Warning to Sellers: Unjust Order Cancellation and Harmful Review Allowed

[ai_interiors]

I’m sharing a deeply frustrating experience on Fiverr to warn other sellers. Recently, I delivered a client’s order that went far beyond the gig’s scope. The client requested one image, but I provided six, delivered on time, and revised it promptly when requested. Despite my efforts, Fiverr immediately cancelled the order, refunded the buyer, and allowed him to leave a bad one-star review without consulting me or reviewing my communication or delivery.

Here’s what happened:

1. Unjust Cancellation:
   Fiverr cancelled the order based solely on the buyer’s request, ignoring the evidence of my work and communication. The client waited five days before requesting a revision, unfairly marking my order “late,” and I still delivered the revision the next day. I genuinly believe the client was after a free work and knew how to work the system and demoralise sellers due to Fiverr's crazy policies in place.

2. Harmful Review Allowed:
   Despite cancelling and refunding the order, Fiverr allowed the buyer to leave a damaging review full of false accusations. This violates Fiverr’s policy that reviews aren’t allowed on cancelled orders, yet the review remains visible and harmful to my reputation.

3. Lack of Seller Support:
   I spent personal time, including Christmas Day, to deliver high-quality work. Fiverr’s handling of this issue has left me feeling unsupported and undervalued as a seller.

What Sellers Should Know:

• Fiverr WILL cancel orders and side with buyers without reviewing your side of the story.

• Even cancelled orders will result in unfair reviews that damage your profile.

• Be cautious with buyers who seem unreasonable, as their actions can lead to disputes and unfair outcomes.

Fiverr support is no help at all. I requested a review of this order history, got a generic reply from Melodie who clearly didn't look into it and stated 'the review does not violate their policies'.

I've replied one more time but have decided on leaving this platform. There's no respect towards sellers.

Has anyone else faced something like this? How can we as sellers protect ourselves from such unfair treatment? I hope Fiverr improves its process to value the effort and professionalism we put into our work.

[shofeulislam]

Fiverr always focuses on the buyer's facility. Bad reviews and unnecessary order cancellations will hamper the seller's profile, I also faced the same situation, Fiverr customer care told me, that for the Fiverr buyer's bad reviews, you can only make public replies but can't remove the bad reviews. Hopefully, Fiverr will be updating it in the future. 

[uk1000]

8 hours ago, ai_interiors said:

This violates Fiverr’s policy that reviews aren’t allowed on cancelled orders, yet the review remains visible and harmful to my reputation.

Fiverr changed the rules quite recently allowing buyers to leave reviews for cancelled orders (in certain circumstances).

See:

On 8/7/2023 at 4:46 PM, Shiran.M said:

In order to increase transparency and trust, we’ve updated our rating system with the option to leave a review for canceled orders under certain conditions.

I agree it seems unfair, and unfair if CS didn't check your delivery and the order.

Maybe you could edit the gig description to make it even more clear what the things you do in the gig are (eg. more specifically saying what you mean by "with manual edits" (ie. what type of edits. If it's not image editing in normal software you could say that, though you already say "this isn't Photoshop") so there's less chance of future buyers claiming similar to what that buyer did. Maybe you could also have pointed out in the review/to CS that the gig is in AI Artists->Image generation subcategory, not in image editing/photoshop type subcategory.

Edited January 1 by uk1000

[donnovan86]

8 hours ago, ai_interiors said:

This violates Fiverr’s policy that reviews aren’t allowed on cancelled orders, yet the review remains visible and harmful to my reputation.

Reviews are allowed on canceled orders. If the order was delivered, then even after cancellation, the buyer can leave a review.

 

[fastadking]

There's a myth that buyers who cancel do so because the work wasn't good. But my experience is buyer's who cancel are almost always scammers or cranks gaming the system. Not just once in a while, but nearly always.

Fiverr really shouldn't let these creeps leave nasty reviews, then pretend they are valid. It's probably the number one reason successful sellers quit the platform...and has been so since the very beginning of Fiverr. 

[donnovan86]

2 minutes ago, fastadking said:

But my experience is buyer's who cancel are almost always scammers or cranks gaming the system. Not just once in a while, but nearly always.

In my case, it was just the opposite. Ever since reviews for canceled orders were implemented, I think I had 2 or 3 cancellations because the buyer legit didn't like the work I provided. There was a pattern for all 3, they didn't contact me before placing the order, and despite offering my services to revise or even redo, they just wanted to cancel. I didn't receive any review for those canceled orders.

I also understand the opposite can happen. I had plenty of scammers over the years, just like you, so I can definitely see how some of them might want to game the system. 

[priyank_mod]

15 hours ago, ai_interiors said:

What Sellers Should Know:

• Fiverr WILL cancel orders and side with buyers without reviewing your side of the story.

• Even cancelled orders will result in unfair reviews that damage your profile.

• Be cautious with buyers who seem unreasonable, as their actions can lead to disputes and unfair outcomes.

Most active sellers know all this. 

My recommendation for you would be to read the Fiverr TOS to understand how platform works and tread accordingly. 

[ariestrasza]

Oh man, I just got this buyer....wants to cancel for stupid reasons. I'm planning to take the case to Fiverr support but after reading this, I think I gonna have to settle. Offering half payment right now. I hope she accepts and close. 

[chuoichien1102]

Hope fiverr will protect sellers more in the future. Most buyers who want to cancel orders are scammers.