The Fiverr Experience That Costed Me $240 and Some Brain Cells

Back in the days when I was running my old blog, EZPCBuilding.com, I wanted to create a web application that gives computer part recommendations to people who want to build their own gaming computers based on information they enter into the forms like their budget, size of computer they want, the type of games they want to play, etc.

So I went on Fiverr to find a developer who can help me build this. I posted a job request and saw 15 requests the very next day. I chose to work with this particular individual. We'll call him Ahmad.

I paid him $200 and sent him a detailed document of how I wanted this web app to function. He looked it over and told me, "Ok I can do this. I'll have it done within seven days."

Things seemed to be going pretty well. Once a day he would update me on what he has accomplished. Before he did certain things, he would ask me if it's ok to do it or if I wanted it another way. The communication was great.

Four days later, he messaged me saying the project was complete. I was surprised. "That was fast," I thought. So I went on my website to see the project that I've envisioned for months.

But it wasn't what I saw.

What I saw was the definition of inadequate work.

The formatting was ugly.

Nothing happened when I clicked on the buttons.

Nothing worked.

Turned out he never worked on the backend of the project, he only built the visual part of the website using a simple Wordpress drag-and-drop page builder plugin, something I could've done myself in one hour.

So I sent him a pretty long text basically saying the work he did was horribly incomplete and reminded him what I wanted. So he apologized and went back to make revisions.

Came back the next day with changes I didn't even ask for. And this happened multiple times.

I got so tired and frustrated of typing and constantly explaining to the point where I literally started copying & pasting sentences from my document to tell Ahmad what I wanted.

Then he told me something that made me lose some brain cells.

"That's extra work. It's going to cost extra money."

....What? Why?! I literally repeated what I wrote in a document that he clearly said he read and understood. And now he's saying he wants an extra $40.

Looking back, I have no idea why I decided to give him another chance and send him $40, but I did it.

Three months went by and I never heard a single word from him. Then he texts me on a random day saying...

"I had big problems with my phone and laptop so this issue erased all my data on my PC, so I just got another working electronic to get things going again. So if I have offended you please I apologize please accept my apology."

And then he says,

"Do you have any project in hand that I can handle for you sir?"

As if he completely forgot about my project. And he didn't ask this once, but twice, even when I reminded him about my project that he never finished when he asked the first time.

I stopped talking to him after that.

Anyways, the point of that story is to always do your homework on someone if you're deciding whether or not you want to outsource some of your work to them. That even applies if you want to work with me.

Talk to past clients.

Review past work and make sure none of it is plagiarized from other people's work.

Whatever it takes.