lenasemenkova

Hi, @Kesha Can I ask my old regular buyer why she stopped leaving reviews? Or will it get me a warning? We’ve been working together for 5-6 years and she would review every order (with a couple exceptions). It’s around 100 reviews in total and during this race to 4.9* a few extra trusted 5* a month wouldn’t hurt. She stopped reviewing immediately after the new system was introduced. So she’s either turned off by the new rating system, saw the options, and figured that I was “pretty good” but not “spectacular” and is trying not to hurt my feelings or is not allowed by Fiverr to review anymore (because 100+ reviews it’s suspicious, gaming the system, etc., etc.) I’m just so curious about what happened, it drives me insane.

Also, speaking of Value for Money. Someone just declined my $130 offer after seeing all the Fiverr fees added on top. My offer was perfectly within the budget and they were happy with the price.

Oh god, can you imagine? The new review system is so cool and convenient that multiple regular buyers of mine stopped leaving reviews immediately after it was introduced. They’ll just leave a message that everything’s great but won’t review anymore. And I can’t even ask them what’s the issue. PS Looks like the new buyers leave reviews less frequently as well now.

Are we sure that it’s specifically a “value for money issue” and not the final, 3rd metric issue when the buyer just gives up on clicking things at some point? I looked through most if not all of my 4.7* reviews (old system and new) and all of them are missing the final 5th star in the 3rd row (where Value for Money currently is and Service as Described and Recommend to a Friend used to be). Except for the orders where there was a miscommunication of some sort and the buyer took care to leave 4* in the first row specifically (where the Communication metric was).

I hope that this *negative impact* comes into play when the order takes a lot of revisions (5+?) Most of my orders take 1-2, sometimes 0 but it’s rare and I haven’t suffered any negative impact yet so maaaybee a revision or two is fine? I’m trying to be optimistic. If you have buyers who like to “play around” too much, I’d either repeatedly stress that you don’t do unlimited revisions or start turning these buyers away.

In any visual medium, some buyers just love revisions “to play around”. It’s like a fun game to them and it’s an exciting and expected part of the creative process. It doesn’t mean that their business is suffering and it doesn’t make me a terrible seller if I oblige. I’m sure Fiverr representatives have bought a logo or a postcard for grandma at least once in their lives. In fact, a Fiverr representative ordered a social media ad from me directly once and kept coming back to revise the dates because they couldn’t get them approved by the Fiverr higher-ups. They *know* how the design process naturally works, what are they doing?

Wonderful. The unlimited revisions enthusiasts, buyers, and sellers alike are going to be so happy to hear this*. * My average is 1-2 revisions per order. Having 0 revisions is nearly impossible, everybody likes to tweak the copy once they see it laid out within the design. Something that I noticed as well is that some regular buyers have stopped leaving reviews altogether as soon as the *new and improved* review system was introduced. I get fewer reviews, period. The new reviews are so helpful and awesome that buyers, especially the trusted ones, are actively avoiding them. Which will for sure get my profile to 4.7* and beyond quicker.

So, essentially, Fiverr is gently nudging everyone to make a ‘request to order’ the norm, yes? That’s the only way to guarantee that every seller has all the required information before the order is started. Someone mentioned it before but Fiverr seems to be overly invested in creating the atmosphere of animosity between buyers and sellers for no reason. It was already extremely annoying when a buyer would place an order and go: “I’m working on the text, it’ll be ready once I’m back from a holiday, byeee”. How am I supposed to feel now, when I know that I’m stuck with this buyer and there is no way for me to get out of the situation unscathed at all? I can’t even tell them that they’re screwing me over without meaning to because it’d be “manipulating the buyer”. All of this is just so bleak.

Fiverr has quietly removed the option to block bad buyers if they never messaged you via the inbox (as bad buyers often do). I tried recently, but there is no way.

* I also think I’m in the process of getting a cancelation after the delivery which looks to be the mortal sin metrics-wise. What a timely manner to test this new canceled orders review feature, good for me. I’ll let you know how painful it's going to be.

I hope Fiverr reconsiders this idea of using the resolution center for any reason = conflict. It affected two of my gigs. They are relatively new and rarely sell so I remember every order. One buyer ordered 24-hour delivery, left out the crucial information for me to start working, and went to bed. I woke up with half of the time already gone, reached out, and the buyer apologized, provided the information and said that, in fact, the order was not too urgent and we could extend the deadline for another 24 hours. Another left out crucial information which led to the delivery being not at all what they expected. I talked them out of a cancellation and remade the design for free. I struggle to see how these “conflicts” are 1) my fault, 2) something that requires me “to grow” as a professional, and 3) something I should be penalized for. If Fiverr doesn’t want the sellers to use the resolution center at all (since requiring to use it for any reason will be considered our fault automatically), please add the big red flashing notification next to it. DO NOT TOUCH IT, DO NOT GO THERE. Yes, we added it here “for your convenience” but trust us, there will be nothing convenient about the consequences. For example, “Extend the delivery time” is now separated from the Resolution Center by design and it kind of gives off the impression that Fiverr *welcomes* me to use it if I feel like I’ll do a better job if I spend a bit more time on the order. Due to this design choice, I started to use it more frequently. And it turned out it was a trap all along.

😞 I wish Fiverr would just chill for a sec. I wish we could go back to 2017 for a day. “What would you like us to improve to make your experience better? Give us the username of that buyer who's harassing you, we’ll get rid of them..." The simpler times.

So what do we do with the gigs that are impossible to “improve”? Just get rid of them asap? I got this one only because my success manager told me it’s always a great idea to have more gigs. 4 sales in 1.5 years, 3 5* reviews, and one buyer chose not to leave a rating. The same buyer forgot to mention a crucial piece of information about what they wanted me to do, then went straight for a cancelation after seeing the delivery. I talked them out of the cancelation and remade the entire piece for free, yay me and my conflict resolution skills. Also, my patience. Especially my patience. That alone deserves at least a 9*, yet it’s the only 8/10 gig I ended up having. I can’t promote it. Even if I could, the potential to turn it into a 7/10 gig with the tiniest wrong move is quite high. Oh dear, what now.

Let it just hang in here until all these 4* I’ve been so generously blessed with in recent weeks haven’t caught up with me.

It’ll be great. I can feel it. No profile will look suspicious, confusing, or contradictory ever again.