Calling Your Buyer... What to do?

[mrbargain]

Hi all, thanks for looking.



It happened again today, I get a phone number and plea for help from a buyer. That happens to me a lot because I fix computers and websites and am very used to it. What I am not used to is getting a phone number (breaks the terms of service fiverr uses) and then I have to be the bad guy and tell the client each time that I cannot help them for risk of losing my account.



Then I try to grumble and ask them if they can take all day to type down their message that I probably won’t be able to figure out and ask for clarification anyway. You see, folks don’t type and if they do, it takes forever and so they just summarize - that’s why they would prefer talking to me, makes sense.



Fiverr 2 is a big let down as far as only being able to communicate with our buyers via message threading which confuses many of my buyers in the first place. Lots of other freelancing marketplaces such as fiverr have extra project tools built-in such as whiteboards, video, chat and what not and here we are on Fiverr 2 where they brag about gigs being able to charge up to $500, but I am not allowed to even talk to my customer at all or else.



Someone out there has a solution for me, right…?



Stefan

@mrbargain

[salventura]

I fully understand where you are coming from Stefan. I mainly do voice over work and sometimes it is imperative to speak to the client so they can specify details that are hard to explain through a text chat.



Outside of Fiverr this has been no problem the clients can simply dial my studio number and we can make sure everything is how it is suppose to be.



I have also had to be the “bad guy” and tell buyers I can not contact you outside of this chat thread, etc.



I do not fully understand Fiverr’s reasoning behind this. It should be up to the buyer and seller as to whether or not they need to or want to communicate via another method.



My only guess is that Fiverr is worried that sellers may tell buyers to come straight to them in the future. That is the only reason I can think of.



I’m all for an invoice chat room, video chat, white board, etc.

[mrbargain]

@salventura - great insight! Your guess is correct as all the platforms of this type have not been able to find a real way to monetize their business model so they stick with nasty “don’t give your contact info” or “payment info” you will be banned. Problem is, they can’t dip into your profits if your client pays you directly. Makes sense for fiverr, but makes no sense in the real world of business… its doomed to fail as soon as a smart 10 year old launches a new way to make money without all this b.s.



I work on dating sites and I had to do some work using that adult finder network I am sure you’ve seen all over the place. Same exact thing there, you meet someone nice but cannot contact them outside the finder network or your account gets terminated. They however have video, chat and chat rooms available so you are not left wondering why you paid for an account if you cannot even make real contact with people. Case in point, the account was banned because they had posted a short “we are in town and want to party in a bar” post in the forum. Try posting a link to a website that has party info and you are asking for trouble. Their account was banned and when they inquired why, they were told: You posted an event which is against the terms. So you are there to meet folks but you can’t promote a meeting or you get banned. Makes no sense, but sure keeps the profit rolling in and that’s the point…profit, not logic.



My .02 watts…



Stefan

[fractalmoon]

Come on Fiverr , built in live stream chat…surely it can be done no?

[mrbargain]

I never see any replies from the sheriff’s? Are these forums being monitored or just here to add more useless fodder to the cloud?

[musiclover]

Reply to @mrbargain: Honestly, I haven’t seen much activity from moderators lately. They should probably recruit some new ones.



Sheriff’s Note: We work like gnomes… You’d be surprised 😉

[craigscott]

I don’t see the failure to understand Fiverr’s rules on communication strictly using the site. Obviously it has the potential to compromise the commissions collected by the sale and their loss in revenue. I sincerely believe if you’re going to be a part of something you must adhere to the rules and regulations stipulated and bear consideration that if the Fiverr shoe was on your foot you would know just how tightly it fits.

Whilst not everyone will compromise a sale via outside communication but there are a few that would so a decision was taken to disallow that medium across the board.

[mrbargain]

If you don’t know the rules to begin with, it’s easy to break them. Most of my buyers cannot figure out how to purchase multiple gigs, never mind reading a set of rules. Yet again today I’ve had 2 people provide a cryptic email address and a 3rd offer their s***e name.



Not sure what your comment even refers to as it seems to have no real point?