The dreaded first imperfect rating

[mrsspenny]

Well, I’ve just fallen victim to the dreaded ‘less than 5 star rating for no reason’. I have a proofreading gig (3000 words, 3 day turnaround). A buyer sent me a gig in the middle of the night (he’s in Europe, I’m in the US), which I woke up to the following morning. I immediately worked the gig and turned it back around to him in 12 hours. He leaves a 3.5 star review because I didn’t send him acknowledgment of his order. Seriously? I’ve never received less than 5 stars on a gig before this guy.

[catwriter]

Sorry to hear about this! Some buyers are like that, unfortunately.



You may want to remove his username, naming and shaming is against the forum rules (besides, in this particular case, whoever wants to see who this buyer is can look up your gig and see his feedback there).

[ccmolina]

Not every buyer will leave a 5 some of them will leave a 4.5 which is our case we had 3 reviews with 4.5 which is still a good review and they said positive things. So don’t expect to always get a 5 even if you have the order done perfectly. We have a 99% due to this. We are still happy they loved our work even if they only gave us a 4.5.



Now about the response when you get an order make sure you write to your clients and say you have received their order before you start working on them. Read through the order just to make sure you don’t have any questions for them or they have any for you.



At least 35% of your time in fiverr will be answering messages. It’s what sets you apart. Buyers like to know they are being heard and they are not just another order in a mass production company.



I am sure you will get your rating back on track soon. Stay strong 🙂

[happyspace]

Hi mrsspenny



I don’t know if you have already tried that but why don’t you message the buyer politely asking to edit their review IF they are 100% satisfied with the result and by the delivery time and IF they believe that they got something valuable for very little money on Fiverr.com



Explaining that for them it costs nothing, but for a hard working seller a 5 star review is important. Maybe they will consider editing their review. It is Christmas time after all 🙂



wish you luck

happyspace

[fonthaunt]

It wouldn’t be so bad if the rating system was “normal” and anything considered normal to positive was really considered normal to positive (as in 3 - 5 stars.) In reading the forums, blogs, and information about what Fiverr can do if a seller doesn’t maintain a perfect rating, it is clear that the system is not what it appears to be. I had one buyer rate me 5, 4.5, and 5 and wrote a great review. Fiverr shows that on my internal Manage Sales page as a thumbs down. In other words, 5 across the board is thumbs up, anything less is thumbs down even if your overall rating takes a while to budge.



It isn’t right and I can so understand how it makes you feel, especially when some buyers aren’t about to give a perfect rating no matter how much they seemed to like the work. In fact, it can be worse if they liked the work but still want to rate you less than perfect since they will also refuse a refund and mutual cancellation. It is sad that it may be preferable if they dislike the work enough to take a refund.