My Fiverr Nightmare - From an American US Veteran

[cj2012]

Hello Fiverr Members,



Prior to now, Fiverr has treated me very well, however recently things have changed… this is my story.



I am a 60-year-old grandmother and U.S. Veteran who depends solely upon my Fiverr income to support myself. I’ve been a Level II Fiverr Seller for about three years now, have always offered Classified advertising as well as other marketing services and brought in a lot of revenue to Fiverr because of my popular promotional services. My classified gigs and other promotional gigs have raked in 3,436 orders over the years and Fiverr never had any issues with those gigs during all this time.



I offer honest marketing services and have always been dedicated to my customers and provide good customer service. Fortunately, the majority of my customers have been very satisfied with my services and have given me high ratings as reflected in my 5.0 and 99% ratings.



Now, however, since one of my customers went against Fiverr policy and filed a dispute with PayPal to get their money back instead of handling it internally via the Fiverr website as they are supposed to, Fiverr has frozen ALL my gigs and has removed them all from their search results. This has resulted in absolutely NO orders for me and I am very concerned because that’s my ONLY INCOME since I got laid off and broke my wrist.



Upon inquiring as to the reason for this, Fiverr support is giving me some repeated copy/paste story saying “Please note that the services you have offered on Fiverr is not in our editorial focus and guidelines. Your account has accumulated too many denied services which were not in accordance with our editorial guidelines and terms of service and for the safety of the community, your account does not appear in our search results.”



Oh really? For three years, my services have been just fine for Fiverr and now, because of what SOMEBODY ELSE did by filing a dispute with PayPal, Fiverr is penalizing ME by freezing all of my gigs! This is totally unfair! I delivered that disputed order a day ahead of time, created a banner as requested and posted that banner on two separate websites, as promised. I never heard anything back from the buyer about this order, no complaints or requests for modification… until now, THREE MONTHS LATER, when I was informed by a Fiverr representative of this PayPal dispute and asked to “discontinue my work”. It appears to me that customer was one of those abusers who gets the services from Fiverr gig sellers, then wants a refund as well. Very bad business on their part.



So why am I being blamed and penalized for something which is not my fault?? The “too many denied services” is a hogwash excuse. The 6 denied gigs from a long time ago are no big deal… I’ve deleted them, no problem. It certainly does not affect the “safety of the community”. If that were the case, then every Fiverr Seller who offers marketing services should also have their gigs frozen, like mine, but that’s not the case. There are hundreds of others classified ad posters and promotional services visible in the search results, if you take a look. So, because I am being singled out, isn’t this discrimination?



So, apparently because of the PayPal dispute, all my gigs have been taken out of the search results, not because of the previously stated reasons. My conscience is clear… I did MY work responsibly (banner creation and advertising) and because of some irresponsible buyer’s actions, Fiverr is making ME pay instead of the buyer who actually is the one at fault.



I temporarily suspended the gig in question (Banner Advertising) so it’s not visible to the public, but what about all my other classifieds and advertising gigs? Can’t those be put back into the search results?



I feel this is completely unfair and is no way to treat a long-time Fiverr member.

Don’t forget that it’s the members such as myself and other faithful Sellers and Buyers who have made Fiverr what it is today. Don’t brush us under the rug…



Unhappy, Hungry Fiverr Seller

http://www.fiverr.com/cj2012

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[fonthaunt]

Hi,



I really am sorry to read your story and I have tons of sympathy since my spouse is also a U.S. Veteran and partially disabled. I took a look at your profile and I see you have quite a few gigs active and with a fairly large number of sales. Many people have seen issues with search results due to changes after 3.0, larger numbers of complaints about bots from services such as Facebook, Craigslist, and Twitter, and other factors. I don’t think any of us are immune to those factors and it is becoming more and more necessary to come up with unique gigs that don’t require the use of mass-output third party software. I know that I haven’t been on Fiverr nearly as long, but I’m not that far fro your age and I tend to see the writing on the wall with relying too much on any one stream of income from internet based services. My only suggestions would be: keep promoting your active gigs, make some new and more unique gigs, and work on making some money in other areas as well. I wish you luck and also hope that my own spouse can apply the same advice to bring us much-needed income. Best wishes!



Maddie at “FontHaunt”

[steveeyes]

I’m so sorry this happen to you. I wish Fiverr would be more open to dispute settlements. Not call disputes are the same and the cookie cutter approach to settling all disputes is unfair.



Excuse my ignorance but what is: “too many denied services” Is that the same as mutual cancellations??

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[cj2012]

Hi Steve, thanks for your support and comments. By too many “denied services”, they are not referring to Cancellations, but rather to the 6 new gigs that I tried to create with Fiverr in the past that were denied by their editorial team. That’s no biggie, in my opinion… I tried something new and they rejected it, so it’s not even viewed by the public… What is the big deal about that? It sure doesn’t justify suspending all my other advertising gigs that previously had been approved by Fiverr and have been providing income for Me and Fiverr over the last three years. This is why I think they’re just using that as an excuse to brush me under the rug.



Not to sound arrogant in any way, but I’ve sold more Classifieds gigs than any other member in Fiverr. One would think that would be a good thing for me and I’d get some kind of recognition for it, but NO… they’ve done just the opposite and are doing their best to make me and my advertising services “go away”… I’m not sure why. I heard somewhere else that when a Fiverr member gets too many orders, they get “flagged”. Why is that? Is that why I’m being given a hassle now, because my services were too popular? Go figure. I also noticed copycat gigs popping up after my classifieds were becoming very popular… one wonders about the competition trying to sabotage me??



My account now shows a negative balance of $16 instead of positive one, this is because I need to reimburse Fiverr for the refund they were forced to give the buyer. I’m sure they’re not happy about that, but once again, I was NOT the one who did the dirty deed by going through PayPal instead of asking for a refund through Fiverr, as we are supposed to… however, Fiverr is basically punishing me for it.



This treatment is unjust and particularly cruel in my book seeing that it’s just before Christmas which is a very important holiday for many of us.



Happy Holidays to you and your family, Steve.

God bless, Carol 😉

[cj2012]

Reply to @fonthaunt:



Hi Maddie, thanks for taking the time to reply to my post. My sympathies to your husband and your family. Fiverr became very popular due to the downturn in the economy as many of us had trouble getting another job after being laid off… Fiverr became a good alternate income source and their customer support has treated me very well throughout the years… until now.



My services don’t involve social media advertising such as Facebook or Twitter… that’s not my forte. I specialize in Classified posting mostly and other forms of marketing that provide link popularity for websites. All of my advertising is spam-free, so none of my customers will be getting into trouble for any of my marketing methods. My classifieds are both mass submitted and another gig that offers hand-posted ads which takes a lot more time and effort when doing it by hand. Making $4 an hour is absolutely pathetic when compared to the $18.50 per hour I used to make at my old job 😦



I have offered to suspend the gig in question regarding the PayPal dispute and have done that, but what really aggravates and angers me is they removed ALL of my other gigs from the search results, not just that gig. Why??? This has put me in the position where I have no way of repaying Fiverr the $16 I owe them for the refund now, so they are cutting their own heads off, in essence.



If anybody cares to place an order for any of my gigs, I would most certainly be grateful because it would help me a lot.



Happy Holidays to you and your family.

Carol

http://www.fiverr.com/cj2012

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[steveeyes]

6 doesn’t seem like too many. 600 yes, but 6.



I think you are right that the denied services is just an excuse but why? If you are popular you are also making money for fiverr so how can being popular be a bad thing.



I wish I had a magic wand and with one wave make things right but sorry I don’t.



Merry Christmas to you and your family also.

[Guest ricksper]

There is Fiverr and there is Fair Play. Never the twain shall meet.

[cj2012]

Reply to @steveeyes:



Now you see why I’m so angry about this, Steve… it’s obviously an excuse, but the only reason I can think they want me to disappear is because of competition. I make money = Fiverr makes money, but maybe one of them wants to step into my place and make even more than their 20% and it would be easier if I were out of the picture?? Not sure about this. I’m no danger to the community, as they referred. It’s a ridiculous statement… I’m a 60 yr old grandmother who loves to feed feral cats and help people. All my advertising is spam-free… I never have complaints about my advertising causing customers problems.



Here’s my link if you wish to check it out:

http://www.fiverr.com/cj2012



Take care and thanks for your support.

Carol 🙂

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[cj2012]

Reply to @ricksper:



LOL… I like that, Rick :)) Does anyone know if someone else bought out Fiverr recently and there has been a change of ownership perhaps? I sense a whole change of attitude coming from them… it’s no longer a website that HELPS people sell their services, it’s evolving into something else lately that I don’t like. I smell GREED and what really makes me mad is many of us lost our jobs and have no other way of making money to support ourselves and our families and we are now being taken advantage of big time. Fiverr used to be more customer-member friendly, but that is changing. Anybody else notice that???