What Should You Do With an Abusive Buyer or Seller on Fiverr?

While most buyers and sellers on Fiverr will conduct themselves with patience and professionalism, there are always one or two bad eggs in the bunch. Some of these buyers and sellers become abusive. They can use disgusting words and phrases, and even become threatening.

I’ve had to deal with buyers like this, and I see it on the Fiverr forum as more and more deal with these abusive people.  The question many people have is what can they do about it?

It really depends on whether you have a gig open with them or not. Here are a few options to handle an abusive buyer or seller on Fiverr.

When You Have an Open Fiverr Gig

The first thing I would do is cancel the gig. There’s just no point in dealing with someone like this. Yes, you may lose out on money, but isn’t that better than the stress and aggravation that comes from dealing with these people?

It will also help avoid the issue of getting negative feedback that isn’t justified removed, if you’re a Fiverr seller.

Remain polite and explain that you have done everything you can and would like to cancel. Make it clear that the work (if you have done any) is not theirs to keep, though. Otherwise you could lose your work and your money.

If the buyer/seller refuses then contact Customer Support to have the gig cancelled and explain your reasons carefully.

Without a Fiverr Gig Open

Sometimes, the communication happens in the messages. It may be someone who has previously left feedback and is now looking for something for free. Or you may be dealing with someone who hasn’t even placed an order yet.

The best thing you can do is report the abusive person to Customer Support. There are chances that the account will be blocked.

You can quickly report messages by hovering over the message and clicking the “report” button that appears. This will mean the buyer/seller can no longer contact you via messages too.

Don’t Feed the Troll

Always avoid feeding someone who is like this. He or she is playing on hurting your feelings and scaring you. Remain polite and ask them to stop contacting you, and that you will no longer reply to messages.

Eventually, the person will be so annoyed that you’ve stopped communicating back that he or she will stop. It does mean the person moves onto someone else though, so there is one more thing you can do.

Report the Fiverr Buyer or Seller to Customer Support

Always report the person to Fiverr Customer Support. There have been instances of the staff not doing anything, so you need to play dirty.

Include the part of the TOS that makes it clear this type of behavior is not tolerated on the site.

Here is the specific part that you want to copy into your messages:

“Posting or sending adult, illegal, rude, abusive, improper, copyright protected, promotional, spam, violent, nonsense or any uncool stuff is strictly prohibited. Doing so will get your account blocked permanently.”

I would bold the “abusive” and “violent” parts to make sure the staff member sees it.

You can go one step further by requesting that the matter is dealt with, and failure to deal with the matter means that Fiverr is breaking its own terms of service. I’ve used that line in the past for something else, and it lead to a change in the terms of service and apology from Fiverr.

Nobody should have to deal with an abusive buyer or seller on Fiverr, but unfortunately it does happen. Remain calm, and don’t rise to the person’s attempts. Stop communication and press the report button immediately.