Official Confirmation Needed from Fiverr

[cyaxrex]

Ok, I know everyone is going to say contact customer support etc. However, since we seem to have all these Fiverr Ambassadors and community people running around, I want something more than that. I want an official policy and ‘what to do if things go wrong anyway’ outline pinned somewhere on the forum.

Bold? Crazy? I don’t care. When last year came around, I decided that I was going to invest more time in Fiverr and that (from a financial standpoint) was a good move. Now, however, my gut is saying, “take a step back, because there is something a bit rotten here and you are going to regret it if you don’t.”

So, (and sorry to sound like a broken record) let’s talk about accounts being banned.

At present, I have 2 people in my life who it’s now not really possible to say “don’t join because it might upset my business.” Both are very talented in different areas and both are looking to get into trying to transfer their talents online. The only problem is that there I am sitting thinking “why couldn’t I just keep my effing big gmouth shut?”

On the other side of things, though, I want a holiday. I’m overdue for one and as well as not wanting to have to uninstall apps and block Fiverr in device web browsers, I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to keep on working wherever I jet off to. That’s the point of being free lance.

So. Ambassadors and whatever other kind of “we’re great and helping make Fiverr amazing,” people are faffing around, come on. I want an actual, straight from the horses mount answer. How does changing IP’s or logging in from the same IP as another seller affect accounts in travel contexts and contexts where groups of people who sell on Fiverr happen to be located in the same geographic area?

Also, if I were to say, jet off to Morrocco, could I contact CS beforehand to inform them that I will be traveling and logging in from different IP’s over a predefined length of time?

Answers please. And please no one go down “there are two sides to every story” route. Of course, there are But anyone who has been on this forum log enough has seen this happen and it is an increasingly talked about issue off Fiverr.

Would an official guideline be so hard? Or will this post simply echo off into another telling silence. In fact, I’ll tell you what, get an official guideline out and I’ll offer Bruce et al a free gig for their New York knees up.

[hotwebideas]

Cy,
I read your post here and I don’t need the free gig, but thank you. Also, just to clear the air with you and get the record straight, I am not a Fiverr ambassador, employee, or in any way related to Fiverr outside of being a member, both buyer and seller, so I am no more connected to Fiverr than you are. I was invited to be on the NYC Community team, but there are 7 of us and we are all volunteers, but regular Fiverr members. I saw your post in the other thread saying that I do not understand, but I do. The reason that I did not answer you is because I was sick last week. And YES, you SHOULD contact Customer Support for any issues and concerns. I know you don’t want to hear that, but like you said, everyone suggests the same thing. Ok, can we both get along now???

To answer your question, personally, I have a Fiverr account, my wife had her own, my daughter had another, but all different people with different email addresses and no issues, but we do come from the same IP address. My wife and I had the same email address at one point and we were both kicked off of Fiverr, but that was 18 months ago and Fiverr reinstated me, because my wife changed her email address for her own Fiverr account, but it was never because of IP address. We only had the same email address because we had the same Paypal account and we did not know that it was against TOS. My wife decided to get off Fiverr since she was not selling and problem was solved, but it was never because of our IP address. IP addresses will be the same in places. You cannot avoid that and I think Fiverr knows it.

I don’t think the IP address is an issue as long as you do not have the same EMAIL ADDRESS for your account and Paypal account. Make sure that where you travel to, nobody else has the same email address as you, because that is against TOS. Obviously, nobody else does.

What if I rented an apartment in a big building and I told my tenants how great Fiverr is and that they too should join Fiverr? What if the same IP going out of the apartment complex was used? Would all the tenants get kicked off? I think not.

When you are in doubt, you need to re-read the Fiverr TOS, because all your answers are right there.

Are we good now, Cy?
Bruce

[Anna]

@ Bruce

“I don’t think the IP address is an issue as long as you do not have the same EMAIL ADDRESS for your account and Paypal account. Make sure that where you travel to, nobody else has the same email address as you, because that is against TOS. Obviously, nobody else does.”

Sorry but that doesn’t make any sense.

The main problem would be multiple email addresses from 1 IP address.

@cyaxrex was referring to a recent incident with a regular forum user in which he had lost his account while traveling.
I know this is not what you wanted to hear but
I think you should take this straight to CS and get clarification. Tell them you are planning to travel…

For me personally, if I would move back overseas I would def. reach out to CS prior to me moving to make sure they were in the loop. These days you cannot be sure about anything!

[fonthaunt]

@ Cy and everyone - I think Bruce is misunderstanding some of this although it’s probably because you have to read a lot of threads to see the pattern. The ToS does not really answer Cy’s actual question in every way. The reason it doesn’t is that ToS does give us some specifics that will guarantee a problem, like two household members sharing an IP without permission, but ToS does not cover a lot of fine points.

Lately there has been an increase in the number of banned accounts, and the user typically does get a reason message. The message is a canned response in most cases, though, and even for forum admins/mods, we have had to learn to read between the lines to explain the canned replies to people. Sometimes we cannot explain it because it’s not enough info. It creates a culture of fear.

I am in contact with staff occasionally for forum reasons, but they are not editors or Trust and Safety department members. I am actually nervous every time I exchange inbox messages with regular buyers. I have a gig that I have permission for, but it requires that the buyer send me information that looks like ToS problems and really isn’t. (They have to send me things like email addresses, names, phone numbers.) I cleared it with CS long ago, but recently my messages are increasingly delayed because Trust and Safety halts the message process to review my inbox content and the message to or from a buyer is delayed for hours. Of course, the way to avoid this is the use of attachments, which I do even though it annoys buyers. I beg the buyers to use attachments in return, but they rarely do because they are in a hurry. So, I lose business and fear my account being in trouble, even though I am known on the forum and try hard to keep CS informed.

I have to go with Cy and say that it’s very hard to operate without much more clear instructions and personalized messages to tell someone why they are in trouble if they are. @bruce, I see how you were banned by accident, and that happens to other people too. They lose levels or get banned. If their English skills are top notch and they are very cautious and patient, they don’t panic and send a lot of messages to CS in a row, they can often get it resolved. However, many sellers do panic and I used to be hard on people for it because at that time, Fiverr bans were uncommon unless you were definitely breaking the rules. Negative reviews used to be considered frequently by CS and if they were unfair, they could be taken down. I’ve become more sympathetic with the increase in punishments from bans to level restrictions to bad (scam) reviews staying up. If the user has poor English skills, it’s even worse.

I’m not bashing Fiverr with any of this, I don’t consider this at all a bash. Fiverr is one of my best sources of income and I have had some wonderful experiences with CS and others. Some of the Ambassadors are friends of mine. My own response here is not a bash, but a plea. It’s becoming stressful to use Fiverr, and the forum now lacks a lot of functionality to get advice from others. I am lucky that due to being a mod I’ve met some other sellers and have some people to talk with besides this forum, and I’m open to talking with others about their experiences on this so people can contact me if they wish - but use attachments to chat and don’t violate ToS!

Thanks for posting, Cy. Bruce, you are in a tough spot as a volunteer and I get it. I think most of us assumed you were in an official staff position because of the wording and it was confusing. Sorry this is long, you guys know I’m wordy. Everyone hang in there!

[miiila]

I also think, or actually know, from reading the forum, that, while, admittedly, some people’s questions only happen, because they quite obviously did not bother to read the TOS in the first place, still they don´t answer all legit questions people do have, and maybe, even if the TOS themselves would become too unwieldy if it included all that, some amendments in form of links from the TOS to more in-depth explanations, maybe with concrete ‘usage/case examples’ would certainly help to alleviate doubts and fears, and make people more confident in that fiverr is a good and safe place to invest time, effort and all into, as long as you don´t really break real rules, rules which you are well enough informed about to be able to not break them.
I like vagueness, it can be great in all kinds of places, like belles letres, but TOS and rules and such isn´t the place to be vague.

[zubairfb]

Well after reading all this, I really fear of losing my account too… I will be travelling to China in early next year… Should I inform CS before I go and does it really work?.. my Other question is if a seller gets kicked off by fiverr his earnings (not withdrawn) also lost? In that case I will keep my account empty before I move…

[fonthaunt]

If you do get banned, they typically give you methods to get your earnings but it’s very slow and not guaranteed. You usually want to wait to withdraw earnings until you have enough to hit the cap on fees with your payment company. I think for any withdrawal method you shouldn’t withdraw less than $50. Other than that, it has long been considered a best practice to withdraw last soon as you have $50-100 or so. It helps minimize losses if something does go wrong. I do that regardless of travel plans.

[miiila]

Hm, I was intending to let accumulate enough so I have the paypal fee just once and also don´t have a long list of transfers in my bank account to keep ‘paperwork’ time low but rather 1 or max 2 bigger transfers every month. Many people really withdraw every 50-100 or so?

[hotwebideas]

@fonnaunt, I disagree with a lot of what you said and do not think I am misunderstanding about Cy’s IP situation.

Regarding TOS, I have re-read it once per month, because they change often and Fiverr does not tell us when they change the TOS. That causes a lot of misunderstanding between the members and Fiverr, because Fiverr just does not communicate changes like that. I learned long ago that it is our responsibility as members to know the TOS whether or not Fiverr communicates them although I do think Fiverr could be better about communicating them to us.

You also said “Of course, the way to avoid this is the use of attachments, which I do even though it annoys buyers. I beg the buyers to use attachments in return”

Be careful, @fonthaunt. That is not good advice, because a lot of people on Fiverr send attachments with viruses and malware and my virus programs have caught a lot of viruses from attachments from Fiverr. I believe that Fiverr has virus scanning, but the viruses still get through. I make my buyers upload it to Google Docs which scans attachments thoroughly, especially when I exchange MP3s with other musicians.

You also said “If their English skills are top notch and they are very cautious and patient, they don’t panic and send a lot of messages to CS in a row, they can often get it resolved.”

I do not agree with that either. Customer Support has improved over the last couple of years and much better than when Fiverr first started. It seems that if I am in a panic and need an issue resolved, the MORE I email them, the better response I get.

[miiila]

“I make my buyers upload it to Google Docs”

Is that 100% sure it´s okay to use Google Docs to exchange files with buyers?

[hotwebideas]

@annai80, what I said makes perfect sense, because it happened to me. You dont understand since you never experienced what I did.

My point is that the Fiverr ToS states that no two accounts can share the same email address. I have never had an IP issue, so what about this does not make sense to you?

[hotwebideas]

@miiila, Yes, I get attachments from buyers using Google Docs and Dropbox, both of which have good virus scanning.

[Anna]

This doesn’t make sense to me: “As long as you don’t have the same email address for your account and Paypal account”

Because a lot of users will have the same email address for Fiverr and their Paypal account.

Now if you have your email address associated with a Paypal account and then your wife has the same or another email address attached to the same Paypal account that is an issue.

The way you worded it just didn’t make sense and a lot of people might get very confused by this.

[myskillsforsale]

I withdraw after 200 or whenever a large order clears, whichever comes first. I’d rather pay $1 in Paypal fees for 10 withdraws of $200+ than save $9 by withdrawing $2k at a time… only to not have access to my account. I’ve made larger withdraws, but that was during a really strong month where multiple big orders were clearing within days of each other, so waiting seemed more reasonable than withdrawing daily.

Everyone has their loss minimum. For some people where the USD is strong or money is really tight, $50 is reasonable. My Fiverr money is extra on the side – I’d be frustrated if I lost it, but it doesn’t prevent me from making rent. Others NEED that money to make rent and so paying transaction fees more regularly may be important.

Also, consider the volume or work. We know that this kind of work ebbs and flows. Maybe someone withdraws once a month, and that happens to be every $50 or $100.

[miiila]

Thanks for the reply! I didn´t mean the virus part, but if it´s okay for fiverr, if files are exchanged via drive, I read often ‘dropbox and fiverr’ are okay, but I also heard ‘only dropbox’ and I didn´t see anything on that officially.

[miiila]

Yes, I see that, I wouldn´t like to bother with it several times a month or pay the fees several times a month if I don´t have to, but obviously I´d not like to lose too much either, if something happens, I guess I´ll go for a compromise.

[hotwebideas]

Ok let me clear up your confusion. I did not say that your email address and paypal address cannot be the same. You are misunderstanding. I said that no 2 people can have the same email address.

[hotwebideas]

I have been doing that for years, especially when Fiverr has a file size limit on uploads. If a buyer’s attachment is too big, then we have no choice but to use a file sharing tool.

[writer99025]

I withdraw every day, no matter how much I make 🙂

[cyaxrex]

@bruce why on Earth would 2 people share the same email?

To be honest this whole ‘as long as you don’t share the same email’ argument is idiocy. This means that anyone can set up two Fiverr accounts from the same IP for nefarious reasons, as long as one uses Hotmail and one uses Gmail. Also, sorry, but I don’t see any logical way that you could assume from my OP that I would be using the same email address as anyone. In fact, you seem to have attempted to derail the discussion completely from my actual points.

Now to be clear, I am not talking about account bannings which have been mentioned exclusively here on this forum. There are blogs, youtube videos, and multiple forum posts elsewhere regarding this issue. More importantly. I AM NOT ASKING FOR SOMEONE TO EXPLAIN TOS TO ANYONE.

I am asking for an official guideline from Fiverr for Fiverr sellers regarding whether or not it is safe to travel and use Fiverr from multiple IP addresses and whether it is a problem for two different sellers to occasionally use the same IP. - Namely in something like the context of a cafe or coffee shop which they might frequent individually due to living in the same geographic area.

Further to my point, I want this clarification as a trend among banned sellers seems to concern sellers who have introduced other people to Fiverr, have traveled, or have been accused of some very vague kind of self-promotion outside of Fiverr. Hence, my request for an official guideline.

As for are we good now? We were never bad. My request, however, has yet not been satisfied. I don’t want opinions or this happened to me blah blah experience based stories from anyone. I want an official guideline from Fiverr.

In the meantime, I have at least one friend who will be joining Fiverr as soon as she gets her new house sorted in my small little fishing village. I believe that she plans to do Italian translation services and English proofreading and editing.

In this case, I suppose I will suppose I will have to wait and see what happens. Thank you, though, the way you answered my OP was interesting, to say the least.

[writer99025]

LOL, everybody seems to be unloading on poor @hotwebideas. Guys, cool down, he is a seller just like us. He does not control or own Fiverr, he is doing his best like everyone.

[cyaxrex]

No one is unloading on anyone. My OP was directed to Fiverr and still is. People need to know that they can build a reputation here and make money without suddenly having the rug pulled from under them. As it stands, there is no official statement on this and that is how things look. It is a problem and it needs officially addressing, even if this comes at the expense of taking off the Fiverr is amazing happy glasses for half an hour.

[zubairfb]

I open my account on 3 different cities of Pakistan frequently. So far I do not have any problem… PS it is not official statement from Fiverr… 😃

[Anna]

Thanks for clarifying ; )

[miiila]

Well, sounds good, thank you.