Being a seller on Fiverr can be rewarding however, you shouldn’t be carried away and lose sight of the things you need to know about Fiverr buyer protection
Just like every marketplace, there are buyers and sellers. The buyers are important to the sellers because without the buyers the sellers can’t make money. This is the reason people always state that “customers are always right” In Fiverr’s case, the customers are referred to as “buyers”
However, Fiverr is an online marketplace which makes it completely different from the regular markets. And as an online marketplace, the sellers need an assurance that the buyers won’t cheat them after offering their service. This is one of the reasons buyers have to make payment before a seller can proceed with their order.
But what about the buyers? They need some assurance that the sellers wouldn’t run away with their money and not deliver after being paid. This leads to the question: does Fiverr have a protection plan for its buyers?
So, in this article, we will be answering all questions you have about Fiverr’s buyer protection. This article is the ultimate guide you need on the things you need to know about Fiverr’s buyer protection.
Let’s get right into it
Does Fiverr protect its buyers?
On Fiverr, when a buyer pays for a good or service, Fiverr buyer protection covers them, the buyers in case there’s a problem such as; the service not matching or reaching the prerequisite to what was requested. This is the reason most buyers have had positive experiences on Fiverr.
Sometimes, the sellers may not meet up to the buyer’s expectations and in cases like this, the buyer may want to either request for a revision on the order or cancellation of the order which is equivalent to a complete refund of payments made.
Fiverr does this because it prides itself as a “get what you paid for” platform. So, yes. Fiverr protects its buyers through its Buyer Protection terms/policy. This is why there are things you need to know about Fiverr buyer protection.
The buyer protection policy ensures that the buyers get what you pay for, in respect to that Fiverr works like an “escrow”; meaning the seller would only get paid two weeks after an order is completed.
Until after then Fiverr holds on to the money the buyer has paid for a clearing period, in an escrow payment and the seller will only receive the funds after the buyer has received and accepted the products or services that are part of the transaction.
If after that, the buyer isn’t satisfied with the delivered order, they can request a revision or a refund.
Reasons a buyer may ask for revisions or refund/cancellation
There are various reasons buyers on Fiverr may ask the seller for a revision or refund. Some of the reasons I will list below.
- The order wasn’t received: This simply means that the seller didn’t deliver a job to the buyer and he also didn’t give an excuse.
- The seller delivers the order without sending the requested files: This means that the seller delivered the job without delivering the job. It could be that the seller sent in an empty file. Sellers do this to either deceive the buyer or get more time.
- The quality of the order is very low: When a seller delivers a job that doesn’t meet the standard of the buyer, the buyer could ask for a revision or cancellation.
The seller requested extra money to send the order: After a fee has been deliberated on and the seller decides to request more payment, the buyer is allowed to ask for a cancellation.
When the above situations happen then the buyer can request a refund from the seller. However, if the seller refuses to grant the refund, the best way to go about it is by contacting Customer Support (CS). Fiverr’s Customer’s support will go ahead to consider different factors such as;
- Seller’s history
- reviews
- responsiveness to the issue
Now, if after all these factors have been considered and cross-checked and they decide that the buyer is right with their claims to have a refund then the refund will be made possible. The money would then be processed back to the original payment source, in the original currency, but it can take time. For a PayPal refund it could take twenty-four hours, but to receive funds on a credit card could take seven to ten days.
A notable point about Fiverr buyer protection is that Fiver doesn’t provide any guarantee to the buyers of the level of services offered by the sellers. Fiverr acts as the middle man between the buyer and the seller hence they don’t assure that the service rendered by the sellers will be a hundred per cent accurate but it does have a stance in making sure what you paid for is what you get.
The reviews given to a seller by buyers they may have worked with is what buyers can hold on to. And sometimes this is what Fiverr holds on to when recommending some sellers to new buyers.
There are basic things you need to know about Fiverr buyers protection and some of them are;
- The buyer protection cannot come in place if after the client has used it for its purpose
- The buyer protection acts on the agreement between the seller and buyer
- Fiverr does not protect users who interact outside of the Fiverr platform.
- The buyer has to have a cogent reason before contacting support which would, in turn, lead to the usage of buyer’s protection.
The following are how Fiverr buyer protection works when ordering a GIG:
- Placing an order
- Payments
- Submitting the order requirements
- Completing the order and refund policy.
How Fiverr Buyer Protection Works When Ordering a GIG
When ordering gigs on Fiverr, there are some Fiverr buyer protection policies that protect the buyers from being scammed by the sellers.
However, these policies can only be operational if the buyer adheres to certain terms and conditions. Here are some of the terms and conditions you need to adhere to below:
Avoid certain services
For example, a client ordering traffic, SEO, and other website-related GIG, when looking for such services you would come across tons of traffic and ranking boost GIG that can be done as little as $5.
These kinds of services may include; Bot traffic, harmful private blog, and cheap quality backlink to your site.
Keeping everything inside Fiverr
Fiverr can help to ensure that all the transactions on their platform run smoothly. This means that Fiverr can not help you if you communicate or pay sellers outside its platform.
Opting to work with sellers off Fiverr would mean that you are no longer under Fiverr’s protection as a buyer and doing that would make the buyer lose all safety features that the platform offers.
Only complete the order when you are satisfied with them
As a buyer on Fiverr, it is important to ensure that you only mark an order as complete once you are satisfied with the delivery of the job.
Once your service has been delivered to you, you have a period of three days to review it; if you don’t, the order will become completed automatically by Fiverr.
If after the service was received and you don’t like it the first step is to communicate with the seller and see if he can revise, most sellers are humble and will agree to do so, but if they don’t the next step is to contact customer service to step in and look into the situation.
Check the Seller’s profile before ordering
It is always advisable for buyers to check the seller’s profile before ordering a gig as this is a great way to avoid any problems.
The GIG page should give every needed information about the service you’ll receive.
Ideally, the seller shouldn’t have a lot of pending orders in the queue, and his average response time should be within an hour or two.
Besides that, the seller’s page displays other important info such as; Language he speaks, skills, education, approved certification, linked social media account. This will help you as a buyer know whom you are dealing with.
Test it
To make an order, it is advisable to make a small order to test the seller before giving out work in bulk.
This is because you would need to trust the seller’s delivery to avoid any waste of time and money from big projects.
If for instance, you want an excel spreadsheet with a thousand names and emails filled out, you could give out a tenth of the workload first to ensure that the job will be carried out properly.
Follow the terms of services
Fiverr has terms of services that guide the buyers and sellers, ensuring the smooth running of affairs on the platform.
Most buyers and sellers who do not follow the guideline of Fiverr, have ended up having issues with their payments.
Either the buyer withholds the seller’s due or the seller gets paid and refuse to deliver the job. In cases like this, Fiverr can not come to the rescue.
Fiverr’s support checks almost everything, and the sellers are aware that they are to contact the resolution center when they notice anything weird happening with the buyers because Fiverr will ban the buyers that don’t follow the rules most of the time.
The platform happens to have a forum that could be used to reach specific situations. It also has a dedicated support team that would respond to any query raised by either party in a few minutes.
Furthermore, if you go through it, you would discover that both the seller and buyer have established communication and talk together on how to avoid the problem and protect themselves.
Although the buyer’s protection is mainly created for enabling transparency between Buyer and Seller, they’ve been numerous cases whereby the buyer would request for the fund even after he/she has gotten the service.
One downside about Fiverr buyer protection is that it sometimes brings losses to hardworking sellers in the platform leading to numerous of them calling to the cancellation of the protection.
One of the reasons being that Fiverr happens to be on the customer side most of the time and neglecting the seller side of the story, due to the customs policy of “Customer is always right”
Conclusion
Fiverr has happens to stand out as a safe place for buyers who uses the platform to hire freelancers. The system which every buyer has to go through when ordering GIGs is very simple and safe.
The most important thing to equip yourself with Fiverr is properly checking the seller’s profile and their GIG pages, and contacting them if any questions arise.
Take time to give them as much information as you need to complete an order, by doing that you are securing yourself in case the seller doesn’t deliver what you required in your documentation.
How To Use Fiverr – As A Buyer
