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
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@David I will be writing a more analytic message on a few subjects and posting it here in the next few days.
In the mean time, Christo will be replying to many of the questions brought up in the comments of the blog, he has been out of the office since last week and i will ask him to update these as soon as he can. I did say I am trying to make some communication changes as far as how we interact and collect feedback. Its not going to happen overnight, but the goal is to make it all more effective.
Our Social Media Manager has begun a user engagement email process and will also be attending discussions in these forums. Christo is taking a more active roll in the blogs and trying to advise on our thinking for certain features. And I am also working on a re-structure of the forums and also a crowd source option.
kind regards,
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support@peopleperhour.comI agree with everyone here in this thread. This "Select Seller" feature is not helping any of us - neither the buyers, nor the sellers. Dear PPH, please remove this terrible feature right away and bring back my CERT level to where it was.
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Not quite sure what to make of this, but I noticed that the message I kept getting on my dashboard telling me about making 2 sales before such and such a date to become a trusted seller has disappeared.
I maybe wrong with this one, but I think I'm getting less irrelevant job notification alerts, and more relevant ones.
Got one a few hours ago, that is somewhat up my street, but none of the keywords listed are in my profile, unless my profile keywords have been changed.
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As Pilar sends these out to our users, I think it would be a good idea to have her answer that.
Generally, we have multiple formats of feedback. Support emails, Forums, NPS ratings, customer engagements, social media. Many features that have been created on the site have been a direct result of a combination of this feedback and for some that have not been successful there have been changes made again in reference to feedback. Overall, we must be able to measure what effect the feature has as growth and sales on the site, just like any business would do. So as i am sure you can understand, there are multiple metrics and analysis that are made when we introduce a feature and how it functions as a total for all our users.
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@David
I have been working to send a proper more analyzed response to what i just wrote and it has taken more time than I anticipated due to a large workload.
I have tried to be present as much as possible on these forums. Pilar and I have taken over trying to better manage all queries. We are working on changes in support as well. I look for optimistic changes and I do my best to implement them. You are free to your opinions on the site and how you feel about it as this is what the community is for. But we are present and we are attempting change here.
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Erm, the phrase is specifically "Rome was not built in a day". It simple developed from a tiny town, and just became more beautiful.
However, in context to the issues here, the phrase is not:
"Rome was a large thriving city with a high population, but riddled with many very serious issues which the townsfolk complained about but nothing was done. The local council of Rome stated that the many issues prevalent throughout Rome would not be fixed in a day"...
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I have no wish to disturb the current 'rhythm' of this thread, and I realise that I am probably wasting my time with this one, but I received the following email this morning:
Hello Malcolm,
We regretfully note you haven’t made your first sale on PeoplePerHour within your 3 month ‘free’ qualifying **
**period.Continued use of the site past this period is only open to Sellers who successfully win at least 2 pieces of **
*work with positive reviews from Buyers. This is so we maintain the highest level of quality that our site is *
**renowened for.The good news is that if you'd like another shot at it you can extend your qualification for another 3 months starting from £6.95/month. Following that if you are successful you will remain in the marketplace for free.
So, it looks like I'm about to get kicked off the site??
Anyway, given all the issue's that your site has had/currently has, and the number of complaints you've been
receiving that you've taken months to respond to (despite your open admittance (Michael), that you've been
monitoring the forums), and also your admittance, that your communication with your users has been far from
great, I personally feel that you've got a bit of a nerve.There are a number of reasons why I haven't yet been successful, and quite a few of them have a lot to do with the way that the site works AND the problems with it!
This is so we maintain the highest level of quality that our site is renowened for
I take it that 'quality' doesn't include spelling mistakes then? :)
Alright, you may argue that it's a small amount to pay, but I don't follow why you are asking users to 'pay'
to try again, when the site is free?Am I on my own with this one, or are there other users who have come across this barrier?
If so, did you pay?Would be grateful for any thoughts, cheers.
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@ Malcolm, I can't get my head round this at all; that's diabolical. Before penalising freelancers for not being able to get their foot in the door they should take a serious look at the poor quality of work that is being currently offered. How many others have noticed the influx of jobs from newbies offering ridiculous amounts of money, stating it's urgent and they need people to start today yet a week later it's still sitting there. Are people being penalised for not getting work when they are bidding on jobs that don't actually exist? If PPH are making new freelancers jump through hoops surely there should be something in place for employers as well? Maybe forcing new employers to make a deposit into their account to show the job is bone fide and only allowing that money to be paid to those who the job is awarded to and not withdrawn? I realise there are problems which could arise from this but surely something needs to be put in place?
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@Deb - yeah, I've tried to think about WHY they do this, but can't.
What about those people that register, make one or two bids say, but due to time constraints, don't have time to bid on anything? Or those who don't actually see anything suitable at all? Are they not 'good enough' for PPH?
I actually forgot to add that I am, unsurprisingly, now being BLOCKED from bidding on anything.
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@Malcolm
*"Anyway, given all the issue's that your site has had/currently has, and the number of complaints you've been
receiving that you've taken months to respond to (despite your open admittance (Michael), that you've been monitoring the forums), and also your admittance, that your communication with your users has been far from great, I personally feel that you've got a bit of a nerve."
*Not sure why you are saying this Malcolm and especially that I have a bit of a nerve. The seller application was introduced in June of this year and has been extremely successful in avoiding non serious sellers from joining the site. The subscription option deters many of these sellers from not continuing on the site, while more serious sellers have a 2nd chance. We want to allow for our sellers to show their quality of work and to fill out some application options that provide us with more information on the users qualities and knowledge.
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@ Hey Deb
Buyers go through fraud rule checks as they deposit funds on a constant basis. However, to be quite honest there is no quality screening. We do deactivate for non payments and penalize for disputes, however we are in the works to introduce a similar curation system, for buyers as well, which will be especially relevant to pricing. An obvious huge complaint is that jobs offers are too low in budget. This is something we will need to improve to make it a balanced online marketplace.
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Michael, the description of the seller application and the reason behind it is great. If PPH communicated what they do in such a succinct, direct form things would be better.
As for the second comment about Malcolm, that is appalling. I understand your frustration, but revealing the private activity of a seller in a public forum, or anywhere, without their permission, breaks all privacy rules.
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Rating
Projects completed
Buyers worked with
Last project
Response time within a day
Buyer Activity
Seller ActivityAll hourlies, jobs and general postings are shown as well as when a member has signed up with the site. My comments relate to not being able to provide more work, and as with any customer, the information is available to understand if there is something better that can be done.
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Hi, thanks for that Michael, I think. As I mentioned earlier it isn't only the low job budgets that is a problem but the sheer volume of jobs which actually don't seem to exist. Maybe something along the lines of what I mentioned earlier about new buyers making a deposit may cut down on these. One person in particular has advertised two separate jobs in the past week, both stating they needed someone to start that day, both with budgets in the thousands. They are now sitting dormant with almost 100 freelancers having bid on them.
On a personal note I agree with Paul it was wrong to share Malcolm's account details with everyone. I've just seen your post about activity being available for people to view HOWEVER few of us know who any of the others are on here. How many Deb's, Paul's and Malcolm's are there on this site? it is ultimately up to us what we choose to disclose on this forum.
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@Michael - I find your response a little odd, but also a little insulting. (combined with the fact that it
would appear that YOU don't appear to be able to read properly).When I stated, "I have a bit of a nerve", perhaps I should have rephrased that to be "PPH has a bit of a nerve".
I wasn't being critical to you personally. I only mentioned you, because YOU are the one who has openly responded, admitting PPH's faults.
With regards to my account, yes, I've been on here for just about 11 months. I haven't provided any houries because, given my line of work, I didn't really feel that hourlies were/are appropriate for me? Maybe you might want to try and understand what it is that I actually do first??
What 'postings' would you be referring to?
Also, I've just taken a look at my account, and it would seem that some of my information has been wiped?
Could you tell me where you got the "2 proposals in 11 months from? I cannot seem to find that information.
However, I can tell you that you're completely WRONG!!!
Alright, you might not be far wrong, but I can tell you for a FACT that I've sent at least THREE proposals, back in the early days, because I remember having the issue that when I tried to ask clarification questions, I kept getting the message that I couldn't ask a question until I'd submitted at LEAST THREE proposals. And I have the EMAIL evidence to prove that one!
So, unless I'm missing something, it would perhaps be handy if, before you make a comment, YOU get your facts straight FIRST. -
Malcolm, as a manager at PPH I have access to the system database, so this wasn't a number that came off the top of my head. I make sure my facts are correct before i provide them to any customer. I made a point about the seller application and how it works and why you received the email that you did. As i also advised on why the email was sent advising you of how the seller application works and that certain aspects of your account are quite different to some comments that have been made.
I am more than happy to discuss this personally via email if you would like. I agree with Paul that this doesn't bring any progress and that i am at fault for instigating the issue even further. Lets leave it at that.
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