Is there a way to protect your self from ignorance on fiverr?!

[dmaestral]

Recently I received an order without a prior message, even though buyers are instructed to do so on the gigs info page (https://www.fiverr.com/dmaestral/create-animal-themed-logo), and as a cherry on top, buyer justified that move with these words: "I like to try out new logo designers :)"<br /> <br /> ?!<br /> <br /> I had a few things in a reply to such ignorance and, to me, obvious lack of respect. It all ended with the buyers purchase but only in order to rant in the feedback box and to harm my rating.<br /> <br /> When I asked Support for a "feedback" removal, at first I was asked would I like the whole thing to be cancelled. I replied with letting them to decide on their own discretion since all Im interested is a “feedback” removal and that Id comply with any of their decision which includes removal of those malicious and groundless accusations. Well, they didnt find a ground to remove it and suggested me to contact the buyer on that matter.



?!?



Would you please take a look at the screenshot of the correspondence between buyer and me, and please leave a comment. Id appreciate your input on this matter.<br /> <br /> Daniel<br /> <br /> p.s.<br /> Ive asked for another opinion from a Support team where they replied with encouragement not to hesitate to contact them when ever I have a have a question. Some nice people overe there, right? ,))



Sheriff’s Note: Your attachment was removed because it called out another user by name.

[typingservice]

The picture you posted is too small to read. Judging from the feedback, it looks like the buyer just wanted a very basic animal themed logo. Your title says, “I will create an animal themed logo for $5.” In your gig description, you said, “Contact me prior to ordering for a free estimation.” Maybe he didn’t want a free estimation - perhaps he just thought he’d get the most basic for $5. And by him saying, “I like to try out new logo designers.” He may have been indicating he’s just getting the basic for now, to try out your service, or he might just be being friendly and making conversation. Then, apparently, you got upset because he ordered without contacting you first. You may have expressed certain things where he was offended, and then he asked to cancel. But, instead of doing that, you send him a blank white delivery. If you hadn’t have done that, he wouldn’t have ever been able to leave you any feedback. When you did that, it may have also made him feel like you were ignoring his cancel request and trying to get away with delivering nothing.

[kay2809]

Ok, here’s my opinion. Your responses did seem rude.

White on a white? You cannot survive here with that attitude.

You could have cancelled at the point he asked. You had not worked on it then (Neither at the end anyway).

Support will not remove this negative review. Instead, if he had contacted the support, he would get a refund after reading this.

[david388]

Hi @dmaestral,



First of all, I second what @typingservice mentioned - the image you uploaded makes it very difficult to make out the text, but I was able to piece together most of it by enlarging my image.



First of all, I’ll say this - being a seller can be VERY FRUSTRATING at times. But just because a customer hasn’t contacted you in advance as you instructed, doesn’t necessarily mean that he is “ignorant” or has an “obvious lack of respect” as you had said. It’s possible that the customer took a quick peek at your gig, got excited about what you had to offer, and placed a simple $5 order hoping for a sample. And after reading your discussion, it looks like he/she was genuinely trying to give you an idea of what he wanted the logo to look like.



But that aside, I’d say this - whenever you find yourself feeling upset or annoyed with a Buyer, it’s always in their best interest (and yours) to keep things polite and gracious. I agree with @typingservice about this, too. I think in the future, you should politely offer a refund and leave it at that.



Feel free to reach out to me if you ever need advice!



David

https://www.fiverr.com/david388

[necipates]

I’ll be the one saying it;



You are rude and you don’t offer anything for $5 Buyer is only in the wrong because he didn’t contact you before ordering. Rest of the blame is on you. You could’ve said that you’re sorry and you can’t do it but this is no way to treat people. You refused a cancellation offer and tried to scam the buyer off his $5 also.



Edit: Well, everyone said it before I hit post 🙂

[mrproofreading]

You seem pretty arrogant. The buyer asked for a $5 sample; a basic idea, sketch, mock-up etc.



What the buyer didn’t ask for was to be insulted by you.

[kay2809]

Reply to @david388: http://i1090.photobucket.com/albums/i380/lemon1437/pic1.jpg

[fonthaunt]

Wow. The screen shots are blurry but here is what I think from what I could read. Buyers don’t always contact you first even if you have that in the description. Its a fact and you should still talk with them professionally as they may turn out to be great anyway.



You were incredibly rude to the buyer from your first response. The buyer spoke nicely and offered to accepy a refund even when you broke Fiverr ToS by trying to force the client to pay more. You are angry with the lack of contact because you never intended to do even a black and white concept for $5. I am embarrassed that you offer services here.



You gave the buyer nothing upon delivery and acted like a child sending a white square as delivery instead if a refund. The bad review is one of the few 1 star reviews I’ve seen that I thought was spot on. I feel sorry for the buyer who tried hard to work with you. Sad. I think you believe that you are too good for Fiverr and perhaps you should work somewhere else worthy of your prices and your witty way with words.

[Guest johnbadon]

I have to say that you have been ignorant and you are the one which lack respect. try to change your customer service and you completely deserve the feedback.

[fonthaunt]

So, @dmaestral, did you just write this for the forum to amuse yourself or did you want real feedback?

[steveeyes]

I think the ignorance is on your part. I have had potential buyers disagree with me and vice versa. If that happens, I tell them I’m probably not a good fit for their project. You see, the buyer will not forget…you could do an outstanding job but they are going to ding you when giving feedback for your little spat. No matter if the buyer is 100% wrong, you are asking for a negative feedback if you put the buyer on the defensive.

[emeraldawnn]

I’m with everyone else… you were totally in the wrong in this regard! Buyers do NOT always contact sellers prior before ordering. And, sometimes they don’t read gig descriptions.



It’s up to us sellers to be a little more flexible in cases of buyers like this. You… were nowhere close to being flexible. You should consider offering your services elsewhere OR change the attitude. That buyer even offered to accept a refund. Your 1-star rating is more than deserved…



Your attitude may have just hurt other logo designers with this buyer.



That’s my two-cents worth on this matter. Take it or leave it!

[jamesbulls]

Speaking as somebody who was trying to hire an illustrator to design a YouTube thumbnail, I have a hate-on for the “CONTACT ME FIRST!” gig descriptions. Yes, I understand that illustrators, etc. need creative design input in order to complete the order, but that’s what follow-up instructions are for. These kinds of “contact me first” descriptions immediately set off my up-sell/bait-and-switch alarm.

[sue_mcl]

Reply to @jamesbulls: I’m so glad I am not the only one who hates (and will not buy from) sellers who have “contact me first” on their gig descriptions, but so many sellers have it on their gigs. Why? If I want to buy something and you are offering the service to sell something, why can’t I just buy it from you, without extra to-ing and fro-ing and faffing around? Unless of course your gig is not what you are actually selling - such as in this case - the buyer wanted the $5 logo you were selling, but you didn’t actually want to sell it to him because it seems like you wanted him to pay more. The upsell/bait and switch James mentions.



There is no requirement for customers to have to contact anyone first before buying. All orders have messages attached to them (which from a sellers perspective is actually easier to track than trying to look through order messages and separate and not linked inbox messages. It is much cleaner to keep every contact related to the order, with the order.



But yes, I am also of the opinion that you were pretty rude to the buyer and if I was the buyer I would have been pretty damn upset too!

[Guest itsyourthing]

I agree with everyone else. Let’s see if a$$hat gets fragglesrocked.



EDIT: Censored a$$hat. The mods have enough important stuff to do. 🙂

[Guest norrsken_marc]

For one of the rare times when everyone but the OP agrees on anything all together 🙂

[inet_solutions]

Hopefully you are trolling…



But I’ll assume you’re not. It is in your best interest to do something about your attitude - you’ll never amount to anything as a freelancer if you show such lack of respect for your customers.



If you feel like a buyer is wasting your time (happens fairly often btw) then simply don’t waste your time with them - the fact that you did (while being a smartass) only makes you look like a complete fool and it is totally unprofessional and immature.



We all have moments of weakness when emotions take over and we behave like children. However, the fact that after some time has passed you still think your review is undeserved clearly shows that this was not a temporary loss of temper, but rather complete social incompetence.



There’s a reason why companies have an HR department to help them pick the staff - you can’t make up for arrogance and overall crappy behavior with any other skill. Unfortunately, with freelancing this matters even more.



So my advice would be to focus on social skills - I’m sure you’ve got the necessary technical skills already. But you need both.



Best of luck with your future sales…

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @sue_mcl: I agree with pretty much everyone in the thread on most of this, but I am interested in these comments about “contact me” My gigs have it as a suggested thing and it has sincerely saved me from some cancellations. I don’t have it as a requirement and I do take orders without prior contact.



I have 2 reasons for keeping it and I’d like to hear your take and that of others who don’t like it. One statement I make it my gigs is that they should contact me first if I responded to their buyer request. Some people write buyer requests like “need blog content.” If I send them my gig, some place an order but ignore my word count pricing. They want five 2000 word articles for $5. After I added the contact request, all have messaged and after I clarify, 75% of them still order a $5 order but they know what they are really getting.



My other reason is for people would rather ask me a list of questions than read description. I have a brief note at the bottom of most of my gigs that says “Contact 1st if you have questions.” Before I added it, some would order first and then ask questions (even though the gig description answered them) so I would have to cancel when they asked me to do their homework in 2 hours or ghostwrite erotic fiction. Now they write to describe the project and ask if I’ll do it. Out of those, only about 25% end up buying but I only spend 5 minutes to message with them before we know that I am right or wrong for their task.



Do you have thoughts or comments? As long as I have clear $5 options and I state them in the description, I don’t see why not to suggest contact. I am surprised that someone would not order from me over that since mine says nothing about contacting me due to price. Any thoughts?

[jamesbulls]

norrsken_marc said: For one of the rare times when everyone but the OP agrees on anything all together

 

 

[sincere18]

I would suggest two things…one is change the wording on your gig from

Contact me prior to ordering for a free estimation

to maybe something more concrete.

You must contact me BEFORE your order for a full quote of price.



That is the firs thing, the second thing is you should have done a mutual cancellation from the getgo. You have a process in place that you ask people to contact you BEFORE they place the order, this person did not. They clearly didn’t respect you and from that aspect something like this will always turn out badly. You have to use your own will power to just say no to a job. In any business you sometimes have to loose a client to gain the good ones.

[sue_mcl]

Reply to @fonthaunt:



It depends on the gig and what I am ordering. If say I wanted a writing gig and I wanted an article of 500 words, I wouldn’t see any reason why I needed to contact a buyer first to buy that. If they said 200 words for $5 I would just buy 3 gigs and let them know what I wanted when I had instigated the purchase.



I recently needed something written with a fairly quick turnaround. I did actually contact two sellers since they said I had to, but due to time differences or whatever, I got sick of waiting (6 hours - seemed like all day lol), so I just ordered from someone who didn’t have that specification and I got it back before one of them even responded in the first place.



Same thing happened when I wanted a video, by the time the contact me first seller responded (saying yeah sure, please just place an order with blah blah gig extra, which I had already worked out on my own - so can’t see why I needed to contact him anyway, I could have just ordered it), I had already looked at 20 other sellers and picked one that could just do it without the extra hassle of the contact me first. Now I just skip past any contact me first sellers and go to sellers that don’t say that, as I just don’t see the point if they have a clear $5 description and it is what I want done.



If I want something I am not sure of or is perhaps slightly outside the gig description, I will contact the seller first to ask if it is appropriate - so a contact me if you have any questions is a good idea, I just get annoyed with contact me first before ordering for straightforward things. If I am sitting there wanting to buy something, I am wanting to just buy it, not have a discussion about it first. I am talking about small orders here by the way (less than $20) if it was something bigger, then sure I would more than likely contact first, as I would view that as more of an important or maybe a potential relationship building type purchase, rather than a commodity purchase (which is how I view the $5 and $10 gig purchases).



From a seller perspective, yes I also get people ordering a gig for $5 and sending a 300 word script requesting music and video sync, when I do 75 words for $5 and have extras for the rest, but when that happens, I just send them a message saying thanks for your order, your script is 300 words and my gig is 75 words for $5, please put through extras to the value of $15 to cover the difference in word count. Also you have requested music, which is $10 extra, and to sync to your video which is $10 per 75 words if you would like me to add those things, please put through the appropriate gig extras, or else I can do your gig as a dry read, not synced to music or timed to a video, just let me know what you would like me to do. Almost every time it has happened to me, the buyer has ordered the extras (or said don’t worry about the music etc).



For the number of times I have to do that (not that many percentage wise), I think it is better (for me) to do that, than have a message on my gig, which I feel may turn away potential customers. I always try to think like a buyer with my gig, rather than think like a seller and what might make my selling life easier I guess.

[sue_mcl]

Reply to @sincere18:



but wouldn’t that make it go against fiverr’s TOS - that they had to contact first to get a quote? I thought all sellers have to offer something for $5. What is the seller actually offering for $5 if doing a black and white logo as per their description isn’t OK?

[sue_mcl]

Reply to @inet_solutions:



The comments were that rude, I actually wondered if they may be trolling too!

[sincere18]

Reply to @sue_mcl: yes, that is probably true, the whole part about being against the TOS. Though I have seen many sellers do this, so I am not sure how Fiverr is handling this end of it. In fact I have seen some gigs that do not say $5 but only say custom.



However the wording that this seller choose to use was not as concrete as it could be. And there is also an issue because the seller straight out offers packages, so if I saw a package then I know what I would be paying and wouldn’t need a quote, so it is confusing on their gig.

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @sue_mcl: Thanks! That makes more sense. I think I was reading it that if someone had anything about contacting first you wouldn’t even consider buying and I wondered why. My sales have been fine given that I’ve had to extend delivery dates due to some life issues. I don’t think my contact statements are hurting me, but I definitely don’t tell people the contact has to happen to get a price. I wouldn’t buy from someone who put it that way (like this OP) either! 🙂