I have heard about there being fiverr scams, but I didn’t think that I would get scammed. Today I want to talk with you guys about the worst experience that I have had on Fiverr so far during my first couple of months of being a Fiverr seller. I have heard of Fiverr scams with buyers, but I didn’t realize that Fiverr scams with sellers were a thing. So let’s jump into this Fiverr seller experience that I had.
Keep in mind, I have actually written a review of my Fiverr experience already. Being a Fiverr seller has been a decent way to make extra money. I have been selling on Fiverr since September and this month was the first time that I had a legitimately bad experience where it affected my account.
The Fiverr gig sale
So I made a sale with a user by the name of bradccc in December.
The package that I had at the time was for 10 images to be created for $90 while they also receive keywords for their images and 2 image/url promotions on my Pinterest account. They wanted me to create 10 Pinterest images to help promote a keto diet of some sort. I talked with them a bit and eventually I started working on the task. I developed 10 Pinterest images for the person that were high quality and ready to be pinned for Promoted ads. This is what they said they wanted to use the images for on Pinterest. I delivered the images to them before they were due and the person confirmed the order as complete.
They also left me a great review for the images. I was paid for my service and I was extremely happy about it because it was the first time I made that much with one sale on Fiverr.
Fiverr buyers can be Fiverr Scammers.
Flash forward to January, I receive an email saying that the order was canceled. This of course took me by surprise because the person I worked with had already marked the order as complete, left me a review publically on Fiverr, and they paid me. Apparently Bradccc opened a dispute without a valid reason and the money was refunded to their Paypal account leaving my Fiverr account in the negatives. I proceeded to log onto my Fiverr account to reach out to the person to see what the issue was…. only to find out that they had closed their account. There was no way to contact them.
I was extremely upset and concerned mainly because I did work for free as well as because Fiverr went through with this without even talking with me about it or analyzing the proof of exchanges. They allowed this to happen even though there is proof of exchanges that my work was delivered on time and that the person I worked with was happy with the work I produced. There was even a good review and Fiverr did absolutely nothing to protect me. This is very upsetting for a Freelancer like myself. To be honest, it made me kind of want to stop selling on Fiverr because of this bad experience. However I still sell on Fiverr because it is some extra money for a side gig, but I took that particular Fiverr gig down because apart of me felt like it would happen again.
Fivver sellers can get scammed and there isn’t much you can do about it.
I ended up reaching out to Fiverr’s customer service about this issue. They expressed to me that this is something that does happen and that they lose out on money with me when a sale is canceled like this. Basically from Fiverr’s response they expressed that they couldn’t really do anything. Apparently the individual requested a refund through their Paypal account that they used to pay Fiverr with and Fiverr couldn’t stop it. The only good thing about this situation is that the money that is refunded doesn’t come directly from my Paypal account. It only comes from whatever I make on Fiverr which was one of my main concerns. It sucks that I had this false joy of a great sale during the Christmas season only for someone to start the year off being treacherous, but what are you going to do? There are some truly messed up individuals out there, but karma will come for them so I suppose it is best to let things go.
It sucks that there are people out there that will lie and steal to get work for free created by freelancers who need the extra money. I actually went to the Fiverr Forum and found out that this happens to a lot of Fiverr sellers where buyers will cancel orders, request refunds, and get services for free. It’s unfortunately a common thing that can happen with being a Fiverr seller and there is no way for sellers to protect themselves with buyers closing their accounts only to open up new accounts in the future and do the same thing to other freelancers.
So with all of this being said, it sucks and honestly the most you can do is move to another platform to avoid this Fiverr scam. I honestly want to stay on Fiverr for awhile because it does position me in front of a lot of potential buyers, but I am definitely keeping my options open as I look for other platforms for freelancers to sell their services on. I would love for Fiverr to protect sellers or to at least examine the facts and proof for sales and contentment with sales, but I suppose they can’t or won’t.
So this is a warning for all Fiverr sellers and people interested in selling Fiverr gigs.
There are some people who will scam you and attempt to obtain free services from you.
If it can happen to me, it can happen to you.
So be careful with selling on Fiverr.
