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
-
This new system is absolutely ridiculous! it's reminescent of PPH's April Fools joke!
Why am I selected for some logo design work and not others? All this does is destroy a full time freelancers ability to maximise sales.
Let the customer decide who is right for the job themselves. As a frequent customer (aswell as seller) I have never had a serious issue with spam proposals, and if I did have a minor issue it was resolved by pressing 'reject proposal' <--- takes less than 20 seconds!
PPH sort this out!
-
Adding my comment to this thread as a way of voting for the feature to be reviewed.
I've enjoyed being a selected bidder on jobs as it has helped to win a little more work. There are 2 main problems that need resolving at the moment.
The criteria for selection appear to be more based on earnings from 1 or 2 past successful jobs in a category than my profile or portfolio. ie. I predominately do design, but at the moment am not being selected for any design jobs. That means there is becoming a feedback loop in the jobs I do. The more PPH select me for 1 category, the more I win in that category, but the fewer I win or have a chance to win in other areas that might be more suited or have higher income potential.
The 2 hour window is often when I'm asleep! I've had several notifications over the past couple of weeks at 4am. That means by the time I wake up the job has gone. So the algorithm should take user time-zone into consideration.
Thanks
Dave
-
I agree. My partner is a buyer on this site and he has never had a problem with the old system. He would simply choose from the proposals whom he thought was best for the job and ignored any spam ones. He has however said that in the past week or so he has been receiving far fewer proposals for his jobs and this has been very frustrating for him. He is also one of those buyers that likes to award a job quite quickly so that the freelancer can start work but he has been delayed by the stupid 2 hour rule stopping many freelancers from bidding. I also know that 3 times in the past week he has spoken to freelancers who have made proposals on his jobs, explained the job in minute detail, the freelancer has agreed, proposal has been accepted, money deposited, and then the freelancer has changed their mind or just not delivered the work. He said he was trying to award a job prior to the 2 hours being up and was giving new freelancers a chance but it has completely back fired on him and I know he has had to ask clients to extend their deadlines which is not good for his business!!
I've already ranted about how PPH has affected my life as a freelancer so I thought I'd add in what my partner is saying from a buyer's perspective -
Can't believe the ban has been lifted until somebody post a job related to my skills! :-p
There is another issue! I don't see more than 5 to 10 job post in between (12 to 6am UK time)!
am I the only victim of this off peak our? :-/I've never seen a marketplace to sleep at night! -_-
-
A job has come up this morning for PowerPoint, which is what we specialise in and have done just over 150 of them on this site...and we can't bid on it for 2 hours. I'm now getting really really annoyed with this new system and can't see who it is benefitting.
We're one of their "top sellers" who as mentioned in a previous post has had a really bad month sales wise since this was implemented so surely if we are losing money, so are they because they work on commission. If all of their top sellers are taking this kind of hit, they must be losing a fortune?
SORT IT OUT AS YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY FREELANCE SITE OUT THERE.
-
I agree with Dave's point for earlier, these emails inviting us for jobs we aren't qualified for don't seem to be random at all, they are picking up on jobs we have done previously and totally disregarding the skills listed on our profiles. I recently compiled 1700 quiz questions on Arab's Got Talent (yes really!) now I am getting invites for Arabic translation etc. Far too much of a coincidence...why spend all the time putting together our profiles and listing our skills if they are being ignored? may as well take pot luck if that's the case oh, and my 2 hour ban is still firmly in place :(
-
I don't feel this is a tweakable idea. It's a discriminatory system even if it was tuned to perfection PPH would be holding back the many in favour of the chosen few. In terms of PPH newbies they would still be recommending people with little to no track record in preference to those with a track record on PPH. As I said previously, it's just gambling with the sites reputation in an attempt to solve a problem it cannot solve. This non-solution just makes the problem it wishes to solve worse and creates new problems for sellers and buyers alike.
I am somewhat dismayed to find some sellers suggesting tweaks to this abomination. Even if it worked perfectly according to plan, established PPHers will remain locked out from bidding for a period and you will really be second-class sellers because PPH will already have picked the ideal candidates for the job.
If PPH is not picking the ideal candidates for a given job, I'd like to see an explanation from PPH of why they select sellers for buyers if it is not on the basis of job suitability.
This is an awful system and we shouldn't fall into the trap that a few tweak is going to sort it out. The whole basis on which it works is flawed and unfair.
( anyone else getting notifications of posts to this thread that never actually appear on the web page? )
-
I agree with you completely, Paul. I don't think there's anyway to make this system work. Any seller should be free to submit a proposal for any job they want. That's how it works on all other freelance sites.
I guess we'll have to wait and see what changes they're planning to make but I have a strong feeling most people still aren't going to be happy with it.
-
Agree with Paul, Chris, and Julian.
Dear Julian, do you know what I think? According to people's reports in this forum and what I see in the website, I think these restrictions have been enforced to 10% or 20% of the freelancers. Do you know why?
Because:
There are lots of projects out there with more than 20 proposals. And if you take a look at the freelancers who apply, you will notice that their skill lists are even irrelevant to the subject! Check it for yourself.
We, in this forum, are about 100 persons. Does this mean the other freelancers are satisfied with new regulations?! No. This means these changes are partial. Enforced to us only, and for testing purposes maybe!
No one replies here! No support! It seems we are talking to each other only. Are they ignoring their website like this?! Isnt there anyone out there reading these? Why not! But we are that 20 percent victims. They want to test their developers skills on us.
sorry for misspellings or typing errors. I am on mobile and its keyboard makes me crazy like these new bugs (features, excuse me!)
-
The 2 hour barrier certainly hasn't been lifted, it is, as I and a few others said earlier, going off recent work. I have just been able to bid on a business profile job,, something I did a couple of weeks back, but am still barred from bidding on a product description job and a content writing job which are skills listed on my profile. The excitement of actually being able to bid on a job has made me quite giddy, and probably had the same effect on the 35 who have made a proposal, the term cattle market springs to mind. Chances are this project will be awarded without my proposal even being looked at ,,,,,
-
@ Faryad
The ban is back on for me now for most jobs. Strange. At about 00:00-02:00 today I could click on absolutely any of the new jobs posted within the last 2 hours and potentially send a proposal.
I wonder if the ban only activates when a certain number are logged in? Or perhaps it is on a timer. I'm beginning to think that it coincides with the addition of the new 'skrill payment' system that attract a lot more freelancers from Asia (I read that Skrill was preferred over paypal in some countries). This would make sense with the lifting of the ban at that sort of time.
Thoughts?
-
I've not been very complimentary about several aspects of the way PPH works over the years because I think the core of their business is based upon a very simple proposition - giving freelancers access to clients who require work to be done allowing those clients to choose who will do the work on the basis of their proposal, cost and the track history of the freelancer, all the while taking a cut off the top to finance the business and turn a profit.
Unfortunately the PPH powers have sought to complicate that simple business model and unfortunately we all have to pay for that complication.
I think this latest complication represents a new low in my opinion of PPH decision-making and software implementation, and I can say it has been low for several years now.
I feel PPH survives only because the basic premise I outlined earlier still fulfills a demand, but the business seems to be doing everything possible to add cost overheads through pointless manipulation in their market that need costly development but don't pay back the investment.
This has to be the very worst scheme they have ever thought of.
If I look back to the PPH of a few years ago, struggling perhaps, but then we had excellent telephone support, a buoyant community via the forum and a far simpler system - lower commission levels and people had a choice over paid or free subscription levels.
If PPH was doing things right it wouldn't need continuous investment from third parties to survive - it's no longer a new business it's been operating close on seven years now.
PPH please wake up. Stop these silly vanity projects and slim your operation back to the simple premise you had at the outset. Cut your development overheads rather than expand them ( badly ).
I admire Xenios, but feel he's been mislead by those around him who brainstorm these crazy ideas that just don't add value to the business.
Even a bad idea like this one could have been analysed before unleashing it on the community to see how it would affect the business. It's development 101.
-
hello everyone _
i received this reply from pph support
in response to my request for some clarification on this issue (preferably from management)Panos (PeoplePerHour.com Helpdesk)
Jul 02 11:52
Hello Maik
Thank you for your message.
I can assure you that we're looking into this stream, and taking points from all of our users. Customer feedback is very important to us, and the reason why the forums exist.
At the moment I can disclose that we are looking to introduce major changes to the job matching feature. Our goal is to make it substantially more user friendly, and less restrictive, and I hope the changes will be along the lines of what you've been hoping for.
My sincerest apologies for any trouble caused.
Please let me know if I can help you with anything else.
Thanks
Panos
PPH Senior Support Advisor -
i'd also like to add that there was a temporary lifting of the restrictions last night
though i do not know why or how this occurred or for how long the restrictions were liftedthe restrictions are definitely back in place this morning
though curiously there are a very low percentage of jobs i can click on that do not appear to be restricted
i haven't done too much research on this however because i actually am lucky enough to have some work at the moment _ though i would add it was NOT sourced from peopleperhour!i hope the restrictions are lifted ASAP guys
and am continuingt to monitor this support stream
take care : ) -
At least they're planning to make a change
This is a comment I really can't understand.
I think it's really bad news because it just means there's no plan to scrap the preselection yet.
I think you can only be happy with the plan to refine the system if you are content to sit aside as PPH chooses who gets pole position on the buyers starting grid. Be happy while PPH puts forward the chosen few in preference to me and everyone else.
I want PPH to be based on merit not automated favouritism.
If PPH want to do this kind of preselection, please market it separately to buyers, for selected jobs - don't impose it on us.
-
i wish there was a 'like' facility on this forum _
there are a lot of posts i like
also _ i'm going to contact Panos again
and ask for a guarantee that pph support thread monitors are themselves restricted
from sanctioning people who express their frustrations accurately _
or who divulge any useful information they wish to impart _
regardless of whether it has been sourced outside the confines of pph _
(obviously on the condition that posts are not abusive or inappropriate)THIS IS A PUBLIC FORUM _ and it should be allowed to operate as such
without people fearing reprisal from over-zealous monitoring by pph -
@Bo, Paul - I agree with you. It's much better to just remove the feature all together, which is hopefully what they'll end up doing. I can't really envisage how they're going to keep any sort of selective feature like this and not have it interfere with people's ability to win jobs.
-
Maik, this is not a public forum at all and PPH are at will to monitor it and I would do the same in their place.
Unfortunately sometimes when they don't like what they see they kill threads and ban people without warning and strip out all of their posts. It's happened to me and it could happen again.
I wouldn't expect any guarantees. If it was my company and forum I wouldn't give them and I wouldn't expect PPH to.
The difference I would make is that I would engage privately with anyone who was in danger of being banned first and never ban anyone without warning for expressing a critical view. I have yet to utter any profanities on any forum and go out of my way not to be rude and have some understanding of an opposing view.
Post is closed for further comments because the limit of comments per post has been reached.
Comments
1902 comments