Sigh, where do I begin.
I'm a relatively successful seller, and usually always have orders in my queue. However I'm becoming more and more disillusioned by the 'support' that fiverr offers to sellers.
Example A)
Buyer with VERY poor English messages me asking about my service, and if I would knock 50% off the price, if I would give him free extra-fast delivery, and finally, if I would provide him with free gig extras. Naturally, I declined all 3 requests as it's unfair on other customers.
Buyer then orders my CV/resume proofreading/editing gig, leaves a very short instruction saying "make this better please". I ask him to clarify what he would like doing, which he eventually does, and I start work. I then proceed to deliver the work, complete with suggestions, ideas, and comments to further improve his CV. Then he rejects my delivery saying the standard of the work isn't up to scratch, and claims that I've ruined his style, namely, the "windmill" style. I proceed to tell him that such a style doesn't exist, and he had what's known as a 'functional' CV, which isn't applicable to him as he isn't changing job industry. Again, he reiterates that he has, and I quote "the windmill style" which is now ruined. After more digging, I find out that "windmill" is actually a website that offers basic CV advice to overseas clients, and he has followed one of their templates (albeit completely incorrectly).
I try to make him understand that the style I sent to him would get him a much better response rate (keeping in mind he's from Saudi Arabia, and is coming to the UK with very limited local knowledge). He remains angry, telling me that I'm actually not from the UK, and I must be from somewhere else. Again, I remain calm and offer him revisions if he tells me exactly what he thinks needs changing. The client then proceeds to send me a job link, and tells me to tailor his CV to that specific role (which is a gig extra for $20 that he did not pay for). I explain in simple terms that I can't complete work for free, and if he wanted that extra, he should've paid for it, and reiterated the fact that I would complete revisions on the work he has paid for. 20 minutes later, I received a negative review:
"Used American English even though my cv British!. Very obvious grammar mistakes! overestimated his abilities. I don't think he is British. In the result I just binned 35$."
I asked him to provide evidence of me misusing my own language, which he couldn't do. I asked for evidence of mistakes, which he couldn't provide. Basically, he lied, and never wanted to spend $35 in the first place.
Example B)
Buyer contacts me, again with very little information, and says "Hi, Please find the attached CV best Regards" - nothing more. I proceed to proofread and edit the CV, and subsequently make it grammatically sound. The buyer asks me to send him the CV in a PDF format, which I don't normally do as it requires more formatting, but again, I happily obliged. One month later, after no contact from the buyer I receive this negative review: "I expected something better !". I've contacted the buyer with no response.
How can you expect something better, when you received EXACTLY what you paid for? If a buyer pointed out a single mistake to me, I'd happily refund them and let them keep the work, as it would be my own fault. However in both scenarios, not a single mistake was pointed out.
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I contacted fiverr support with both negatives and fully explained the situations (as above), and was bluntly told "you must get the buyers permission in order for us to change the feedback". Not only is this pathetically flawed (basically, refund the buyer or tough), but also, neither buyer has responded to me!
How does fiverr seriously expect honest, genuine sellers to stick around if they can't adequately protect them from blatant fraud? If fiverr wants to run a trusted online marketplace, they REALLY need to do more to protect us from this type of abuse.
~Daniel
I'm a relatively successful seller, and usually always have orders in my queue. However I'm becoming more and more disillusioned by the 'support' that fiverr offers to sellers.
Example A)
Buyer with VERY poor English messages me asking about my service, and if I would knock 50% off the price, if I would give him free extra-fast delivery, and finally, if I would provide him with free gig extras. Naturally, I declined all 3 requests as it's unfair on other customers.
Buyer then orders my CV/resume proofreading/editing gig, leaves a very short instruction saying "make this better please". I ask him to clarify what he would like doing, which he eventually does, and I start work. I then proceed to deliver the work, complete with suggestions, ideas, and comments to further improve his CV. Then he rejects my delivery saying the standard of the work isn't up to scratch, and claims that I've ruined his style, namely, the "windmill" style. I proceed to tell him that such a style doesn't exist, and he had what's known as a 'functional' CV, which isn't applicable to him as he isn't changing job industry. Again, he reiterates that he has, and I quote "the windmill style" which is now ruined. After more digging, I find out that "windmill" is actually a website that offers basic CV advice to overseas clients, and he has followed one of their templates (albeit completely incorrectly).
I try to make him understand that the style I sent to him would get him a much better response rate (keeping in mind he's from Saudi Arabia, and is coming to the UK with very limited local knowledge). He remains angry, telling me that I'm actually not from the UK, and I must be from somewhere else. Again, I remain calm and offer him revisions if he tells me exactly what he thinks needs changing. The client then proceeds to send me a job link, and tells me to tailor his CV to that specific role (which is a gig extra for $20 that he did not pay for). I explain in simple terms that I can't complete work for free, and if he wanted that extra, he should've paid for it, and reiterated the fact that I would complete revisions on the work he has paid for. 20 minutes later, I received a negative review:
"Used American English even though my cv British!. Very obvious grammar mistakes! overestimated his abilities. I don't think he is British. In the result I just binned 35$."
I asked him to provide evidence of me misusing my own language, which he couldn't do. I asked for evidence of mistakes, which he couldn't provide. Basically, he lied, and never wanted to spend $35 in the first place.
Example B)
Buyer contacts me, again with very little information, and says "Hi, Please find the attached CV best Regards" - nothing more. I proceed to proofread and edit the CV, and subsequently make it grammatically sound. The buyer asks me to send him the CV in a PDF format, which I don't normally do as it requires more formatting, but again, I happily obliged. One month later, after no contact from the buyer I receive this negative review: "I expected something better !". I've contacted the buyer with no response.
How can you expect something better, when you received EXACTLY what you paid for? If a buyer pointed out a single mistake to me, I'd happily refund them and let them keep the work, as it would be my own fault. However in both scenarios, not a single mistake was pointed out.
-----
I contacted fiverr support with both negatives and fully explained the situations (as above), and was bluntly told "you must get the buyers permission in order for us to change the feedback". Not only is this pathetically flawed (basically, refund the buyer or tough), but also, neither buyer has responded to me!
How does fiverr seriously expect honest, genuine sellers to stick around if they can't adequately protect them from blatant fraud? If fiverr wants to run a trusted online marketplace, they REALLY need to do more to protect us from this type of abuse.
~Daniel