New system aimed primarily at matching newer sellers with buyers
So now it seems I have to wait two hours before I can bid for a job. This is extremely unfair. Not only do experienced creatives/designers have to compete with an unfair playing field, ie people offered to do a job for £10 when it is clearly worth £100, we are now not allowed to bid for jobs as soon as they appear on PPH. What kind of system is this?!
Awful. Unfair. Unprofessional. Discriminatory.
Regards
C. Howe
-
Doh, thanks Chris.
I keep looking in to see if PPH has posted a response on this thread, they seem to have gone silent, so when I saw that I jumped to the wrong conclusion.
Promising a positive change is good as it confirms they recognize that one is needed. However it sounds like the feature is here to stay.
-
I am frustrated FROM PPH. Reason behind you can't apply to job. wait 2 hours and if you receive mail for any work then "You can't send a Proposal to a job that's not relevant to your primary skills. Browse other jobs "message displayed. Can you guide us how to set relevant skill. So why we use PPH. PPH downing their image into bad effect. so this reason i also never ask to my odesk clients comes to PPH.
-
Promising a positive change is good as it confirms they recognize that one is needed.
I disagree - simply because it means they think the idea is still viable and it's OK for them to choose who will apply for which job. However finely tuned it's totally unfair and discriminatory. It's not the system we all joined up for and it contradicts their explanation of why they are not an employment agency.
However it sounds like the feature is here to stay.
I can't see it staying. It's so bad. It's a question of how long it takes for PPH to realise it's a mistake.
-
If their idea of positive change is anywhere near as brilliant as this amazing new video feature then god help us......
PPH have consistently disappointed me for many years now. The simple system they originally had has grown in complexity and interference and the things that would make the system run more smoothly totally ignored.
Unfortunately, they seem to be the best of a bad bunch, regardless of themselves.
-
I can't see it staying. It's so bad. It's a question of how long it takes for PPH to realise it's a mistake.
But they've built DeskDonkie on the back of this feature haven't they, so they can't give up on it. Perhaps when/if ever they get it right, they'll use it on DD and drop it from PPH.
-
What I don't understand is how PPH don't recognise that the race to the bottom has no winners and there is a niche for a mid price + seller that would attract higher value customers and benefit both buyers and sellers.
Over the past 10 years, as I said before, there was a race to the bottom in the photolibrary industry. The result was lots of sellers couldn't survive on $1/50pence sales and went bankrupt or were taken over; even the biggest one - who I won't name - is billions of dollars in debt. The mid ones who didn't drop their prices too far and sell on quality are not exactly booming , but making money in a hard hit industry. Some of them had their most profitable year last year, which is an achievement.
So there's an example for PPH, if they are listening: I expect not.
-
But they've built DeskDonkie on the back of this feature haven't they
I don't think so.
DeskDonkie is a collection of PPHers that are hand-picked by PPH to be available to do a limited type of task. I think PPH analysed their freelancers than looked at the list by hand and invited a number of people from that.
I was invited but don't wish to be involved. It's a different system to that of PPH in that effectively DeskDonkie provides a service bureau staffed by available freelancers. Who knows if it's successful or not? I find the name very offensive.
I'm not really sure what this system is about. It has contrary aims, it seems - helping newbies on-board (why?) and raising quality ( by putting forward people with little or no experience ).
I really am getting fed up of PPH trying to manipulate this market they have created. There are better ways to improve the quality of proposals/proposers and absolutely no good reason to be favouring newbies. The CERT system is misleading buyers, who think a better CERT score is indicative of some quality assessment when in fact it's a mixture of good feedback and sales activity (Xenios himself is only Cert 2).
-
Can't stop myself writing again here as just, almost confirmed by now, lost an opportunity for which I was well qualified and only apparent reason was that I was 'allowed' to bid only after first few crucial hours! I don't see any helpful logic behind these restrictions! Why don't PPH just walk clients to 'some sellers' instead of promoting all, fairly?
-
DeskDonkie works by a client buying a service as you say, then the task is offered to selected freelancers by email, and it goes to the first invited freelance who accepts it. To me that sounds like PPH need this feature to make DeskDonkie work.
There is no direct contact at all between buyer and seller, so nobody has any opportunity to take work outside. You can see why that is an advantage for PPH.
-
I can understand and appreciate if client invites few selected freelancers and they get first opportunity! That is perfectly justified. It appears I don't understand 'DeskDonkie' clearly. Is this time restriction pph initiated or 'invitations/ clients' initiated? Are these invitations sent out by client directly or by PPH, without involving buyers? Also, what ever the true reason is, why does message show up as '...you do not have required skills added to your profile....add them to be allowed later' (can't recall exact & complete message!) when these skills are in fact added in profile! Can't that simply state 'No, you are not alllowed as this job is being offerred to certain sellers only'!
Can some one help me in understanding this? Please! So that I don't waste my time & brain again thinking about this ... thing! -
I think I am beginning to get an idea and understand what exactly Pie referred to above! My pea brian! I thought 'Deskdonkie' is some new policy by pph! Now I know it is another site, likely only for interaction between pph and buyers. Buyers update their requirement there and then PPH takes over it, passes jobs to 'handpicked' freelancers and allowing them first chance! If this 'handpicking' is not 'buddy' style, then it appears to be with some logic as for PPH this all is a business, afterall! I don't see any way around it unless, of course, PPH gives us all a 'right of way'!
If I am not missing anything here, this is disheartening! I won't, appears like quite a few more like me, won't even get opportunity! Yes, Pie, PPH will need that to stay or improvise something else, if they want both to stay. On another thought, option can be. PPH should ask all handpicked to migrate to deskdonie alone and keep pph for 'rest' of all! Like 'rejected trash'!
-
Seems to me from the freelancers point of view that deskdonkie has nothing whatsoever to do with freelancing. Not that pph has very much to do with freelancing any more, where is the autonomy to choose what you do and when you do it and build relationships with your clients. Increasingly the clients arent the freelancers clients even on pph, theyre pphs clients. The freelancers work for pph and if they dont do what pph wants they get penalised. On deskdonkie pph will even decide on the fee. The relationships are all wrong.
-
Deskdonkie is really a service agency. The agency offers the client a service and uses their pool of available freelancers to carry out the service. Most design agencies operate like this, but use freelancers when their own staff can't do the job or they are too busy. A lot of my work comes through this route rather than PPH. It is far more lucrative than working via PPH. Naturally with this kind of work what the agency charges the client is up to them and not really my business. Typical markups are 15% and up. I once worked for an agency at a 100% markup on my fee to the client..
If you want to work for Deskdonkie you must have high availability and will run into problems if you turn down jobs regularly (that's my understanding, PPH can correct me).
-
"You're one of the most qualified Sellers for the Job "Need a creative arabic copywriter".
Uh huh.
I find it amazing that after an official PPH response here on 27th June that “we will be implementing changes towards the middle of next week”, and an admittance that “the necessity to be more communicative during the release of any new feature is also duly noted”, the week has passed with no change to the system and, more importantly, no obvious further information from PPH about what’s happening. Some of the wilder speculation on this thread is, I suspect, miles from the more mundane truth, but what do PPH expect if once again they don’t tell their users what’s going on?
-
PPH seems hellbent on destroying itself. Qualified workers are sick to death of getting job notices for job they have no interest in or do not meet their skills. Clients are frustrated from the lack of qualified bidders for their jobs. Everyone is going somewhere else. I joined this site to add to my potential work--(good thing it is not a primary source because the site as it stands now is lame). I hesitate to think of all the legal violations its new policies makes. I received a job for a Danish transcriber today. The only Danish I know is cheese, furthermore although I can transcribe, I do not have transcription listed as a skill on this site because I use another site that pays a lot more. How pathetic PPH has become.
-
@Paul. Thanks. I found DeskDonkie and looked at the rates for the jobs. I can subtract the 15% to see what PPH may be paying. I think this can help all of us know what rare they see closes the deals on PPH. In other words, I think PPH looked at all the data and could see two things: 1) What buyers are willing to pay, and 2) what sellers offered. Then they could see what margin they could get.
While this may seem off topic, I think we can all learn what prices the big data showed PPH.
That said, I am just ignoring all the invites from PPH. I'll wait until this settles down to bid any more.
-
PPH has repeatedly ignored my request for an answer to the question "Why was my application to work DENIED?!!" I have more than enough qualifications through education and employment. Over 20 years working behind a microphone. You have NO RIGHT to "deem" my application unacceptable.
Please explain your actions. I don't care if it's here publicly, by email, by snail mail, on Skype or in person.. just show me where I do not have the right qualifications to work as a Freelance Voice Over Artist. I will produce a LIST of satisfied customers.
TERRY ANDERSON _ VOICE OVER TEXAS
210-455-7969 landline
-
This system is ridiculous. PPH claims, they are being fair in this system, and match freelancers with good cert level as well with jobs, while providing unrated freelancers a chance to bid first or something of that sort.
My CERT is 2 ( after begin downgraded from 3, for unknown reasons) and since this system has been put in place, I was allowed or 'chosen' to bid on a job that was not even in my Domain and definitely not listed in my relevant skills. Where as for the jobs, that i'm skilled to complete and want to bid for, i'm being told to wait for 2 hours. How does this achieve a level playing ground, PPH? You are not even doing the matching currently. I did not receive a single invite for the jobs that i'm competent enough to bid on, even though there were many of them getting listed everyday.
Adding these kind of functionality that no one understands and treats people differently will bode disaster for PPH. No one wants to work in an environment where certain section of users are favored and certain are neglected. I've always had a feeling that PPH offers a 'second class citizen' treatment to freelancers/sellers while it clearly favors buyers.
Time to wake up and realize there's competition in the market PPH, or else you'll loose competent professionals.
-
I have repeatedly sent messages publicly in these forums since there is no readily available contact information located in an easily accessible and noticeable spot......... PLEASE FIX MY STATUS!! You rudely and insultingly "refused" my "application" for the right to sell my Voice Over and audio editing skills. I thoroughly listed my education and past work history. I qualify many times over as a matter of fact. I see people doing VO work on here without proper education, skills or gear and you would deny ME?!! I must INSIST that you allow me to work like any other freelance artist. How dare you treat top notch talent like crap.... TERRY ANDERSON - VOICE OVER TEXAS voiceovertexas@live.com
-
It is just the most unbelievably incompetent and unprofessional thing any site has ever done. I have NEVER EVER been refused MY "RIGHT" TO WORK!! Who do you people think you are? I am going to report this to every periodical, online magazine, media source and individual in the VO industry that I come across. You have no right to deny me. None at all. - TERRY ANDERSON - VOICE OVER TEXAS voiceovertexas@live.com
Post is closed for further comments because the limit of comments per post has been reached.
Comments
1902 comments