Got to Level 2, All My Gigs Denied

[Guest lorddaniel2006]

Yesterday I was really happy about my Level 2 Seller promotion. Later that day, to my horror, I received an influx of emails from Fiverr telling me that 5 of my gigs have been denied because they have been " flagged by our team following a third party complaint claiming your Gig is infringing upon their intellectual property rights and/or violating their terms of use."

Now one thing I love about my niche is that it’s very straightforward - you have a phone that needs unlocking, I do it, end of story. Now I don’t know if it’s hate on the part of my competitors or something but that was so not cool.

Now I contacted Customer Service and their reply was automated and lacked substance (they just reiterated the same point about violation of copyright yada yada yada), which was so unconvincing and I could tell no real investigation was carried out but oh well, I made another gig and I’m trying to move on. C’est la vie.

PS: At least I still got to keep my badge and my reviews though. That’s something.

[miiila]

I don´t have a real idea of your niche, so my apologies, if I´m way off, but to me it sounds as if it could well be that 3rd parties that are companies selling the phones you help your buyers to unlock, could make such claims? Could be competitors too I guess, either directly, or by hinting the phone companies at it, but that would be a bit stupid, if they sell the same service as you do, with the risk of fiverr denying their gigs as well.

Hope you´ll have fun, good luck and success with your new gig either way!

[Guest lorddaniel2006]

Dear miiila thank you for your input. Yeah indeed I’ll have fun and take the stress away haha

[carrioncutie]

I would argue the legality of your Gig, but I just did some quick research on the matter. I’m getting results that unlocking phones isn’t illegal after a certain amount of time, so I THINK that would rule out the possibility of it being their phone carrier.

Regardless, your Gig is gone. Customer Service won’t restore a Gig that they delete- which in my opinion needs to be fixed. I’m glad that you’re being optimistic! Best of luck to you.

[miiila]

You´re right with that, and I definitely know, from experience, that some companies offer themselves to unlock phones after a certain time, but I think the possibility of them making claims is still there, depending on how the gigs were worded maybe. If you offer something like ‘I will unlock any phone, no matter what’ or something such, it might be enough for fiverr to follow such claims, so maybe a way to get the gigs reinstated would be to make it very clear that the gig is for unlocking phones after said amount of time, but anyway you seem to be right with that gigs won´t get restored, once denied, as far as I remember from reading on the forum up to now.
Would be a possibility maybe though to get a new similar gig allowed, by telling them the text of the gig and kind of getting it pre-approved before trying?
Well, or better putting all energy in the new gig maybe, I don´t know lol glad that my niche doesn´t really have to do with any copyright/IP issues, makes things easier.

[Guest lorddaniel2006]

Lucky you 😃

[fonthaunt]

That’s the thing, there are allowed cases for unlocking phones and some that break the carrier rules. For example, I bought my last phone on a sort of no-interest credit from the carrier of my service. My phone is locked to the carrier. I can switch carriers anytime, no contact, but I can’t use the same phone because it’s not paid for.

If I had someone unlock it (or did it myself, which I can) the carrier could go after me and/or whoever unlocked it. what if I was a buyer who didn’t know, bought a service to unlock the phone, and then got in trouble? If I sent proof to Fiverr, there is a good chance they’d take action against the seller.

Even so, the OP is taking this well! Good for you, @lorddaniel2006. Create some less risky gigs and get back to work. 🙂

[Guest silkroute]

Maybe it is about the images that you use for the gig not being royalty free stock images? I see no other potential IP infringement pitfall. Maybe you could hire a banner designer right here on Fiverr to make banners for your Fiverr gigs. No IP infringement, no cookie cutter images, advertise exactly what you are offering 🙂