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Take a closer look into a Seller profile before you buy & compare gigs/sellers

Guest multisync3

By Guest multisync3
in Tips from Buyers

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eoinfinnegan Mentor

eoinfinnegan

Posted
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I like to stay anonymous as I don’t want anyone from real life - relatives, old classmates, neighbors, acquaintances - to find out where I work, what I do, and how I make my money. That’s why I have never once told my real name to anyone here. And I haven’t mentioned the word “Fiverr” to anyone in real life. I mentioned it once to my mother, but she has forgotten it by now 🙂

Your name isn’t Writer?

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Guest multisync3

Guest multisync3

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Do my buyers care about my picture or lack of profile info - it would seem not.

I could care less what my sellers really look like. I do think those using celebrity photos are just funny as heck, but logos and stock photos, I’m good.

I just want good work.

I just want good work.

easy said - not easy done 😉

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miacmht Newbie

miacmht

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It´s a different thing if you´re only anonymous to the customers of the platform, or to the platform itself.

IMO a platform should make sure they know who their sellers are, and it´s pretty difficult to stay anonymous, as you need to withdraw your money, and they can get your identity from PayPal or your credit company, if real need arises.

But I don´t see the need for everyone buying a 5$ gig from me to know my full name for example, so they maybe can find out where I live etc. for instance. Or even for people who never buy anything from me btw.

Of course things like real names, real pictures etc. do build (additional) trust. But if the platform you use allows sellers to stay ‘anonmyous’, you have to choose the sellers who choose to give up their privacy for that trust, or you need to find a different platform. There is at least one similar platform I know that requires real full names and ‘real pictures’ AFAIK.

On reason I love Fiverr is I don’t have to use my real photo. I don’t mind sending it to Fiverr if they ask but absolutely mind putting it up for basically everyone to see. I have 3 creepy experiences:

  • When I started freelancing, I wanted to use facebook to promote my business. If you’re familiar with my line of work (drawing) or do a bit research, you’ll find many artists post their works on facebook and interact with their “fans”, which I think is a good move. So I tried to delete post/status/note…that were too personal. Facebook doesn’t allow you to quickly clean up your profile, so I had to manually delete every single post. I don’t really post a lot on my personal page so that isn’t a problem. The problem is they showed up again after a few days or weeks (don’t remember), and at the top of my wall, like they were just freshly posted. All of them as once. Imagine everything you don’t want your potential customers see because it will make you look unprofessional and is too personal now is on display.

  • I worked for a guy, and everything was great until he found out I was a woman. (Don’t remember how) and he was like “wow, you’re a woman, never seen a woman with that skill. Can I be your friend?” (not exactly word by word but that’s the basic). I always sign my message with “Thanks. Mia” so now I’m genuinely wondering in which country “Mia” is a male name?

  • I applied for office jobs and have profiles on some places like career builder, ect…Someone sent me a generic email from a company email address (think "name@fiverr.com") “Dear candidates, we have this position open and if you’re interested please contact us.” The message sound like it was from bot, they didn’t even use my name and I wasn’t interested so I didn’t reply. Somehow the guy found my Devianart and s***e account, and tried to add me. I have an idea of how he could find me, but that would involve a bit researching, and if he was able to go that far he would have found my phone numbers. Why he didn’t call was beyond me but what he did was certainly creepy. I don’t know why he thought it was a good way to recruit people.

It’s a bit late now, as I already have accounts on recruiting websites and it’s not easy to clear them all off, but I’d prefer not to expose myself any further.

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capitalquality Contributor

capitalquality

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I’m seriously finding that this is getting seriously creepy and stalkerish.

In fact, since this discussion started, I’ve removed information from my profile to make me less identifiable in ‘real life’. I’m not using Fiverr as a springboard to a future career - I’m here because I enjoy it. I started my teacher training in the early 80s, and retired a few years ago. In that time, I taught thousands of kids who are now adults - some of them may even be on here - good luck to them and I hope they do well. What I don’t want is somebody I may have taught recognising me from my profile, ordering a gig and leaving me a bad review as a bit of sport, or even just messaging me.

When social media first started, we had it drummed into us about privacy etc. - I don’t even use my real picture on Facebook and only accept friend requests from friends of friends. Why should my privacy be any less enforced or enforcable here?

Do my buyers care about my picture or lack of profile info - it would seem not. Have I made a good contribution to Fiverr as a seller - I’d like to think so. Do my buyers think I’m professional - from the feedback it would seem they do.

This obsession with identifying sellers, their social media profiles etc. isn’t healthy and I’m beginning to wonder if I’m the right sort of person for Fiverr, or if Fiverr’s the right platform for me if this carries on.

If you’ve got a problem with a seller, report it to CS and move on.

You are the right person for Fiverr. There are others in this thread who aren’t.

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capitalquality Contributor

capitalquality

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I like to stay anonymous as I don’t want anyone from real life - relatives, old classmates, neighbors, acquaintances - to find out where I work, what I do, and how I make my money. That’s why I have never once told my real name to anyone here. And I haven’t mentioned the word “Fiverr” to anyone in real life. I mentioned it once to my mother, but she has forgotten it by now 🙂

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Guest offlinehelpers

Guest offlinehelpers

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That reminds me I wanted to check if the profile pics in quoted posts get updated too or not, I was too lazy to pay attention or go back and dig something up.

Yep - they do. 20 characters

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artlifeoriginal Apprentice

artlifeoriginal

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You really have no idea who the people on LinkedIn are

People there are much more verifiable as you are linked to a company and other co-workers and partners. BTW in Fiverr you can link your social too but it’s not accessible for sellers/buyers, right? Why a social link then? Teach me?

People who do that for a living make major mistakes every day.

Major mistakes every day? Then you do something wrong! Mistakes yes, sometimes - nobody is perfect. A mistake is one thing - cheating and faking another.

Could you explain #6 a little more? Do you mean after the Gig has been delivered, or after you accept/review (touching base with previous clients)?

Before the gig is clear and after the gig (is delivered) to see how a seller deals with your input, critics etc…

some sellers specifically say they will refund you if you are not happy, so please don’t penalize them for honoring their word.

I will argue some sellers do exactly such a statement to avoid a bad rating. Easy thing to refund, like fire and forget. NO! He still failed to deliver and I would rate him accordingly. For all my bad experienced gigs I never accepted a refund.

Refunding is a “buy out” to avoid negative feedback. Above said is valid for measurable and/or agreed specs between seller & buyer.

I am pretty sure this part will elaborate to a hot topic but that’s fine - let’s discuss. @eoinfinnegan > no “inflammatory” intention but a honest expression of my opinion.

People there are much more verifiable as you are linked to a company and other co-workers and partners. BTW in Fiverr you can link your social too but it’s not accessible for sellers/buyers, right? Why a social link then? Teach me?

Yes, you are, and so are they, but how do you know the person is real unless you know that the company is real and the people are too? I was not as clear as I should have been: most of the information on LinkedIn contains some truth, but it is not all truth, or even primarily truth. As it is, people give false references, false employment information, and false educational information to people, in person, in job interviews, so they certainly do so on LinkedIn. Actually, people routinely lie about the information in question during a discussion they have with others they’ll never see again.

Yes, there is probably a person, but you have no idea if the person presented to you on LinkedIn is real or a false persona.

LinkedIn is a social media site that is optimized for business socializing. That is what it is. To use it for anything else would be ill-advised, in my opinion. Accordingly, I would trust the information I find on it as much as other social media sites (which is not much).

For all you Seinfeld fans out there: Vandelay Industries. ( I hope I spelled that right)

Major mistakes every day? Then you do something wrong! Mistakes yes, sometimes - nobody is perfect. A mistake is one thing - cheating and faking another.

I was meaning major mistakes in that people responsible for identifying cheating and faking are clearly not keeping up with the cheaters and fakers. I am not such a professional.

I can give you examples of people and professionals making those major mistakes though.

A local government provided grants to an energy business which turned out to be fake. The project images were faked, the company info was faked. You can certainly agree that most government procedures are anything but streamlined and decisions can be slow and endless, and yet they wrote big checks to a scam artist that cashed them and disappeared.

Another person managed to convince multiple banks to give them loans based on the same property as collateral, sometimes using the same property 4 or 5 times and asking for multiple times the value from each bank. They did this with multiple properties. This individual worked out of a pickup truck, had no office, and was acting as a developer because they previously were doing something else and were required to stop by the authorities after putting people’s lives in danger.

A developer convinced a local government to use eminent domain to buy up properties for a supposed development at below their values, and then used the cleared site as a trash dump for their other developments.

Not to mention all the people who routinely ‘fall in love" with a completely fake person over the internet, and the people who still send money to scammers all over the globe for ‘lottery winnings taxes’, ’ relatives in jail’, fees for cashing large (bogus) checks for others, etc.

Before the gig is clear

I was just asking about after.

after the gig (is delivered)

Thanks for the info. I didn’t realize that Buyers might want an additional communication (I try to put it all in the delivery and wait for a response). I assumed the Buyer would initiate communication if they were unhappy.

I will argue some sellers do exactly such a statement to avoid a bad rating.

Yes they do, but others do not. A blanket decision penalizes the good Sellers with the bad ones.

He still failed to deliver and I would rate him accordingly.

That’s more of an issue with how you feel the review system should work than a problem with offering refunds, which if I remember correctly has been debated more than once in the forums. You are also equating an experience you had with all potential experiences.

For all my bad experienced gigs I never accepted a refund.

That is certainly your choice, but I personally cannot afford to throw my money away on things I cannot use. I may be angry, but if I’m offered a refund, I’ll take it. That’s personal preference. I may be angry, but I’m not giving the person a chance to make money off their bad work if I can help it.

Refunding is a “buy out” to avoid negative feedback.

Again, true sometimes, but not always. Do you really think major retailers take your items back for a refund because they don’t want one negative word from you? Most could care less. The fact is, offering “or your money back” is a proven sales tool - if a salesperson of any type uses it correctly they will have to give out very few refunds but experience a boost in sales from hesitant buyers who will be persuaded by the ‘safety’ of the perceived lower risk purchase.

Above said is valid for measurable and/or agreed specs between seller & buyer.

Yes, but how many Gigs contain only directly measurable attributes? I would say very few. Almost every Gig has some un-measurable creative aspect to it. Even as far as targeted traffic, there could be differences of opinion. (I’m just trying to think of both sides here.) If you’re going to go so far as direct the Seller step by step on how to complete your order, then why pay someone else to do it? Or better yet, have a computer program do it? Part of this site is the Seller offering their own personal touch to whatever the Buyer wants, in my opinion.

I realize that you are offering your opinion. I am also offering mine.

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artlifeoriginal Apprentice

artlifeoriginal

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I am genuinely baffled by the questioning of why someone would like to stay anonymous on the internet.

The only reason I use a real photo is because I believe it helps with sales in the line of work that I do. If I didn’t think it would have an effect I would change it to a logo or something. I regularly get contact requests on social media from people who have bought from me because they have managed to find me from my name or image. Looking at just a couple of the posts by women on the forum regarding inappropriate messages it is no wonder that people try to stay anonymous.

There is absolutely no need to know what the person you are buying a service from looks like. Some buyers may like the idea of it being like a store you go into and make a deal face to face.

The internet is different - get used to it.

In a store, the seller can also see the buyer so there is some level of mutual trust there. Most buyers do not have a picture of themselves so what is being asked of sellers is to not only expose themselves to anonymous buyers but also to anyone else who happens to find their profile while the same is not reciprocated. Come on… That is pretty much like allowing people come into a store wearing balaclavas or ski masks - try doing that at your local store and see what happens.

You have brought another very important point to the surface - how easy it is to get more information about someone when given only a tiny bit.

I was reading a story within the last month about (sorry can’t remember exact details): a few people were trying to promote discussion about internet privacy issues, so they used readily available procedures and systems to gather information about individuals in their country. The point was to illustrate privacy issues by offering a gift suggestion for each person from their country on that person’s birthday. They were very concerned by the amount of information they gathered through ‘normal’ procedures. They wanted to bring the data drives to the US for a symposium, but were advised they could be arrested for transporting the information out of their own country, it was so detailed.

And as a further point, in the store, you may see a face but you have no idea who that person is. Even if they ‘tell you’ their name or are wearing a nametag.

I also think there is a difference between ‘hiding’ and ‘not showing’. I don’t post my face on Fiverr, but I’m not hiding it.

That is pretty much like allowing people come into a store wearing balaclavas or ski masks

Yes. Even if someone walks in sans mask, they do not generally walk up to everyone in the store and say: Hi! I’m X. I do X work at X. etc. Tell me about you!

Try that in a store and see how many people carefully back away. 🙂 (Don’t really do that.) Try it in public transit… definitely don’t do that.

Similarly, who genuinely likes store employees who tell you about their personal life?

Also, stores don’t generally post their employee’s photos on billboards in other countries. Fiverr seller profiles are visible whether you have an account or not.

I think people have intertwined social activity with business activity way too much. They are not the same.

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Guest multisync3

Guest multisync3

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You have brought another very important point to the surface - how easy it is to get more information about someone when given only a tiny bit.

I was reading a story within the last month about (sorry can’t remember exact details): a few people were trying to promote discussion about internet privacy issues, so they used readily available procedures and systems to gather information about individuals in their country. The point was to illustrate privacy issues by offering a gift suggestion for each person from their country on that person’s birthday. They were very concerned by the amount of information they gathered through ‘normal’ procedures. They wanted to bring the data drives to the US for a symposium, but were advised they could be arrested for transporting the information out of their own country, it was so detailed.

And as a further point, in the store, you may see a face but you have no idea who that person is. Even if they ‘tell you’ their name or are wearing a nametag.

I also think there is a difference between ‘hiding’ and ‘not showing’. I don’t post my face on Fiverr, but I’m not hiding it.

That is pretty much like allowing people come into a store wearing balaclavas or ski masks

Yes. Even if someone walks in sans mask, they do not generally walk up to everyone in the store and say: Hi! I’m X. I do X work at X. etc. Tell me about you!

Try that in a store and see how many people carefully back away. 🙂 (Don’t really do that.) Try it in public transit… definitely don’t do that.

Similarly, who genuinely likes store employees who tell you about their personal life?

Also, stores don’t generally post their employee’s photos on billboards in other countries. Fiverr seller profiles are visible whether you have an account or not.

I think people have intertwined social activity with business activity way too much. They are not the same.

Agree with many things you said…

Not sharing and hiding are two different issues. I was suggesting that a Fiverr profile has to be intriguing to attract buyers and at the same time reflecting competence. Thx for sharing…

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dybe_jobs Apprentice

dybe_jobs

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so I created a new account, a new gig and I am on my way to adding a video description about the service.

Do you mean that you have multiple accounts? That’s strictly forbidden by Fiverr’s Terms of Service.

Of course not. I had to shut down the old one since I registered with a name I no longer wanted to use.

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