One of the biggest stories to come out of Fiverr’s ongoing seller relations disaster, the Product Release in January 2024, was the story of Levi Newman, one of Fiverr’s most successful writers. In a sensational post, Newman announced that he had made $1.4 million on Fiverr – but is walking out due to the mismanagement and mistreatment of its selling community.
It’s a gripping story, but one that many Fiverr community members cannot see. Newman shared his story in an area of the forum that is only visible to members of Fiverr’s Seller Success program. It was bought to the attention of Defiant Phoenix that many people were unable to see his story.
So I fixed that. This blog post will be updated as the story develops.
UPDATE: Levi Newman shared the results of his meeting with Fiverr – we’ve got the screenshots and the analysis.
If nothing else, this story highlights the broader seller dissatisfaction with Fiverr’s recent changes – a dissatisfaction that is shared by sellers of all levels.
Who is Levi Newman on Fiverr?
Levi Newman is a freelance writer and copywriter on Fiverr. He joined Fiverr in 2014 and has since earned over $1.4 million in lifetime revenue by writing Amazon product descriptions. Newman is one of Fiverr’s top-rated members and has met with the Fiverr CEO. Micha Kaufman, in the past. Until the Product Release story broke, he had exclusively used Fiverr and has said the platform is the reason he’s been able to build such a sustainable business. Newman is passionate about copywriting, online marketing, and client-brand relationships – and one of the most vocal critics of the change to the system.
Why Should I Care About What Levi Newman Says?
Because, according to Newman, his complaints have reached the very top of Fiverr – the CEO, Micha Kaufman. He is also scheduled for a meeting with Fiverr staff this week (Wednesday 21st), ahead of their Q4 2024 announcement on the 22nd. While hundreds of sellers have complained over the weekend on a thread that has exceeded 1,000 posts, staff have largely abandoned the Fiverr Forum and are not answering answering questions, other than to affirm that they are listening to the community.
Newman’s story is remarkable for the fact that despite being one of the platform’s biggest sellers and one of its greatest assets, he feel that he has been treated poorly. He repeatedly underlines the fact that Fiverr has never listened to his complaints, mirroring the experience of many other sellers. He is also the sole $1+ million Fiverr earner to speak out (to date) against the company; others have chosen to remain quiet, perhaps fearing for the safety of their own accounts and income.
Newman is not constrained by these fears, as he has decided that he will leave Fiverr to preserve his mental and physical health. He has also commented that his wife urged him to do the same three years beforehand. Newman’s transparent approach to communication stands in stark contrast with Fiverr’s own repetitive claims of transparency. He has stated that he is dedicated to letting the community know exactly what will happen.
Defiant Phoenix supports Newman’s mission – and through this post, the aim is to share his experiences with members of the community who are not in Seller Plus.
Levi Newman’s Story in Screenshots
Last updated: 20 February, 2021
If you are a member of Seller Plus, you can view the entire thread (Transparency: Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is) by clicking the link.
Currently, the thread is at 5 pages, with universal support from the community. I’ve focused specifically on screenshotting posts where Newman shares his experiences and updates. Fiverr staff have chosen not comment on the thread to date. If they do, screenshots of their responses will be added.
A little later on, Newman sent the contents of the above post along with additional notes (green) for his contact at Fiverr. He went on to share this email with the community:
Staff responded and reacted quickly over the weekend, but Newman’s past experience left him skeptical:
At the same time, Newman was talking with Fiverr’s (Priority) Customer Support team about an order which had gone wrong:
Newman also sent an email back to Fiverr staff about the meeting:
Back with Fiverr’s Customer Support, Newman was outraged by an agent’s suggestion:
The next day (Monday, February 19th), Newman woke up to a new email from Fiverr staff. In this email, staff revealed that his concerned had been shared with Fiverr’s CEO, Micha Kaufman:
Levi’s response was to make sure that staff were aware of how their own Customer Support teams were treating him, and by extension, how Fiverr was failing its seller community.
Unfortunately, one screenshot is missing due to file corruption. When this was originally posted, it was copy-pasted directly from Newman’s email. None of the images survived the original upload, and while Newman fixed most of them after other posters alerted him, that screenshot may have been missed:
Shortly after this, Fiverr cancelled an order from the buyer “T”, whose threats to Newman are visible in Newman’s opening forum post. This is also the order that Customer Support advised Newman to take the partial refund on:
Another poster checked the Terms of Service, which confirmed that what Fiverr had done went against their own TOS:
Newman also shared a fresh review from another (satisfied) customer. Despite a happy review and a tip, Newman was still hit by the now-notorious “value for money” review metric:
So, what happened at the meeting, and more importantly, did Fiverr listen?
Is Fiverr Scrambling?
It has been 5 days since the Valentines Day launch of Fiverr’s first big Product Release for 2024, and the community is still in uproar. Over the weekend, Fiverr went quiet. This silence has extended over Monday and into Tuesday, leading many to believe that Fiverr is not listening.
Some staff are still present on the forum, but they are, for now, avoiding long threads where sellers are in uproar. Some sellers have speculated that Fiverr is hoping that everything will eventually blow over. Others are calling for sellers to take their complaints out of the Fiverr forum, onto social media and their own platforms.
Fiverr is hosting several webinars this week to explain the new levels and rating system to sellers. Outside of that, sellers can only ask themselves if Fiverr’s overall silence is a sign of listening, or evading difficult questions and ignoring the huge issues at the platform’s core that affect sellers on a daily basis.
Time will tell. Defiant Phoenix will continue to follow this story, and has reached out to Newman for an interview.
