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

[fonthaunt]

Reply to @judykopittke: Although Fiverr has a beta program with a few sellers starting at higher prices, other sellers with other gigs are still expected to offer some service for $5. If your current plan continues as-is, you may find yourself without an account. This is just informative in case you weren’t aware.

[sanmeet]

You are absolutely right @wilddaniela88 … Its fine because some buyers are really very difficult. they create problem for us… one bad review can down your profile its my personal opinion. even we try our 100 % best to make happy our client. But some buyers really do not co operate with us. so its easy way cancel the order. 🙂

[r3k0d3d]

I’ve only had one “difficult” client so far, had a few that can’t read basic instructions but that’s usually fixed quite easily with a msg or two. I knew right from the first msg they would be difficult, just a gut feeling, they basically wanted me to hand everything on a silver platter for them, I had a PDF that would have helped them tremendously, it did for me, so I offered that for $5, they agreed, bought the gig then turned around, cancelled it and told them I was ripping them off because according to them the information wasn’t good enough and they could find it all on the internet for free, I basically said if that was the case why did you bother posting in the Buyers Request in the first place, if you knew you could get that info for free? Never got a reply because I know exactly what they did, they bucked the system, got what they wanted, then made up their bs excuse to not pay for it, can almost guarantee straight after they got it they went off equipment shopping with all the new knowledge they acquired, LOL. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re trying to do the same thing to others, they only joined last month, so only time will tell, hopefully Fiverr cracks down on them if they are and bans them because I’ve only had positive reviews from everyone else and they’ve all been great to work with but I guess there’s a few rotten apples in every basket unfortunately? 🙂

[lenasemenkova]

I cancel most of the basic gigs immediately when it becomes clear we’re not going anywhere with this. Playing a guessing game for $5 is bad for my nerve cells. 🙂

Although two of my most difficult clients ended up leaving 5 star reviews and tips after we were done, so it’s worth trying to crack it before throwing it away sometimes, but only if the price’s good and/or the project itself is interesting and has potential.

[Guest juel_hossain]

Helpful discussion.

[oshoms]

I’ve had quite a number of cancellations too…as most people have indicated above, its far better to cancel than to get a negative review.
Mine happens especially when I discover I’m not going to be able to meet up with the delivery date; in such a case, I ask for a cancel, and for the client to reorder.

[zeromark]

Yeah, cancel > review. Just canceled 2 orders (from the same buyer) who went unresponsive after she ordered, got the delivery anyway and 2 days later just asked for a cancellation in all caps. I didn’t even bother asking why as it was clear they never intended to go through with the payment 😕

[croasis]

Ok, quick question. What to you do the buys has your intellectual property and then claims to be dissatisfied after receiving it and it’s clearly stated in the gig description ‘this gig has a no refund policy’. How do we deal with that can of scam artist?

[solutions_00]

buyers are very different and difficult to handle.

[luiscesarmx]

Do you guys know if there’s a way to report improper behaviour of a buyer or even ban the buyer for future sales? Probably this would help us all as well.

[mary_voiceover]

The problem here is for those of us who are looking up to make our first sale and get a constant sale rolling in …we have no choice than to do our best to try all means possible to satisfy any buyer that comes our way. But the most important is to have a clear communication with your buyers.

[wantedhero]

Reply to @charlespots: Hehe…I’ve done that many times with a client…but with one, I had SUCH a headache and was over delivering as every turn, it hit me that i was being taken advantage of. So when he popped back for the 6th order to complete his project, I said, “I’ll pass, thanks.” He was mad, but I just couldn’t deal with it anymore and the request was something MOST artists on Fiverr could/would do.

Now, I have a twist here–and that is, going WAY above and beyond the call–and still getting a bad review. I didn’t GET a chance to cancel, because the work was done exactly as requested. THEN I GOT SLAMMED??? Hmmmm.

I got a 2+ star review.

In all fairness, I left him a 1 star review and used the moment to warn other sellers of this ill intent. Hate doing that, but not everyone on here is a pony farting rainbows…

[graphicteacher]

The issue comes when buyer first give order ask for a design then buyer changes his mind and ask for totaly new design in jsut $5 , How someone can spend so much time for again and again new design in just $5 , is seller responsible for buyer that buyer change mind and then such people give negative feedback and even fiverr support not help in such cases so I have requested fiverr many times please improve their rating system because some people don’t even know what they want and when we deliver work they start asking for again and again modification and if we say new design will cost extra they post negative feedback which effects our account and all our handwork go in waste that’s the issue the rating system should be improved thier should be a team to help to remove wrong feedback they should check if our delivered work is same as seller asked and if still seller post negative feedback then such reviews should remove , according to my experience from every 100 people you will find 1 person like this.

[Guest multi_musician]

‘‘Here, I want to share with you how to avoid dealing with these people to begin with!’’

So…how do you avoid dealing with them? It would seems you left that part out.

[naimurhasanrwd]

I’m not sure, I don’t have any evidence, some of level 2 sellers shared their experience and told me not to deal with 2 specific countries. I can’t mention here. Is it true? Some of the countries buyers are always nasty?

[Guest smiler3d]

On 3/26/2019 at 1:57 PM, naimurhasanrwd said:

I can’t mention here. Is it true? Some of the countries buyers are always nasty?

No - every country has its good and bad buyers. 

[thestardesigner]

My experience with buyers is that you learn to spot bad buyers at first sight after a while. It’s mainly in the way they communicate as @david388 says. BUT… there’s always the coveted bad buyer, the one that at the beginning seems like the coolest person, a delight to work with, until they just… SNAP. Maybe they’ve had a bad day or an argument with their spouse or whatever, but all of a sudden they become this clientzilla person and you’re already way too involved on the project to escape. Been there a couple of times…

[creativeboymk]

Thank you so much for great tips 🙂
But in my case, bad buyer directly places the order without discussing anything and select basic package and demands premium work. 😦

[barrelofmonkeys]

You know, after you point this out, I’ve totally had this happen to me early on. Had a guy ask for the 500 words per $5 (as I was super cheap with my voice overs just to get my name out there) and he asked for revision and revision one after another, around almost 5-7 of them, even when I knew the recordings were perfectly ok and the words I said were correct in the english language (as it is my native language). Had to be a bit firm with him and say that enough is enough and will start charging for future revisions and recordings. Haven’t heard since. So take pride in your work and don’t let a buyer push you around if they get extra aggressive.

[adamclaywebb]

The biggest irony is that the buyers with the most demands and usually the $5 customers. They try to milk $500 worth of work from that $5, and don’t even dream about getting a tip from them. The good news is, there are way more good buyers here than bad ones, so once you can see the red flags from early out (3 of which are well-outlined here), you should be good.

On 5/14/2019 at 1:46 AM, barrelofmonkeys said:

You know, after you point this out, I’ve totally had this happen to me early on. Had a guy ask for the 500 words per $5 (as I was super cheap with my voice overs just to get my name out there) and he asked for revision and revision one after another, around almost 5-7 of them, even when I knew the recordings were perfectly ok and the words I said were correct in the english language (as it is my native language). Had to be a bit firm with him and say that enough is enough and will start charging for future revisions and recordings. Haven’t heard since. So take pride in your work and don’t let a buyer push you around if they get extra aggressive.

Very true. If you let them feel that you are super-dependent on their reviews and money, they might take advantage of that. You have to draw lines.

[melissaharlowvo]

Last week I had a client that wanted more and more revisions. He kept telling me that this is a awfull editing, work, etc. After 5 days of working on it, finally I gave up and gave him a refund after I’ve made a voice over and video animation. But guess what? In the same day the video was added on his website.

So…I can agree with the refund but how Fiverr protects our work from these “cheaters”? Clients should get only a preview until they mark the order as complete. This is just not fair.

What a great idea! Only send your work through the DELIVER button on the order page.

[noorismail]

I think when you fell the client is difficult, then it is better to work the way he want exactly because doing so it will save you from getting lower ratings. Sometime it get hard, client says they loved the product but when you job get completed and burrhhh… you got a 3 star review. So try to put yourself in their shoes when you get one because you have to save yourself from getting lower ratings.

[Guest graphic_real]

Really it is very helpful post

[talhasuhail10]

Absolutely, very well guided…

[zaindesign]

I Always try to stay in touch with the buyers and be respectful to them !