Why hire a seller you hate twice?

[fastcopywriter]

Today I had to refund a buyer because he wouldn’t provide real instructions after demanding a modification. It was one of those “I don’t like it.” Then I went to history and discovered this isn’t the first time this guy does it.

I’m glad they were $5 orders, so I didn’t waste too much time, but it’s really disrespectful to keep hiring someone if your refuse to pay him.

Not it’s true that some buyers will make 5 orders from the same person, and maybe demand one refund. I get that every order is different even if it’s from the same client. But us sellers don’t have time for this, we’re here to make money, we don’t make any money when we refund and worse than that, we lose time.

Come on, buyers. If you didn’t like a seller before, why hire him again? Find someone else, it’s not that hard.

[misscrystal]

I have had this happen too. It’s always $5 orders and upon delivery I get dozens of awful messages (I got a headache, it started raining, my boss gave me more work) then they end up trying to buy a dozen more $5 gigs.

[fastcopywriter]

Those excuses are incredible. In fact, it’s a good thing when a boss gives you more work, it means he or she values you. When they want to fire you, you stop getting any work, they don’t invite you to meetings anymore, they ostracize you. Some people have no common sense.

[eoinfinnegan]

This is why I don’t do refunds after delivery, regardless of the review.
The buyer used you again BECAUSE you refunded the last time. I’ve seen your work, it’s excellent, and there is no doubt in my mind that what they got was worth $5 but why would they pay for it when they can get it for free?

I can guarantee that there are buyers who have got many different orders delivered and then cancelled by sellers, all from the same $5 that they get back after every refund. They will place the order and when the delivery comes, they find an excuse to cancel.

Sellers need to protect themselves and each other by stopping the craziness of cancellation to avoid negative feedback. This unofficial system, as I’ve said before, is so widespread that it is CREATING this type of buyer. A buyer who gets a refund after a slight complaint then thinks that perhaps he can do it again, and then it works again. Are we really going to try and rely on the good old ideal that people value and respect other people’s time and effort? Come on, let’s not be naive!

Thankfully, many buyers are honest but the number of issues with scam buyers seems to be increasing. There is still no real recourse for sellers to deal with this type of buyer so the way I suggest is to stop them in their tracks. I understand new sellers refunding orders when they only have a couple of orders but anyone with over 100 reviews should not be afraid of a negative review. I’ve had 2 negative reviews out of 230 orders, I think both were attempting to get the work for free. I don’t think it has affected me, or at least not much. Customer support cannot do much to help this situation so it is up to sellers to protect themselves and each other by refusing to refund after delivery has been done.

VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE!
ETC…

[writer99025]

Deleted because of MrProofReading’s advice.

[writer99025]

Well, I had a buyer who ordered 5 articles and asked for a refund because he didn’t get what he wanted - there was a misunderstanding - I gave it to him readily…he was so apologetic and nice about it, said what a great writer I was and hoped that I wouldn’t mind if he ordered again…LOL…talk of an abusive relationship 🙂

[fitrigwrites4u]

LOL

[antoniopraize]

Please is there anyway to find out the history of buyers? To avoid buyers like this

[mrproofreading]

Be careful writing about it on the forum, though. You could be targeted.

[fastcopywriter]

You’re very kind, thank you for the compliment. You’re right, I’m trying to reduce refunds but it’s hards. Some buyers threaten you, they say they’ll give you a bad review if you don’t refund them. Then you have to choose whether it’s worth keeping $8 or protecting your reputation. At times I have chosen the later and now I see that my positive rating has dipped from 97% to 96%. It’s quite unfair considering I only have 46 negative reviews (maybe Fiverr counts refunds in a negative way as well).

[fastcopywriter]

Almost makes you want to put a disclaimer in your gig:

Warning: First time buyers are only allowed to buy one $5 gig. No large orders from new buyers!

If I were in your shoes, I would mind if he orders again. It’s not a question of money but respect. People who don’t pay you, don’t respect you. When I buy on Fiverr, the work has to be truly awful for me to demand a refund.

However, if I had an idea in my head and wasn’t able to communicate it well, I’m not going to punish the seller for that. It’s a sad fad that a lot of buyers don’t communicate well. I hate it when I deliver and they tell me, “I don’t want to see any brand names with the words fix or repair.” Things like that i need to know before hand.

[fastcopywriter]

On the bottom of every order you’ll find this line.

View discussion with buyername in your inbox or click here to mutually cancel the order

If I had the time, I would click on his name and then see if he has ordered before. Then I would see how he treated me in the past. The thing is, I rarely have the time, so I end up doing the background check after the buyer starts causing drama.

Personally, I would like to have a buyer blacklist. Of course, I doubt that will happened. Fiverr is a buyer’s market after all.

[catwriter]

Perhaps Fiverr would allow a buyer blacklist that only the seller who created it sees? For example, you give a problematic buyer a refund, and place that buyer on the blacklist, and if that buyer orders from you again, you immediately see that you have blacklisted him and that you don’t have the slightest wish to ever work with him again?

[jey242]

My gigs are an ongoing service (even though I don’t mention this in their descriptions). If a buyer tries any shenanigans then I just cut off the service I provide for them period. I try to provide the best services to all my buyers and I am not afraid to cut them off to the dishonest ones.

Its about putting your foot down because you are indeed offering something very valuable and you should never allow yourself to be blackmailed into doing it for free. As long as you keep providing good value you should never be afraid of being out of work.

[mgjohn78]

Just do what i do, use a word filter browser extension to put a note after buyers name on fiverr. This isnt just useful for blacklisting, i also use it for repeat buyers who usually need a specific size, format etc. Much faster than checking previous orders.

[jey242]

Sounds good I would suggest even taking it a step futher by blacklisting their payment email addresses (Paypal, etc) to make it harder for them to signup with different accounts.

[misscrystal]

I don’t know what this is but would love to know more about it? What is a word filter browser extension and how to use it?

[mgjohn78]

For chrome they are called extensions, firefox calls them add-ons.
Word filter are normally used by parents for filterering cuss words on their kids computers. The way they work is you add a word to filter and then another word to be shown on the screen instead of the word.

To use a filter add-on on fiverr you would set the “username of the buyer” - filter to “username of the buyer + whatever note you like"
Example
filter
"mgjohn78” - "mgjohn78 bad buyer"
And you would see my name as “mgjohn78 bad buyer” on your screen in the future whenever my name is shown on your screen.

[fastcopywriter]

That’s an interesting idea, too bad I rarely use extensions. Personally, I’d like to see Fiverr do it for us, maybe a block. So the problem buyer makes an order and I have to approve his order, maybe I get a notification like

Warning: dbag63 demanded a refund on 5/5/16

Or

Notice: dbag63 gave you 3 stars on order #FX0452

[mgjohn78]

Sure would be better for most if fiverr implemented something like this, I just prefer coming up with independent solutions that i can customize to suite my workflow.

Atm i have a system where i change the name colors for certain things and for other things i add a character that stands for a specific note. I use the same system on all platforms including my own independent business.

[lina76]

Very common now to the seller… Buyer should care abou it! refounding such a annoying for seller…bcz they had waste of time.

[contentcruise]

Nice comment. I agree, if sellers have a policy of no refund, such buyers won’t dare come back to the same seller. But for me, I just take it that it’s to send trouble maker away and when they come back, I simply ignore them.

[eoinfinnegan]

I understand that it’s difficult to do, you mentioned above that it is generally with low value orders. Would you consider lifting your base price a bit, your work is definitely worth more anyway and the only time I have had issues like that is, as @misscrystal said, with $5 orders. I think you have said before that these make up the bulk of your orders but I would imagine that you are chosen more because of your TRS status, excellent reviews and great work than your price. I have often had buyers order my writing gig, assuming that I will write any amount for $5 and when I inform them of the price for the work the want, they are generally willing to pay it. I think a lot of buyers simply don’t know there are different price points on Fiverr, which is a little bit of a paradox I suppose.

Communicate to your regular buyers that you are increasing your prices for NEW clients and that you will keep the usual prices for them. I have a special price for someone that was one of my first clients. After completing an order I simply send them a new custom offer so they can place the next order whenever they want. It works well and does not take much time.

[eoinfinnegan]

I honestly have no issues with giving refunds if they are deserved but I cannot fathom the idea of refunding ad hoc.
I bought a burger yesterday, it looked and tasted like a burger but I did once get a burger that tasted better, I don’t know why and I am not willing to explain the difference but, having eaten the burger I am now going to go back to the shop and request a “mutual cancellation” and get my refund. I am sure the shop will understand and give me the money back.
If they don’t I will go on to their website and leave a comment explaining what happened - that will teach them a BIG lesson!

[jey242]

Was it a burger from Burger King?