I referred someone to Fiverr and I let them know that this was a good marketplace where they could offer freelance services and potentially pick up contract work. So they go in, they fill out a profile, they create their first gig, they’re ready to publish, and they find out that They have to send in a W 9 and get that approved.
Okay, so on September 26th, the W 9 goes in and it’s under review. But then the problem becomes, nothing happens. There’s no notification one way or another, so days go by. And then on September 30th she writes in, I can’t get past the W 9. I’ve submitted the W 9 multiple times. I’ve never received an email that it was approved or denied.
And then the response from the support is, I’ve taken a look at your account and saw that the information is under review. And while the revalidation is in process, et cetera. So that was, that response was on October 1st, but then again, there’s no communication on Fiverr. There’s nothing letting her know your, your W 9 has a, like there, there’s some, there’s some issue with your W 9 or we’re not going to approve it or you’re good to go.
So then there’s a a second email. And she writes, is there any reason my W9 is taking so long? And then the the Fiverr support team writes back, the relevant team is looking into this and we will update you as soon as possible. And so those, that message and reply were both from October 4th. And so tomorrow is going to be October 10th.
So we’re going on two weeks now for a W9 to be approved. There’s no reason a W9. Should be should take this long to get approved. And if there is a reason then why wouldn’t you just be transparent and let them know what exactly is taking so long because when you’re not transparent It really just looks like you’re wasting someone’s time And at this point it really wouldn’t even be worth any like if she was good to go back in time, which even create a profile.
No, because now she’s wasted all this time creating a profile, setting up her first gig, writing all of this information and really putting a lot of thought into it. And then nothing happens and she can’t start offering services. So this is a really bad on Fiverr’s on Fiverr’s part. And in, in what’s especially bad in companies do this a lot, and I’ll have another episode on They would have never treated someone like this.
If they were just starting, right? They needed to build that user base and you can’t do, you can’t do that. You can’t grow while you’re treating people horribly. And so, but now they can get away with this. They’re in the front runner position, right? Like they don’t have this, this person is not going to make a difference, right?
It’s, it’s really irrelevant. They, they’ll approve them when they get to it. And if they don’t, they don’t, but whenever. And so I think the least that they could do is just. This is what’s happening or this is why it’s taking so long or it will be approved, but as it stands, it just, it just seems like there’s a paper in the bottom of a stack and it’s like, whatever, we’ll get to it when we get to it, but there’s no reason that a W nine approval should take this long one way or the other, you either reject it or you don’t, but it shouldn’t take this long to get approved.
And this is really reflective. Right. This tells you a lot, like how a company treats people it’s users and it’s customers and it’s clients. That is very reflective upon that company. And so in this instance, Fiverr is really I mean, I would have never referred anyone to Fiverr if I, if I would have known this was the case.
So this is what’s going on right now with a W nine approval. And so I think this is, this could be potentially helpful if you’re not getting your W nine approved. It, it just. It may not be approved or whenever Fiverr gets around to it, but for two weeks for a W9 approval, that’s ridiculous.