With so many stories of sellers feeling defeated at the hands of Fiverr buyers forcing them to do extra work and threatening negative feedback, I figured I'd share this little drama I got out of - where I beat the bad buyer, not the other way around. My tactics were a little underhanded, I'll admit, but I think you'll understand why I I did what I did once you read my story. The planets were aligned rather perfectly for this event, so don't be thinking this will be a typical thing or something you can pull off at any given time.
This particular gentleman had ordered a review (one of the planets aligning) from me, liked what he received and then wanted to use my editing services. He wanted me to edit both of his new books (seriously, what is with all these authors looking for an editor AFTER publishing? That's a no-no. Do it BEFORE!).
He wanted 187,000 words done. Sweeeet! That was 190 dollars in my pocket and would push me right into Lvl. 2 status. To sweeten the deal, I offered him twenty dollars off for a bulk order, plus another five dollars off for having already grabbed a review.
Then, he asked something strange. "I want you to suspend all your other gigs for one week and put my order on rush. I want both books in twenty days."
Okay.... "Well, that will be another fifty dollars," was my reply.
He agreed. Honestly, given that I make about 20-30 dollars a day through fiverr, I should have charged him much more. That resume gig of mine is HOT, but nobody ever leaves any feedback. Kinda irritating. Anyway.
I suspended my gigs. Regretting it a bit now. Anyway. That same night, I did three of my gigs for him for free - I created a 3D Book Mockup AND created a FB banner for him to advertise his work AND shared his work with my 25,00 FB fans another 75,000 writers and reviewers in various groups I am a member of. He was well pleased.
Now, this is where the story gets ugly.
Two days into this venture, my four year old son is playing with the cat. A car backfires outside, the cat jumps, my child jumps... And falls right down the stairs. Shatters his left arm in four places, including a compound fracture - yes, that's the one where the bone comes through the skin. My child needed three different surgeries for this accident. I was in the hospital with him for about three days. I sent a quick message to the buyer letting him know what had happened.
I came home to some very angry messages from Symon (his real name), demanding to know why I haven't delivered a few chapters yet. I told him again what had happened. His reply, and I quote: "Yeah, I'm sorry about your son, but all I'm concerned about is the deadline we agreed to. Now, if you can't behave like a professional, maybe we should do this a little differently. I will be getting my fifty dollars back for the rush order. If the order isn't done within twenty days, you will be getting negative feedback on each piece that isn't completed by that point. Oh, and if you open your gigs back up, you'll get negative feedback, too."
HOLY CRAP ARE YOU F***ING SERIOUS?
He then used his character from his book, a mobster kingpin drug dealer, to 'talk' to me. It was rather pathetic.
So, I'm stuck here. I can take TWELVE negative reviews, or finish out with a gun to my head and no compensation for it.
He cancelled two orders worth 25 dollars that same day (I was only a level 1 seller at that point) and I accepted the cancellation - what was I to do? Say no and get all negative feedback?
I ended up having finished both his books in eighteen days from when the order was placed (meaning I had done it in only fifteen days! Ha! Find another editor who can do two books in two weeks!), totaling out to 2,431 edits in 186,986 words. In mathematical terms, that many edits in that many words means that this guy can't go more than 76 words without screwing up.
He left positive feedback for all but two deliveries - early deliveries, which didn't make any sense (Here's another of the aligned planets), because he left positive feedback on his final product showing all 2,431 edits. I tell him I never want to work with him again because he's a pitiful asshole. (Didn't actually say that, mind you. Wanted to.)
He contacts me. Says he had a grammar nazi reviewer saying one of his books needed another edit. He has no idea when this guy actually read his book, so it may well have been before my edits. He says he doesn't care, that it is unacceptable for someone to say it needs an edit after I have worked it over, regardless of when it was purchased. Say what?
So he leaves two negative reviews (which are for products delivered before the final one, which makes him just look like an idiot given that he praised the final delivery and pointed out that I gave him extra. I point this out to him and he changes the reviews to say something about wishing he'd asked for a second opinion before saying everything was okay), which say I had ripped him off and lied to him. Told me if I wanted them taken down, I'd have to re-edit both books at no charge and then do his next book for half off, because he did like what I gave him.
I asked him for the review that said it needed an edit. He sent it to me.
This 'grammar nazi' reviewer had written a 363 word review and made 35 grammatical errors. Yeah. Not gonna fly with me.
I edited the review, sent it back to Symon and told him to kiss my ass, that he needed to delete the reviews or he would be hurting before the week was through. He laughed at me, and I blocked him here on Fiverr. I then contacted Fiverr and let them know that he has left false statements. Fiverr removed them and warned him about libelous material.
Instead of taking the hint, he just reposted them. Dropped my satisfaction rate on that gig down to 84% and my overall satisfaction rate down to 96%. He contacted me on FB, laughing at me, saying I would have to work with him again to get my ranking back up because now, nobody else would buy from me.
Not his best idea.
You see, I, personally, have about 25,000 fans worldwide through facebook (The most important planet in this little solar system alignment we're playing with). They don't like it when someone slights me. At this point, I had been ripped off for 50 dollars and given away about 60 dollars in product. I had taken a hit to my business, suspended my business for an entire week and gotten no sleep for two weeks solid to edit this crappy book series, all while looking after a miserable child as a single father.
So, I appealed to my fans, letting them know what this man had done.
I asked them to vote my positive review on his book up and up and up and up. Now, his book had thirty eight 5 star reviews (all paid for) when he went to bed that night. Most of them had 2 or 3 'helpful' votes. My review had 10 and was already at the top of his review list.
When he woke up, my review had 124 helpful votes and had been changed to a one star review, detailing everything he had done to me. Every helpful review had 2 or 3 helpful votes out of 60 or 70 total votes, the rest were all unhelpful votes and he had 10 or so one star reviews, all verified, blasting his book to pieces.
I got a very quick reply on FB telling me that my negative reviews had been removed, ceasefire, ceasefire, he was sorry and wouldn't contact me again, please don't desroy his writing career, it had been his dream since he was a child.
He's now under penalty of never selling another book... ever... if he tries to slander me again. I had my fans remove all their reviews, I removed mine, and the accounts that voted unhelpful were deleted so they no longer register in the helpful tally - well, most of them. At any rate, all is back to normal on his book, all is back to normal on my fiverr account.
This particular gentleman had ordered a review (one of the planets aligning) from me, liked what he received and then wanted to use my editing services. He wanted me to edit both of his new books (seriously, what is with all these authors looking for an editor AFTER publishing? That's a no-no. Do it BEFORE!).
He wanted 187,000 words done. Sweeeet! That was 190 dollars in my pocket and would push me right into Lvl. 2 status. To sweeten the deal, I offered him twenty dollars off for a bulk order, plus another five dollars off for having already grabbed a review.
Then, he asked something strange. "I want you to suspend all your other gigs for one week and put my order on rush. I want both books in twenty days."
Okay.... "Well, that will be another fifty dollars," was my reply.
He agreed. Honestly, given that I make about 20-30 dollars a day through fiverr, I should have charged him much more. That resume gig of mine is HOT, but nobody ever leaves any feedback. Kinda irritating. Anyway.
I suspended my gigs. Regretting it a bit now. Anyway. That same night, I did three of my gigs for him for free - I created a 3D Book Mockup AND created a FB banner for him to advertise his work AND shared his work with my 25,00 FB fans another 75,000 writers and reviewers in various groups I am a member of. He was well pleased.
Now, this is where the story gets ugly.
Two days into this venture, my four year old son is playing with the cat. A car backfires outside, the cat jumps, my child jumps... And falls right down the stairs. Shatters his left arm in four places, including a compound fracture - yes, that's the one where the bone comes through the skin. My child needed three different surgeries for this accident. I was in the hospital with him for about three days. I sent a quick message to the buyer letting him know what had happened.
I came home to some very angry messages from Symon (his real name), demanding to know why I haven't delivered a few chapters yet. I told him again what had happened. His reply, and I quote: "Yeah, I'm sorry about your son, but all I'm concerned about is the deadline we agreed to. Now, if you can't behave like a professional, maybe we should do this a little differently. I will be getting my fifty dollars back for the rush order. If the order isn't done within twenty days, you will be getting negative feedback on each piece that isn't completed by that point. Oh, and if you open your gigs back up, you'll get negative feedback, too."
HOLY CRAP ARE YOU F***ING SERIOUS?
He then used his character from his book, a mobster kingpin drug dealer, to 'talk' to me. It was rather pathetic.
So, I'm stuck here. I can take TWELVE negative reviews, or finish out with a gun to my head and no compensation for it.
He cancelled two orders worth 25 dollars that same day (I was only a level 1 seller at that point) and I accepted the cancellation - what was I to do? Say no and get all negative feedback?
I ended up having finished both his books in eighteen days from when the order was placed (meaning I had done it in only fifteen days! Ha! Find another editor who can do two books in two weeks!), totaling out to 2,431 edits in 186,986 words. In mathematical terms, that many edits in that many words means that this guy can't go more than 76 words without screwing up.
He left positive feedback for all but two deliveries - early deliveries, which didn't make any sense (Here's another of the aligned planets), because he left positive feedback on his final product showing all 2,431 edits. I tell him I never want to work with him again because he's a pitiful asshole. (Didn't actually say that, mind you. Wanted to.)
He contacts me. Says he had a grammar nazi reviewer saying one of his books needed another edit. He has no idea when this guy actually read his book, so it may well have been before my edits. He says he doesn't care, that it is unacceptable for someone to say it needs an edit after I have worked it over, regardless of when it was purchased. Say what?
So he leaves two negative reviews (which are for products delivered before the final one, which makes him just look like an idiot given that he praised the final delivery and pointed out that I gave him extra. I point this out to him and he changes the reviews to say something about wishing he'd asked for a second opinion before saying everything was okay), which say I had ripped him off and lied to him. Told me if I wanted them taken down, I'd have to re-edit both books at no charge and then do his next book for half off, because he did like what I gave him.
I asked him for the review that said it needed an edit. He sent it to me.
This 'grammar nazi' reviewer had written a 363 word review and made 35 grammatical errors. Yeah. Not gonna fly with me.
I edited the review, sent it back to Symon and told him to kiss my ass, that he needed to delete the reviews or he would be hurting before the week was through. He laughed at me, and I blocked him here on Fiverr. I then contacted Fiverr and let them know that he has left false statements. Fiverr removed them and warned him about libelous material.
Instead of taking the hint, he just reposted them. Dropped my satisfaction rate on that gig down to 84% and my overall satisfaction rate down to 96%. He contacted me on FB, laughing at me, saying I would have to work with him again to get my ranking back up because now, nobody else would buy from me.
Not his best idea.
You see, I, personally, have about 25,000 fans worldwide through facebook (The most important planet in this little solar system alignment we're playing with). They don't like it when someone slights me. At this point, I had been ripped off for 50 dollars and given away about 60 dollars in product. I had taken a hit to my business, suspended my business for an entire week and gotten no sleep for two weeks solid to edit this crappy book series, all while looking after a miserable child as a single father.
So, I appealed to my fans, letting them know what this man had done.
I asked them to vote my positive review on his book up and up and up and up. Now, his book had thirty eight 5 star reviews (all paid for) when he went to bed that night. Most of them had 2 or 3 'helpful' votes. My review had 10 and was already at the top of his review list.
When he woke up, my review had 124 helpful votes and had been changed to a one star review, detailing everything he had done to me. Every helpful review had 2 or 3 helpful votes out of 60 or 70 total votes, the rest were all unhelpful votes and he had 10 or so one star reviews, all verified, blasting his book to pieces.
I got a very quick reply on FB telling me that my negative reviews had been removed, ceasefire, ceasefire, he was sorry and wouldn't contact me again, please don't desroy his writing career, it had been his dream since he was a child.
He's now under penalty of never selling another book... ever... if he tries to slander me again. I had my fans remove all their reviews, I removed mine, and the accounts that voted unhelpful were deleted so they no longer register in the helpful tally - well, most of them. At any rate, all is back to normal on his book, all is back to normal on my fiverr account.