anniejenkinson

Ode to a Sunday Afternoon Buyer You say you spied me as I came online My small green light a flame as to a moth; You daily fill my inbox all the time, I usually reply in fear of wrath. Today, I hoped to find some respite true, A tiny sixty minutes to myself; I thought it could be reasonable to do! Good for both my sanity and health! Alas, that I was wrong I do despair; The messages, they came advising me Not even any Englishwoman dare Break up her work week for a pot of tea. The anger of your petulance I fear, Trembling as I open up my phone. I've really tried to keep you close, and dear To tolerate your whining and your moans. But I do not deceive you when I state That I was not online at all today; My light was on, yet I stared at my plate, For Sunday dinner had its role to play. Forgive me for my absence for an hour, You're thinking I ignored your wants and wishes. My mind was not being petulant and sour, But my body was away and washing dishes.

Me too! I don't know what people are complaining about. Nothing comes free these days. Well, aside from spam, of course.

Never complain about a free massage. Every day, I hope for one.

I would have avoided that buyer. He just sounds very 'wrong'. 'If you say so ma'am' is not a buyer from whom you'll get a good experience. Someone appointed to represent a major brand will not write to you the way he does; the approach would be professional, wouldn't ever seek to circumvent the platform, and nothing about this guy comes across as anyone who's worked for a major (or minor!) brand. The tone, language, style--everything's wrong. He doesn't even use periods, capital letters, commas, proper sentences! I wish I had seen this post earlier. Please take care, Sarah, and trust your instincts since I think you were right that he is going to try and take advantage and I can see this flaring up. 😞 As a buyer or a seller, I never work on milestones so that would not be a red flag for me (that he didn't want milestones) but his attitude and how he writes is unprofessional. He just doesn't seem right at all. Don't grasp at jobs just because you are new; the opportunities will come! -- ADDED NOTE: Sarah, I just looked at your profile. Please be aware that 'I will write a professional paper for you' could make you a target for people seeking academic work, although I can see that's not what you intend to sell! Academic work is something many buyers seek and they can hoodwink you into 'writing a paper' which they'll try to pass off as non-academic, only to find (after commissioning) that it's their dissertation or an essay they want you to write. Doing so or even offering something that sounds like academic work can/will get you banned. **Note, Fiverr already applied a warning note to your gig ad, reminding buyers that buying academic work is contra Terms of Service.** Your gig wording does not help matters. It kind of cries out, 'are you lousy at doing your own academic research and can't be bothered writing a thesis? I have all the skills to do it' even if it's not the kind of work you're hoping for. Be careful! A ban can come with zero warning. I recommend you rewrite this gig immediately. Withdraw it and start again, ensuring you do not mention anything like academic work, 'paper', etc. 'I have experience writing various academic reports as well as plenty of research,' 'I understand how last-minute writing is necessary' (Sounds like a deadline for academic work, Sarah! Otherwise, what is 'last-minute' work? Why would someone need a 'paper' at the last minute if it's not for college?

Someone may have made this quip earlier but there's so much in the thread, I can't begin to read it at 2 a.m. The first thought that came to mind was that it's Vladimir's Poo Tin.

I don't write about frogs. Only toads.

It sounds as though sellers *possibly* perceive you could be an 'awkward buyer', i.e. asking too many questions before committing, raising all the red flags about whether you are a genuine buyer and/or whether you are too demanding in terms of how much chat you expect both before and after purchase. Sure, we expect and want questions but some buyers just sound: **way too cautious/as if they expect the project to fail/as if they want too much for little spend/as if they really don't want to commission or spend at all/are looking for faults before we even begin/are simply always living in our inboxes with more and more questions each time we log in to help a different person/are always lurking, looking to see if we have logged on yet so we can answer more and more.** *Cross out which do not apply! 😄 As a quick example, anyone who asks something like 'how easy is it to get a refund if I am not satisfied', or 'how many revisions do I get', or 'can you do a free sample' (or even asking for a paid sample from a busy seller!) or 'if I pay more, can you put me before everyone else' (yes, I really get that) will sound like someone who's hard to work for. It does come across from your description above that sellers are deterred by something you're saying or the attitude they think (note, I say 'think') you show in the messages. Even if the content of your messages is fine, it may simply be that you're sending a lot of questions that trigger the warning siren! Busy sellers look for commitment after a reasonable period of time, so if you ask Top-Rated Sellers or Level-2 sellers too many questions, they will just move to a different client since many of us are so busy we are turning work away more than accepting it. Some buyers have the view that we're desperate for work and that we need to keep 'proving ourselves'. Many of us have way too many work requests and we choose the jobs that look most enticing or the clients we'd love to help. Every hour we spend answering messages from the same client can take away time from our other clients, so keep questions 'reasonable', a word that's open to interpretation! I hope things improve for you. You sound very genuine and deserve a good seller. Annie

I think your message to the buyer was rude and unprofessional, and I wouldn't be surprised if your account takes a hit in some way. You certainly would never achieve Top-Rated Seller with that kind of message leaving your account (if you aspire to TRS, of course). You are a Level 2 Seller; you've just gone and blighted your chance of TRS. 😞 There is no justification for sending messages that are so impolite. Remain professional: 'I'm so sorry to hear you are not happy with my delivery of (X). My aim is always to achieve a satisfactory delivery for every buyer, and as you know, my product offers unlimited revisions on color changes. However, what you are requesting is a marked design variation--not a color change--and is not included in revisions. It appears we cannot reach a resolution, sadly. Please know that I am truly disappointed but that I did input (X) hours on the designs and cannot revise designs free of charge. I feel I delivered a professional job, to specification. I shall request a cancellation for you via Customer Support, but please be aware that you must delete the work I have provided and not use it in any regard since you will receive a refund. I wish you the very best.'

The gigs that perform well when promoted are those that offer services the buyers want--at a high level of delivery quality--and gigs with unique aspects or superior service. There are many sellers for whom Fiverr promotions work extremely well. Out of 21 jobs in my current queue, 7 are 'Promoted'. You cannot blame lack of promoted sales on Fiverr. If your products do not sell very well (or at all) during promotion periods, it's because the products (gigs) are not competitive enough or have little market appeal--which doesn't refer to price, but product offer. Fiverr cannot make buyers want your products. All Fiverr can offer when it promotes your gigs is that it will put your products in front of buyers commensurate to your ad spend and other ad competition. It can't make the products appealing to the people holding the dollars. This would be like me trying to sell fur coats for Persian cats. They already have quite nice fur coats. Even if I sell 'fur coats with inbuilt ice machine and cool airconditioning' for Persian cats, I will only attract sales if there are not 30,000 sellers all selling similar and advertising using similar keywords. You need to have products that appeal, for example because you're better at doing whatever you do than most of your competitors, the market is seeking what you offer and your offer is somehow different enough to stand out in a busy marketplace. I wish you well!

Hi, @priyab468is correct. If you write to Customer Support with a brief, factual message that attaches screenshots, and send a simple message, they can rectify your completion rate. I'd recommend just sending: 'Hello Customer Support! Attached, please find screenshots of communications from (buyer name) pertaining to Order Number (Number). The client mistakenly purchased the wrong gig and therefore, we have canceled. I would be grateful if you could please restore my 'Completion Rate' to 100%. The client intends to reorder/has reordered the correct gig from me. I thank you very much for everything you do for sellers and buyers. Best regards.'

I agree with @smashradio wholeheartedly. When the gigs become unsuitable for promotion, this is 'due to quality issues', which I also believe means that you received a negative private rating in the reviews which only Fiverr can see. It's not uncommon for clients to give a person a five-star public review while at the same time revealing some key issue of dissatisfaction to Fiverr privately. However, don't be too worried. Put all your focus on the jobs in your current work queue and it will revert to normal soon. Deliver these to the highest standard possible and with *excellent communications*. The promotions scenario can revert in only a few days but this depends on you delivering the stellar work mentioned in the post above mine. If you were to deliver a quantity of stellar deliveries soon, it may well bring the gigs back to promotable. I think it's triggered (likely to be--just my feeling, not based on any authoritative intel!) by private as well as public satisfaction ratings, with far greater bias toward private ones. So, let's hypothesise that you delivered only 4 pieces of work in the last month (random timeline for illustration only), then you get one unhappy buyer in a private review, out of these 4. That's only a 75% satisfaction rate. Deliver three more in the same month (soon!), and if these are fabulously happy clients, so happy they could sing, dance, count their blessings at having found you, and shout your name from the rooftops, then that's one negative private review out of seven, with a satisfaction rate of 86%. That might be high enough to pop the promos back on. (Just my thoughts). I say 'may be' since I don't know the magic number. But focus on great work to the new and existing buyers to rectify this problem.

QUOTE FROM YOUR POST: - Then the buyer sent a message saying he had some copyright concerns. (I explained to the buyer in good language that I was doing the job requested from me and that I was not a legal consultant.) *** If I read this correctly and this began as a query over copyright, i.e. that perhaps your design incorporated elements or was substantially similar to existing copyrighted work (perhaps that it was too similar to a design locatable on the Internet or elsewhere) then Fiverr has no alternative but to investigate by itself with no further input required from you or the buyer. This takes time since it's an intricate matter and needs legal input too. **This would include, let's say, IF you made some kind of graphic based on the client's reference photo and your end result is still similar to that. It's kind of hard to be sure what your error was without seeing the 'reference photo' and your work. If you copied for him--even following his instructions--someone else's design in any way, then you as the supplier should know you cannot do that and therefore should start by saying to the buyer that the service he's requesting is not allowed due to copyright.** If the buyer presented to you concerns along the lines that he feared the work was not wholly original and/or may get him into legal trouble, then your response to the buyer was not appropriate. 'I am not a legal expert' does not address whether your design was original or not. I reiterate, if he asked you to copy something that was copyrighted (or likely to be), then it's understandable he'd come back with concerns later and that you're now in an awkward position. There's nothing you can do but wait for the outcome. The fact that 'the buyer was satisfied' is immaterial. Let's suppose the buyer WAS satisfied until he began to have copyright concerns! An appropriate response to the buyer could have been more along the lines of, 'I'm so sorry that you're worried my design is too similar to your reference photo (X design) but let me put your mind at rest by redeveloping the (detail that worries the client) and I'll revert to you in (X days) with something that will protect you better'. Saying that 'I am not a legal expert' could have been what started the complaint to Customer Support by the buyer. Of course, I could have misconstrued the whole of the above! 🙂 But it's how the post came across to me, that's all.

It's helpful too. If the overall rate seems high, it really assists the buyer to see that the rate's high because of the work injected, and it also helps if you deduct the Fiverr seller fee from what you bill so they can see what you actually bank. I'm almost always thanked for providing detailed calculations! This helps me win some very big jobs here. I don't think I'd get them otherwise because the price just looks too high.

I agree, Priya. I have clients in Canada and the US and I always tell the Canadians the site prices are not in their currency but whenever I send a costing or a custom offer, I give it in my currency, then USD, then CAD! Then I explain that due to currency conversion, there will be some fluctuation. No one ever had an issue with it. I also show the calculations, for example, I show how many hours their job will take, what I will charge, and how much I earn per hour in their currency. Lucien, you just were the lucky one who got the 'Problem Client of the Day'.

I still wouldn't worry because I'm sure the person who looks at the complaint will be a Customer Support agent. As far as I am aware, there's no magic button they can press to penalise you for disagreeing with a buyer over a non-existent job! You have not been unduly rude and he just didn't get what he wanted. It happens all the time. I think the Support agent's response will be quite reasonable and I cannot envisage any effect on your account. Certainly hope not. I don't think the usual Customer Support operatives are involved in applying penalties to accounts just for this kind of thing. If they did, they'd be a thousand times busier than they wish to be! Honestly, I wouldn't give this any more thought.

I feel you're absolutely right. He came at you with a poor attitude from the start and was already out to make you bend to his wishes. An 'entitled', awkward buyer. You explained very well to him that your prices were in USD but he already had a bad attitude. Even the short message '200 bucks' was curt and offhand. From that moment, it should have been clear that he had misunderstood the listing price and that therefore, he needed a different seller if his budget was too low. It's certainly not normal for a buyer to ask a seller to change their profile settings to CAD or anything else; he's asking you to bend to his wishes as if he's the only buyer you have. While it's clear you didn't tolerate him, I do feel you were fair and correct. You were not rude, merely intolerant; there's a slight difference, ha. This appears to be a buyer out to get his own way no matter what and this type of person will always stamp their feet and make a complaint. I see no element of unfairness from you or any sign that you are 'overcharging'. This is the sort of person who arrives late for their flight and expects the aircraft to wait for them because they can see it on the tarmac.

I think you need to get out more. Step away from the screen. 🙂

You're telling the seller that they need to pay a buyer? "Yes, it's normal". @parishapatel, no, you are a seller so you don't give anyone money so they will buy your gig!

I feel a lot relies on mindset. I've delivered over 300 jobs and never had a fall-out with a buyer. Yes, I've had difficult buyers but by being fair and polite--and showing a sincere interest in their job--everything's gone smoothly in the end. If you go into any relationship--business or otherwise--with a view that it probably won't work for you, or that it might not work, then guess what? It won't work for you because you'll be there waiting for the seller to fail! Expect the worst, and the worst will come. Expect the best--and facilitate it on your side--and you should get a good experience. I can't see why you wouldn't. Go into it positively, choose your seller with a solid track record or sound skills (if they're new, run a pre-test small project) and good communications. The latter means on your side too; believe me, we get buyers with terrible communications. Then expect and work towards the best. The 'work' is on both sides when you use any freelancer platform. The seller puts in the work. You also must put in the work. That means working hard to foster a good working relationship by being polite, fair, punctual/fast to respond, descriptive, accurate in describing what you are seeking, and not expecting the world when you only paid for one back alley on Liechtenstein. 🙂 I hope you have a great time on Fiverr! There are wonderful sellers and buyers here; we just need to give each a fair chance. Best, Annie.

Hi Elena, Is the gig still removed? I just saw you do have one with 221 reviews for a data scraping service. I wondered if it had been resurrected or was the removed listing for a different type of data scraping service to the one on display currently? You said it had 271 reviews but your whole profile only has 272 across various gigs. I would have thought that if Fiverr had a problem (upon manual review by customer support) with data scraping per se, they wouldn't offer a category for it. But they do--titled Data Mining & Scraping! I do understand the removal was by an annoying bot--but now, a real live person in customer support should have taken a look at your account and it's certainly odd that they removed your listing given that they offer a category for this service. I think you should keep responding on the ticket you have used via Customer Support. Just ensure you explain clearly that Fiverr offers a category for your service and that this is a general business service not in violation of any third-party terms or Fiverr terms.

I'm really sad to read this. May I ask which services and features are not available to you but have been offered to your friends and family? It must be demotivating. I'm so sorry. But take pleasure and pride in knowing that you take care of your clients the best you can. Try not to compare with friends and family if it makes you feel bad. These things do happen here but in time, if you remain dedicated to delivering high-end products and a good and consistent experience for your buyers, better things will come. Also, note that some features come and go, sometimes without us noticing; it could be that you have not been looking at your profile to see the features being applied and then taken away. For example, the cash advance comes and goes, as do the 'this seller has a high number of repeat buyer' messages. These fluctuate frequently depending on your current client satisfaction but I'm sure they will appear at some stage!

That did not answer the user's question. 🙂

@williambryan392 Someone liked your post in this thread so much, he stole it! I suggest you send him an invoice before he copies the next one as well.

Is this academic work, then? You know that's against Fiverr's Terms of Service...? So if you contacted CS about this, they might penalize you too if they think this was an assignment for college.

I just hope that when you wrote to Customer Support, you did not use the wording 'an answer to my assignment'. That sounds too much like academic work and we all know what happens then... 🙂