Part of the Fiverr system is to allow buyers to leave their sellers feedback. This can either be positive or negative left through a thumbs up or thumbs down with a short message to explain a reason. Leaving feedback can help and hinder a seller's rater, while doing virtually nothing to a buyer's. It leads me to writing and asking Fiverr buyers to really think about their negative feedback and whether it is needed.
Think About the Work the Seller Has Done
Before clicking that thumbs down, think about the hard work that the seller has done. If it didn't meet your exact expectations, check over your instructions and decide whether you were clear enough in the first place. Next, talk to the seller to see if they will improve the work; some will do it for free while others will ask for an extra payment because it does take more time, especially graphics works.
After redoing the work you may still not be happy, but does that definitely mean that you have to leave the thumbs up? There is the option to reject the order and cancel it to get your money back. However, cancellations do harm the seller's eligibility for levels so consider whether cancelling is necessary. Maybe you can leave the payment for the seller and just walk away without leaving feedback and tell the seller that you are still not entirely happy but want to pay for the time it has taken to do the work.
I recently received my first legitimate negative for work that was completed almost three weeks ago. The buyer wasn't happy because I didn't go into specific detail when I clearly stated to him that specific detail was impossible. The eBook in question was about business finance. After creating it, the buyer stated that he wanted more information about the Spanish information. He included a link but it was all in Spanish. When he finally sent the English link, there was nothing to help with his eBook but the only links that could have possibly been helpful were all in Spanish. I don't understand Spanish but the buyer expected me to use Google Translate on the off-chance that a whole website would have information to help. Sorry but not worth the time or the hassle!
I had to question whether this was a legitimate reason to leave two lots of feedback - the order was placed in two parts. I thought of it from a buyer's point of view and decided that personally I wouldn't have bothered leaving feedback. I'm not going to ruin a seller's reputation when she had tried to do the work and got stuck due to finding no websites in English. I may have translated the websites myself and sent the relevant bits of information in a word document, but wouldn't have bothered with feedback.
Is It Really the Seller's Fault?
The next question to ask is whether the seller is really at fault. There have been times that I've had negative feedback only to have to talk to Fiverr Customer Support to get it removed because it wasn't a fault of mine. Why should a buyer's mistake lead to a seller's reputation being damaged? For example, maybe you didn't read the gig description completely before ordering or you can only afford the basic gig and not the extras.
Before leaving the feedback, ask yourself whether the seller has filled the gig description and done the best quality work. If the answers are yes but you are still unhappy, you need to determine whether that is really the seller's fault or you forgot to add something or was unwilling to pay the extra. Remember that if you are not happy, you can reject the order and get your money back!
Threatening is NOT Okay!
Please, do not threaten a seller with negative feedback. While there are some bad apples, sellers will try everything possible to make you happy but, at the end of the day, it is a business. Sellers need to think about whether something is worth their time for $5 - well, $4 since Fiverr takes $1 commission. Buyers should consider the amount of hours sellers have to put in to do the work and then make changes.
Threatening because a seller is refusing to do anymore revisions without extra payment is not okay. If you are not happy, request a cancellation and move on. But before you request that cancellation, think about the hard work the seller has already put in. Many want to make a full-time living on Fiverr and you taking up all their time with endless revision requests and then cancelling stops that from happening.
When you do cancel, don't use the work. You didn't pay so the copyright hasn't passed to you. The seller owns the work and can use it however he or she wishes. When a buyer has decided to cancel on me, I put the work onto one of my blogs as soon as I get that request and will demand you take yours down if you decide to use it later.
Threatening isn't worth it. It leads to sellers resenting you so they will want to do your work even less. It could lead to them deciding to cancel the job or contact Customer Support to inform them of a threatening buyer. Try to work things out with your seller and come to a compromise.
So, When Is Negative Feedback Justified?
There are times that leaving negative feedback is justified. One of those is if the seller has scammed you out of money. This happens very rarely; to be honest, you can request a cancellation or contact Customer Support so it isn't really necessary.
The only time I would consider it is if I wanted to warn others about a bad seller. $5 works out to be £3 something, which isn't a lot and is worth it to make sure others are aware of a bad apple among the field of sellers.
Another reason would be if a seller delivers late. After 48 hours after the expected delivery date, you have the right to force a cancellation. This will lead to an automatic negative mark against the seller for late delivery. If you leave the order open, the seller can still send you the work and then you can always leave a negative comment about it being late (however, again, contact the seller before doing this and question whether a thumbs down is really necessary).
In the end, I will always think about the work a buyer has done and whether the thumbs down is necessary. You could always leave a thumbs up and a slight negative comment or just not leave feedback at all. Maybe you could go with the old saying from Bambi: If you can't say nothing nice, don't say anything at all...
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