Fiverr seller threatening me

[bisnar6665]

I’ve got a Fiverr seller threatening me. He says he is going to leave negative reviews of me all over the internet and post our email communications online. The guy is emailing me in broken English. I believe he is saying that I gave him a negative review and that if I don’t change it he will make good on his threats. This guy is calling me at 3:00am and sending threatening emails. He is a top rated seller… fragglesrock. What do I do? I don’t want my business to get a bunch of bad reviews online… he seems serious.



Sheriff’s note: calling out other users is not allowed. Please contact Customer Support if you need help.

[willpower_hk]

@bisnar6665

1. He offered you a mutual cancellation request, and actually you should consider that, as sometimes a seller really couldn’t have the ability to complete a particular job.
   
   
2. But no matter what, the seller should not threaten you under any conditions. You should contact support.
   
   
   
3. You can’t predict what he’ll do, so leaving a bunch of bad reviews to your business may be possible. If you just prefer not to have your business ruined, you may need to consider compromise with him… unless you have the confidence that he’s just saying lies, and the fake bad reviews won’t matter

[kay2809]

This should really be reported ASAP. I really want to know what happens after that.

[bisnar6665]

Reply to @willpower_hk: It seems like I will have to fall victim to his threats… I don’t want my business image jeopardized. The job I had this guy do was a 24 hour job. He contacted me the next day to let me know he couldn’t do it. As a business owner who works on deadlines, that is unacceptable…I needed to warn anyone else who uses his services that he did not deliver his product as promised. Who knows how many times this guy has done this and just threatened his way out of it. I’ve bought 183 jobs on Fiverr, but this is my last one.

[willpower_hk]

Reply to @kay2809:

I also want to know what happens next. But thinking in @bisnar6665 's perspective, I really don’t know what to do next. What if the seller really bad mouths my business?



But I also recommend reporting it to customer support, as the seller may still bad mouth your business even if you remove your feedback. Who knows? What if he just wants a revenge, and bad mouths your company after one month - that time you can’t even add back a negative review.

[nickih]

Do you mean he’s calling you on the phone? How did he get your telephone number? I understand that you may want to provide as much opportunity and means for communication as possible when conducting business transactions, but at the same time, it’s generally not a good idea to give your personal information to strangers on the Internet.



Definitely contact Fiverr Customer Support (http://support.fiverr.com) about this. Include screenshots of the messages he’s sent you and an overview of exactly what happened. Threatening people definitely breaks the rules outlined in Fiverr’s Terms of Service, and I can’t imagine that Fiverr would simply let this slide if the user really is getting this out of hand with his/her behavior.

[bisnar6665]

Reply to @nickih: He sent me an email somehow. When I replied it included my email signature so he got all of my business information as well as my personal info.

[willpower_hk]

I see… he may just google your Fiverr username… That’s why we need to careful protecting our personal information.

[bisnar6665]

Reply to @willpower_hk: I’m sure that’s what he did! I just did that and it popped up with my info 😦

[saraallen]

Please just cancel the gigs and delete the reviews. The guy clearly wanted out from the beginning.

[willpower_hk]

Reply to @bisnar6665:

Sorry that I also checked it too… But I don’t think you should be worried. Lots of companies, and even Fiverr sellers are facing the problem of fake bad reviews. As an SEO company, you’re already prone to fake reviews and probably negative SEO (just saying, maybe there isn’t a thing called negative SEO) from competitors. Keep track of your company on Google should be okay. Just delete any bad posts on your Facebook Page if you allow others to post. Keep an eye on major review site if you business is listed.

[kay2809]

Reply to @willpower_hk: I meant by the seller’s account and level status.

But this will only make it worse.

This is cyber blackmailing. OP should consult a legal advisor.

[bisnar6665]

Reply to @saraallen: I’m waiting on a response from him now. I want assurances from him that he isn’t going to go on his bashing campaign regardless of my response. The problem is that I thought he was someone else when he first started threatening me because the job I assigned to him I then assigned to someone else when he couldn’t complete it. The person who ordered a logo from me that I then ordered from the Fiverr seller wanted some modifications done and I sent those modification requests to the new Fiverr seller that I chose after my first choice failed to deliver. So in the emails responding to his initial threats I was like “you’re speaking broken English and not making any sense. Will you be completing the designs soon?”. He might have thought I was antagonizing him with the language barrier and misunderstanding. This whole this is a giant dumb mess.

[willpower_hk]

Reply to @bisnar6665:

Such a twisted plot… so in short, you first misunderstood the email was from the seller you later assigned to? I guess you may need to bear some responsibility over such misunderstanding. I just hope such issue can be settled peacefully.



But actually the seller has made really big mistakes by threatening or even cyber-blackmailing you, though I don’t know whether he broke the TOS by contacting you outside Fiverr about things happening inside Fiverr by googling your username.

[Anna]

Someone like that should not be a a TRS!!! Unacceptable behavior! You need to contact customer service and forward those threatening emails to them!! I am very sorry you are going through this, some people are just unbelievable!!!

[itsyourthing]

willpower_hk said: I really don't know what to do next. What if the seller really bad mouths my business?

That's not much of a threat. And giving into bullies just gives them power. Look at how many sellers have terrible reviews here and yet they continue to get orders. Look at how many huge business have terrible reputations and yet still make $$$.

 

It's extremely unlikely that the seller is going to take the time and effort to do anything, let alone enough that will do any damage to the buyer's business reputation.

 

Report the seller to Customer Support and don't worry about their threats - the internet is a big place, one j@ck@$$ won't make a difference.

 

[itsyourthing]

 

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[bisnar6665]

This was his latest message:



"Bisnar,



Keep in mind that, as long you give free negative feedback , you will receive the same.

The feedback with Lawyer **** **** of ****** www.*****************.com it will propagate on the Internet .



Let me know please if you want any web design for this websites as well.

1. ********.com
   
2. ***************.com
   
3. **************************.com
   
4. *************.org"
   
   
   
   It seems like he is now finding all the websites I manage and is making vague threats. I don’t know what the hell his deal is. I just asked him to tell me what he needs to leave me alone.
   
   
   
   I provide a great service and I don’t want any negative reviews. Not to mention whatever other damage he could do. He seems to be good at researching me…

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @bisnar6665: You need to send that message to Customer Support. With that degree of harassment you could theoretically take legal action yourself.



While I don’t condone these actions, this is why cancellations are generally the best course of action when there is early trouble with a transaction.

[bisnar6665]

Reply to @fonthaunt:

fonthaunt said: While I don't condone these actions, this is why cancellations are generally the best course of action when there is early trouble with a transaction.

The guy cancelled my jobs right before completion... it was important that they were done on time. If I cancelled, I wouldn't be able to warn people about this guy's shady behavior. He obviously has been doing this stuff "behind the scenes" for a long time based upon the way he has been communicating with me.

[itsyourthing]

As @fonthaunt points out, this is genuine harassment that can have legal implications. IF this person follows through on any of their threats (by the way, it’s pretty easy to research anyone - don’t let that intimidate you), you will be well within your rights to have any slanderous commentary removed.



I’m glad you decided to stand up to this childish fool and I sincerely hope you don’t let some Fiverr seller threaten you into doing what they want - you know it’s wrong.



Email Customer Support: support@fiverr.com and stop communicating with the seller. You do not have to play games with an idiot.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @bisnar6665: If it were me, I would have still reported him to Customer Service by all means, but it wouldn’t be worth risking my personal and professional safety over money or deadlines. That isn’t true for everyone. As I said, I don’t condone it regardless and if you are stating everything accurately the seller is wrong. I just offered my opinion as well and it’s still true for me. I hope you can get action on your situation. Good luck.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @itsyourthing: The seller sounds like they believe they are immune. Sigh… I don’t know if the email works now, I tried to use it recently when I needed to communicate to support and none of the tickets matched but I got an error in my email saying that the inbox for support@fiverr.com was full. (Imagine!) I ended up using Android feedback to talk to CS which was the shortest route even though my issue was not Android feedback. Hopefully someday they will put in a ticket choice or two for issues like this OP has!

[bisnar6665]

Update:



So the guy contacting me via email identified himself as Michael Kemple (a name I hadn’t seen before). I went to contact the seller on Fiverr that provided the services mentioned in the harassing email and asked him what he wanted. The Fiverr seller then claimed that he wasn’t the one harassing me. Problem is, the harassing emails that I received include a direct mention of the jobs that I sent to that Fiverr seller, including information that would only be able to be seen via our private messages on Fiverr… I’m hoping he got scared, maybe even saw this thread.

[itsyourthing]

fonthaunt said: I got an error in my email saying that the inbox for support@fiverr.com was full.

Hmm, well, I used it yesterday and it seemed to work, so maybe they cleared some messages?