Firstly, apologies in advance for the extremely long thread! I just wanted to post about Fiverr.com as I've had a particularly bad experience that has made me realise how crap Fiverr actually is and how little they care about the integrity of their sellers. The feedback system is an absolute joke!!

Hope I've posted this in the right section of this site, but if not feel free to move it!

Basically, I bought the following gig:

http://fiverr.com/trafficnseo/deliver-2-months-of-search-traffic-to-any-website-or-blog

The gig promises to deliver genuine Google keyword targeted traffic to your website for two months, for any keywords you choose. Although it sounded far too good to be true, the gig had over 800 feedback at 100% positive. I decided I would give it a try.

Within a couple of days, the traffic started, about 50 to 100 hits per day. The only thing is, the traffic was very obviously completely fake, and it was clear that the guy had just sent bots to my site with the referrer spoofed to make it look like the hits were coming from Google. This traffic was completely worthless and I wondered how he had managed to retain 100% feedback.

I queried this with him and he ignored me, so I asked for a refund and got it. Then I went to leave feedback and discovered that once you had accepted a refund you couldn't leave any feedback. Already I was starting to see the flaws in Fiverr's feedback system - surely anybody who was unhappy would request a refund and therefore the only people who would get to leave feedback were the happy ones, who had been fooled by the fake traffic.I complained to Fiverr and they said they would look into it. They did nothing. I even sent them proof of the fake hits. When I queried with them why nothing had been done they said for data protection purposes they couldn't tell me what action had been taken against the seller. Obviously no action had been taken at all as the gig was still up and running, despite the fact that I had proven to them this guy was scamming people.

The other thing that is annoying is that when you get a refund from the seller, the money just goes into your Fiverr balance. Their is no way of getting this money back into your bank account so you have to spend it on Fiverr anyway, or lose it completely.

I then noticed a couple of people who left negative feedback for the gig that day. I was at least pleased to see he no longer had 100% feedback. I was then confused to see these feedback comments had disappeared the following day.

Feeling a bit angry about the whole thing, I decided to create a new account on Fiverr with the intention of not accepting a refund and leaving negative feedback. I used an anonymous browser so Fiverr wouldn't be able to match the IP address to my other account.

I purchased the gig again under the new account for a different website and sure enough the fake hits started coming through. I left negative feedback and refused to accept the refund the seller started trying to push on me.

He then started panicking and started a conversation thread with me, begging me to remove the feedback. I decided to try and get him to admit his traffic was false so I could prove this to Fiverr once and for all. He nearly admitted it but not explicitly and then started denying it again. Here's the conversation thread (it's actually quite funny at times). Trafficnseo is the name of the seller:


trafficnseo

I apologize, if you are unhappy then please accept refund

Me

Do you accept that this is not real traffic?

trafficnseo

I accept anything but I beg you on my knees, please kindly accept refund

trafficnseo

I beg you on my knees, please kindly accept my apology and accept refund

trafficnseo

I accept anything but I beg you on my knees, please kindly accept refund

Me

I'm sorry Trafficnseo but from what I have read if I accept your refund my feedback will disappear, and then my $5 will just go back into a Fiverr balance rather than my bank account. I don't normally use Fiverr and there are no other gigs that I want to purchase. It's not very fair that I should have to go to all of this trouble when you haven't been honest in your gig about what you are offering, is it?

trafficnseo

dear sir

firstly I am not offering any dishonest service. It may happen that it did not work for your website. I am here offering you the refund and I wish you would accept the refund and forgive me.

Your comment is hurting me a lot. Now I am begging you on my knees, would you please kindly accept refund.

trafficnseo

Can you please kindly agree to remove the comment, I am here ready to refund you. why would you hurt me and my life with this comment?

Me

If you are going to insult my intelligence by not even having the decency to admit that you are sending fake traffic then there is no way I will remove the comment. I work in web design and know how to spot fake traffic and this is very obviously fake traffic. I'm fairly shocked by your response to be honest, considering the dishonesty of your whole operation.

trafficnseo

I apologize, how can I get your mercy? please forgive me


Me

But what are you actually apologizing for? It's not really a proper apology if you're still going to insult my intelligence by refusing to admit you've been sending me fake traffic.


Me

If you tell me how you've done it I'll remove the feedback.

trafficnseo

I optimize google crawler index with arrays. google crawlers read the arrays on goo.gl and crawls the targeted website and index it with some random high serp.

due to this random high serp the website appears on top of the search result randomly on random places (mostly on google.com and google.com.hk) and gets visitors.

I beg you please kindly remove the negative comment and I will refund you and I will provide you service for 1 year totally free, please do not hurt me, I beg you again and again.


Me

Thanks for your reply. However, I want you to know I'm 100% certain that the traffic is false and I know that the above explanation is completely impossible. The question isn't whether your traffic is real as I know it's not. You probably use a piece of software like Jingling or something similar to route hits through various user agents and proxies. I was just curious as to how you make the hits show up in Analytics as being from Google with certain keywords. I know there are websites that can do this like fakethereferrer and spoofr but I don't know how you do it without them. If you can explain to me in detail how you do this part, and if you're honest with me, I give you my word I will remove my feedback. If you can't be honest with me then I won't remove my feedback.

trafficnseo

dear sir

Please kindly let me know 2 things,

1. if I am sending fake traffic then why should I send traffic from Hong Kong to buyers when most of the buyer wants only usa traffic?

2. if I am sending fake traffic by using fake referral then why should I use google.com.hk when most of the buyer wants only google.com traffic?

3. if it is fake then why there are ups and downs in the traffic?

Please kindly note that these are true google search traffic and google crawlers decides these google.com.hk and google.com thing

* please kindly check the attached screenshot and you will know that these are true
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Me

Hi, I'm sorry but if you're going to keep treating me like an idiot there's not much point in continuing this conversation. Firstly, the majority of your 'traffic' does come from USA and from Google.com, your gig page even states this. And there are countless pieces of software that route through proxies that are mainly in the US but some are from other countries. Software like Jingling actually allow you to select the countries you want the traffic to appear from, as I'm sure you know.

As well as using Google Analytics, I also have some other scripts on my website which tracks each user's individual behaviour. The behaviour of users that came from you were all virtually identical; they nearly all click on exactly two links when they are on my page. They all spend nearly exactly the same amount of time on my site. Links that they click on are very random, which ends up meaning that hidden links in page footers get clicked as much as the main listing. There are other ways I can tell fake users but I have named a few.

I know with absolute certainty that your traffic is fake so please don't play me for a fool. If you want to be honest I'll remove my feedback but otherwise not.

Me

Like I say, all you have to do is tell me how you make the hits appear to be from Google. If you are honest about this I'll remove my feedback, as at least I'll have learned something and therefore will have got something from this gig.

trafficnseo

Dear Sir

I am sorry but I can do anything else but not my work secret. I beg you again please kindly remove the negative comment and I will provide you free service for 3 of your websites for 1 year.

Me

I'm sorry but the service you provide, knowing as I do now that the traffic is not real, is of no use to me at all so a year's free service would be of absolutely no help at all. The only thing that would possibly be of any interest to me would be for you to tell me how you have done this, and if you're not prepared to do that then I'm afraid I can't remove the feedback.

I feel like I have been very fair by offering you the chance to have it removed at all, considering my feedback is completely valid. Please note that this is nothing personal, I have simply given an honest account of my experience of your gig with the feedback I have left, which ultimately is what the feedback system is for.

trafficnseo

Dear Sir

You have paid for traffic not for the secret recipe of the traffic, right? If you do not like traffic then accept refund and remove comment.

I believe in GOD and if you treat me in this way then I can only say GOD is watching us, wish you a happy life, but you are hurting me with this comment and I am not happy about it at all

Me

I did indeed pay for traffic. I paid for real traffic and I got fake traffic. So I certainly didn't get what I paid for.

That's nice to hear that you believe in God. I don't believe in God, in fact I'm currently watching an interview with Richard Dawkins, who is a friendly atheist chap you may have heard of. If you believe that God is watching us maybe you should reconsider charging people for traffic they are not really receiving :)

I'm not judging though. I'm more than happy to leave things as they are, I've left what is fair feedback based on the service I've received from you. I have only asked you for your methods of spoof referring out of curiosity because you've asked me to remove my feedback, but you don't have to tell me your methods. But neither should you expect me to remove my feedback if you don't, as what I've written is true and fair. I'll let God be the judge of that.

trafficnseo

Don't worry, I know that you know this fiverr system well and you are trying to utilize the privileges you have as a buyer. I also know that you know my traffic is real and true and that is the only reason you are trying to learn my secret.

GOD bless you

Me

It's quite funny to have a conversation with somebody who knows they're lying, and who knows you know they're lying, yet still refuses to admit it. I don't think you really believe in God, because if you did you probably wouldn't be trying to con people in the first place, because you would be worried that if you did you would be turned into a pillar of salt, or whatever he does to people these days.

But it's been pleasant talking to you and I wish you all the best for the future.

Godspeed.

Me

And for the record, I don't know the Fiverr system well at all, at least I didn't before I purchased your gig. But I do know that feedback on any site is there to let people know your genuine thoughts on people's gig.s And I'm glad I've done this, because I can see now that the only reason you haven't got more negative ratings is because you must have convinced other people who've left them to remove them, like you've tried to do with me.

But people deserve to know the truth about the fact that the money they pay you is completely wasted as the false hits they get are worthless. I hope my review loses you some buyers who otherwise would have been taken in by your scam.



...So that was that. Although it wasn't. When I checked my account the next day, I was shocked to see my transaction had been cancelled by Fiverr and that my feedback had been removed!! I was infuriated to see that he was still somehow getting away with this!

I contacted Fiverr to see why me feedback had been removed. Here's the conversation with them:

Sheana

It appears that the seller contacted us in regards to cancelling the order and removing the feedback. We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you and we will be looking into this seller.

Regards,
Sheana

Me

Hi Sheana,

Thanks for the update. Is it really this easy for seller's to have negative feedback removed?

Just to give you a bit more background for when you're looking into the seller, after I left him negative feedback (which was completely true and warranted) he started a separate conversation with me on Fiverr and asked me to remove it. I said no, and he began begging me and trying to guilt trip me into it, and said he would do anything to get me to remove it. In the end I tried to get him to admit that the traffic he sends is false in the hope I could prove to you guys he is scamming people, and he nearly did admit that. But not explicitly, and then he denied it again. He then started trying to bring God into the whole equation (?!).

Hopefully you will be able to find and read the entire conversation.

Either way, I don't think it's fair for a seller to harass disgruntled buyers in this way. It seems that this is the only way he's maintained such a high feedback rating despite offering a service that is a complete con as none of the traffic is real. I would guess that if you look into his history you'll find he has had a lot of negative comments removed and has a high refund rate (I noticed that another negative comment for this gig that was left yesterday has also now disappeared).

I wouldn't normally bother ranting so much about this but it annoyed me enough that he is somehow getting away with such a scam, so to have now had my feedback removed is very frustrating and I hope appropriate action is taken so he doesn't keep getting away with this.

Sheana

No, it's not that easy for a seller to remove the feedback and we are sorry to hear about this issue :(

We will be taking the information provided into consideration.

Regards,
Sheana

Me

Ok, thanks Sheana... although, if it's not that easy, how has he managed to do it?

Jay

Hi there,

A seller may be able to provide proof that even part of the feedback violates our TOS or was inaccurate and we may at times remove the feedback in those situations. We are looking into this further.

Best,

Jay

Me

Ok thanks Jay. I take it you'll let me know which parts of my feedback violated your TOS once you've investigated?

Jay

Hi there,

The support agent believed that not all of what was stated was true. There may have been even 1 part that was not 100% accurate and that may have been the reason

for removal of the feedback.

I can't see exactly what the agent believed to be inaccurate. i can only assume this is the case as I am not able to see what else could have been the reason.

Regards,

Jay

Me

I appreciate your update, however I promise you that everything I wrote was completely true. It seems very unfair that this has now been removed when the only thing that's untrue is what the seller is offering in the gig (yet this doesn't appear to have been removed). With this in mind, is there no way of reinstating my feedback? I feel very hard done by.

Jay

Hi there,

Unfortunately, once the order is cancelled, the option to leave feedback is no longer available. I am very sorry.

Regards,

Jay

Me

Well, then, this has all been a very unfair experience. Could you at least get the $5 in my account refunded into my Paypal account? There's actually nothing else I want to buy on Fiverr and it seems unfair that I should lose out on my money for a gig that I was completely lied to about and that you guys seem happy to let continue scamming people.
Jay3
Jay 1 hour ago

Hi,

I made an exception and refunded your paypal account.

Best,

Jay

Me

Thanks Jay, just seen the refund come through. Much appreciated.

Jay

Sorry again about the whole experience.

Me

No problem, I appreciate it's not your fault.

Jay

:)


...So in summary, I did manage to get the money back into my bank account in the end for that transaction, but the seller still has 100% feedback and is still scamming people. And Fiverr know about it but don't seem to care, as they're still making money out of it.

The Fiverr feedback system is absolute rubbish and the Fiverr staff don't give a crap.

Don't use Fiverr, I guess would be the key point of what I'm saying!

Sorry for the massive rant but if I've prevented even one person from using this crappy site it will have been worth it :)