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.

Help! I’ve Lost My Fiverr Level

It’s something that is on the Fiverr Forum a lot lately. People lose their levels and then come to the forum looking for help.

Before I add anything else, I’m going to make this clear. I don’t work for Fiverr, I’m just a seller on the site. These thoughts are mine alone, and the way that I believe the website works. Also, those in the forums are just buyers and sellers; not official spokespeople for the website.

So, why could you possibly lose your level? There are a few reasons for this.

Not Active Enough/Getting Enough Sales

When I’ve read the Level 2 requirements, one thing always stands out: 50 orders within a two month period. To me, that means every two months, you need to have, on average, 50 orders. I think there is some leeway if you’re active on the site and are still fulfilling orders, as one seller has pointed out that she doesn’t get 50 orders within a two month period.

The reason I do believe this though is because I lost my levels. I was inactive for a while on maternity and all my gigs were suspended. The only orders I did were those that were placed before I left. So, I went two months without 50 sales. After a week of being active again, I soon got my levels back.

Not Following the Rules

This is a big problem. People complain that they’ve lost their Fiverr levels, but that they’ve done nothing wrong. After trying to help them, they’ll admit that they did get a warning or two about contacting people outside of Fiverr, or breaking one of the other rules.

If you’re going to break the rules, expect a negative effect. That is the loss of your levels. Can you get them back? Yes, but you need to prove that you are trustworthy.

Getting Too Many Cancellations

If your cancellation ratio goes up, you’re going to find that your levels go down. This is because you’re not constantly delivering on orders. After about 20%, your cancellation ratio will show up on your gig page, so watch out for that!

It’s really hard to avoid some cancellations. At the moment, there are buyers purposely trying to destroy top sellers’ reputation by ordering in bulk and then cancelling. The best way around this is to keep promoting to get more sales and counteract those cancellations. It’s not easy and we all complain, but there is nothing more you can do right now.

Getting Negative Feedback

Getting one negative feedback, depending on the number of positives, isn’t going to harm your levels eligibility. However, if you get a lot, you’re going to find that you are demoted. You’ll also find that you don’t get any new orders because people can’t trust you.

It’s really important to deliver quality at all times. I’ve got negatives and I don’t believe they affect me. In fact, I recently had a previous buyer come back because he saw the negative left and knew I didn’t deserve it. He’s since left another positive, and helping me rebuild my rating. Once you get good buyers like that and ones that want you to do well, you will find that one negative isn’t all that bad.

If you can’t deliver quality for any reason—maybe the buyer hasn’t left the information required, or it’s not in your gig description—you will have to request the cancellation. I think that will do less harm than the negative, especially if you’re getting a lot of negative reviews. If you’ve done the work and the buyer is threatening you for any reason, contact Customer Support for some help and advice.

Have you lost your Fiverr levels? Think about what could have happened and take this time to make some changes. Remember that Customer Support is there to try and help you. Want to share your story here? Feel free!

What You Need to Do Before Hiring Fiverr Website Designers and Developers

Would you like to find someone on Fiverr for your website development or design? This is a great website if you’re just starting out or need something tweaking.

There are a lot of great Fiverr website designers and developers and the rates are reasonable. However, you need to find someone who is trustworthy and able to do the job you need. You also need to make sure they will work to your limitations and specifications.

Here are a few steps to take before hiring any website designer or website developer on Fiverr.

Find One Who Can Work in Your Format

Do you have a WordPress website that you need tweaking? Maybe your website was fully coded by hand and now you need someone to fix something.

You need to find someone on Fiverr who is able to handle your website needs. If they say that they can only handle WordPress and you use Blogger, don’t expect them to instantly help you. If they say that they manually code everything, message them to find out what that means if you are confused.

When it comes to designers, you will need the source files to be able to get the development completed. Make sure this is available.

Check Out the Fiverr Feedback

Go through the feedback of any Fiverr website designer or developer that you find. This will help you find someone who is trustworthy and capable of doing your job to an excellent standard.

Of course, there are downsides to this feedback system. You can find out more about that right here.

Ask to See Some Samples from the Fiverr Website Designer or Developer

There is nothing wrong with asking to see previous work. This could be images to see the type of design work or the look and workability of the full website. It depends on your needs from the website designer or website developer on Fiverr.

If the person isn’t willing to share samples, it may simply be better to move onto another seller. If something seems too good to be true or you aren’t sure about the quality of work, spend  your money elsewhere.

Ask for Recommendations on the Fiverr Forum

The Fiverr forum is now open to all and is a great place to ask for recommendations. You could set up a gig for people to recommend a website designer that they’ve tried or a website developer that they know does good work.

Watch out for this idea. You will get a lot of gig suggestions from Fiverr sellers who work within this area. Make it clear on the posting that you want to hear from people who have tried out the different sellers—you don’t want to get a lot of links from people who do website design or development on Fiverr.

Message the Fiverr Website Designer or Developer

Talk to any Fiverr seller before you make a purchase. This will help you explain your needs and make sure you find the right person on the website. It also helps you find out the cost for all the work that you need doing.

Don’t expect everything for $5. Think about the amount of time and skill it takes to do the work. A good website designer or website developer on Fiverr is not going to do three or four hours on your website for $5.

Backup Your Website

Always, always, always create a backup of your website. Why do you need to do this? Well, you never know what the Fiverr seller will do. The last thing you want is to find out that your whole website has been destroyed.

At least with a backup, you can revert back to the original to fix issues if they occur.

Do you have any other tips on finding a good Fiverr website designer or developer? Remember to take some time. Don’t rush into the first seller you find!

Tips for Using the Fiverr Forum: A Place for Help

The Fiverr forum opened a few months ago and quickly became a place for people to ask questions, get together with other Fiverr members and share their experiences. There have been times that it’s led to arguments and differing opinions and also spam but it is also a great place for help.

The trick is to knowing how to use it for help. The Fiverr forum isn’t the place to ask questions that only customer support can answer. It’s a place to learn tips from other Fiverr sellers and find out more about being a great Fiverr buy.

Here are my tips on using the Fiverr forum for help.

Use the Search Function at the Top!

There are chances that your question has been asked by other users. Some of the more common ones are “why have I lost my levels?” and “where is my delivery?”

Before you create your own topic, use the search function to see if others have asked the same or something similar. Look through the replies of the different threads and see if they help clear up your concerns. If not and it’s on the topic of that thread, revive it by asking your own question within there.

If you can’t find a thread with a similar question to help you, then start a new thread.

Asking the same question over and over again becomes tiresome for the people answering the questions. It can lead to threads being locked or deleted by members of staff and you will get warnings about your participation in the forums.

One of my pet hates is people asking about the Fiverr commission. They complain that 20% is too much and constantly ask why it’s that high. There are plenty of threads about it and people reply with the same answer over and over again! The search function isn’t difficult so please use it!

Check Out the Different Tips

There are sections for Fiverr sellers and buyers. In these sections, there are all sorts of tips. The sellers will have tips from moderators and other sellers about how to promote a gig and increase the amount of sales being gained. The section for Fiverr buyers is about helping buyers learn how to work with sellers, what cancellations and negative ratings really do and how to make sure you get exactly what the gig description states.

Look through the different tips. You may find that you get all the answers you need to your questions and more. You don’t have to look at them all and read all the comments in one sitting. Allocate time on a specific area.

Put Your Thread in the Right Place

There are different sections in the Fiverr forum and each have different uses. For example, the Ranting Plot is for rants about anything to do with the website, buyers on the website and even sellers and the staff. However, you cannot name and shame! That’s against the rules. The Fiverr Gigs section is for promoting your own gigs and encouraging people to purchase them.

When you create a thread, think about the section. This helps to get your questions answered quickly and will avoid Fiverr users getting bored or annoyed.  For example, people don’t want to see your gig being promoted in every single section except the right one –this is spam.

Don’t Spam with Your Gigs!

The forum has quickly become a place for people to start promoting their gigs. This is fine within that section but don’t go spamming others with your gigs. It’s rude and it will not get you any sales. In fact, it will get you banned from the Fiverr forums!

Similarly, avoid the whole “collect mine and I’ll collect yours” nonsense. This has become extremely boring for people and hasn’t proven a boost in sales at all. If you like someone’s gig then collect it by all means and even share a post within the forums about why you rate that person so much. Don’t collect just for the sake of it.

Ask People for Help and Advice

If you have an issue, the Fiverr forum is the perfect place to go and ask for help or advice. This is the chance to find out more about the website if you’re a new member and the type of things that you can do. It’s also a great place to find out more if you’re worried about a message you have received or would like to know more about something that has happened with a buyer.

Fiverr buyers and sellers offer their advice through the forums. They can help with simple things like time management or how to handle lots of multiple gigs. They can also offer tips on being a buyer and the best way to communicate with a seller to find out whether they can do something that you need.

The Fiverr forum is a great place to go and socialise with other Fiverr members. It’s also a helpful place for all types of questions and problems. Take a look through but be courteous to other members. Check if something’s been asked in the past before you create your own thread.