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Am I being scammed again?

baddison

By baddison
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baddison Newbie

baddison

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Hey Fiverr community,

A few months ago I took a break from Fiverr because I got scammed by a buyer i.e. He asked me to leave five blog comments on his website and so I did just that and submitted the work early. Well, he said the grammar was horrific and that it didn’t make any sense and he wanted to cancel. Each blog comment was about 150-words about health supplements. I highly doubt my grammar falls under the category of “horrific” so he got his refund. The whole $5. He wanted a freebie.

Well, I stumbled upon his website a few weeks ago and he still has my “horrific” comments on his website and his precious $5.

I eventually got over it and decided to give Fiverr another chance hoping that he was just one bad apple out of the bunch.

Flash forward to yesterday I did a writing gig for a client and submitted the article early and gave him an additional 100 words as a bonus. I’m actually proud of the article because yesterday I was in a really creative mood.

Last night I get a request from him to do a revision. I thought “no big deal he may need additional headers, etc.” come to find out he left me a message asking (not verbatim)“Has this article been sent through a spinner?” I replied “No! All of my work is 100% original. Is there something wrong with the article since you’ve requested a revision?”

I haven’t heard back thus far and I’m getting worried that I’m being scammed, yet again, because I don’t want to risk a bad review for work I put time and thought into.

I know many of the Top Sellers would say “Don’t let him get away with it and take the bad review”, but you see I’m only a level one seller and I need the positive ratings and I deserve the positive rating.

Any recourse for my dilemma? I have a bunch of repeat clients that I really like and I’m tempted to bail on Fiverr again because of these scammers. It’s only a $12 order but that’s not the point. I work hard on my articles and this isn’t fair.

Please, any advice is needed. The order is sitting in limbo.

Sincerely, Baddison

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baddison Newbie

baddison

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The conversation beforehand was very nice. He seemed like a very nice person and communicated on a friendship level. That’s why I’m feeling a bit perplexed. It’s leaving me with no way to gauge a scammer or a person with an honest interest in my work. 😦

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asiyabasimah Newbie

asiyabasimah

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My only recommendation for this is to add FAQ, there you can lay out your specific rules and guidelines without talking up space in your gig description. Have questions like… What is a revision? Lay out your rules and if people don’t follow them reference your FAQ page, they are more likely to cooperate if they realize they have not followed your guidelines. Add a sentence in your gig description like… Please reference my FAQ sections if you have any doubts before ordering. This is what I do and it really helps. Also, add something like work delivered may NOT be used if I have offered a cancellation. Cover your bum, you know?..

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eoinfinnegan Mentor

eoinfinnegan

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With respect, you need to expect to either be scammed or have scam attempts quite often when offering writing gigs. I find it the worst for buyers like you mentioned. The issue is that they can be quite vague in what they say too so doing revisions can be a never-ending nightmare.
Toughen up! I mean that in the nicest possible/most encouraging way but the fact is some buyers are not nice, don’t care about you, your income or anything else. Some have no qualms about screwing you over. Get over it! It is them who should be ashamed, not you who should be hurt about this kind of behavior. Let it go immediately and move on to the next one.
Be careful with bulk orders but with $5-10 gigs, take a chance, do the work and hopefully get the review (and cash).

What to do:
As a level 1 seller, you may need to just take some of these on the chin til you level up. It’s not fair but you may need to do it to ensure you get level 2. One alternative thing you can definitely do is to contact CS as soon as you smell something’s up. Tell them what the problem is, why its an issue and how you are going to handle it. Include a screenshot of any threat of negative review for not doing additional work. This will help if you do get a negative as you may be able to get it removed. I hope/expect/dream that CS agents check a buyer’s history when they are reported - ie. has this buyer been reported for similar?, is it common for them to cancel after delivery? etc. I have no basis for this but a buyer’s history and the conversation between you and the buyer are the only things CS have to go on so it would be stupid if they didn’t check it.

It will get better:
Remember, your aim here is to get up to level 2 so you can increase prices and be seen as more trustworthy. Taking a hit on a few orders is not the end of the world. I have found little to no attempts like this since my prices went up. I definitely have less orders and many writing inquiries never turn to orders. However, I don’t have to deal with the same type of buyer.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some great people to work with out there who need low cost articles and they can be worthwhile but there are less issues where people are dealing with higher cost/quality requirements as they are generally clearer on what they want from the start.

Keep going - focus on the goal and leave the hiccups behind.

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baddison Newbie

baddison

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Wow! Thank you for the very in-depth response @eoinfinnegan I will take your advice in a productive manner being that you’re level 2 and have “been around the blocks” so to speak. You’re absolutely right, I need to chin up and take a few set backs to get up in the Fiverr tier so that other, more serious buyers, see me as trustworthy.

I actually have a couple repeat clients that I really enjoy working with and they communicate on a very clear and friendly level to the point where I find myself chit-chatting with them in between orders - those are the clients I’m going to stick around for and deal with the scammers as they come around.

Thanks again for the insight - Baddison 🙂

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eoinfinnegan Mentor

eoinfinnegan

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Happy to help as your issue is a common enough one. I also hate to see sellers with great potential get turned off by a couple of slimeball buyers.
Treat your repeat clients exceptionally well! I have repeat clients who have been with me for over a year and who rolled with one or even two price increases because they were happy with the service.
Tip for keeping regulars: Consider making a small list of little things you would do for free for regular buyers. I offer free proofreading to some clients on things like their tweets, FB posts and short emails. It only takes 2 mins each and keeps them really happy. Another thing is shorter delivery time. After a couple of orders from the same client, I ask them to tell me when it is more urgent and I will bump it up the list at no extra cost. I’m sure you could think of other things. It is important to explain that these are free extras that are at your discretion. ie. not related to reviews and may be stopped if they ask for too much.

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mariokluser Enthusiast

mariokluser

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This is ‘funny’ as we just recently had a discussion here about buyers that are too friendly. You can read it here:
favicon.icoFiverr Forum http://forum.fiverr.com//images/default-apple-touch-icon.png

Beware of too friendly buyers

Yes, although we sellers like to get buyers that have friendly attitude as it makes easy conversation but in some case you wouldn't like to deal with some of them. Read my story.. 10 days ago, I got custom order request from a new buyer on...

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homeestates Contributor

homeestates

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I now find that I need to be completely of the mindset to ‘dots the i’s and cross the t’s’ with buyers for my writing gigs. Vague requests don’t give me enough to work on, so they get rejected if they are through my inbox, or interrogated if they just place an order without communicating with me first.

If there is an issue with a writing gig and you are legit, as I’m sure you are, then the issue comes with the buyer. They either don’t know what they want or they are here to get something written for free.

Sometimes you have to take the hit to your feedback in order to get through the cheats.

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logik3n Newbie

logik3n

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Hi baddison, even I have had a similar incident going on right now. what i did was reported this issue to fiverr support team and they have said that they are looking into it.
i have also opened a thread here regarding same. i think fiverr now has a policy where you can withstand your gig if it has been done following all promised guidelines you offered and if buyer drops terrible reviews just because they did not get freebie, their feedback can be removed.

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baddison Newbie

baddison

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Thanks for sharing this tidbit @logik3n! Should I report to the support team before or after the potential negative review to warn them ahead of time? You see, I don’t even know if he’s going to be cruel and leave a bad review I’m assuming it based on the last questionable response I got from him - I haven’t heard from him since.

The order is almost approaching its “completed within 3 days of delivery” since the revision request and he will still have up to thirty days to leave a review.

You guys rock! Such amazing support from the Fiverr community - much love!

  • Baddison 🙂
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