Beware of making large orders from strangers

[fastcopywriter]

Today I got a $70 order for e-mails, that’s 12 e-mails with one day delivery. I had to refund it. Why? Because the guy gave me four different web links and too many instructions. Let me show you:

Email #1 Gain Positioning
Somewhat blind about the content.
Target to people who just want stuff. Low-hanging fruit / Easy Clickers
Probably shorter than email 2 which goes into more detail about the content and reason to click.
Very soft sell to click.
Lowest urgency.

Email #2 Logic Positioning
Gives logical reason(s) to click.
More detail about the content.
Slightly harder sell.
Present benefits to watching the content.
Possibly both specific and broad reasons to click.
Slightly more urgency. (Something like “Check it out now before it gets lost in the shuffle of life.”)

Email #3 Fear positioning
Use time scarcity as a last resort to encourage the click to the content.
Use soft scarcity. Something like…
“For the last few days I’ve been encouraging you to check out XYZ. But today is the last day. After today, you won’t be hearing from me about XYZ any longer.
So this is your final opportunity.
Watch XYZ today, or risk missing out.”

Wow! This is the kind of stuff that causes problems. If you’re working with a stranger, order one e-mail. You can choose other gig extras such as extra headlines, a print ad, but asking for too much from a stranger is dangerous. If he’s honest like me, you’ll get your money back. If he’s dishonest, you’ll get work you won’t like.

[fonthaunt]

I could not agree with this more. I am lucky I did not have to refund recently. Mine wasn’t heavy on details but on numbers and days of unpaid conversation. It was a buyer who was new to me and probably to Fiverr as well. He messaged me to ask if the cost would be different if he had 90-100 orders of the same gig plus an extra for several. I told him that I prefer custom quotes for large orders but didn’t want to start there. I suggested we begin with 1 or 2. He wanted to know what the cost would be for 75.

I was willing to converse just a little since I am building relationships with some return buyers. I wouldn’t give him a price for that many, but I offered to explain how I price by time. He just kept pushing for a big bulk order. I finally just referred him to someone who might do it. He was bent on ordering and hadn’t thought I would balk. He asked me about 10. Normally I still would have asked for a smaller order to start, but if we had gotten to it sooner we could have worked it out. The obsession wasn’t for me and it made me fear a big cancellation or poor review.

I told him I was sorry, I had other orders by then and didn’t want more. That wasn’t the end of it, either, but I had to just stop responding and would have refunded instantly if he had ordered. If the buyer had simply been willing to jump in after the first couple of messages I could have helped. So, my advice to add with @fastcopywriter is, start small and don’t be pushy. Plenty of sellers will do what they enjoy on the cheap, but that doesn’t mean they won’t say no if you scare them away.

[anamariaedan]

I was on the verge of refunding to a buyer I’ve worked for few days ago. When order started, he told me he needs me to reproduce his forms quickly (8 hours delivery) from a PDF to a Word document. After some intense hours of working the buyer says: ‘‘Oh, excellent job! Now I need you to combine all pages into a single page. Please do it fast, I need it in one hour!’’. I was like: wait, what?! He did not purchase any extra revisions, but I decided to do it anyway, to avoid a negative review. It happens so often, I don’t know how to avoid this issue anymore. Every time I ask buyers ‘‘Are these all instructions needed? If you still need to add something, please do it now to avoid further confusion.’’ However, many of them ask for more after delivery. It’s frustrating, but I always end up doing it scared that my reputation might be changed as a result of unhappy buyers. I always explain that although it is not included in the order, I will do it as a bonus. Hoping they will come back to my service and realize that working for free is not something they should ask for.

[fastcopywriter]

That’s an interesting story. It seems to me your buyer took advantage of you, I hope he gave you a tip.

Some of these buyers think they’re our bosses, they think they’re paying us a salary and we have to put up with their every whim. That is not the case.

Today someone messaged me, asking if I could post a review in one hour, he had already written the review. I told him that extra fast requires that gig extra. She got upset with me, she doesn’t understand that I have lots of orders to deal with and I’m not going to work extra fast without extra money.

[fastcopywriter]

Thanks @fonthaunt, I always love reading your comments. The buyer I dealt with actually tried to offer more money after I said no. I almost felt bad rejecting his offer, this hasn’t been my best month and I could have used the money. But if I don’t understand the job, I’m unlikely to do a good job.

[writer99025]

I had a very bad experience with a new buyer - wrote 10 articles for her, but wanted them changed entirely because they were “good but did not have a punch in them and were like so many articles on the internet”. I just refunded her. I mean…I write 700-word articles for $5 - and her articles were on web hosting…does she expect me to be Ernest Hemingway for $5/article?

[seofanatics]

I got my first negative review from a top rated buyer who thought he could ask me to do just anything for $5. I delivered the basic gig he ordered and he came back to ask for more. In fact, he stated that he wants the detailed research for $5. No, i don’t do that for $5, i replied. Buyer keeps hitting the modification button, and later requested for cancellation. I’ve never got a negative review, and i would have refund him to avoid one. However, i don’t want to dance to his tune because he might be doing the same thing to different sellers. I declined cancellation and i refused to do more work. As expected, he accepted the order and left a 1 star review with a lengthy note.

How do i prove to other people that this person is a cheapskate? I added my review and say the whole truth.

So many things are going on here. I wish everyone can share their experience so that we can all learn.

[fastcopywriter]

I would be furious, writing one 700-word article takes time, 10 takes a lot more time. Here’s an idea, in the body of your gig description, write the following:

WARNING: I will not accept orders over $5 for new clients.

Your earnings will decrease in the short term, but then you’ll learn which clients value your work and which ones demand refund.

Personally, all refunds bother me, but a $5 refund is easier to stomach than a $40 refund.

What will you do with the rejected articles? Save them in a folder for the future?

[fastcopywriter]

You already proved it by telling the truth in the review. Don’t get angry, get even. Don’t write: “You’re a jerk! You’re evil!”

But something like this: “You knew that for $5 I do X, and yet you demanded this which costs $X more. You could have asked for a refund, instead you gave me a dishonest review.”

[writer99025]

This is actually the first such bad experience I have had, so I don’t want to change things because of that. I sold the articles on another service, so didn’t lose anything.

[fastcopywriter]

I forgot article writers have that option. Good for you!