It’s Sunday… and things are moving a little slower around here.
Plus it’s mailbag time. So here’s an answer I gave in a Facebook copywriting group I’m a member of.
A couple of days ago someone there asked about Fiverr.
You know… the freelance job platform.
Given my history with them… I just couldn’t help myself.
Sooo… they got a bit of a rant’s-worth.
Afterwards I realised I’d not shared this “Part 2” of my Fiverr saga with you, NAME.
So here we are.
If you missed “Part 1″… the quick summary is:
Fiverr banned me for life.
Now that you’re up to speed… here’s what I replied:
They couldn’t tell me straight about why I was banned… permanently as well! Other than saying I “violated their community standards”.
Now this happened after I’d signed up and gone through the ENTIRE process of proving who I am and ticking all their boxes to become a seller.
And not even in their T&Cs page does it reference the community standards. So I was oblivious to it existing.
So…
When they brought the hammer down… I had to try and figure out “why?”.
I had a lot of to and fro with support over this.
They refused to say why (or perhaps their support staff couldn’t?!)
The best I could work out was: I broke their rule about not trying to hide my identity.
But I had proven who I was already. And had been using my login just fine.
So, what gives? 🤷‍♂️
I THINK it was because I use a VPN (for my own non-criminal reasons).
Now… NOWHERE did they EVER make that clear it would be a problem.
I mean… VPNs are widely used by many everyday people.
Fiverr’s Community Standards page was worded so cryptically… making it sound like only people with criminal intent would try and use something to hide their identity.
Even if they had told me to agree to these Standards during the signup process… I wouldn’t have “clicked”.
It just didn’t stand out as something that would cause a potential issue.
You’d think they’d give a “please disable your VPN”-type of message that other websites do.
Or they’d tell you that you have to agree to the “Community Standards”… and they’d spell out CLEARLY: “You can’t use a VPN”.
But I’m still left guessing about this.
Because they couldn’t give me a straight answer. They couldn’t say just what part of the standards I violated.
I expect their automated software just red flagged me as using a VPN. And that was enough for it to be “game over”.
This has got to be one of the worst customer service runarounds I’ve ever had.
And there’s no appeals process either.
I’m just permanently banned as a seller.
Then… guess what?… they try and make it sound all fine by saying:
“You can can still be a buyer though!”
Please… can I? *sarc*
Allright.. this turned into a rant… but maybe it’s a helpful one if anyone else is looking at using Fiverr.
I might have dodged a bullet anyway.
Fiverr is reputed to one of the fastest races to the bottom.
There you go. I know some freelancers have found success on Fiverr.
I know I’ve done OK getting my start on Upwork.
But if you’re using them… or thinking about it… just tread carefully.
And hopefully Fiverr will actually start referring to the “Community Standards” during the sign-up process. And be CLEAR about what they ban people for.
Enjoy the weekend!
Ă€ bientĂ´t
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Chris Milham