donnovan86

This measure is clearly meant to purge people that deliver late and which are unresponsive. I can only assume many buyers complained about this recently and Fiverr is taking action. There's nothing wrong with that, the only thing that's problematic comes from potential abuse. But I am sure Fiverr's team will remove reviews that are clearly outside of the rules. We will see.

From what I read, it seems that if the seller doesn't reply at all, and the order becomes late or very late, that qualifies as not being responsive. Which I think is clear from their side. That being said, there will always be people that try to manipulate things in order to bend the rules to do their own bidding. Still, if anything this shows me I need to raise my prices, just to stay away from random buyers.

I assume the buyer places their order and the seller doesn't reply at all, then eventually the order becomes late/very late.

Here's what Noah, a success manager from Fiverr told me. "Some additional clarification to help provide more context around these changes. This option is not available to all buyers. If the buyer is also a seller, the option is not available. This is to discourage bad competition. If a buyer is brand new to Fiverr, they will not have the option. This option will be available for experienced buyers. Additionally, If there is no delivery in the order, it will not be possible for a buyer to leave a review on it if it is cancelled unless the seller is unresponsive or the order becomes “very late”. Very late would be 24 hours after the order has already gone late." Another important point is that a first time buyer refers to a buyer who is making their first purchase on Fiverr not a buyer making their first purchase with you.

They clarified to meand it's buyers purchasing for the first time on Fiverr. So what I was afraid of. That being said, if a person also sells and buys on Fiverr, then they can't leave a bad review after canceling, so they can avoid abuse. So there is a good side and a bad side..

That was not available for years now. I guess they are bringing it back, and putting all the power in the buyer's hands.

I received a reply. Let me just paste it here. "Some additional clarification to help provide more context around these changes. This option is not available to all buyers. If the buyer is also a seller, the option is not available. This is to discourage bad competition. If a buyer is brand new to Fiverr, they will not have the option. This option will be available for experienced buyers. Additionally, If there is no delivery in the order, it will not be possible for a buyer to leave a review on it if it is cancelled unless the seller is unresponsive or the order becomes “very late”. Very late would be 24 hours after the order has already gone late." Another important point is that a first time buyer refers to a buyer who is making their first purchase on Fiverr not a buyer making their first purchase with you." So.. if the buyer is also a seller, they can't leave such a review. But yeah, only first time FIVERR buyers.. And also, they can't leave a review unless the order is very late or the seller is unresponsive. So if you reply, and you don't allow the order to become very late, you should be fine. I guess they want to remove or at least push back in search those unresponsive sellers.

I think that part is pretty obvious 🙂 This screenshot is from the Review section designated for buyers, and as you can see in the image above it specifically mentions (excluding first time buyers). I think as long as only someone that orders from you at least the second or third time can leave a review when you cancel, it's ok. More or less, because there can still be people which were great the first time, but then end up asking for refunds starting with the next order. There's always that risk, then again freelancing will always have its fair share of risks.

Well you can hire those people and let them know about your plan. Some writers accept this kind of approach. Same with developers. But if you won't do any work and just outsource their stuff to make a living off their backs, people will figure that out and step away. 🙂

@Shiran.M, can you please confirm one thing for us? In the article it says "Buyers (excluding first-time buyers) can leave a review for canceled orders within 14 days from cancellation if the case involved lateness, unresponsiveness, or an unsatisfactory delivery.". Does that mean if someone orders from you for the first time, and they cancel, they can't leave a review for a canceled order? I hope so, because otherwise you can have a random competitor sending an order, then asking for a refund and trashing you with a very bad review. Can you please confirm that only return clients can leave a review for a canceled order? I think that's the case, but many sellers are very confused about this in another forum topic regarding this change. So if you can let us know what that means (first time buyer for you or for the Fiverr platform), that would help us better understand this change.

So if they exclude first time buyers, then that means it only applies to repeat buyers. Also relevant, if the order is canceled by the buyer right after making it, that counts as an exclusion.

Buyers NEW TO YOU can't leave a review. So only return buyers can leave a review for the canceled order. If you worked with the person before and it was fine but the second order you have from them gets canceled, that's when they can review the canceled order. First time buyers can't do that.

If you read the article, you'll see that first time buyers can't leave a review. So only repeat buyers can leave a review on canceled orders. I am sure they know how this measure would bring lots of potential issues.

I can already see people abusing this, buyers threatening sellers they will receive a bad review if they don't give half or more of the money back.

We both know a lot of individual sellers are outsourcing. So yeah, they take the order and they act as an agency. But in their description they say only "me", "my samples", etc, when it's clear from reviews that a lot of buyers say "their team", etc. So there's a huge lack of honesty here.

Yes, I mentioned this already in one of my previous posts. It can happen for sure. That's why I am thinking about raising my prices, at least in my case this risk seems very big!

I 100% agree with you Mike. That, combined with the fact they lower from 4.7 to 4.2 also suggests one thing: A lot of bad sellers have close to 5 stars. They really want to thin the herd and keep those high star ratings for people that deserve it. Because there are lots of people that do the work for the first order and then outsource and receive bad results, but even if they cancel they can't leave a review. So I think that's the problem here. If that "excluding first-time buyers" thing means people ordering from you for the first time, that's fine. That means only repeat buyers can leave that review and if you disatisfy a repeat client, then I can see why the platform wants to penalize you in some way.

I mean, they did say "excluding first-time buyers" in the article. So technically someone just ordering from you for the first time won't have the opportunity to leave a review. But a return customer that's unhappy will certainly have the option.

I think my version is the one Fiverr tries to state there. The reason is simple, why would they only stop buyers new to the platform to leave a review? Because they don't know, but all of a sudden if you had an order you're an expert? That's LOL right there for me. I am sure they thought of the abuse that would appear from anyone that buys from you and threatens to cancel. I think this measure is to ensure customers are happy when they go for a repeat purchase. There are some sellers on the platform that work on the first order themselves, and then outsource. I check competitors and other niches, and I saw people that came back only to receive very bad work. At that point, I can see such a system being useful, because it prevents sellers from abusing a buyer's loyalty. So if that's the measure they are taking here, I don't have a problem with that. So if that's the case, that's fine with me. My problem if they allow anyone to buy from you and cancel right away, even if it's their first order. I am sure they thought of the abuse that sellers would focus on, buy from competitors, cancel and rate them poorly. That's why I think they won't allow new customers to you to leave a review. That sounds the most logical explanation. They don't say New to Fiverr customers. They say "excluding first-time buyers", which to me sounds "new to you" buyers, not new to the platform. I really hope it's my take/version too, because that would be fair towards sellers too.

I don't want to enter this discussion. But I do want to point out, this is a serious issue that affects all sellers. There are more important things to discuss rather than targeting an esteemed member of the forum like Mike. So if you can, please end this personal debate so we can focus on crucial things like understanding what this means for sellers, what terms are there, etc. As I said, they mention this in the article: " Buyers (excluding first-time buyers) can leave a review for canceled orders". So people buying from you for the first time can't leave any review if they cancel their order.

Fiverr chooses TRS manually. You went past the minimum requirements. I don't want to burst your bubble, but there is a chance that you will never become a top rated seller. Or you might become one next month. Only Fiverr's team chooses who becomes a Top rated seller. Continue to do great work and keep buyers happy 🙂

Pretty sure that means first time buyers to you. I don't see it making sense in the context of first time buyers to the platform. So if someone just bought from you now and they are unhappy, they can't leave a review for the cancellation. However, if they bought from you before and you need to cancel, it feels warranted I guess. I guess we can talk with our seller plus managers, maybe someone can send a message so we know it's related to people that are buying from us for the first time?

I mean, if they say first time buyers in an article for both sellers and buyers, I do think it's related to the seller. I am sure they thought of the abuse some buyers would bring. Don't get me wrong, you can still have someone ordering a small thing at first and rating it very well, just to cancel a $100 order afterwards and also rate you poorly. So there is still some type of buyer abuse that can happen.

As I said above in my post, Buyers (excluding first-time buyers) can leave a review for canceled orders. So first time buyers can't leave a review on canceled orders.

Read my post above. If you check the article the OP linked, it says first time buyers can't leave a review. So only someone that bought from you before and ordered again can leave a review on a canceled order. And that's within 14 days after the order was canceled.