As a Seller, My PPH Service Fee has Doubled.
I am aware having not transacted on PPH for a time that the service fee goes up. I have been a loyal user of this service for years and took some time off, my last transaction was 1 month ago and since have landed 2 high value jobs, one of which is a client that emails me with a brief and I redirect that conversation to PPH and raise the proposal. Upon raising the proposal I noticed that the PPH service fee went from 10% to 20% which feels like a slap in the face for taking just one month off. I honestly appreciate this service but with that kind of hike in service fees I will have to conduct my business on a different platform, unless this can be reverted back to what I usually am charged in service fees.
Regards,
Michael
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Official comment
Many thanks for your suggestion. I will pass it on to our product team.
Please let me know if I can help you with anything else.
Comment actions -
Same situation here.
That new policy about the minimum monthly billing is just ridiculous, like if now we are not freelance anymore but we have a boss called peopleperhour.com that forces us to work every month, don't dare to take holidays or you'll pay for it next time.
I registered in 2014 and I have been doing jobs consistently until last month that I took a break. Now I just had to quote a job (which now probably I won't get) £100 up just to cover part of the huge fee that I will be charged. Probably the last quote I send as I cannot make a profit working through this website anymore.
Greediness is killing the platform, please contact me when you decide to remove that abusive new fee clause.
Regards
Ana
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Completely agree, and bear in mind for every user that can be bothered to post a comment like this, there will be plenty who can't. PPH has become significantly less competitive in my opinion. You've got to remember who generates your revenue for you, and that you are now by no means the only platform around. Shame as I like PPH and have been with you for a number of years, but you are no longer my first port of call.
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Anna, Howard and Mark, thank you for you comments, it seems like this is definitely an issue and I hope that PPH will sort it out for us and anyone that has been affected by the exorbitant service fee hike.
Kelly, thank you for your reply. Has the product team since come back to you? If so, what is the outcome and the way forward on this matter?
Regards,
Michael
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Hi,
I have a couple of regular customers on PPH who have asked why my proposal prices have gone up and I've had to tell them that because of the hike in PPH Commission charges I have had to put my costs up just to make the job worthwhile - I know I've lost at least one customer because of this!
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I have been a PPH seller for a number of years, bidding when I think a job is right for me and Cert 4 with 100% 5-star rating. I was shocked to come back and bid on some jobs that around almost 1/3 of day rate was now been taken by PPH. Greedy and stupid, I doubt very much if I will bid for work now I can no longer charge the level of fees I need to as it is simply uncompetitive now Shame on you PPH you deserve to lose your business and you will because someone will come along and disrupt it with a fairer and better service.
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I've been a highly active freelancer on PPH for over three years now and have done constant work, but these new fees are ridiculous. I'm having to overcharge buyers just to break even with the work I provide, which now means I'm having proposals declined and subsequently my cert has gone down from 5 to 4, regardless of the fact that I have 100% on my feedback and instant response time. PPH need to start looking after their freelancers better or they'll find many of us looking for new platforms or encouraging buyers to pay off-site.
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Hi everyone, it seems like more of these issues are flooding in. I was going to post some positive feedback but I have been left absolutely incredulous at recent events that have mysteriously transpired on my transaction profile. Let me begin, after I had brought the same customer back in (after my initial post) I noticed that when raising the proposal the service fees had gone back down to 10%, yet now that the job is complete and I'm withdrawing my funds I noticed that 20% has been deducted as service fees. What on earth is going on!? I think this is absolutely ridiculous and can this please be explained as hopefully a system error and that the fees unfairly taken from me be refunded.
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Furthermore, there has been one official comment on this thread that bares no clarity, solution or way forward. There has been no follow up on this thread nor have I received an email. One is unable to mark this thread as resolved or un-resolved there is also no way of escalating this thread (please point me in the right direction if I'm not seeing how to do so).
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As with so many Online companies (Twitter, FB included), the attitude is; take the money whatever there are always replacement people out there. If existing freelancers don't like it they don't have to bid. My bidding has gone through the floor because frankly, I won't work for pennies so I won't win.What is this new HIGH VALUE job three credits used. I saw a writing job yesterday 30 x 12000 words for under £600, then deduct PPH commission. High value? It is slave labour am I really reduced to this shit after a career spanning 40 years?
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Hi Michael,
In this section we simply pass on your feature requests for a future internal review of our products and features.
Here is the response we gave you when we first raised your feedback:
As you are aware there has been a change in the fee structure. Starting on May 1st, 2017, if a Seller's billing within a calendar month is less than £50 | €60 | $65, then starting from the next month onwards, the Seller will be charged the Service Fee of a 5% (excl. VAT) on all work billed (earnings), above the first £500 | €600 | $650 earned in the month which has a 20% (excl. VAT) Service Fee, independent of the Seller's date of registration.
If your account has been inactive or you have haven't billed during one month after this took place then account would revert to the new fee structure which we unfortunately can not revert back.
https://support.peopleperhour.com/hc/en-us/articles/205218337-PPH-Service-Fee
Thank you and if you have any other inquiry please let me know. -
Hi Kelly
I think we all understand that this website has decided to increase the fees to an abusive point and, for all of us who actually agreed to a different service when we signed in, you have found a way to force us into the new system. We are intelligent enough to understand the new rules, there is no need to copy them again and please don't tell us "we unfortunately can not revert back" because you have proved you can do whatever you want with the fees, whenever you want.
The point here is this website is clearly neglecting and ignoring the freelancers working through it, and therefore we are leaving. Since you are doubling your fees I assume you can afford losing half of your users and keep ignoring the signs. It is quite disappointing but I also understand that if we don't like it nobody is forcing us to stay. In my case, what it really annoys me is that I am stuck with a job that started months ago, that I quoted accordingly to the rules at that time, and now when we get to finish the project I won't get a profit because your new fees will take it all. Apart from the clients that I am losing just because I can't give a competitive price anymore.
Also, if you accept my opinion, I would like to mention that after charging so much money in fees, one would expect a more personalised support section that actually solves problems and communicate with the users instead of a communal section that thanks you for your comments but gives no real answers.
I really hope this website comes back to the place that made it popular and successful and listen to the people who made it possible.
Kind Regards
Ana
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Hi all,
Agreed, Ana. The issue is not that we don't understand the new service fees, it's that we don't agree with how unfair they are, in my opinion this thread clarifies that efficiently yet the official responses have been nothing short of generic.
It is impossible that anyone will work 365 days a year without taking any time off. As a loyal and ever more achieving and progressing member of PPH this seems very unfair. It's difficult to keep one's drive and motivation up when you get knocked 10 steps backwards by the very platform that serves to support you in a mutually beneficial way.
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Mark et al.
PPH has been systematically moving all older buyers onto the new fee schedule. They call it standardisation. More a case of profiteering.
Their respect for buyers has been declining steadily. There are many threads with the same complaint. All have the same KellyBot response, and many replies by disgruntled sellers.
Don't expect any changes. PPH see buyers as a cash cow, nothing else. The standard of jobs has also steadily declined. I've been keeping stats. The award rate is abysmal. But PPH profit from proposal credits being bought and essentially wasted on tyre-kicker jobs and deluded buyers.
PPH don't and will not care about the time and effort it takes to wade through job ads, and research and send proposals. Just don't give a toss. There is little or no barrier to entry for buyers. Why should there be, it's a justification for PPH's press team to tout spurious stats to the media about the increasing and vibrant use of the site. They never quote the lack of jobs awarded or clarifications ignored.
There are MANY threads about having PPH refund credits if a job is NOT awarded, and expires... It's the only viable option for PPH to gain any seller confidence. But they all get the same KellyBot response. If you take into account the % of jobs awarded, and remove the duplicte jobs, tyre-kickers and fantasist buyers, this place would be a ghost ship.
But at least it would be an honest one.
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I am very new to PPH and only just sent my first proposal to a small job last night. I instantly noticed the deposite dropped so much and realising there are a huge amount was lessed for service fee (in my case is 20%)..
I was surprised and discouraged at the same time, as I had to raised my proposal budget to a higher point so that it could at least meet my desired amount..(i guess it is not a good news for the buyers too..)
obviously this new service fee charge is doing no good to loyal users whose had been using PPH for years as well as new user like me..
This will definately make me think twice whether I should invest more of my time on this platform going forward for my freelancing career or look for a different platform..
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It is sheer greed, I am paying 25% commission on all my earnings so far, as presumably, I am not earning enough in their eyes, and for what? For this kind of fee you would expect project management, but they do nothing to earn this commission, even the customer service is dreadful.
They try and force you to put all work through PPH by adding an additional 5% if you don't work through the site regularly. Who is seriously going to put direct work through PPH just so they can lose money?
If you don't get any jobs, you are punished.
If you are sick or unable to work for any reason, you are punished
If you do work outside PPH, you are punished -
I read all above and note that I have dropped from a regular top rated (we ll as top as you can get without recommending PPH what is that about) seller to someone who rarely even bothers to look. I have lost virtually every bid in the last year because to maintain my fee rate I now have to charge so much that I keep getting comments like wanted to use you but too expensive...I used to win virtually every job I bid for. Greed is not good PPH, every business that fails to listen to the people who keep its revenues flowing will ultimately fail.
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Agreed, not before time I had pretty much stopped all work gained through this platform but will now review this. I also think the Cert process is flawed, I been Cert 4 for years but will never make Cert 5 because, after a bad experience when everyone who recommended me from outside was being bombarded with mail, I will never ask anyone again and with 900 LinkedIn contacts and 250 + recommendations I have no doubt I could get it. The upshot, Cert 5 is not worth the paper it is written on it just means people are playing ball and promoting PPH sadly clients don't know that when awarding jobs!
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PPH is a useful freelance worker service satisfying an ever-growing need around the world. On writing tasks, they are competing with writers' agents (listed in Writers' and Artists' Year Book) who all charge 15% (20% for overseas work). PPH have embroidered, extended and expanded their fee structure to a point where it now deducts 25%, which is far too high. A perusal of their structure, which has grown exponentially from the original two founders, is bloated and top-heavy. The market is open to a competitive agency who can offer the same service but at an overall fee of 15%. If established literary agents can do it so can others. I propose setting up a self-regulating agency and welcome interested and available people to get in touchj.
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To properly launch a competitive platform will need to raise a lot of startup cash not just for tech but marketing and for ensuring it can meet all obligations. I believe PPH is changing its policy from July 1st so seems they have listened. I have pretty much stopped work through the platform whereas I used to do a lot. One BIG issue, is the ridiculous spread of experience and talent (or lack of it) that clogs up bids. In this I include people bidding for jobs for which they patently are not qualified, e.g. they are in the wrong country when the specification says must reside in the UK, USA etc. or where the project calls for attendance at a local site. The value system (Cert) is flawed and based on how much money is being generated for PPH, not experience or satisfied client feedback ( I say this without boasting as I have a 100% 5 -star rating) including being required to recommend the platform to get to a top CERT. Finally, there should be a minimum hourly rate around experience level not trying to force everyone to the lowest price this is dumb for the platform and a complete turn off for professionals. A much better rating system is needed, e.g., a minimum rate for each category of experience under which you cannot bid and clients CANNOT list. Stupid prices for days of work confuses the market and looks and is amateur. The so-called High-Value jobs rarely reach my 1/2 day rate let alone a realistic one for the job, e.g. a couple of hundred quid for a proper business plan is ludicrous and will often result in pissed-off clients pay peanuts get? If you want cheap and cheerful that is fine.
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