How to FIRE your buyer and let him know he is FIRED

[joeyperezwest]

I’ve been wanting to talk about some of the things I do to FIRE some of my customers, yes you can FIRE your buyer if you feel that the projects and work between the two of you have not gone so smoothly.

There are different ways I let my buyers know that have worked for me but a typical way I’ve been handling this is; if cancellation ratios are higher then successful orders, I give them up to 3 warnings and after the 3rd warning I have to let them know I do not want to work with them anymore because of the reasons we cancelled in the past after I kindly asked them to fix whatever before submitting an order, I let them know “I’m sorry but as a customer, I have to FIRE you… and its best you look for another Fiverr seller who might better work with you”.

I know it sounds kind of strong but at the same time I think its professional, I’ve had 100% understanding after telling my buyer customer I had to fire them. Its something that most can relate to as like in a Job.

There are also buyers on fiverr who re-sell your gigs on their own website or to their existing customers, i’ve had to fire a few of these guys because they tend to give me a lot of requests for re-do’s several days later to even weeks, and yet want delivery times within 24 hours which doesn’t work for me. I try to let them know they can’t count on me like that because I can’t be at their service all the time just because they are with their customers. If their customers do not like something or ask for a change it has to be within the time frame I request otherwise the gig is complete and you have to pay for another gig. They also like to submit a lot of revisions during the time I’m actually doing the gigs which I also hate. I kindly let them know that I have a 3 strike policy, if you keep expect a re-do on every single gig and expect me to do it 2-3 times because I have a very flexible re-do policy I’m going to stop working with you and FIRE you as a customer.

I tell them, The re-do policy is really meant for one decision maker and not multiple people critiquing the work especially if its for the special $5 dollar gigs. At this point I tell them if there is going to be multiple people viewing and critiquing the work, I request a minimum of 10x times my pay scale for that, and it actually works out for some of my re-seller buyers, they are happy to pay more upfront then to keep on paying me per revision afterwards if it goes into 2-3 and beyond re-dos.

What are some ways you tell your customers its not working out? e worked for me but a typical way I’ve been handling this is; if cancellation ratios are higher then successful orders, I give them up to 3 warnings and after the 3rd warning I have to let them know I do not want to work with them anymore because of the reasons we cancelled in the past after I kindly asked them to fix whatever before submitting an order, I let them know I don’t want to work with them by telling them to look for another Fiverr seller who might better work with them.

There are also buyers on fiverr who re-sell your gigs on their own website or to their existing customers, i’ve had to fire a few of these guys because they tend to give me a lot of requests for re-do’s several days later to even weeks, and yet want delivery times within 24 hours which doesn’t work for me. I try to let them know they can’t count on me like that because I can’t be at their service all the time just because they are with their customers. If their customers do not like something or ask for a change it has to be within the time frame I request otherwise the gig is complete and you have to pay for another gig. They also like to submit a lot of revisions during the time I’m actually doing the gigs which I also hate. I kindly let them know that I have a 3 strike policy, if you keep expect a re-do on every single gig and expect me to do it 2-3 times because I have a very flexible re-do policy I’m going to stop working with you and FIRE you as a customer.

I tell them, The re-do policy is really meant for one decision maker and not multiple people critiquing the work especially if its for the special $5 dollar gigs. At this point I tell them if there is going to be multiple people viewing and critiquing the work, I request a minimum of 10x times my pay scale for that, and it actually works out for some of my re-seller buyers, they are happy to pay more upfront then to keep on paying me per revision afterwards if it goes into 2-3 and beyond re-dos.

What are some ways you tell your customers its not working out?

[fastcopywriter]

When you send the refund request, you can tell me “Never hire me again!”

I rarely do it, because when I refund an order, I rarely get a second order. An exception might be if I’m refunding because I don’t have the time or feel like doing it, I did that with a buyer from Kenya that has ordered from me like 20 times. He was disappointed, but he did order again in a few days.

When it comes to revisions, if you think the revision is unjustified or a waste of your time, send a custom offer such as: I will revise accordingly for $5 in 3 days. I like doing this, if they say no, I just refund it, if they accept the offer, I make more money.

“There are also buyers on fiverr who re-sell your gigs on their own website or to their existing customers”

That’s irrelevant. If I do something for $5, why do I care if someone else does it for $20, $10, $100? I’m here to get orders and make money. I do it for $5 because it’s worth $5 to me.

I know sellers are in love with their work, but people, it’s not really our work, it’s work we do for money, work we do for others. You are like Picasso, you painted a masterpiece but you’re not going to hang it in your living room, instead, you’ll sell it to Lord Loxley who will brag about it. Of course, here on Fiverr it’s rare for a buyer to brag about a seller. But again, why are we here? To get attention? To be famous? Or to make money? I think money is the primary motivator.

So embrace it, in fact, enough with the so-called “sharing economy.” We’re not sharing anything, we’re trading. Gig Economy is a better term for what we’re doing.

[sincere18]

I don’t think you need to actually “Fire” any buyers.

I think you need to simply have listed on your gigs, how many revisions you include. I don;'t think you can really say where/who those changes come from that makes you uncomfortable, you just have your rules and your time frame. Do not give in to them when they want something sooner. Don’t argue about it, don’t go back and forth about it, you just do it int he allowed time frame and that’s that.

Or you simply refund the $5. With a polite messages, I am sorry I am unable to accomodate you and your time preferences, there are many sellers on Fiverr who can assist you. All it takes is you cancelling a job on them once, maybe twice and they won’t bother coming back to you…no firing needed.

[nicktribedesign]

I agree with this! If you find the need to “fire” buyers then it’s probably because there was a misunderstanding in your gig description. Always be clear and honest about what you can provide.

[rudevectors]

Although I can understand the op’s stance on this, this doesn’t really work with the current order system. You can cancel, if the buyer declines it goes to a unproductive merry-go round. If they simply leave it to auto cancel within the 3 days, it impacts your account.

After all that, they can just order again, as some have mentioned, an explicit buyer filter would be helpful but Fiverr would never enact this, as it is a restriction to revenue.

[antonio26900]

I had a buyer bluffing, he told me he wasn’t happy with a gig (which is unlikely because his comment was about the background video which he already saw as that’s in my example as well as in all my past gigs in my portfolio) and he wanted another one of my gigs for free instead, I offered to cancel, but then he declined the cancellation and he gave me a positive review, after that though I told him to not order from me anymore, he pretended he didn’t understand and he already ordered two other gigs. Fortunately I never had bad experiences and all my buyers were always nice to deal with and very happy, but it would be great if there was some option which would allow to block a buyer or prevent him from ordering.

[sadiabinte]

hello, i can not post any discussion in forum , some plz help me ?

[mikucchi]

I had a buyer bluffing, and not satisfied with my works.
I sent her the sketch of illustration before she placed the order (I even do the sketch for free), and she agreed with the sketch. After this, she ordered the gigs from me for $5 and I was start to work on her illustration. Then, I was done on the illustration and delivered to her. After receiving the illustration, she reject this and request for modification. I approved her request and told her if she had any request on illustration, please inform me soon, because I already did the limitation modification on the gigs for once (I already wrote once modification only in my gigs description). Unfortunately, she misunderstood with my message and she said that I threat her to pay more money. She requested for cancellation and I rejected this, because I already done on her illustration. Then, she did completion on the gigs and leave negative review. That’s really disappointing 😦
This will be great if Fiverr have option to reject/accept gigs order from buyer and block the buyers. In addition, the sellers review will be displayed on buyer’s profile, so the sellers could see how is the buyers characteristic, then the sellers can avoid the frustrating buyer and doesn’t need to fire them.

[fonthaunt]

You are probably getting a forum ID error when you try. Can you confirm? More information would help with a resolution. You can also submit a Customer Support ticket but it would still help them to have more details, screen shots, whatever you can get.

[fonthaunt]

You are probably getting a forum ID error when you try. Can you confirm? More information would help with a resolution. Try this: http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/are-you-getting-forum-id-missing-errors/

[misscrystal]

I prefer not to word anything to a buyer as harshly as "I am FIRING you!"
I let a buyer know that my service is not the best answer for him at this time and probably would not work out the way he hopes. No need to say something that might upset a buyer. There is always a gentle way of saying goodbye.

[tarnia]

I would be interested to know from The Top Level sellers what your cancellation rate is. I have had a few idiots in my time I have had to cancel and I wondering if it affects my chances in progressing from Level 2 eventually… maybe in the next year or so … who knows lol

Thanks

Tarnia

[misscrystal]

Hello, mutual cancellations affect nothing, and is not shown on your cancellation rate on your analytics page. If customer service cancels an order it can affect how visible your gigs are. It can affect your levels too but only if it’s excessive, but what exactly is considered excessive I’m not sure. I know some top rated sellers have a cancellation rate that is around 10% but most probably have less than that.

[melvokip]

You’re Fired !!

[Guest grafikdoctor]

The ideology about this is that it is not just possible to please everybody at all time, there are times that no matter how hard you work your ass off to satisfy some customers, you cannot not just satisfy them…in this scenario, you have to cancel or fire them, because if you do not they will definitely turn to problematic customer…I have had such in the past but I had learn that communication is the key…and when understanding cease to exist, no choice than to cancel the order.

[howtocleananyth]

I’m on the buyer side of things here and i’ve had a seller ‘fire me’ recently, my requests for work were simply misunderstood everytime or by pure ignorance or arrogance ignored, so the seller could churn out easy gigs rather than the gigs he/she had advertised on their gig description. As one of the posters above said, always be up front and honest about what you’re going to do for a fiver, if you feel your time isn’t worth a fiver and you think it’s worth more, tell the buyer, they can then cancel if it’s not what they want. I think the OP is a little too aggressive over this matter and obviously has had a bad experience and is blaming the buyer for his own failings. You provide the service the buyer buys it, if that’s not working then you must take a step back and re-evaluate and make the decision that fiverr isn’t for you.

[tarnia]

Great thats a real help thank you. I will try to keep an eye on that I just had a run of idiots and nothing II could do Tarnia x

[miacmht]

I had fired a not-even-my-buyer-yet. She seems to be working for an agency and looking for work for her clients, or simply just try to find a profit by reselling cheap work.

She would occasionally sent me her clients’ story, asked for a quote and “I’ll be back to hire you” then disappears, and then went back with a different story asking for a different quote. I purposely give the highest quote in all of my options (highest price for a very detailed drawing style, include all the extra,…). She said it’s too high, and then still come back for another quote, I had to directly tell her not to contact me anymore.

In all my quotes for her, especially the first one, I was always very specific:

picture 1: 2 characters + background = 2x$10 + $10 = $30
picture 2: 1 characters + background = $10 + $10 = $20

So she must have know my range of price, even if she can’t come up with a specific quote for her clients. And if her clients wants 10 pictures done for $50, obviously I’m not the one she needs. I just don’t know why she kept contacting me?

This agency seem to be a bad one, doesn’t seem to understand a seller’s price range, and have no idea what her clients’ budget is, which they could have somehow implied, just like I did. She needed to be told directly.

I don’t mind people reselling my work, this’s how this world works. I actually enjoy working with agency since they would do all the hard works: talking with clients, finding clients…but once they prove to be the hard work themselves, working with them is worse than working directly with clients.

[joeyperezwest]

I agree on chances, like I said I give my customers pretty much three warnings after we have had a long talk about a project or my description.

[joeyperezwest]

I talk to my customers, I answer all the questions or concerns, even to the point of making sure I have a clear description or if I don’t to tell me how I can make it clear, this is based all off over 2000 orders on fiverr alone. I give changes, I explain but some people after a while just turn aggressive towards me. So its become a typical thing to me now if I see a sign of something I don’t want to deal with because its my time to, its my life, and I’m giving a product they can’t get anywhere else normally besides on fiverr… that’s why there are many people to choose from. Some you can work with and some you can’t. Its half the service and half the people to people thing.

[joeyperezwest]

Oh and for these types of people I always ask them

Are you looking for the lowest bidder or do you have a budget in mind… works to weed out all the abusers of slave labor.

[mariokluser]

I totally understand your point of you, and I’m glad that I never was in that situation.

Most of my buyers contact me before they order. Most of the time this results in a very narrowly defined custom order that has little to none room for interpretation. If I have an uncomfortable feeling at that stage I will tell the buyer that I’m not their guy and they should look for somebody else. This makes it less of a hassle for both sides.

This is how it works for me. Once I had a mutual cancellation and this buyer knows that he/she doesn’t need to contact me again. There are no hard feelings on both sides though.