Reasonable Expectations

[inventorguru]

The work I received is unusable. The designer put in the time but just didn’t “get it.” I suggested he refund the fee but he says he put in the time. What’s common practice on fiver? In my own biz I refund $$$ anytime someone requests it. Years ago, I was a commercial photographer working on a product shot I never gave up until the client was satisfied - the fee wasn’t the point - it was a matter of professional pride.

Is fiver a home of mediocrity or do people take pride in what they do?

[cyaxrex]

This is a tricky one. If a Fiverr seller puts in the time as you say they have, then I believe the TOS state that you as a buyer can’t reject the work due to your preference regarding the finished result. You can, however, voice the fact that your expectations have not been met in your review of the sellers service.

Unfortunately, Fiverr is not like the real world where you can complain to a business owner or manager if you don’t find the work which you request suitable, each seller is a sole contractor and it’s no secret that a lot of buyers attempt to get free work by saying that they simply don’t like a piece before going on to use it anyway.

As a buyer, your best option in this case, will likely be to see if you can explain your brief better to your seller and see if they will revise the work. Either this or pay, ask for the source files and find someone else who can amend the work in question until it better meets your expectations.

[dhpye1]

I’ve had nothing but success buying on fiverr, but my most recent experience has me looking for other options.

I’d requested a color illustration, and found a seller who looked like they could do the work. They first provided a B&W sketch. It was competent, but completely off the mark. We tried again, and once more I was getting a kid’s cartoon image instead of illustration. The third time, I spent 3 hours and made a comp for them to work with - and they just ran a “find edges” filter on it, and returned it as a “sketch”.

I requested to cancel, and it took a couple of times for the seller to agree, but they finally did. And then I discover that a refund is no such thing - fiverr still insists on keeping my payment and keeping their commission.

I guess I’ll consider myself lucky - I typically pay $100 for an illustration, and I’ve commissioned dozens. But fiverr’s refusal to actually provide a refund when a job doesn’t work out is a big warning sign.

I’ll use my remaining credits for kids birthday invites, and leave my professional work for a more professional service.

[eoinfinnegan]

One seller is rubbish so you leave the whole site?
Would you apply the same logic to Google if you searched “graphic designer” and the first result was a guy who got his 3 year old to do the work? Of course not, you would go back to Google and search again. That is essentially what Fiverr is, a search engine/platform to bring buyers and sellers together, nothing more than that. There is no relationship between sellers and Fiverr or different sellers. In the search results you can find incompetents beside skilled artists, you just need to do due diligence and check them out.

[eoinfinnegan]

I am curious about your “refund anytime someone asks” policy.
Would you keep that policy if you knew there were many people who systematically got you to do work and then demand a refund? If there were posts on some of the top digital service websites suggesting that people should use and abuse your service? If there were posts with detailed instructions for “how to get inventorguru to do work without paying”?
I somehow doubt it.
That is the case with Fiverr. There are many, many sellers on this site who have great pride in their work and suggesting Fiverr is a home of mediocrity because of your experience with one seller is simply ridiculous. It’s the equivalent of saying that your business, and all businesses in your city should not be used because there is one bad one. Fiverr sellers have hundreds of thousands of 5 star reviews across the platform from happy customers.
Yes there is some rubbish too but I promise I won’t judge your business on the bad one in your city if you do the same for me.

[idostuff4u]

Exactly 😃

[robintan]

sorry but i dont agree with you, you have the point where the client it self need to search and try , but can you imagine how much time you waste just to find 1 seller that actually care about their client.

secondly how much money you gonna waste just for getting disappointed , not every country have the same currency exchange , in some asia country the salary for full time worker are less than $200 , to waste a hundred of $ for finding a good seller for the next project kind of out of their scope.

i dont say op was true, i do believe we cant judge the whole tree just because of some of bad apple, but again the 2 points above usually made people had enough with fiverr ,and gettting worst by their fund are not transferable to their bank/credit card which must forcing them to use the service in fiverr again, well i believe this policy also used to protect seller from fraud buyer, but again this also some policy that i think more into not letting buyer to spend their money to another place, in fact if they want to refund the money into buyer’s bank account, they can just put more staff to analize the cancellation case that is somehow the proper way, and it was used by every platform in fact, perhaps the reason fiverr doesnt feels like going to exhaust their manpower for this case due to the price of the gigs usually just $5, then they should change their trademark into something else like $50 whatever their desire later than let their buyer frustated with their fund stuck on fiverr, again i never see any marketplace that not able to refund their credit.

about your comment bellow, yes indeed there are so many five star and level 2 seller but you should know many of them playing a bad scheme as well on new buyer, which usually on delivering project like sending the file in source file, asking for review due to overload and getting late , etc
i believe fiverr still have quite loop hole that being exploit by their seller/buyer and they should change their system for example with case where seller used to send fake draft in source file to extend their deadline or to fooling a new buyer to buy the source file, fiverr just need to change their upload setting to let seller only able to send a file that buyer bought, but again fiverr choose over income rather then their good systems.

btw, im not defending some side, this is just my point of view as buyer in here, i can imagine from buyer side too.
since their systems have being exploit by both seller and buyer, both good seller and buyer will found alot of bad buyer/seller, and this is somehow made a seller losing trust for a new a client which will totally lower their service result, and so buyer will getting traumatic to testing another gig
Im selling a service too on another platform, also buying from here and there, due to my experience as seller, i can tell or at least feel the thing that doesnt right with the seller, that will surprice you how many seller that i end never buy their gig after i send them a few msg, im not talking about asking them to do something before buying etc, just a pure chat and see how they reply.
and yes they are alot of seller also who are profesional enough who choose result and reorder rather than quick finish and getting their fast money.

i never try to use top seller service too, some of them quite arrogant i think, the way they post in forum or replaying msg doesnt fit for seller to buyer, somehow kinda a senior staff and junior staff LOL.

wow i just realized i post so damn long, but long story short,
there is nothing wrong with buyer and seller, there are always good and bad in everywhere, the only mistake was their system that put profit over everything, fiverr already labeled as rubish service in some place or some people, while the fact seller in fiverr now also provide a profesional services that above $50, but how people gonna trust it if when they try to spend on $5 gigs they only getting a disappointed