Dear Fiverr, let's talk about trust

[emmaki]

I could never get into Russian literature, so I’m outta this one.

Saki, on the other hand…

[emmaki]

Where are you going? I doubt it’s near me, but hey, I might have some tips for wherever you’re going!

[fonthaunt]

Short version in direct reply to the post, although please note this is my opinion as a seller and a forum reader. I am not staff and my admin tag just means I help with the forum.

To @maecreativity

Mae: What should we expect?

FontHaunt: You should expect to get as much out of Fiverr as you put into it, if you have the skills you claim and a strong desire to be self-employed.

Mae: What are our rights?

FontHaunt: You have the right to sign up on Fiverr for free and try to make money. If you don’t make any money, you will have to figure out a way to improve or go elsewhere.

Mae: For example, in the case of your company choosing to delete an account, do you promise to provide a complete explanation to the seller?

FontHaunt: As far as I have seen, Fiverr gives a brief canned explanation when they choose to suspend an account. They do not provide anything more than that in most cases and they do not reconsider in almost any cases. (If it’s a level lost, they will reconsider, but usually not on suspensions.)

Mae: Does this include a follow up answer?

FontHaunt: I have occasionally seen posts where people got brief follow ups to explain slightly more, to re-word, or to tell the seller how to receive their funds at a later date. Otherwise, I don’t think follow up is typical.

One other thing I’d to clarify on all this - I would love to see Fiverr make the responses a little more clear when they suspend accounts. I would like it if they sent warnings prior to suspension if it’s a minor issue that could be corrected. I’m actually not sure that there are any, though. I think that minor issues usually cause level loss which is reversible, not account removal.

[cyaxrex]

Years ago in new Zealand I snorted a shot of tequila and it immediately came out of my ears in an explosive spray. Needless to say, I haven’t replicated this one since, however, if something can be ejected from the ears, it’s only natural to assume that matter can be funnelled into them also.

In this case, there might yet be hope for my potato and carrot victims, unless I also amend my serial killer recipe to add a stick of celery to each ear at the same time.

[Anna]

Sponsored exclusively by Fiverr? ???

[mae_creativity]

Thanks for your reply. I wrote this as a reply to a thread you also commented on ("OK this is R3K0D3D, long story short, both customer service and Fiverr screwed me out of my account! ")
He says his account was deleted, was told the reason was due to having multiple accounts. He says he does not have multiple accounts, and they won’t answer his tickets.
No matter how we describe this situation of the fiv platform, buyers, sellers, etc., I can not see how their behavior could be justified in d3k’s situation.
And I’m not saying what I think fiv’s policy should be. I’m just saying that they have an obligation as a business, in my opinion, to not keep their policy a secret from us.

---

---

For the life of me, I can’t understand -
How is it that an enormous hi-tech company has the same standards, in terms of policy, as that of a seller in the (literal) open-air market who yells “2 Dollars per Kilo,” then charges whatever he feels like behind the counter where the scale is.

That’s all I’m talking about - simple! The difference between a supermarket and a stall in the market. The supermarket tells you what you can expect - there are prices on each item, and the return policy is written, printed up and pinned to the wall.

---

---

[mae_creativity]

Don’t know yet. All I know is that it has to be the least touristy place in the country, otherwise I don’t want to go.

[cyaxrex]

Well, ok, that all makes sense. However, I think the issue here is more to do with the idea that in the imaginary shop mall, you can go on holiday for a couple of weeks and return to find your rented store gone without any explanation or opportunity to so much as protest the mall’s decision.

I signed up to Fiverr in the UK in December 2014 as a buyer. It was Christmas and I was home from Malta visiting family. Luckily, I’ve always put myself on vacation when I’ve visited the UK since, however, it would be nice to have some kind of official guideline in regard to when accessing your Fiverr account from a different location or device might result in a ban. Otherwise, you just end up with a lot of fear and what feels like a sword of Damocles hanging over your neck.

No one assumes that Fiverr should play by the same rules as an employer. What people do assume is that they should be able to build themselves up and be able to go about their (non-rule breaking) business without suddenly having to worry about their business being taken away from them for no reason, especially since good sellers are the ones which make people stick with and use Fiverr.

Also, it is a little odd how R3K0D3D’s ‘I’ve been banned’ post registers a lot of replies which aren’t visible to forum users. That in itself makes Fiverr or the forum look like it’s trying to neutralize bad internal publicity.

[emmaki]

Celery is very porous, though. You want a more dense vegetable. Maybe chuck some okra into that shopping cart? I don’t actually know anything about the porous density of veg, but given the varying size of ears, you’d want a flexible bendy veg that could block all exits.

You could have used your tequila ear trick for fame and fortune, yet he were are, discussing veg and orifices. Why, I’m surprised the conversation hasn’t stooped any lower yet.

[Anna]

Some forum posts are missing and the issue has been reported. Staff is aware of it 😉

[emmaki]

Your last point is interesting, I’ve noticed some critical posts–including my own–go missing lately.

Should we send a basket of veg to Fiverr HQ?

[cyaxrex]

I purposefully stopped myself from taking it lower. Besides, I’ve never understood the people who ‘go downstairs with vegetables,’ nothing wrong with that if you are into it but well… No,

[emmaki]

I see you haven’t been introduced to the marrow.

[chicagowriter]

the whole site in a mess, heaven knows what happened!! Overtime I want to access the forum I have to clear cookies and restart my pc…one the good side I’m glad that hideous red vote down button is gone, I sure do hope that the person who designed it went away wit it too!

[fonthaunt]

Andy, I do see your point. Just being very honest, though, I have not once seen proof that Fiverr suspended an account because someone used one account on 2 or even 10 IP’s in multiple countries. I know a lot of people who do it. i read the post by R3K and i felt for him, but truly we have no way of knowing what really happened. I don’t think his hotel issue was behind it and while that IS a guess on my part, it’s based on seeing a lot of these cases.

They do make mistakes. They did it with you and you temporarily lost a level for it. That does take a bit of fighting back and doing it with careful explanation and professionalism. So far, though, those mistakes I’ve seen have causes levels lost, not account shutdowns.

I am scared too. There is inherent risk here and it includes suspension. I just don’t think the chance of suspension without warning for literally no reason is as likely as it sounds. That’s what I based my response on, except that a little of it is also to say that we can’t count on Fiverr or any other site. Impermanence.

I’m not saying that you think that Fiverr is an employer, either. I don’t think everyone does. That was really to Mae because parts of her post did make sense to me, but parts of it seemed like things you would expect from a company where you had a contract or a salaried job. That wasn’t a blanket statement to everyone in the thread.

As far as missing posts, they aren’t just missing on that thread. There are a bunch of missing comments and even some top posts right now. This last adjustment they made apparently messed up a lot of them. Even a large number of podcasts are missing. I don’t think that was deliberate. I think it’s an annoying mess that has been going on for some time with the forum.

[fonthaunt]

I’d say a basket of anti-psychotics. 😉

(KIDDING!!!)

[cyaxrex]

Shhh… Got to wait until they are sleeping. And also, we should probably stop talking about critical things, not to mention planned Fiverr assassinations with vegetables. We have after all, just severely incriminated ourselves.

[miiila]

<<Simply learn to love the mental tightrope you walk every day.>>

Thanks, like that image, will use it, mentally, that is. Though I walked by two guys practising on a tightrope they had put between two trees in the park some time ago and was very tempted to ask if I may try. It´s a pretty cool image, especially if you blow it up to one of those of tightroping between skyscrapers or mountain peaks.

[miiila]

<<Greece being gossip central,>>

Ahaha, I haven´t been in Greece often, but that sounds pretty credible. Looking forward to hearing (more) from itinerant Russian alcoholics and others!

[miiila]

I’m pretty sure that some posts went missing (too), which can´t possibly have stepped on anyone’s toes, so I´d not want to jump to conclusions, at least not before the forum works again completely normal (then of course I´m only here since October, so no idea if it ever worked or ever will work completely normal ;)).

Now who has a good theory on why the thumb up respectively the big red ugly downvote button and his humble upvote cousin keep playing hide-and-seek with us?

[fonthaunt]

I was a vegetarian before this thread. I really don’t like meat or fish. Now I’m afraid of veg. You guys are out to get me!!!

[fonthaunt]

“I’d not want to jump to conclusions, at least not before the forum works again completely normal”…

I think you will never be jumping. Normal?? The forum? You radical.

“who has a good theory on why the thumb up respectively the big red ugly downvote button and his humble upvote cousin keep playing hide-and-seek”

Theory: Somebody broke it.

[mae_creativity]

Thanks @cyaxrex - the imaginary shop in a mall metaphor is exactly what I meant.
I think Fonthaunt missed my point - but you reiterated it perfectly.
Cheers 🙂

[mae_creativity]

I live 40 minutes from the HQ - if we can figure out what they want, I’ll take it to them myself. Vegetables… eh. What about pastries and balloons??

[fonthaunt]

I think I got some of your points but it doesn’t matter. I just see some sellers who put too much faith in freelancing in general by hoping for a solid workplace on any freelance site.

The shopping mall is a bit of an allegorical stretch. Still, it’s closer, since the contract can change and security lost. Andy is totally right that it would be odd to return from vacation and find your shop gone with no explanation from the mall. Still, **** happens.

During the recession in the U.S. I had friends who found their businesses locked for no fault of their own. The shopkeeper leases were paid but the landlord didn’t pay their bills and losses happened that shouldn’t have. That’s really my counterpoint. I’m not arguing that seller expectations shouldn’t be considered. I just think realistically that some expectations might work and others might be dreams.