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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@Rebecca She's either new or doesn't actually exist.
I received an email from 'Sophia Jones' this morning recommending some "last minute Research writing offers" to me. You can guess, if you don't already know, that I do research and writing.
The email had at least four mistakes in the English. This adds to my conviction that 'Sophia Jones' and 'Lucy Clarke' do not exist. Add lack of authenticity to the list of what's wrong, and the list of how not to run a business.
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I was wondering what 'pain points' I should highlight, when I came across a UK buyer offering a job that plainly might never happen (I won't explain why) and there was no budget set. I hate no budget jobs because you have no idea what's in the buyers mind and could come up with a wonderful proposal and find the budget is £20.
Anyway it did remind me that there used to be a way to know what kind of budget you might expect from a buyer by looking at past jobs they'd awarded. You can't do this today because PPH stopped publishing the value of awarded jobs.
It was only this morning that I realised how much I missed that feature.
In a longer trip down memory lane on PPH, things were even better - you could read the proposals made by the job winners! (a facility quite rightly removed).
Now I need to think about those pain points..
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I don't know what you guys are griping about. Our Leader has explained it - their community manager's time is too valuable to be wasted on YOU.
So be happy with your cut n paste responses - they're informative about something, even if they're nothing to do with the question you asked.
http://www.agencypost.com/12-methods-for-diffusing-negativity-on-social-media/
2. Answer Every Person, Not Every Complaint
Every customer who submits a complaint should receive a tactful, informative response. But when it becomes clear he is using social instead of customer service channels to complain, we do not engage because it’s intended to elicit a response rather than a solution. My community manager’s time is too valuable for her to double as a customer service rep; her focus should be on nurturing the brand.
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@Pie -
we do not engage because it’s intended to elicit a response rather than a solution
Yeah, it's intended to illicit a response all right, the response being to get the bl**dy thing fixed so we doNOT complain in the first place!!!!
And if you don't answer a customers complaint properly in the first place (who HAS complained VIA CUSTOMER SERVICE), what on this earth do you seriously expect???? People to pat you on the back and tell you 'well done'??
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Actually, I found it quite funny - and quite revealing - that Xenios seems to see 'a response' and 'a solution' as two separate things, and nowhere in his spiel does he mention finding 'a solution' - all he aims for is 'a tactful and informative response' (and he apparently doesn't know that his customer service team don't even provide that) , He also seems to have failed to make any connection between 'nurturing the brand' and keeping the customer satisfied.
His glib, cocky approach was quite attractive ten years ago, everyone likes a bright ambitious kid with nothing to lose and a flair for business who seems to be going places against the odds, but there is an expectation that experience and success will result in the arrogant kid fulfilling his promise, maturing into a responsible adult and building a solid empire (à la Steve Jobs, Richard Branson etc). It really is time for Xenios to grow up and start putting something back into the people that have made him rich, rather than looking for ways to take more and more out.
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PPH has ruined everything with it's new system in so many ways. I hope that buyers have to go through the same stringent process that sellers do...I once had a seller that refused to pay me unless I only charged 30p per hour and then I'm the one who received negative feedback. Where is the Sellers protection...waste of time being on this site now considering that I can't bid on anything (and I was in the middle of two jobs)! Thanks PPH for making the entire process completely inadequate for a seller who is the expert and the buyer who needs the expert! What a complete farce! Goodluck PPH as you won't be getting any recommendations from me ever again. So much for loyalty.
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I'm sorry if I might be ranting what has already been said on this long list of comments, but I really need help to see if someone could shed some light on this for me?
I joined People Per Hour 3/4 months ago and I created two hourlies. Yes, since those 3/4 months I didn't receive anything in reply to my hourlies, and I was nervous to start proposing for jobs. Now I have free time and I have logged back on, my hourlies had been frozen, I didn't NOT do this, and I can't even find out when they were frozen from. I wasn't informed by email that this was going to happen either.
I have redone everything in my profile that People Per Hour have asked, and now when I'd like to go and propose a job to someone apparently despite me having the right set of skills. I'm not allowed to do this.
People Per Hour even states that I'm basically not a "trusted member" ...
It states that to become a trusted member I need to make just two sales, well okay that's understandable or rather it would be okay if I could apply for jobs. Secondly it states that I'd need to "make just 2 sales receiving an average 4+ rating until 12 Jan 2015".
What will happen on the 12th of January when I haven't been able to achieve this down to it being their fault?
Apparently I have to post hourlies. I have done this. I cannot send proposals, so that advice is a dud. The final one is to get endorsed. I have already received an endorsement and this hasn't helped either.
How are we as "newbies" supposed to compete with those who are gaining their certificates and being able to propose for everything and anything??
There is NO communication between People Per Hour and us.
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@Megan, the problem is that the system has changed so much that it is impossible to give newbies experience. I am a comparative newbie myself (I got my first PPH sale less than an year ago), but things have changed so much that what worked for me may not work for you.
It is a lot easier if you have unique skills - if there are a lot of established people who have the same skills as you it will be very difficult to persuade people to give you work. The same applies to hourlies - you need something unique.
I think PPH are trying to get rid of people who register by never get any work, and they are trying to prevent spammy proposals. What you do when you are caught by that, I do not know. -
The problem goes way back to when PPH relaunched. Their obsession then was getting maximum traffic regardless of quality, so they made it a platform for hobbyists and wannabees saying basically 'everybody has something they can sell, come sign up there's easy money to be made' regardless of skill or competence or integrity, I think they wanted everyone in the world to sign up and create an hourlie and most people did. They've realised that the quantity of wannabees that they enticed on to the site has got them a bad rep with buyers and no doubt endless disputes to resolve, so they're going to the other extreme, and as usual they haven't a clue how to do it and are floundering about heading for a different crisis. The basic problem is that PPH has never had any concept of 'value' or 'worth', they believe in the power of appearences and spin and marketing; substance doesn't matter, to them if a fake looks like the real thing then it is just as good, if not better. All their system understands is factors that are easy to measure like delivery dates and deadlines, prices, number of sales, footfall, ticking boxes. A fake endorsement is as good as a genuine one, a piece of crap delivered on time ticks their boxes while a fabulous job delivered a day late with the full agreement of the client gets the freelancer a black mark. And because they're totally unable to discriminate, they're at the mercy of the con merchants who can provide everything that is asked for because cheating is their skill and they know how to fake identities and tick all the boxes, if they don't have what PPH ask for they invent it, they endorse each other and buy hourlies from each other and leave each other good feedback to become trusted sellers, while the genuine honest freelancers struggle to get through the hoops. All PPH are doing is getting themselves a more ruthless set of con merchants. I'm not saying there aren't a lot of good professionals on here because there are, but it's getting harder for good professionals to get their foot in the door.
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Hi David,
The forums were never removed and they have always been available to all users for discussions and feedback. Our support email is: support@peopleperhour.com and we have added this email to multiple posts in the forums when customers have specific issues that need to be handled.
There are 3 options to select our "help desk" center. The "support" option at the very bottom, the comment icon in the lower right hand corner as well as the newer option that has been placed when you click on your account profile and you will see the "customer support" option.
We are constantly working to improve our support options and quality of service that we provide. We know we have not been 100% with providing users with satisfactory support, however, we are testing some new features such as live chat and crowdsourcing options which we hope to introduce to our users shortly.
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The forums were never removed and they have always been available to all users for discussions and feedback.
I'm sorry, but I agree with David PPH removed the old forum, there's no point in attempting to deny it. PPH had a vibrant forum whose content was wiped by PPH, almost certainly because of the critical nature of many posts rather than the weak reasons provided by PPH for removing it.
We know we have not been 100% with providing users with satisfactory support
That's certainly an understatement. The queries on this forum by naive/new users linger unanswered when they should be addressed daily.
we are testing some new features such as live chat and crowdsourcing options
It would be nice to have live chat, but outsiders crowdsourced really can't handle any but the most basic issues. The trial failed dismally to answer a basic question about skills matching and failed to fulfill the basic promise that a reply would be given within an hour. The query was never answered.
It's one thing coming on these forums and talking about customer support, but all the while just ignoring the basic questions and unhappiness caused by the skills filtering that has been introduced which is going to severely harm your business.
Lets get this straight. I like PPH. I just hate the stupid things it does and the lack of transparency.
Your community manager has requested to know about 'pain points'. Fair enough, but your community manager would be awash with them on these forums where these 'pain points' are already raised and ignored. Far better to come here for some straight talking than issue corporate-speak communiques.
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@Paul - LOL, your response to Michael is absolutely fantastic! Well said!
We know we have not been 100% with providing users with satisfactory support
Sorry Paul, but understatement of the year, more like :)
Let me get one thing straight. I may be relatively new, BUT, I also like PPH (i.e. I like the idea of what PPH does).
What I don't like however, is the WAY that PPH OPERATES it's business.
I nearly fell off my chair this morning when I realised there had been a response from a pph member of staff.
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Thank you Paul for raising these concerns.
- The forums were cleaned to remove older posts resulting in no activity for over 6 months so that we are able to manage them better. No forum has been removed that is active or that answers important issue and questions, I have been monitoring the forums personally and i can guarantee you that i have not removed any posts or topics that meet those requirements. If you are referring to a specific category, forum or topic I will be happy to look into that and bring that back to the community. We have not removed a topic because of its nature or attitude to the site, since this is an open group to communicate the pros and cons of what we do. There are numerous amounts of feedback and critical postings that are on the community and i would never remove these unless they violate specific Terms and Conditions policies.
- The forums are meant to be a conversation between our members to discuss all issues pertaining to the site, our involvement in answering customer queries has always been limited as to allow for limited intervention from our admins and more interaction among users. We wanted this to be a free open forum for everyone and not a customer support section. However, I do plan on bringing some newly added Ambassadors on the forums as to be more active in answering certain issues.
- The fact that our community manager is sending out emails is to collect data involving our customers pain points, it is not meant to demean the points made in the forums. I have asked her to start communicating and using the forum posts to also collect this information and to take part in specific conversations that are initiated here.
- Crowdosourcing was a testing that lasted 3 days and was extremely successful in its purpose. We used our own freelancers to be part of the trial. Indeed it is not meant to answer specific questions that require a more detailed answer and explanation about account info. However, we found that it is a viable option that will assist in the support functions of the site and it allows for escalations of "difficult" questions to be answered straight to our customer support people.
I know that there has been an almost 0% involvement with regards to communicating with our most valued customers through this channel, and I can sense that there is a valid frustration from our customers as to why we are not doing more to listen and to discuss these topics. I have recently taken over our community forums and my goal is to improve its function and use. I will be discussing some features that we are working on and asking that more of our management team be involved in communicating with all of you. I am very sorry for failing you so far and hope that our improvements in the near future will renew the faith to the site.
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@Michael -
I would have to agree that it is indeed an understatement. I absolutely acknowledge that improvements need to be made on all fronts.
No kidding!
I am not sure if I echo the sentiments of everyone concerned (I guess people will let me know on that one), however, would you kindly explain then, why it has been that apart from the VERY occasional brief post from a PPH admin, you seem to have so far largely ignored our repeated complaints/concerns voiced via this forum, over the past few months??
In any business, communication with your 'customers', i.e the people who provide YOU with the INCOME, is absolutely vital. Without that, you risk your customers feeling that they are being ignored, and in the process, losing them. I'm going to guess that you've lost a fair few people already.
I am aware that people should, if they have problems with using the site, contact the customer services dept, which is fine. However, what is NOT fine is receiving what appears to be generic, half-scripted responses, which is (I would guess), what partially draws people away from this method of contact with yourselves, and venting their frustration elsewhere, i.e. on your forums, or worse, via social media.
You have already admitted that you've been monitoring these forums for quite some time. In that case, why have you not personally responded, instead of just sitting back, saying nothing? That might have made all the difference???
There are many other issues I could bring up, mainly from an IT perspective, however I don't want to end up writing a novel.
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Michael, I don't want to labour the point about forums being removed, but David is quite right. Neither I nor David are talking about these forums but the forum system that preceded it which had thousands of posts and was very active. I went on holiday and when I returned I discovered that PPH had just removed it. The forum saved PPH a lot of money because for many people it provided basic customer support through the community, but I guess the outspoken criticism was too much for PPH to bear.
Anyway, it's long gone now.
It may be convenient to think of these forums in the way that PPH would like them to be used. The truth is that many people post on these forums mistaking them (quite understandably) as a route to customer service, so PPH should routinely be picking up those posts as part of their customer service remit. I can understand why those people post here - PPH has made it VERY hard for anyone to contact customer service, if they don't know the email address.
What is sad is that the changes made by PPH in recent years encouraged so many people to look elsewhere when seeking freelance work, so there are now comparatively few of us 'old timers' still around.
Thanks for at least engaging momentarily in a conversation, Michael
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And on another note, I can see that from Maven's Twitter page, they actually launched and "are in business" now. Well I never heard anything about it and it was indeed launched exactly as it was when I saw it many weeks ago now.
So maybe now I can reiterate my previous points that it won't go anywhere or take off without the backlash from other commenter's here. We gave them a chance, they launched. And it's bog standard, really basic Boonex Dolphin template. No-one is going to pay to use that website as it is. Don't panic PPH, no need to quake in your boots just yet.
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@Deb - you can send me a message on my Google+ profile if you wish - https://plus.google.com/u/0/111386732836817610825/posts thanks
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