[Level 2 Sellers Struggles]

It’s been months since I crossed most of the level 2 milestones. If not more than a year. Even before the new Fiverr updates, I have hit the Seller 2 levels. 
Unfortunately, I also experienced a drop in performance since then. I used to read the forums and see complaints about this same issue from other sellers who got to this level. 
Now, I know it’s true. Gigs that used to be high performers hardly get any sales despite updating and promoting them. 
It is disappointing but also worrisome that this discourages growth on the Fiverr selling platform. I really hope the team looks into this. 

[Have You Ever Left A Buyer A Bad Review?]

On 12/6/2022 at 9:21 PM, lawan21 said:

Wow...so sellers were not honest up to this moment ?😁

It's not dishonesty. It's better seen as omission from fear 🫠.

On 12/6/2022 at 2:51 AM, vickieito said:

I'm one of the lucky Seller Plus sellers that have the Request to Order feature on all of my gigs. No one can order from me unless they contact me first. This helps a lot of the misunderstandings that happened when someone would just order straight from my gig page.

For those who don't have Request to Order, they should take advantage of the new Cancelation policy because sellers can now cancel orders and reissue new orders with new requirements that both seller and buyer can agree on without it hurting their order completion rate.

I think Fiverr is leaning more towards these types of feature updates rather than helping sellers leave more truthful reviews on their buyers.

I have the feature as well. I am being cautious to use it cause I've had a number of cool buyers who simply just ordered. I already have my orders coming slower than they used to. I have done all the necessary upgrades and even spoken to a success manager. I am hopeful that just being honest and doing a great job will be sufficient to bring the best buyers to me. 

On 12/6/2022 at 10:06 PM, moikchap said:

If a depiction of a seller has good lighting, good framing, good posture, good clothes, and good backdrop; my gut says its a stock photo rather than the actual seller. I start to feel like it's a trick. If I see "a picture only a mother would Like" then it feel more like the seller must feel like that's their only option because it's the only good picture of themselves they have.

There's a marketing thing along those lines, which I forget the name for; if you lead with admitting a flaw, everything else afterward becomes more believable. Like, Dr Buckley's Cough Syrup increased its market share by advertising with the slogan "It tastes bad, but it works." Avis did a similar thing revolving around the idea that they're only the second best-selling car rental company, so they have to do better to be worth it, and increased market share.

From what I understand, japanese commercials are "weird" due to something along those lines where "hard sell" comes across as being a deceptive distraction, so you have to use soft sell techniques to demonstrate confidence in your product. There's a lot of little counter-intuitive things like that for different buyers across different cultures. I think most sellers do talk about making specialized gigs that appeal to thin spectrums of clients. That sort of thing may be another factor to consider, research, and plan for. I don't think I've seen much discussion of it, but I'm not around as much as most.

I agree these techniques could in the long-run help to improve market acceptance. Only a few buyers are looking for absolutely perfect sellers. 

On 12/7/2022 at 3:49 AM, seoranks1 said:

If you think that Buyer is not good for your business just block it , they will never find your profile on fiverr.

Thanks for sharing this as well. 

[Have You Ever Left A Buyer A Bad Review?]

On 12/4/2022 at 1:38 AM, vickieito said:

Actually, @damilolabolu & @mabeljacob481, buyers can retaliate before blocking.

Since buyers can leave private and public reviews on each order, they could give you a good public review and you could give them your honest, negative review of working with them. After reading your honest negative review, the buyer can then leave a very bad private review in retaliation, since they have 14 days to leave their private reviews (and yes, they can see your negative, public review before leaving their negative, private review of you). Although we can't see the negative private review, it'll be evident because your impressions will plummet and your account may be hurt for 90 days or more. Some sellers can never recover from the negative private review.

Here's a post that talks about this:

https://community.fiverr.com/forums/topic/288420-hidden-private-feedback-is-the-worst-idea/

This is probably the biggest reason why sellers are hesitant to leave negative public reviews of their buyers.

@domenikbrenner (also on the thread above) gives a first-person perspective on this if you want to read more.

Wow! I think Fiverr support should really help Sellers in addressing issues of this nature. I don't think it is beneficial to the system to keep buyers who would hurt even top sellers just because they can. These private reviews shouldn't have so much power over gigs. I suspect that some of my gigs were affected by some private reviews now. 

[Have You Ever Left A Buyer A Bad Review?]

On 12/3/2022 at 9:02 PM, mandyzines said:

4. What if they retaliate by creating a new profile after you've blocked them?

Seller retaliation is one of the justifications for buyer private feedback. I can see how this would be the case for sellers, too--only they have a LOT more to lose. With my experience having a bad review full of documented lies and CS saying nothing could be done about it unless it was outright abusive or doxxing, I feel less inclined to be truthful. When that happened to me, I don't think some sellers could have a contact prior to order setting, so it didn't seem like I would be benefiting other sellers to be truthful at the time, either. 

I'm not clear about this part: 

"When that happened to me, I don't think some sellers could have a contact prior to order setting, so it didn't seem like I would be benefiting other sellers to be truthful at the time, either. " 

I'm sorry to hear about that experience. I hadn't actually thought about the possibility of retaliation. 

[Have You Ever Left A Buyer A Bad Review?]

On 12/3/2022 at 2:59 PM, mabeljacob481 said:

Hi, I'm surprised that this post has no comment yet, I was thinking the same thing. Sellers are always complaining about bad experiences with buyers but you seldom see these buyers with bad reviews. In my opinion, even if you don't want to outrightly give a 2 star, you could hint other sellers with your comments cause bad buyers could also have behaviours you like about them. Like "Buyer communicates his expectations excellently, this helped the project. He doesn't accept delivered orders, he lets them auto complete or He takes his time to respond to messages after initial conversation to kickstart order".

I think this will make buyers adjust without causing much damage. Lol.

Thanks for being the first to respond and I agree with you. I'm starting to think buyers who order without speaking to sellers and who just accept deliveries without communicating could be prompted to improve with a review like this. In my experience, they often give less than a perfect rating which makes you wonder on what basis they are eating when they are not even engaging the process. Sellers should prompt them with detailed feedback. 

[Have You Ever Left A Buyer A Bad Review?]

I have been a Level 2 seller on this platform for a while and I know it's hard to give honest feedback as a seller who has had a bad experience. 
The fears include: 

1. What if I give a bad review to a buyer who was considering using my service again? 
2. What if they give me a good review when I have given a bad review. 
3. Not being sure what would be a fair "bad" rating. 
 

The problem with not doing the right thing when you have met an impatient, badly mannered, unprofessional client, is that other freelancers on the platform will not know to avoid them. We will also see your good recommendations and have a fear of sharing our bad experience. 
 

Fiverr cannot do so much to deprioritize bad buyers because this is a profit platform. However, sellers can help each other by eating bad clients badly. 
 

Here's the catch, the chances that you will want to have another experience with a bad client is almost zero. And they will often likely rate you badly. Only a few buyers still give a good review after a bad experience but I believe more sellers give a good review after a bad experience. You shouldn't be so unfair to yourself by looking forward to working with a bad client. Rate them badly! If a buyer wants to rate you for a bad experience, they wouldn't go higher than a 2-star so don't worry about giving a bad client the same. You can see the rating as 1 = never ever work with this person, 5 = this kind of client is good for Fiverr Sellers like me! 
 

I hope this helps and I would like to hear your own experiences.