Fiverr sucks for sellers

fiverr sucks for many reasons

What is Fiverr? Fiverr is a website that offers services from accountants, writers, musicians, voice over artists, etc. Fiverr is used by many people around the world, looking for crazy cheap deals for services.

People look to Fiverr when they need work done for them…it’s kind of like craigslist.

Maybe you’ll find a great seller or maybe you’ll find a con artist. You will find con artists if you’re a seller as well. Many buyers on Fiverr will do what they can to get services for next to nothing.

Fiverr is called Fiverr because most jobs start at $5. This is VERY CHEAP! Some prices for services are more than $5 but most are within this range.

Many times, a buyer on Fiverr is from a marketing firm, as an example, needing a promo video for their client. They will go to Fiverr, spend $50 on a video edit and sell it for $1,000 to their client. I BELIEVE THIS IS WRONG and IT HAPPENED TO ME!

Maybe there is a publishing company who needs a pro book cover created for one of their authors. They go to Fiverr in search of a graphic artist for novel book cover designs (there are many artists on Fiverr for this.) The buyer may pay $20 for a pro book cover and sell it to the publishing house for $300. This happens a lot on Fiverr.

A lot of Fiverr buyers expect unlimited changes on their orders and crazy requests for what little they pay on Fiverr. That’s what burns sellers.

Fiverr buyers who never go away and cause problems are nightmares. You’ll work long hours for pennies. Ask me how I know this? I dealt with it a lot on Fiverr.

In all walks of life, you will come across people who are never satisfied. If Fiverr is involved, you WILL WASTE YOUR TIME BECAUSE OF THESE PEOPLE / BUYERS!

Why would you use Fiverr?

Maybe you’re a band in need of a drummer. No problem, Fiverr. I did this. I needed a drummer for a song I was working on. She was pro and very nice. I was happy and it was done. I’m not picky.

Some people just never stop and are never satisfied. These Fiverr buyers thrive on this site. Fiverr also always backs up the buyer, which is unfair!

Many times I completed and delivered the buyer’s order ON TIME. The buyer decides an hour before the deadline they want a change to their order. Changes are not included in the order so they must pay $5. Being cheap, they ignore the request. Meanwhile, they have the video edit I worked on, will not pay the $5, will place a refund request…so I’m out of money and they get work for free.

SEE HOW FIVERR WORKS AGAINST SELLERS?! There are MANY complaints on the Fiverr forums from sellers against buyers and Fiverr.

I also was not late but have been dinged because this buyer put in a change request they didn’t pay for. HOW AM I LATE WITH AN ORDER I COMPLETED AND DELIVERED ON TIME?

That’s like someone orders a pizza and it shows up on time. After the pizza delivery guy leaves, you decide you wanted green peppers on the pizza as well. So you call to complain, saying there were green peppers…well…you never ordered them in the first place. THEN you also mention the order was late when they bring the new pizza to you an hour later…..but the first one was on time.

THIS IS HOW FIVERR WORKS! I am in the process of closing my seller account. At least 75% of transactions with buyers go this way.

Fiver customer support is a joke. They never help you. They lookout for the buyer. It’s best to not say anything or they will nail your account by dropping your seller status.

Are you a writer who needs an editor? No problem, Fiverr. Maybe you have a YouTube channel and need a model to be your spokesperson for the video intro…..Fiverr. You get the idea.

Fiverr gets its name since most gigs start out at $5, but you can price your services anyway you want. After Fiverr gets their cut, you get $3. No thanks. This is why you need to come up with a very easy gig to sell that requires NO TIME AT ALL. You need to spend no more than 5-10 minutes on that $5 gig and no more!

Anyone can join to be a seller on Fiverr, offering services from professional to downright silly. There’s a guy who dresses as hippie jesus, more than willing to take your money in return for delivering a custom video…you supply the words for him to speak.

fiverr sucks especially for sellers
LOOK! This guy will write 2 lines on a clipboard underwater for you!

I’ve used Fiverr and loved it as a buyer. I know what I want and I find the people qualified to do the job. I’m always happy and have never asked for a revision / change.

I usually wind up giving them a tip. That’s a cool feature of Fiverr. It really is a cool community if you are a cool seller or buyer. Unfortunately there is a dark side.

Let me tell you why Fiverr SUCKS

Once the seller delivers the order to the buyer (all orders are delivered through Fiverr’s site), the seller will rate you up to 5 stars. I’ve had MANY outstanding buyers but some real winners / tire kickers as well. Fiverr will ALWAYS back the buyer, just like paypal, and this is FACT! Regardless of what happens they will ALWAYS back the buyer.

More times than not, sellers bend over backwards, putting in extra hours for the buyer, hoping to get great ratings. Unfortunately, as I said, there are buyers who are never happy. They’ll rate you low and try to avoid paying. It’s happened to me. Customer service does nothing to help.

Fiverr “customer service” SUCKS!

I’ve sent emails multiple times, regarding issues and they dance around them.

As a seller, the clock starts ticking next to each order you get in your “orders” section of your account. You need to deliver this order before time runs out (2 days, 3 days, whatever you specify) or you get a mark against you. What if you’re video editing and the client forgets to send their company logo or contact info? It happened to me many times. Guess what? Time runs out and YOU’RE LATE in delivering their order. You’re late because they’re inept, didn’t send all the info you needed to complete the order and YOU LOSE! How fair is that?

Because of these buyers being so inept, I went from level 2 status (very hard to achieve) to level 1, then dropped to beginner. I went from getting about 5 inquiries daily from potential Fiverr customers to about 2 a month. This isn’t just happening to me. The Fiverr forum is riddled with upset sellers.

Good luck contacting Fiverr “customer service.” It’s filled with clueless idiots who know nothing about the company, its policies, or how anything works. When I asked why the stats of so many sellers are going down, they replied, “you should use social media to sell your brand and bring awareness.” No, sorry, I never used social media before and my Fiverr rankings put me on top of the list as a level 2 seller. Because of tire kicker buyers and people who are NEVER happy (it’s a $5 order people), we get dinged.

Reasons from Fiverr sellers from the Fiverr forum on why Fiverr sucks:

  1. I am a level 2 seller and have been for a few months now. I’m sick of all these stupid customers that don’t read gig descriptions, order my gig, leave me negative feedback and then demand a refund from me after I’ve delivered exactly what I said I would. What do these people expect from us for $5?!?! Support is also useless, they never answer any of the questions or tickets I submit…
  2. Same here lol.. their support sucks..
  3. I just love how people expect to get something of any real value for $5?!
  4. I started writing articles, told the customer to supply a keyword and a theme, they wanted the earth instead. I had some asking for me to implement sixteen keywords, and could I look at their website to decide what the article should be about. I was going all out, telling them about broken links, suggesting titles, and mentioning sentence structure on their own articles for those who weren’t English native speakers. All this for about 2.80 UK pounds. This was while writing and researching unique 400/600 word articles.ust like paypal fiverr backs up the buyer almost every time. There is no way around it mate, they’ve found the loophole in the system and there’s nothing you can do about it.It’s a flaw in the WHOLE system not just fiverr, we as sellers get screwed over every time. If you want my advise and you don’t have any “cost” on the products you sell then keep at it. Just refund these bastards and be happy with the “decent people”. Most payment solutions out there will screw the seller over any day of the week.
  5. Fiverr is driving away all the sellers (the people who make them money) and is going to crash and burn here in the near future if they keep siding with the buyers!
  6. I just started up gigs on fiverr, but now I’m starting to think it’s just going to be a bad experience as I can see customers complaining trying to scam to get the gig delivered but get their money back… uh oh
  7. Ok, let’s get to it. People have been copying and stealing my ideas for years and it makes me furious. These morons that do not know how to do anything expect you to solve all of their problems to make them money. Well my answer to that is I am not going to show you how to make money unless I get my share and I know what I am talking about since I have been at it for 20 years. My solution is to add a purchasers name and email address to a purchasers database which you already have. If they request a refund give it to them and then move their name and email address to a NO MORE PURCHASES database and when they want to make another purchase they should receive this message – “Thankyou for your order but this offer has been sold out ” – with no more explanation. Nobody needs these kinds of clients or customers.
  8. the buyers are typically as low/bottom barrel type of buyers you’ll get. Of course this is a general statement, but most buyers don’t know what they are buying, don’t take the time to read the descriptions, and think that the $5 gig is gonna catapult them to the first position in Google. Most have completely unrealistic expectations on what they should receive for $5.
  9. Fiverr aaahha people expect us to do $50 job for $5
  10. im experiencing same problems but agree with you guys there is better alternatives to fiverr though now, that are developing better markets- fivesquids, gigbucks, fourrer..you know
  11. In the real world, for $5, you wouldn’t be able to even get a professional to look in your general direction. Fiverr is funny.
  12. I already left Fiverr.. So cheers to me… ha haa..
  13. When fiverr will understand what are they doing to the sellers… it will be too late for them. Right now they don’t give a fuck about anything because of the huge donations they’ve got (millions i think). This is just the little part, not to talk about their buggy website. Earning so much money per day + donations and they don’t want to spend a penny on their website development (search engine, the whole system, rankings etc) and they are still keeping their shitty support who can’t do a simple task (or answer simple question). They keep on destroying their own business (and ours). It’s the best if you just leave the retarded website and move on for something better. Let them fall!
  14. Well The Sellers Are Getting F****d By Fiverr Irresponsibility
  15. I was making some sounds (hip hop beats) for some time. Few hours a day for 8-12 dollars, I had great feedback and then suddenly came one jerk and destroy my job with his retarded comment. Same with logos etc. And after all they do this to me: ”To enable withdrawals in this account, please contact our support here. Thanks.”
  16. fiverr sucks their support is the worst ever. what we can do to force fiverr treat sellers right?
  17. Yeah we know and they’re customer service favors the buyers.
  18. I used to do fiverr too…had some good earning from logo design gig….i managed to earn 1300 usd from fiverr all together..like in 2-3 months…it was hell of a stress lol…ppl who order logos are just dum b…they want some 3d stuff for 5 bucks etc…and yes..they dont read description…..anyways..im done with fiverr too.
  19. I would NEVER offer to write an article for such a low rate because those clients are insane. They are going on bad advice to look for cheap content to begin with, and I’m not saying there’s no $5 writers who can provide quality. Some just haven’t realized their worth yet. In any case, the second you decide to stop selling yourself short is a breakthrough moment in your career. It’s good to keep things affordable for good clients, but you will never find a good client on a $5 site. So, if you have talent, check out Fiverr if you want, for a few extra bucks. You will find more stress than you can imagine. Between the train wreck Fiverr “customer service” and the tire kicker buyers, you’ll be overworked for most gigs. It’s not worth it.

Don’t get me wrong, there are both good and bad Fiverr sellers and buyers. With my 3 years experience as a Fiverr seller, I would say stay away from it.

Fiverr isn’t worth the time or hassle given to sellers.

I hope this helped you guys. Have experiences with Fiverr? Let me know. Also, subscribe to this blog post to be alerted when new posts are up.

thanks!

Steve