glad to know I'm not alone!

I recently made PDFs to show my work a bit better and started sending them out. 

I realized after two clients were confused by the files that something is off with them. 

The tricky thing is - how does one say "by the way, make sure to actually download the file" without sounding patronising? 

That's my main concern sometimes when it comes to these things. Clients who know (or aren't in a good mood, etc.) could so easily feel like we think they are dumb.

I've been called out for asking too many questions before, for talking too much, etc. so with some people this could be an issue (or just impact their experience because honestly, it'd impact mine if the site had so many small issues.)

[priyank_mod]

25 minutes ago, alexiscottray said:

One major issue I have is that when you click on any PDF from the desktop chat, then you open a preview of the PDF where you can only see one page. 

Ahh yes, I have been educating first-time buyers that they need to download the file and view it on their system.

Because many of them misunderstand that we have sent them ONLY ONE PAGE!! 

[alexiscottray]

3 minutes ago, priyank_mod said:

Ahh yes, I have been educating first-time buyers that they need to download the file and view it on their system.

Because many of them misunderstand that we have sent them ONLY ONE PAGE!! 

Hello Priyank, yes and this is my point on the other post about the rating system, to which extend should first time buyers be educated. 

I am thinking that if you make "ok" to be fully satisfied and leave a 4 star review, then it's really probable that the same client will go on your profile, work with you and also give you a 4-star rating when fully satisfied.