Would you pay the new Fiverr Processing Fee? (charged to buyers)

I don't mind paying it at all.

I've bought Fiverr gigs maybe 35 times over the last 5 years, and have been very satisfied on all but about three occasions. And given the prices there, you can't really complain about that, can you?

I've never been a service-provider there, but have kind of "felt for them", over the years, with fiver charging them a 20% commission on a $5 transaction.

(I would never dream of buying SEO services there: just my perspective.)

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Would you like to share some of the SEO Gigs?

I buy Fiverr gigs most days and to be honest another 50 cents is neither here nor there if I get the quality I'm looking for. The $5 gig price is only a starting point anyway.

It does, however, mean that I visit other sites like Five Squids more often as the price gap is closing. Also, as has been alluded to here already, the other free lance sites like Elance and Odesk are becoming more and more competitive.

Often these types of fee increases mark the beginning of the end for a website or service. Not always, but I think it shows they are not making enough money to keep the site going. It could be, the Fiverr owners just want to make a bit more money, but a lot of times, it really says they are having financial woes.

About time to look for an announcement that Fiverr is being sold.

Only if you pay via Paypal (most do of course). If you have money in your Fiverr account (from sales, refunds, etc) there is no surcharge.

It's a Paypal surcharge not an across the board price increase, as such.

Possibly Fiverr has been absorbing this cost since the start, since it's related to a site expense such as Paypal fee. So it would make sense they will now pass it along to the user. The quality of the Fiverr user is dependent on that person not the Fiverr site.

The new processing fee is 10% and applies no matter what payment you select. So if you buy a $100 GIG, you must pay $10 for the "processing fee."

The problem about going down this road is the same for states that sold the concept of "sales tax" at being only something like 2%. People said, "that's not bad." Then once people got used to it, states started raising the percentage of sales tax. That's what will happen here. When Fiverr decides they want to make more money, they will just raise the processing fee to 15% and so on.

Two interesting things as a result of this "processing fee"...

1) Fiverr was built on the concept that the GIG you buy costs a flat $5. That is no longer true. You can no longer buy a GIG on Fiverr for $5. The MINIMUM you will pay is $5.50. This hurts their branding and dilutes their mission/message.

2) Most people aren't complaining to Fiverr (outside of the forums), but rather to the SELLERS. So Fiverr has put their sellers in an awkward position of having to explain a fee they were not given advanced notice of, that they don't support, and that they don't benefit from.

Fiverr has a reputation for implementing controversial concepts without consulting their community (i.e. going from thumbs up / thumbs down to star ratings). And no matter how much sellers complain about these changes and the process, Fiverr ignores them. Why? Because they don't have any strong competitors.

Until there is a strong competitor to take on Fiverr, they will continue to disregard the opinions of their sellers and buyers and do whatever they want to increase their revenue flow. But once a strong competitor emerges, that tune will have to change or they will be doomed. Until then... as long as people say "I don't mind the fee," Fiverr will continue to increase it. The question is, what is the "tipping point" for buyers?

Hi Rashell

Paid the $0.50c today on 2 different gigs.

It's a simple and miniscule cost of doing business.

We actually figured that they would do that at some stage as all business do re-evaluate what things cost them and what profit is made as a normal part of running that business.

Nothing is free in the IM world - you either pay with your Time or you pay with your wallet.

Regards

Bronwyn and Keith

Unfortunately there is no legit alternative to fiverr at this time. Fourer is similar but is way way smaller, so searching for or offering gigs there is pretty much pointless in my opinion.

And, that's why so many people keep coming back to that site. There are some good deals to be had if you look hard enough. Some sellers have just found a way to automate the process. And, the buyer gets what they are paying for.

For some people, its the principle that counts and having to pay even a nominal sum of money for a transaction (that was not required before), is considered offensive. You just have to decide how important it is for you to use that site, fee or not.

That's how I felt too & yes, it's against Visa regs, but ONLY if you say it's for credit card processing which they haven't said even though we know it's for that & for PP transactions.

Do they have any good infographic design services there? Having an infographic designed can be very costly.

LOL, that might just catch on...

No, never heard about it until just now, so I just joined, but I'd be leery about the people on there claiming they can get you onto page 1.

Well technically you do get it back b/c the next time you use that $5, you don't pay the fee again, but b/c of their screwed up payment system, I can't use a $5 or $10 credit on a job that is more than my credit. This I don't like.

I also noticed that it costs us less in the processing fees to pay someone a larger amount, but now that it's $1, I don't know if that will be true.

There's no one to select, everyone lies about their skills, lies about speaking fluent English, & lies about living in the US.

I'm on there a lot & I have yet to find anyone who's any good UNLESS they are new & from the US & even then it's difficult.

I never know if the person is actually from the US or trying to scam so I have to get them to talk a lot so I can gauge. It's all VERY stressful.

And it's NOT 50 cents I told everyone, it's $1 now.