Fiverr – Is it a scam?

I came across this seemingly interesting company a short while ago called Fiverr. The premise is that for a mere five dollars, someone will create something for you. The topics are plenty and sometimes the ideas can even be a little silly. Ideas can range from creating a 30 second video, making pins, making a hand carved wooden pen, translating from one language to another, a video cracking a 15-word message from an egg to a person standing in front of a tourist attraction with a sign, passing out or hanging flyers at a college and a person recording a message to you in a British accent.

A project is called a gig and if you want extras tacked onto your gig (like an extra 30 seconds of a video), you pay an additional $5, $10, $15, $20, etc. more than your original $5.

Fiverr has been featured in places such as Women’s Day, Men’s Health, Forbes, CNN Money, The Wall Street Journal, The Today Show and The New York Times.

It appeared to be a viable company and I saw that many sellers are receiving great reviews. I needed to have something created and two weeks ago, I decided to give it a whirl.

So far, it’s been a completely frustrating experience and The. Worst. Mistake. Of. My. Life!!

Okay, so it’s not the worst mistake of my life but it’s starting to climb up there in the ranks. I have either come across the most incompetent sellers in the world or Fiverr is a scam.

Let me tell you about my experience:

I want to create a logo. It’s not a fancy logo and to me, it seems pretty simple. In fact, if I could find one of the images on a clip art website, I would try to do it myself.

On Monday, January 7, 2013 at 9:39 pm, I contacted a seller named “logofixx” – yes, that is his real ID. I gave a detailed request as to what I wanted the logo to look like and asked the seller to please ask me if he had any questions. This gig was labeled as “Express” which meant that it was to be completed within 24 hours.

The next morning, I received a file from the seller with my logo. Ooh! I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to open it. Well, I must admit, the logo was very cute but it looked nothing like I had described to the seller. I asked for an animal to be sitting down and this one was lying down. Hmm… perhaps the seller did not know the difference or ignored the position I had asked. I dutifully rejected the order and explained what I had wanted, compared to what he delivered. Again, I asked the seller to contact me if he had any questions.

Around noon, I received another file from the seller. I was really excited. I knew it would look exactly right. Boy, was I wrong! The second logo looked worse than the first one. Let me ask you a question: If you were to picture an animal sitting down, what image is inside your head? Is the animal sitting with all four paws on the ground or is the animal sitting on his back legs with his front paws lifted in the air like arms? Personally, I picture the animal sitting with all four paws on the ground. Maybe that’s just me and I’m in minority but who the heck pictures an animal with its paws raised in the air when it’s sitting?? Maybe when the animal is performing a trick! – I’m rolling my eyes here.

The seller even had the gall to say that this redo was the first of my two revisions and he had hoped that it was preferable. The first of my two revisions?!?! On his two attempts, ge never even got CLOSE to the logo I had asked for and now he was taking away one of my sacred revisions? Was this guy for real?

So, I rejected his logo and in plain English, explained exactly what I had wanted (for the third time) for the basic logo. Then, I told him what I wanted to be revised based on what he delivered.

Around two o’clock, I receive a message from logofixx:

I'm sorry but I cannot continue to work on this order. The instructions were very vague from the start, and unfortunately I cannot continue to completely redesign your logo without having to charge you extra. Please accept this refund and you may keep the files I have already provided you. Thank you!

WHAT?!?!

My instructions were vague?!?! I explained exactly what I had wanted and they were very clear. I read my instructions to a few people and they had no problem picturing what I had wanted. If my instructions were that vague, why didn’t the seller contact me to get clarification, which I repeatedly asked him to do?

Hmm… something fishy is going on over here.

So, I cancelled that order and found another seller: real_logo. I bought his gig and this time, I posted exactly what I wanted in an actual list. I specifically asked the seller to contact me if he had any questions or needed clarification. Again, this was an express order. This was January 8, 2013 at 9:40 pm.

Real_logo didn’t send me files ahead of time like logofixx but I wasn’t too worried. I figured he was hard at work and I couldn’t wait to see what he had produced. Well, the delivery time came and went and no file appeared in my inbox. Maybe he got caught up in another gig and mine would just be a little late. He didn’t contact me to fill me in on any aspect of the logo but I had faith. I would give him the benefit of the doubt. Plus, it was late. I decided to go to bed and see it would be there in the morning.

At six o’clock in the morning, I happily logged onto the website, excited to see my new logo – except, it wasn’t there! I had no messages from the seller and now my gig was late. Really? Sellers are allowed to not even deliver the gig and they don’t even contact the buyer to let them know what’s going on? What kind of shady operation was this?

Around ten o’clock in the morning on January 10, the seller posted the following message:

Seller suggested a mutual cancellation.

Reason: Please cancel your order.because I have a exam.thanks

You have got to be kidding me!

What kind of seller sends a message a day and a half AFTER an order has been placed to cancel the order – a full half day AFTER the order was due?!?!

I was now beginning to have my doubts about Fiverr. Don’t they have policies for this? Don’t sellers face punishments if they fail to follow a buyer’s instructions or fail to deliver a purchased gig? Apparently not.

By this time, I was totally annoyed with Fiverr and the whole gig process. I still wanted my logo but I didn’t want to be duped again into buying a gig that was not going to be made correctly or not even delivered.

I found a more popular seller that received many positive reviews and had a few people in his queue list: johncarter329. His logos looked pretty good, he was a Level 2 seller (which meant that he was doing a great job in the Fiver world) and he had a 100% gig rating.

But this time, I played it smart. On January 12, 2013 at 7:34 pm, I sent him a message first and asked him if the logo could be created and then send my requirements ahead of time. On January 13, 2013 at 4:33 am, he said:

Hi
G,day please send me details with your directions, i try my best if you like then you can buy my gig

john

 I sent johncarter329 my detailed list of what I wanted on January 13 at 8:24 am and asked him to please contact me if he had any questions.

By January 15, I had not heard a word from johncarter329. I sent him a message at 6:41 pm to touch base with him and see if could create my logo.

He responded on January 18 at 5:04 am and said:

Hi i try my best but unable to fulfil your requirment Sorry

He waited over seven days to tell me this and didn’t even have anything to show for it.

I was starting to see a pattern with these logo sellers on Fiverr:

1. They ask you for details so they can create your logo.
2. If your details are too few, you get whatever they want to create (which is what I think they prefer).
3. If you give them many details, they hem and haw over the gig and then refuse to create it.
4. They like to keep the buyer hanging for days.
5. Sellers DO NOT contact buyers if they have questions. There is very little to no communication between the buyer and seller. This is something that I really do not understand. Wouldn’t the seller want to make sure that he was on the right track and working on something that the buyer actually wants?? If the buyer is not happy with the gig, wouldn’t the seller want to find out why the buyer was unhappy and try to make the appropriate corrections??
6. Sellers prefer to do whatever they want and then it becomes the buyer’s fault if the logo does not come out the way it was requested.
7. Fiverr DOES NOT REFUND YOUR MONEY!! If a seller cancels your gig, your money gets credited to your Fiverr account. You can then use that money to buy new gigs. You do not get that money back on your credit card or your PayPal account.
8. I was not given the opportunity to give negative feedback to logofixx and real_logo because of some kind of “glitch” in the Fiverr system.
9. Contacting Fiverr does not help. They give you a standard reply that does not solve your problem.

And the sad thing was that I was willing to pay more for some of the extras and I was willing to buy more gigs from the sellers. I even told the sellers this information up front, which would have earned them more money from me.

After these three miserable encounters and the lack of communication between me and the seller, I have decided that Fiverr is a scam. They take your money, sellers give you crap in return and you can never get your money back again. You have to use another Fiverr seller if you want something for the money you lost. ,

 

My advice: Stay away.

If you want to use Fiverr, use it for something fun or silly, not for something important. The sellers (even American ones!) appear to lack necessary communication skills and aren’t even willing to create what you buy. 

I'm off to find someone who can made this darn thing. Wish me luck!  :)

Until next time ~