The 3 Tips you MUST Know to Spot and Avoid Bad Buyers

[david388]

@purpledog32, totally. After a certain point it shows a lack of respect for you!

[Guest vsanto18]

I’ve been writing about these articles forever! I am glad there is awareness .

We need a change . remove the bad apples

[darrendesign]

I get a such a buyer depichien( vocal progress) I do what he requested in high manner also proved bonus files for $100 give him great costumer service he leave me a negative feedback I have 69 orders canceled because of that bad buyers manipulators fiverr is very weak place they can’t protect our sellers rights but getting 20% of sellers earning I don’t understand why? what gives fiverr that not give other marketplaces? I changed my opinion about fiverr after the last costumer he leaves me a negative review lie all and get his money back fiverr didn’t do nothing I just work for a 2 weeks and get negative feedback and lost my money this is fiverr?

[sabiansoldier]

The worst buyers are the ones who don’t want to spend any money, or offer less than the advertised price for the service. Not just because they’re less lucrative, but because they usually don’t value what they end up getting, and write shoddy reviews anyway. Had one of those today. Rage.

[david388]

@sabiansoldier - ugh, that’s terrible! But your gigs look wonderful. If you ever need a violinist, let me know!

[david388]

@sabiansoldier, @vsanto18, @darrendesign:



Case in point - spotted this on a recent Buyers Requests - note the use of language like “must” and “have to”:



"im looking for someone who can be an author for my blog , so you must me a good writer and you’ll have to make like 2 posts/day"



Seriously - if someone’s already sounding demanding in their job description, why would you ever want to work with them?

[sabiansoldier]

Reply to @david388: Great point David

[Guest vsanto18]

So i received this email today from Fiverr,

(Unprofessional, refusing to speak in detail when being harassed)

Fiverr really needs to step it up, or sellers will just go elsewhere.

We need to be protected one way or other.

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Hi vsanto18,

We received reports that your interaction with other users has been unprofessional.

We would like to remind you to keep Fiverr fun and clean. It's important to be polite, use appropriate language, and respond to other Fiverr users with respect and in a timely manner.

Note: These warnings may affect your eligibility for Levels, other features, and your account status.
Thanks,
The Fiverr Team

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I will not stand down or be belittled , harassed and mocked by buyers who want freebies .

[wahiawa]

david ( or anyone else pls step in ),



I am a * buyer * who feels threatened / bullied by a seller.

He wanted me to buy his unrelated gig.



I did not and that is when the bullying started.

Says something " do not order again." I would not send my * enemy * to order w/him.

I was going to place more orders with him when he started to get nasty with namecalling and threats.



Now I gave him a 1 star review ( 1 star is too generous ), and now he wants me to cxl so I can get a refund. However that means that my review will be erased. I am very afraid he will do this to someone else. This has been so upsetting as there is another victim in the works.



Of course support does not offer support. I don’t know what to do.

Afraid to look at inbox.

[Guest rhinestone66]

@wahiawa that may never be an option, that you feel threatened. By the way, I once was threatened during a poker game, and I just replied by saying (in the poker game chat): ‘So you are threatening me?’. That was enough, that person stood down. I don’t think there is a reason to be afraid, but I can imagine your feelings…



But as a matter of fact, in Fiverr, I am a seller, and last week I had a buyer with… shall I say lesser good intentions (about a hack they wanted me to do elsewhere, but I politely declined the job) 😉



EDIT: I reported this particular user, and they were glad that I did. Do attach screenshots for proof. They really help (is my experience), and they said they were going to ban this person.

[marknew]

Thank you all for the helpful information. Today is a particularly good day for me to be reading your comments. So far, another red flag for me is when a potential buyer writes in their first message that if I do this well “they have lots of projects coming up.” Every time I have been told that, it never materialized after the first (successful) gig with them.

[fastcopywriter]

I don’t think you can spot bad buyers or good buyers. Both will give short and long instructions, both can be friendly or unfriendly at the beginning, some can have realistic or unrealistic expectations. Just use your own judgement.

[david388]

@marknew, thanks for pointing this out. In my experience, while your observation doesn’t always hold true, it often does - and ESPECIALLY when it’s mentioned in the context of asking more than your gig offers. Not only does this tend to never materialize, but people who say this (in my experience) have turned out to be demanding and bullying, often continuing to demand more and more even after the gig delivery.



@fastcopywriter, I agree that there are lots of times that you really can’t tell. But I disagree that there are no clues at all. “Using your judgment” is exactly what we all do - but since judgment is formed from experience (and sometimes bad experiences), I thought it would be nice to share my own here so that newer Sellers could learn from them beforehand.

[fastcopywriter]

Reply to @david388: I respect your views, I’ve done 2,356 orders so far, and it’s still a learning process. In the past I used to have “Satisfaction Guaranteed or your Money Back,” I used to tell other people to do the same, but then I was getting a ton of revision requests. Right now I think that when it comes to Fiverr, there are no rules, no standard operating procedures, you might give one buyer 50% more, and he gives you a negative review. Another got just what he paid for, and he gives you 5 stars. Some are nice and friendly, and then stick the knife in you. Ironically, what hurts the most is when they accuse you of cheating, I can accept if a client doesn’t like my work and wants a refund, but being told that I cheated, that I didn’t do the job, that pisses me off to no end.



Besides, sometimes the good buyer you have today becomes horrible tomorrow, that happened to me once. The guy gave me 5-stars on one order, 1-star on the next order.



Let’s take a look at one of your gigs:



"I will write slogans guaranteed to BLOW your mind for $5 "



What happens if you fail to blow his mind? Does he demand a revision, refund, or does he leave a bad review? I know where you’re coming from, most of my gigs are subjective.

[david388]

@fastcopywriter, I totally agree. So far, the Buyers I’ve had for this gig have been really wonderful - either seeking me out as new Sellers hoping to get started, or coming to me by way of referral, which also tends to be a good prognostic sign for the relationship. But I do know that sooner or later, I could always run into a bad egg.

[fastcopywriter]

Reply to @david388: My experience similar with slogans, headlines, teespring, e-mails, and radio. With brand names? Not so much. Some buyers have been wonderful, others have been horrific. I’ve been forced to add disclaimers and warnings, but alas, I still get bad buyers from time to time.

[neilcope162]

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading through all these comments and have learnt much about the members attitudes. I have just moments ago joined and am having trouble finding out how one gets under way

Neil

[Guest perfectionist01]

Hi, I am Liza…I want to share problem that I am facing from the very first day I joined

fiverr.com. As I am a British person I am serving on fiverr and offering my services to everyone without any racial discrimination. I am having very bad experience with Fragglesrock. So, its my advice to every British seller “Don’t ever try to do task of any Fragglesrock”. They take your work and post negative reviews without any reason. Not only this they threat and say that they have many accounts and they will post negative reviews if one don’t refund their money… Is it a good thing? I had a recent experience with Fragglesrock. He ordered without any deal and told me to complete the task within a month. I asked him to stop the clock because he ordered for delivery within 3 days. After 2 and half days he asked me to deliver his 2000 words within 12 hours. I was unable to do that that’s I hired someone else to do that task and I delivered him. He received the task used it completely and then started threatening me to refund otherwise he’ll post negative review…My question is it a good practice? I am a level 2 seller I never experienced this before…Why Fragglesrock are doing this?..From today I will not take any Fragglesrock order…and Everyone shall be aware of these robbers who are affecting innocent sellers like me…



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[forcedlogic]

My biggest problem is I come from the school of under promise, over deliver. For instance I have a gig that is I will create 6 names for you. I can’t tell you the number of people who thank me for my time that they obviously see I have put into my work sometimes one or two hours but I get back we don’t like your names.



You spent $5 and you don’t like my suggestions…but because they threaten negative reviews or what not…you have to refund. I can see this becoming abused very fast, sames goes with logo designs. Not everything that I will create will be to someone’s liking, I go out of my way to try to fix the problem by redoing or what not but then there are many times people are thankful…but other times…when no still not good enough.



Point is. Fiverr sucks in my humble opinion for complex creativity of any kind. You can easily sink hours of time into a project only to have that customer come back and say…don’t like it…refund my money or I give you a negative review. And many times you don’t have a choice.

[turnkeyz]

sometimes a bit of conversation prior to purchase of gig helps in knowing about the buyer.

[forcedlogic]

Reply to @turnkeyz: Doesn’t happen if they are a cold buyer. I can go find any one of your gigs…order while you’re sleeping…you wake from the gig begin work and the next thing you know I turn around and say…I don’t like the gig and you’re out of your work/time.

[david388]

Reply to @neilcope162: welcome! Feel free to shoot me a direct message if you’d like any advice here 🙂

[david388]

@forcedlogic and @turnkeyz - I agree with both of you. This can be very stressful. Wherever possible, I try to dialogue with the Buyer beforehand, and certainly before delivering the order. If someone is rude to me or inappropriately disrespectful, it’s a clear sign that it’s time to refund the order and move forward. But you’re totally correct - sometimes this can be difficult to do, especially if it was ordered for “Express” delivery.

[ucwheels]

Another tactic Sellers should be wary of is being asked to perform a “test assignment.” Such an assignment is peddled as a way to test the quality of your work, particularly for new Sellers. After the assignment is completed, the would be “Buyer” indicates that the quality of your work is below their standards, and you don’t get the job.



You can read the full commentary of my experience here: http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/62806/how-common-are-test-assignments#Item_12

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[david388]

@ucwheels - this is so incredibly sleazy and makes me really angry to hear fellow Sellers get taken advantage of by people like this. Thanks for sharing your experience here - hopefully others will learn from your advice and avoid similar situations!