Hit-or-Miss Ratio on Fiverr

[dej1994]

I recently started using Fiverr after being introduced to it by my Mentor. Now I know everyone is not completely terrible at what they do on this site, but I was surprised how many projects I had to get refunded because the quality of work I was expecting was completely different then what I was given.

For example I purchased a gig to get a logo designed. Beside the guy sending me the logo AFTER it was past due, he sent me the exact logo I sent him as a sample. This service provider actually crop the picture to look smaller, and added the two words I required beside my logo, with software that looks like it could have been done from Microsoft Paint.
Paid: $15.00

Second example, I purchased a gig to get someone to record a voicemail message for my clients companies phone. The seller had her own idea on how to make the voicemail sounds and deviated far from the tonality and script that I asked her to stick with. Furthermore she felt unimportant because I asked her for a revision and never thanked her for (in her opinion) the seller work she did.
Paid: $25.00

Maybe I just have bad luck, but for the 5 services that I have purchased and only 1 being according to my request, I am surprised so many people still use this site. What are your suggestions? I don’t want to pass over $30.00 for my next project (photo edits) but I am afraid if I don’t I will run into the same issue. Is there a way you can tell who has the highest success in providing a service?

[eoinfinnegan]

Wow, 1 out of 5 is bad, it can’t just be bad luck.
I have ordered 127 times in the past year and of those, I had 8 which were mutually cancelled and refunded. The rest were done correctly.
You can read the post I wrote on buying here:
Fiverr Forum http://forum.fiverr.com//images/default-apple-touch-icon.png

Tips for Buyers from a Buyer and Seller (I am both) [ARCHIVED]

I am a buyer who has successfully bought more than 25 times here, including things such as a website, logo design, graphic design, writing etc. I am also a Level 2 Seller here, meaning I have completed over 50 orders and maintained a high rating. ...

Reading time: 13 mins ? Likes: 73 ❤

There are also many other posts in the tips for buyers section.

PS: Logo design on Fiverrr is one of the most oversupplied services, meaning there are way too many people doing it. It is listed everywhere as an easy way to make money which means there are lots of people doing it who shouldnt be. Go for high rated sellers who have portfolios that look like the kind of logo you are looking for. Reverse image search a few of their designs in Google to ensure they have not stolen them from others.
PPS: If a voiceover artist deviated from the script then surely you ask them to do it again and if they won’t then you cancel.

[grydlynnes]

Fiverr is a marketplace and just like any marketplace, if you don’t like the seller’s offering, you can always request for revisions or, like OP claimed to have done, you cancel the transaction out-rightly. And then you advised OP to seek out a high-rated seller. Well, it may look logical to think that a high rated seller “would always deliver” but that is not always the case. As you noted rightly, some portfolio items of some high rated sellers could have been someone else’s work, just like some countless reviews they carry around are purchased and really not earned.
The point I’m making is that once you don’t get it right with any seller, demand for revision or call it all off and move to some other seller; there are so very many sellers abound here. Any category of sellers has potential to deliver (or fail), rated or non-rated. Therefore, any buyer coming on here should be confident, upbeat and optimistic. On Fiverr, there is nothing to loose and there’s really nothing to worry about.

[uxreview]

I went through like 10 copywriters before I found a good one. My only recommendation is to invest more time in background research. Image reverse search and Copyscape are now my must have tools.
Secondly, I quite often message the seller first with my requirements and ask if this is something that they can do. On one side you’ll give them a chance to decline without going through painful cancellation process and on the other side you’ll see how they communicate with you.

There are no guarantees, but you can improve your success rate if you do your homework 🙂

[emmaki]

Imagine my misfortune as a copywriter, having to go through REAMS of poor buyers with unrevealed budgets made up for with mindless waffle!

Personally speaking, I prefer to eat waffles.

[eoinfinnegan]

Using a highly rated seller does increase your chances of a good experience. I know everyone else hates this being said but it is fact. Of course there are exceptions and you still need to be diligent about your order and checking what you receive but the fact remains that there are a lot more complaints on the Forum about lower level sellers than TRSs. I did have a TRS deliver absolute trash once though, so as I said - be diligent.

[fonthaunt]

“On Fiverr, there is nothing to loose and there’s really nothing to worry about.”

This is definitely inaccurate. While buyers do tend to have an advantage, there is no guarantee for them. If a seller has a poor gig description and says “I will give you a blue widget for $10” and the buyer gets a teal widget, the seller can claim that teal is a shade of blue. The buyer might think teal is a shade of green. If Customer Support as to make the decision on an iffy one, it’s highly possibly the buyer will not get a refund.

I don’t think this means buyers have to always go with highly rated sellers, but I do think it means that buyers should always read carefully and risk no more than $5 on a brand new seller. If the seller does a great job on a $5 sample order, the upsell can come into play. If not, the buyer has less to lose in the case of a dispute.

[fonthaunt]

I think you are spending too much on your first tries. There are so many sellers here now, it is not always easy to tell the quality you’ll be getting. Sellers without a lot of sales can copy a gig description and some samples to appear better than they are. Even sellers with a good history can sometimes get burned out and start delivering lesser quality. If I want to buy something from someone I haven’t worked with, I’m willing to spend $5 just to have them delivery me something I describe to them and see what I get back.

I try to order something I can upgrade if they do well, but sometimes I have to buy a plain sample just to be sure. I rarely have to cancel orders now since I’m willing to let a seller have $5 for trying really hard. I may not give them a review if the quality was mediocre, but they get paid. Slowly I’m building a list of people I can go back to and I know I can spend quite a bit more with them and get good or even great quality.

[grydlynnes]

Remember fonthaunt, that much of the time, buyers’ requests (for those category of transactions) do come with attachments that more clearly describes or defines (including color, for example) what the buyer wants. In such instances, Seller has little or no excuse not to deliver to buyer’s specs.
But what I meant by those closing lines is that in such situation as above (which is though at variance with your scenario), the buyer has every ground to request the seller to carry out revisions in line with given specs or risk cancellation and thus refund the buyer. At day’s end, perhaps the loss to buyer in this scenario would be that of time wasted.

[miiila]

That sounds like a good and pretty fair strategy to me.

[miiila]

Very reasonable.

[miiila]

<< Is there a way you can tell who has the highest success in providing a service?>>

Yes, there are people offering soothsayer gigs.

Jokes apart, I think apart from looking at your potential sellers’ profiles, gig descriptions etc. (and we know those can be stolen/fake), investing a bit of time to talk to them, or maybe even look in the forum to see what and how they write, might help. But of course time is a precious good. 1/5 sounds bad, but then, if you see that uxreview had a 1/10 ratio, not even that bad. And don´t forget that one of the reasons many buyers come here is that if you find someone who delivers good quality, chances are very high that you won´t get that quality for such a low price elsewhere.