Is there anything I can do about an unfair review?

[georgieeileen]

Hi there!

I have been selling on Fiverr for awhile now, have really enjoyed it. I have a 100% positive rating which I am very proud of, and just made level 2!

I offer a base gig for $5 which is a 350 word travel post. I also offer extras, including photos for $5.

Recently I got an order where the buyer asked for the $5 gig, and then said ‘if you give me free photos I will keep ordering from you’. I politely said that photos are a $5 extra and I think that is reasonable, considering you will get 6 - 8 unique high resolution SLR images for that price, which is amazing value.

I never got any response, so I did the article, actually writing 100 more words than the gig required and delivering 17 hours (almost 30%) early.

Today with no warning I got a 4.5 star rating with the buyer basically saying that although my writing was good and gig exactly as described, my gig is bad value and I need to offer more for the money so she would order again.

I am a bit offended, as I am very clear about what I offer for $5, and put a huge amount of work into my gigs. Even if my gig is bad value (and I honestly don’t think it is), then I was very upfront about what I offer. I feel like she is trying to blackmail me into giving her a better price.

Is there anything I can do about this? I know it is not a terrible review, but I think it makes my page look bad, and is totally unfair.

[nichole92]

I know how it feel. I have had the same experience with certain buyers. There is two things you can do one is communicate with the buyer and ask him to change the review. (i doubt the buyer will seeing his attitudes). Also other option is ask the customer support to remove the feedback explaining the details.
If it is really bad review you can cancel the order but then you will loose your earnings.
Good luck

[georgieeileen]

Thanks for your response Nichole! I will give that a go, although I agree that they are unlikely to respond positively! If not I will move onto Custom Service. 🙂

Thanks for your help, just feeling a bit disappointed as I pride myself on doing the best I can for buyers, but my prices are already as low as I feel comfortable with. I hope your buyer issues resolved themselves!

[writer99025]

No need to get upset over a 4.5 star rating. Move on.

[georgieeileen]

Perhaps you are right. It’s not about the rating so much though, as saying the gig was bad value. It is now there for all to see, and I do believe motivated by getting me to do more gig for her with freebies! Just seems unjust!

[dusuacangmon]

Actually, if you don’t like the review, you can tell CS to remove it from your gig. If they see that it correct, they will remove it right away.

But in usually, I rarely do order 5$ and if a customer asks for more than they paid, I say sorry and cancel that order. If you don’t cancel these customers, i think you will got bad review later like yours situation.

[juandiazpro]

4.5 is not a bad review,I Know is not 5, but will not affect your record either. continues doing good work and avoid working with customers who want to take advantage of your work.

[flatio]

4.5 is not bad. Receive some 5.0 ratings and the overall rating for your gig will be shown 5.0 on your gig page.

[georgieeileen]

Thank you very much for the good advice. I will definitely do that in the future!

[fonthaunt]

Actually, it doesn’t hurt to ask them and if you word it right, you really do have a strong case if it happened as you describe it. One of the things CS tries to uphold is the idea that a gig delivered as-described should be a 5 star review. If the buyer complained that you did not deliver what was written in your gig, CS might not respond positively.

If you take screen shots of the conversation and send it to them with very clear, professional words, though, you might be able to get them to remove it. Although they can see your conversation, they might not have time to look, so the screen shots back up your point.

Cut out the parts that you don’t need and just show them the statements like the buyer asking for free things. Then a little clip of you explaining that you can’t do that. Then show them a screen shot of the review so they can see the buyer reviewed you based on something that was clearly discussed. That is your best shot.

If it doesn’t work, then just be glad it wasn’t worse and move right on without a worry. Defending yourself is still helpful practice and if it removes the review successfully, it gives you leeway for another one since sooner or later, we all get a tough buyer! Good luck.

[divyagoel]

Do not bother with the ratings…just go ahead and do your best…

[marcomaglioli]

Unfortunately this type of customers exist. I think you can try to contact the Support of Fiverr and ask to change the review, because it is not true. Sincerely, I don’t think that in this case you can change the reciew, but you can contact the buyer and ask to change it, showing calmly that it will be not useful for you and it is dangerous.
Howevere, 4.5 stars feedback should be okay and it is not too dangerous for you. Unfortunately there are customers that have too many requests.

I hope you will fix this situation.

Mark.

[georgieeileen]

Thanks everyone for all your helpful advice, and so quickly as well! I have sent a message to the buyer and also to Fiverr customer support. I know that the rating is not too bad, but I think it is the principle that customers should not be able to use the review system to scare sellers into delivering more. I will also change how I handle these kind of requests in the future. Thank you again!