Dealing With Scam Sellers on Fiverr

Fiverr has been full of scam sellers lately. The problem is that a lot of buyers are expecting the worst from every seller—and when they don’t get exactly what they want (even for understandable reasons) they’re claiming that they’re being scammed.

I’m going to write another post next week about spotting scam sellers, but right now I’m going to cover what you should do when you find out your seller on Fiverr is a scammer.

Remain Polite and Try to Work It Out

Don’t instantly jump to it being a scam. There are a number of reasons for a seller to not deliver exactly as expected.

First of all, check the gig description again. Is there something that you missed? Maybe the seller specifically states that he wouldn’t do the exact thing you’re asking for, and gave you an option through the gig page to avoid a cancellation. Life could have actually gotten in the way (it does happen!). Oh and check Fiverr’s Twitter feed to see if there has been a problem with the website!

Stay polite the whole time—it shows that you want to work it out and are willing to give the seller the benefit of the doubt.

Why Haven’t You Gotten What You Asked For?

Ask the seller why he hasn’t given you what you paid for. This is something to do if you can’t spot the reason or the seller didn’t get in touch with you about it.

Again remain polite but you need to get firm. If you believe that you haven’t received as you expected, you need to make that really clear.

Avoid leaving negative feedback at this time. It’s important to discuss your beliefs with the seller and give him the chance to message you back.

Reject the Delivery

There is a “request modification” button. If you really believe you didn’t get as you expected, click on this and request the seller modifies the delivery. This is going to send a message to the seller to say that you don’t agree with the thing he’s sent through.

Make your reason for the delivery very clear. If you didn’t get something you expected, then state your belief, what you expected and question the seller.

If the seller keeps delivering the same thing, keep rejecting it until you make a decision over what you want to do.

Note: You have three days to request that modification. After that, the order will automatically complete.

Ask for a Refund

You have the right to ask for a refund if you haven’t received your delivery. Now, it will need to be a mutual cancellation that you send through, and you have to wait for the seller to accept it.

Most scam sellers will try to reject the cancellation and force you to accept the delivery. You have two choices here: you can leave negative feedback or contact support to cancel your order. Of course, you could do both—that is your prerogative. For real scam sellers, I would suggest that you do this.

Don’t Leave Feedback Right Away

You don’t need to leave feedback as soon as you receive the delivery. There are times that I’d suggest you hold back and wait for a few days, especially if you’re buying SEO gigs. The internet marketing gigs are where most of the scam sellers are.

Once you leave feedback, you have 7 days to change or remove it. Once those 7 days are up, that’s it; it is there forever whether it’s honest or not. Only support can remove it afterwards. Let it auto-complete if you’re not sure and then wait a few days to see how your delivery works out. You can then leave negative feedback and talk to support about getting a refund if you need to.

Report the Seller

Finally, make sure you report that scam seller to Fiverr support. This is really important because it’s the only way the website is aware that there are problem sellers. Asking for a cancellation is not enough.

Now, please do make sure that this is a scam seller. You don’t want to attack an innocent seller just because you didn’t get what you expected or wanted if there was a good reason for it.

You won’t find out what action is taken to the seller. You can keep checking though to see if the seller has had his gig removed or even the whole account.

Have you come across a scam seller on Fiverr? Why not share how you dealt with the situation or what you’d do in the future?

What to Do When a Fiverr Buyer Threatens You

What would you do if a buyer threatened you?

I recently found myself in a difficult position. I had a Fiverr buyer threaten to leave negative feedback that wasn’t true unless I gave him a refund.

Now, I’d done the work and delivered according to his instructions and my Fiverr gig descriptions. The problem was that he wanted something more after delivering it and expected it for free. His instructions weren’t exactly clear to start with, but due to the way Fiverr is set up I had to start work and hope for the best.

So, what should you do when you’re threatened by a buyer on Fiverr?

Inform Customer Support

The first thing I did was to inform customer support. I don’t expect them to do much—I’ve heard of them not doing anything and most of the time siding with the buyer—but they need to know.

They’ve not gotten back to me yet, but I’m ready to throw their Terms of Service at them and get them to give me a straight answer why they’re not upholding their end of the deal. Not sure what it will do, but it’s worth a try.

I recommend anybody who has a threatening buyer to do this.

Don’t Give In!

Please don’t give into the threats. I’ve seen it all the time, even on the forums, of people being advised to allow the cancellation to go through. I chose to take the negative hit because I will not let a buyer get away with this sort of behaviour.

What made me really mad is that this buyer is a fellow seller (or at least used to be, but now has an 86% rating). He should know the way that Fiverr works and still went about in this uncool way.

The only time I could see someone now wanting to take the negative hit is because they’re just starting out. If you are just starting out, I’d suggest doing anything you can to avoid the negative. However, please contact support first and get them on your side if you can!

Are You in the Wrong?

Look at it subjectively first. Could you possibly be in the wrong?

I did this and was ready to apologise and make right if I was. However, I read over the instructions again and looked through the delivered work three or four times before deciding that there was nothing more I could do. I delivered as requested the first time round.

If you really believe you have delivered to the best of your ability and according to the instructions, don’t give in.

If you know that you could have done better but can’t do anything about it, accept the cancellation and move on.

Post a Polite Reply

You have the opportunity to tell your side of the story. Do it but do it positively.

I went straight online to explain the reality. It was nothing to do with quality—as the buyer suggested—it was to do with the buyer expecting more.

Remain polite at all times. Never ever show that you’re angry with the buyer. That looks bad on you to prospective buyers in the future. Explain what you tried to do to correct it and what the problem was. You have to leave a short message though because you don’t get much room!

I’m really hoping my 800+ positives will make up for this negative. The problem is its sitting at the top right now. I really need some of my buyers who I’ve delivered for over the past couple of days to come in and leave some positive reviews to push this one down.

What would you do if you had a threatening buyer? Leave your comments below!

Fiverr Blog Ideas: What Can You Blog About?

Starting a Fiverr blog is a great way to promote your gigs on the site. I love using my blog because I can go into details about problems that I’ve faced as a buyer and a seller on the website.

However, you may be struggling for Fiverr blog ideas. What exactly should you or can you blog about? You want to offer help, but at the same time you want to encourage people to buy your gig. Well, here are a few ideas I have to offer:

Tell Your Fiverr Story

Start off by telling your Fiverr story. This is a great way to introduce yourself to the people who will read your blog and let them know you experience on the site.

Don’t be scared if you’re new. Being a newbie on the website is great. You can share your tips for promoting and getting customers from the start and your views of the website as it is for new people right there and then. You’ll also be able to share the Fiverr gigs that you’re buying to help with promotion and whether you recommend them.

If you’re starting it with experience on the site already, that’s powerful too. You show that you know how the site works, and you’ll be offering tips based on that experience and knowledge.

Share Your Gig Tips

I tend to share tips for Fiverr gigs. As a Top Rated Seller, I’ve been through the long-haul that it takes to get there, built my sales up and gotten to the point where I earn a part-time living on the website. All this experience and knowledge has built up and it’s time to give something back.

There are a few tips that you might want to offer are:

·         For promotion

·         About the forum

·         About seller etiquette

·         For buyers

·         About creating gig descriptions

·         For handling feedback

Review Other Sellers

Something that I haven’t done yet is reviewing other sellers. This is a great way to create a network, which could serve you well in the future. When reviewing other sellers, you need to give them a try. Now the choice is whether you want to try and get them to offer their services for free for your review or if you pay for something you need and then offer a review afterwards—there are pros and cons to both and only you can decide what you really want to do.

The former is more likely possible with newer sellers. They want to get the word out that they are good. However, those Top Rated Sellers probably won’t bother; they’re already getting the sales and have their own methods of promotion. You will need to do the latter if you want their services.

Don’t buy from your competition—at least not maliciously. You may be looking for someone in the same work so you can try and create a network or find someone to recommend when you have too much work. When this is the case, you’ll want to contact the seller first to explain your motives to put them at ease.

I’d suggest trying out services that work well with your own. So, for me it would be image creation or video gigs. They’d work well with writing. I have used eBook cover gigs in the past to help with my personal projects when I just haven’t had the time.

Advice for Fiverr Users

Finally, think about offering advice for your Fiverr users. You may have come across a problem and want to cover what you did. You may have seen a situation on the Fiverr forum and want to share your advice for handling it.

This needs to be clear that it is your advice. It’s also worth pointing out why you’ve come up with this advice so people trust you.

There’s a few Fiverr blog ideas. Mix and match between them and attract people who are more likely to want your gig.

Do you need more help with a Fiverr blog and content creation? I’d be happy to help out. Check out my gig that gives you 400 words of content for just $5!

Do you have any other Fiverr blog ideas? Share them in the comments below.