Need Feedback: How Can We Help You with Late Deliveries?

[edwardra3]

There needs to be a way to request more information and stop the clock until they respond. Most of my late deliveries have been because I was waiting on buyers to respond.

[dafexo]

some of the buyers don’t fill out the requisites properly and the time starts to run and



some reply with a HI and reply with the requisites after 2 days when the delivery is 24hrs

[weblion3]

Why don’t you allow the seller to ask for a deadline extension with the buyers permission?

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/:)

[paulasmith586]

I believe if we are unable to meet the deadline, there should be feature implemented automatically to quickly ask our buyer for more time.

[Guest edesign9]

This is a most important feature…

[melrock]

I am dealing with a late delivery right now. The customer simply will NOT give me the information I need to finish the gig. Never ran into this before.

[mintyone]

Ok…



This system is perfect as it is. YOU can set your own delivery time, so you should never be late! Being late is UNACCEPTABLE. If anything, the punishment for being late should be worse than what it is.



ALWAYS under promise and over perform. Set your delivery time for 10 days if you’re having a hard time with completing your orders. Then, deliver early if you can. Your buyer will be thrilled!



If your buyer isn’t responsive, asking for a deadline extension is worthless. If not responding at all, just kindly inform your buyer that you’re going to mark the order as delivered for now, but they can take as much time as they need to make a decision and get back to you.

[Guest ochimenti]

Because I offer 1 hour s***e life coaching calls, sometimes it is difficult to committ to an agreeable time, especially when time zone differences are 6 hours or more. All buyers so far have been flexible but sometimes they are so busy that they only have a small window when they can connect with me. I would rather suggest to them that since we are having a difficult time connecting, it may be best to cancel the order and see if someone else can help them. However, if they cancel the order and it has a negative affect on me, I would like an option where it was simply not a good fit and we agree to mutually cancel the order. No negative impact on either side.

[mintyone]

Ochimenti, realizing this, you need to increase your delivery times and mention this in your gig description. Say something like “I normally deliver within a few days; however, depending on our schedules, the delivery may take longer which is the reason for my XX day delivery time.”

[Guest ochimenti]

Reply to @mintyone: Super great advice. I will make the changes. Glad I made a comment here and I appreciate your response mintyone 🙂

[mintyone]

Reply to @ochimenti: No problem, happy to help. Welcome to Fiverr, looks like you’re doing great.



Another thing you may consider is making a gig for advice videos. Some people, me included, feel a little awkward going on camera with someone they don’t know. I’d much prefer to give you my situation, then you to make an advice video for me. This would cut down on your time (currently looks like your delivery takes 1 hour, which for $5 is a lot of time) and you’d likely increase your sales.

[cinxiacreative]

Just thinking out loud here, but the number one reason that a gig of mine goes over the deadline is that I get orders rather infrequently, so it’s not the first thing on my mind when I get on the computer to check for them. As a result, the notification sometimes goes unnoticed for a long time. I wonder if there might be a way to delay the start of an order until a seller logs in to Fiverr, or hits a “start” button, or until the order is read, or something along those lines? I know it may not be possible, but that’s just my biggest issue right now.

[mintyone]

Do your email notifications not work (sometimes they’re marked as spam)? Think about it from the buyer’s perspective: they need your service, and mostly, it needs to be done in a certain amount of time. Everyone has deadlines.



For them to wait for you to login to Fiverr to check the order to start the timer (which could take hours, days, who knows?) is totally unfair to them. How can they plan?

[Guest lucyagag]

Reply to @sincere18: I ended up delivering a gig late because I got sick, I explained my situation and got a great review regardless, I think it’s important to legitimize a mutual agreement extension system for gigs, but I’d never make it unilateral!



Some times people ask for changes that might take time and will run over the dead line, there is a legitimate reason to have an extension system put in place I feel!

[Guest beardedgaffer]

My biggest hassle with delivery time frames is client response. Though I have not used this site and am new, this is my complaint with the other sites I do use: My clients buy/order my service but do not have their files together to send to me. I’ve waited an entire week to receive audio files from clients, half or more of the delivery term is now gone and I still have to mix/master their song and go through revisions.



I agree with many of the comments for mutual extensions, automatic extensions based on customer response time for revisions and limitations on queue orders. I second the abolition of automatic negative review for being late. I would add that the clock doesn’t start ticking until customers send files to service providers when that is applicable.



These type of sites are wonderful for connecting us to clients and customers but one of their biggest flaws is the lack of recognition that selling a creative service is different than selling a product. We get paid for our time and our time is valued by the quality and demand for our work. Not getting paid because of subjectivity is bogus and disrespectful, even if it is a percentage of the rate. We can get back our time because a client “returned” our service and so it feels like a punishment when we don’t get compensation for our hard work, even if it is $5, because a client didn’t honor a delivery time term or doesn’t like something we did because of subjectivity. I stand behind my work and I hate delivering late. I’m more than happy to work with a client to ensure they are happy with my service but what is being sold is my time and skill more than the outcome.

[Guest ochimenti]

Reply to @mintyone: Once again, great advice. My s***e calls are usually voice only unless the buyer wants me to give them feedback on their interview skills. However, I do like your idea and will explore that option further. Thank you.

[meggananderson]

Honestly, there’s no reason to be late. If you promise a delivery in 7 days, you need to deliver it! I will say that I have had buyers in the past who have received a FLAWLESS delivery, only to find that after I delivered the gig, went to bed, that in the middle of the night when I’m asleep, they reject the order (usually over something THEY didn’t read correctly before ordering), then they claim on a review that the delivery was late! Even though, I delivered on time, as promised. THAT needs to stop happening!



Also the biggest thing to avoid this Fiverr, is to PLEASE have the mobile app deliver cancellations from THE SELLER. Also the countdown clock is NOT on mobile either. If those two things where on the mobile, you would prevent 90% of late orders in my opinion!

[mrtalanga]

u have to change something like if i delivered a logo on time and buyer asked for modification after two days the order is considered late now is it my fault , 2ndly there should be a button that a seller has in the order window which he presses and timer starts for that particular order

[elsproductions]

Two most common problems - 1. When the buyer does not respond to questions or provide the needed information to get the gig done on time. 2 - Modifications that come with not enough time left on the clock to correct any problems. Time should be extended when a modification is requested.

[vithor]

I am relatively new to Fiverr, but I feel that the main reason why I would deliver after the deadline would be if I take too much orders at the same time. In my opinion, a good feature to implement is an option to the seller to set a max amount of gigs at the same time.



If a buyer makes an order and the seller already have filled all his positions, he would be added to a queue. When the seller makes a delivery, the buyer enters in the oficial positions and the clock begins to run. Obviously, the buyer must know his position in the queue.

[Guest teesunshine]

An extension request will be awesome and timely.

[astonecipher]

I am not a seller on here, but a web and software developer that deals with the same issues, so this is coming from a third party buyer more than anything else. I have put a few orders in for clients and agree with the above, I may say something is good, but I also alert the seller that I am waiting on feedback from my client before *I can approve anything.



I tend to look to see how many orders are in their queue before giving a time table to my clients. I think instead of an automatic timestamp saying you will get the gig on X should allow the seller to say how long it will take.



When I am developing, things come up. I rarely have an issue if I explain why something is mildly delayed. Non-communication is a bigger issue than missing a deadline by an hour or even a day. It would also give the buyer the understanding that while it says you will get the service in 48 hours, a notification like, “Seller says, ‘It will be 72 hours’.” Would at least giver the buyer a chance to back out if the time is unacceptable.

[carradee]

I think buyers should also be able to pause gigs.



Example scenario I’ve experienced: A client buys a website tweak, then say “Um, wait—we’re making some changes. We’ll ask for what we want when we’re done with that.” So the gig falls late b/c the buyer asks me to wait.

[artworkking]

I don’t think things are too wrong as they are…



… the problem comes when people place orders and don’t send details. That has happened to me a lot and I then spend time trying to get information from them that is perfectly clear in terms of my instance response to the order.



I actually blame Fiverr for not making this perfectly clear. In the past month, I have had to rectify orders for clients that have well exceeded their three day period. Why have I done it? Because I put a shit load of effort into the poster and I’d hate to think it wouldn’t be used!



This is a very easy situation to solve.



If you are late, clients should be able to instantly cancel.



If you communicate your lateness of your gig, the client should be able to instantly cancel.



What needs to be improved?



If you can’t live up to your gig promotion, then you get a bad review?



Not sure what needs to be altered here!



AK

[warriorbride]

well I just tell my clients before-hand to please NOT buy the gig, unless they are READY to have the order on-hand, because we are on a time sensitive gig

Also I would like Fiverr to please ASK the client FIRST if its OK if we are LATE or not, because usually they DON’T care, if its a day or two late.

I have a problem with clients that buy and then don’t post the gig until like a day or 2 later and I have to tell them to CANCEL and start over because of the time sensitive gig, it REFLECTS bad on ME, because they are LATE, NOT ME !!! HA