moonstaredits

Absolutely. We already have to wait 15 days for the funds' clearance. Some people calculate the income that they should be getting out of their businesses around tight schedules. It's not fair for an order to be prolonged indefinitely and for free. We definitely need to charge an extra amount for the wait, to compensate the uncertainty we may experience with this feature.

Well I haven't had any orders placed out of the blue, I do ask in my gig description to contact me first to avoid any misunderstandings (I don't know why someone can get a service as simple as mine misunderstood, but things happen). I specify very clearly the scope in my gig. However there are always (mostly Spanish speakers, so I guess that the automatic translation doesn't quite gives them the information correctly) buyers who ask "what do you do?" "What are the prices?" "What does this package includes?". That led me to read again and again my gig to find out why the message is not coming across. Spoiler: I didn't find why, everything's clear for me. I just resorted to make a quick response with my gig information in Spanish. It gets tiring to answer obvious things manually. Maybe create a quick response and that's it? Now Fiverr doesn't let the orders that are mistakenly placed affect your cancellation rate, so there's no reason to worry as much as before.

I had a few ones like that. One of them asked me if I could edit erotic content. Another one ask me to proofread a thesis. As soon as I said the "magic words", they just went "oh ok thanks" and I didn't even block them, they just didn't write again. It would be great to have AI undercover buyers to see the seller's behavior in the most primal state 😂

I think it's because of the approach they gave to them. @newsmikeidea with the AI seems a lot better.

Definitely. Or at least they should be able to take a test before being eligible for making a gig in the category... Something that weeds out the untalented, unqualified people occupying a place in the search results they should not be occupying (the algorithm kinda does this, but as we know is not enough).

I agree with that. I know people who freelance off and online (not in Fiverr) who do exactly that. We should have more freedom and not those neverending disputes of reviews, revisions and cancelations.

In translation websites, you can't sign up anymore in certain language combinations (English-Spanish, for example) because the marketplace is saturated. They should implement that too in some categories. It's no secret some categories have more untalented people because the tasks they do are way too easy and people think they can get a piece of the cake with no qualification. If you have a certain amount of sellers making x quantity of sales and only x quantity of buyers, you don't need more sellers to sign up and saturate the market even more. Another idea...

A credit card and an ID is not that big of a deal, in some marketplaces you can't buy unless you use a credit card. Using the buyer's real name instead of an username also gives me more trust they're legit. They DEFINITELY need to do something about buyers. Sellers don't even come close to how horrible and fraudulent a lot of buyers are. I know, but not even the milestone gigs (which start at 100$) are free from this tactic, I heard it from sellers here on the forum who delivered tiresome, expensive orders only to be surprised with a cancellation at the end. Some buyers benefit a lot from Fiverr's system and retaliate in ways they shouldn't be able to (they can leave a negative private review after you as a seller give them a bad rating, or they can use the good old one "I'm not satisfied with what I got so I'm going to cancel and the ToS now support my shitty behavior"). The most entitled buyer I had is the one who payed the most for my gig, so here I go again with my point, the amount of money they're willing to spend is not the issue. Entitlement and rudeness should not be forgiven by Fiverr, not even in buyers. Communications should always be kept professional and mature. This buyer I mentioned was childish and pushy, and very rude. Sellers deserve to be aware of how buyers perform (Seller Plus has this option, but I would like all sellers did).

Maybe 5$ is nothing in your country on a monthly basis, but in my country (specially to get them in my PayPal account, because the exchange rate is higher for PayPal in my country's currency) it's A LOT to have a gig that only gets the occasional sale. My gig doesn't have an exploding amount of orders not because of my performance, but because the niche I choose to work in is not the kind that gets a lot of orders itself (top sellers in my niche aren't even close to make the numbers of the sellers of SEO, writing, social media posts, etc). I would rather pay 30-40$ for a year subscription, if I don't do any significant amount throughout the year maybe I would not pay the next year, but I can't guarantee that I would make more than 5$ each month to cover the hypothetical fee. Maybe instead of that, Fiverr should be starting to get rid of those gigs with fake advertising (you know, the ones who sell voice acting but offer TTS), gigs with no sales ever or in a year period, those with copyrighted content (I'm surprised to see how lenient Fiverr is with people using KFC logo and the face of Mr. Beast or Elon Musk), etc. Another big purge is needed. That would be the real way to clean their image and reputation. After that, yes, some other changes can be made and you guys have excellent ideas, but first things first.

We honest sellers and buyers are the shopkeeper in this metaphor. Everyone would have a reason to steal and not work then. Even myself. Coming from an undeveloped country I hear a lot of people justifying criminals (thieves, mostly), with the exact same excuse. I never felt sympathy for those who decide to steal because I also had a hard life and didn't resort to be a criminal to gain money. They just want easy things for free. Same as dishonest sellers here. There are no excuses that can justify something you know it's wrong.

All of this situation boils down to this. They prefer to listen to everyone else but respectable sellers with years having an outstanding performance on the site. Can they really prove the gurus they watch on YouTube or read in the forum have the experience and expertise they say they do? If they do, why most of those gurus advise to do fraudulent things, like reselling? I hope more people realize Fiverr won't make you rich having zero abilities, because this is why this would happen again and again. The sooner the better.

Well I don't think it's possible under the Fiverr system. But yes, that would be decisive to know they're truly sorry. I bet all that money is spent anyways.

I would like to say that I'm sorry about what happened to you all, but I can't. The reason why only people 18 and older can sign up on Fiverr is because there is a contract of sorts when they do, like it would be in any other job. That "contract" would be the terms of service. I know many of us don't really pay attention to ToS in other websites we use, but best believe I did when I signed up here. I was conscious there was money and work involved, so I knew it was a serious thing. Don't put the blame on others, you're an adult. You don't need to read the ToS to know the things you all did were fraudulent. But if your common sense is not enough to know it, take this as a lesson for next time: you should read the ToS (specially if you want to make a living out of this website). You can't expect to do whatever you want and get no consequences.

But you can't expect to buy in total anonymity. What for? In what marketplace they don't ask you for ID's, credit cards and more? PayPal offers no real way to verify someone's identify. If you're a legit buyer I need to know as a seller that you are, and as a website, I need to know that you will not try to rip off the company's money with fraudulent refunds. It could be a bummer for buyers but that's precisely the point of it. I also made that point. If they have a high budget they come looking for other kind of sellers. But some sellers have gigs where a 5$ price is reasonable, as they don't need to ask for more, they offer good quality service and some legit buyers are looking for them. Hence my point about the price not being the main issue here, but other things that are not being addressed to the extent they should be.

As @vickieitosaid, Seller Plus already has that. But I would be more than glad if all sellers could access that information about buyers. Our payment can't be this volatile. You should report them if they told you they plan on scamming sellers. It is not allowed on Fiverr, obviously. Maybe with some luck you can get your money back if you can prove they're scammers and you did nothing wrong. The kind of service you offer is pretty much defenseless against buyers who run away with your work (aka scammers). Maybe try to send the file ready to use instead of an editable one? If it's an image or video it has Fiverr's watermark until the buyer accepts the order. Sometimes this doesn't stop fraudulent "buyers" from asking for a refund later, but makes things more difficult for them because once you accept an order is somewhat implicit you're content with the delivery you got, therefore making a case against the seller less possible to win.

There's no turning back now. Read the terms of service again.

I get the points you made. All websites dedicated to freelancing have their downsides. The nature of not being able to see face to face the person you're making business with makes all of this happen. However Fiverr must find a way of stopping the scams, and I'm sure the price of the gigs is not the issue that's stopping the potential of the site. At the end of the day most of the transactions resulting from scams will lead to one or two unsatisfied users and the money will need to be reimbursed anyways, no win for anyone there.

Precisely my point. Thank you!

Thank you for such an interesting topic. In my opinion the problem is not the 5$ tag. Not even the unskilled people from third-world countries trying their luck in the site. The problem is Fiverr doesn't check your qualifications. Sure, they have the tests, but that's not enough. They need to make these mandatory: tests for every gig category to really prove how skilled you are in it, language tests, uploading certificates and college diplomas or at least something that proves you are the student/professional you claim to be, a portfolio (5 past works, even if they are mocks) and adding some bank info (no matter if you choose to get paid with PayPal.). The greatest weakness of Fiverr and the reason they are the quintessential website for scam sellers is the poor filters they have when people sign up. Other freelance websites ask you for a portfolio or certificates that prove your identity, and they take some time to verify it. Not even a paywall would stop people that steal from others. There are resellers, for example. They already have some money to "invest" when they outsource their work. The only reasonable way to stop them was adding a rule to the ToS that prohibits selling services you bought from another seller "as they are". Scam buyers also have money beforehand. Oh, I wanted to add something to the low prices and the freelancers from third-world countries. I am from Venezuela. Inflation here is off the charts. I offered my gig at a starting price of 5$ when I joined Fiverr, and back in 2020 the 4$ I got from a sale would be useful for me. Not anymore, thanks to inflation. Also I got the reviews I needed to have, so a 5$ price was bringing me more trouble than good. I raised my prices. Some people from third-world countries are in fact skilled enough to offer a gig for a fair price. They just don't because buyers tend to be wary of them, or because they need to build a proper reputation first with the low prices on the site to get somewhere. Some, like I did, don't have Fiverr as a main source of income, or they are students looking for some extra money while they put a portfolio together. All those categories of people I mentioned will offer good quality service in exchange of a low rate just because they don't need anything else. Cheap buyers that come after those services need to be purged as well. They should have also an identity verification and no anonymity. We sellers need to be certain too that we're not going to be scammed with the good old refund method. But most importantly, if Fiverr hasn't removed the 5$ tier is because they get a lot of income out of it. They are not going to drop it anytime soon. I get your point that they can't be both a cheap and a high quality marketplace, but I disagree. There are buyers and sellers for everything. A website is smart enough if they acknowledge that and offer both cheap and expensive services. If I were a buyer, if I came looking for a Pro seller, I am going to buy from them even if I see the site offers way lower prices, as long as I get the high-end service I payed for. If I came looking for low prices and get sh***y work, well, I deserve what I ended up getting. The bad buyers and sellers don't originate from the low prices per se. Is the lack of a verification process that makes scammers thrive here. Raising the price won't make a significant difference if they don't address the underlying issues.

Is that the final delivery? Did you accept it? If you did, there's nothing else you can do except asking for a refund of your money. Fiverr makes sure the seller sends what they promised, and that the buyer gets what they payed for. If those conditions aren't met, you can talk to Customer Support. But I do recommend you to be more patient. The website is still in the making. Also, don't know how you got nothing for your money on your first experience... That's not how Fiverr works, and usually the buyer is favored so, maybe research a little more what options do you have in case the seller doesn't send you what you needed.

Um, you gave us a lot to unpack here. Is it your gigs, your millionaire dreams or your relationship life? My goodness... Hope you are okay. I agree. Reeks of desperation and being an intense, pushy man is creepy even in movies, let alone real life. I know for sure insisting does not work with me. And most girls who gave an opportunity to the intense guy regret it... I don't really know what to say, really, OP left me confused...

I am from Venezuela. We make a dessert with green papaya in a spiced syrup. It's tasty, but it's not my cup of tea. It's called dulce de lechosa. We were very influenced by the European immigrants in the XX century, so we incorporated panettone and nougat as a holiday desserts. They even import them during December. My favorite ones are panettone al cioccolato and the soft almond nougat. This is the almond nougat I had here, sadly this year is way too pricey for me to buy one... It doesn't help with the occasional pimples I get either 😅

It definitely has something to do with the pandemic, when the platform was flooded with new sellers. I signed up in 2020 myself, because I had a very difficult situation in my house and country economic wise. A great deal of those people from the past two years aren't even using scamming methods, they're just mediocre, have no talent and want to get rich doing things anyone could do and deceive buyers faking their qualifications. It's normal for a buyer to feel scammed and abused, but it's still not a scam in the purest form, just bad quality work for a cheap price (could you expect better from 5$ rates for 2000 written words or 5 minutes of video? Likely not.,) As a general rule, stay away from things that are way too cheap. That's logical even in real life, not just in Fiverr. Or if you still want to order something cheap, the quality of the seller's profile, images, videos, portfolio and reviews may tell you whether you should or not.

Oh, I see... I would have to check. Now I have a perfect excuse to refuse working with resellers (if they ever tell me they are).

If you did everything according to what you offered in your gig, you should report this to CS. It seems like the buyer is trying to scam you.