Penalize Hourlies with late deliveries

Comments

236 comments

  • Leon

    Jane - I've had so many problems due to their new hourlie system that I've completely stopped using PPH. All of my clients through here were very happy with my work, so it's ultimately the buyers that PPH are harming. I think sellers should organise a mass boycott of PPH to bring the issue to their attention.

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  • Sabbir

    Penalizing Hourly for overdue is not yet done. Its still planned. If they really start doing this, they are going to lose the bigger projects and Ultimately the top sellers. Because Bigger projects will need much time. PPH Hourly doesn't let me to make hourly time limit to more then 5 days. 

    Thats a BAD idea to do this.

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  • Leon

    You get penalised on your PPH rating if the delivery is late or if you give a refund - no matter if the reasons for these are due to the client waiting over a month to provide you with the required information or mistakenly buying an hourlie that doesn't match what they are looking for.

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  • Peter

    As a prospective user of this site, I've been following this discussion with great interest.

    It reminded me of Ebay, how free it was and how restrictive it became, so that providers became sort of employees and buyers gave up being responsible 'buyer beware' buyers..

    The reality is that there is no need for lots of rules in a free market like this, especially there is no need for penalties. If anything, rewards should be put in place. The market, so the buyers who are willing to take little risk will themselves penalize the vendors or service providers by not buying in the future when they experience bad service or see negative feedback. Quite some other buyers will likely

    continue to buy, because they have little money and prefer  o take an extra large risk to save money. That is their choice and no one should be paternalistic about that and try to protect them. Otherwise they get lazy and put all responsibility for their decisions on the marketplace's owner.

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  • Atia

    My experience is even worse, client purchased an hourly askrd me to submit invoice but then based in good work gave me full fledged project. Post finishing he did not reply to my invoice or feedback on work. And worse later he refused to pay for both. The hourly for which he deposited fund and was ecstatic post receiving the work and the huge main project. Since he did not repond to my invoice PPH refunded him despite informing them that client's intentions but I believe that hardly matters to them. So I have decided not to use hourly ever come what may. If PPH can turn deaf ears and let sellers being duped and dumped then hourly seekers will have to come out to PPH sytem pay advance and get their work done.....

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  • Jane

    Atia - what happened to you is unforgivable and PPH should refund you.

    Apart from not using our Hourlies, does anyone reading this thread have any idea how we can stop the PPH system from giving back our money?  

    The Hourlies are a good way of advertising and bringing in new work, but obviously the whole system is badly flawed.

    Do PPH not read these threads? Why are they ignoring our problems?   HOW CAN WE MAKE PPH TAKE NOTICE OF US and the joke that the Hourlies have become????

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  • Leon

    PPH wont listen to sellers because it's not us who put the money in their pocket. As far as they are concerned, there will always be someone else to do the job - regardless of whether the buyer is ripping off the seller. The only way to make PPH listen is to organise a mass boycott. They will soon listen when the only sellers they have are the types who let the buyers down and PPH starts to get a bad reputation. There are plenty of other websites you can use to get work.

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  • Atia

    Thanks Jane, The weiRdest part is that I brought this to the attention of customer service as the employer happens to have a fraud legal poceeding on him in UK I forwarded them a link to the legal processding ( I have an NDA signed and lost 550 GBP) and guess wat customer servcie stopped replying to me as the client said ask her to deliver to my new brief too (more work) and I would consider clearing her previous payment(customer service was in agreement with this and I kept screaming my point to no avail).

    I happen to be one of the top sellers on PPH making as much as $500 per week on an average of which they take away $100 every week. But when it comes down to giving back my due and having to stand behind their sellers they freak out they would rather not lose a fraud client but lose $100 worth of business from a seller ....then be it.!! I wonder where is Xenios because I heppened to be the oldest seller here and he called me from UK to India just to get my feedback on the site twice.And now when they got it rolling then the situation is like WHO CARES!!

    I tried getting the number for PPH UK office to speak with anyone out there but it seems they have cut all cords. Its on the step of Guru.com I moved away from it beign duped and all they did do is apologise and side away and I one day would do the same here too ...sad isn't it..

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  • Atia

    I have tried all and it seems that PPH is like An eye among the blind :)

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  • Blessing

    Hi,

    An advise. When you get to Rome, behave like the Romans. I've tried to understand PPH and I work to suit I and my client. With the issue of hourlies refunds, before my delivery deadline, i send the much i completed and explained to my client that i will complete the rest then i will raise a 50% invoice. I will then finish the rest later . This may not help, but it works for me

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  • Jane

    I agree Atia - I have tried other sites without success.

    I think what has happened to you is terrible...I also earn circa £500 per week so we are in the top league yet get treated like s***.

    I even emailed Xenios at his private email to no avail:   xenios@peopleperhour.com

    What makes me mad is that we cannot speak to anyone!!!

    I know getting the majority of my work via PPH is a dangerous situation and I have to find other sources.  Since joining the site I have earned over £50k so they have made a lot of money out of me too.

    At the beginning they cared and were accessible.

    Now they are getting too big for their boots.

    When clients ask me to work outside of PPH I am loyal and say no....but why do we bother to be loyal anymore????

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  • Jane

    Micracle - I also like your idea and this should prevent PPH refunding our Hourlies BUT in my case I had raised the invoice and they still refunded client!!!  So in my case, having the invoice in place was no protection as they have no idea why the system did an automatic refund.  These are my facts:

    Hourlie purchased 2/8

    Told client could not do til 11/8 and he accepted.

    Did work 11/8 and invoices same day.

    Same day, 11/8 PPH refunded client with all funds in escrow!!!

     

    In hindsight, I should have cancelled this HOURLIE and not accepted it.

    I now have all of my HOURLIES frozen.

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  • Atia

    Jane..I completely agree with you. I emailed Xenios too but never got a reply earlier they cared about their revenue earners. The issue here is if somneone can rob me toay he will rob other sellers same way I saw he posted 10 project but paid just 4. There should be a way we should be able to flag a seller. Workign out of PPH if a client has paid me once inside their system and they want to work outside PPH I definitely do that why should i care a hoot about a company that is just not there when i need them most. My 6 client moved out of PPH and now working with me so PPH earned their royaly on the first project I worked thru them. I tried to be fair but then i need a fair treatment to be bringing it home....its a 2 way relationship so Cheers!!!

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  • Blessing

    Hi Jane,

    I'm sorry about that. You should have raise lan invoice before 11/8 with at least 10 to 20% of the escrow money. PPH refunds are automatic except disputes. Once the delivery time set on your workstream is due and no invoice raised, refunds set in.

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  • Blessing

    Talk to your client to put back the money. Some good clients will

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  • Ja

    Sigh.....I've had to deal with a freelancer HassanK that couldn't do the job but he took my money and never refunded me.

    Here's a link to his profile: 

    http://www.peopleperhour.com/freelancer/hassan/php-wordpress-ruby-graphics/533339?ref=provider

     

    The workstream process lasted for 3 months from the start 19th May 2014 - 18th Aug 2014 (you can view the attached pdf to get an idea of what happened or click the link below to view it online)

    I made the big mistake of paying him on the professional trust that he will deliver the completed job but since have been receiving only excuses.

    All he managed to do is place a simple logo that I made in an app that needed modification. Obviously this job was beyond his expertise and he shouldn't have accepted it in the first place or at least he should have had the decency to refund me for a job incomplete. I was very frustrated by the end of it. 

    People per Hour has given him a high rating. I was deceived by this high rating.

    People per hour hasn't been helpful at all in penalizing this person for his unacceptable level of professionalism and late delivery.  After this experience I won't be using people per hour again. I will be using other freelancing sites in the future. 

    Be careful of who you hire and don't be deceived by a freelancers high rating. You cannot rely on people per hour to penalize or to obtain your refund. They should update their refund policy especially for cases like this and yes they should definitely penalize all late deliveries. I waiting 3 months! Must be a record. 

    As for all the good freelancers on PPH, they should be awarded special recognition by PPH for their professional behavior and demote others of their high rating when situations like this occur. 

     

    Here's the link to view the entire workstream process from the 19th of May - 18th of Aug 2014:

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iy3dlui0r6aDqvW5n5wlAUQA-8VtQgPz8plFc3oFlJU/pub

     

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  • Jane

    After nearly a week, I have found out the reason why PPH refunded the funds from the Escrow to the client:

    "the refund took place as the buyer was deactivated for initiating a chargeback via Paypal. When this happens it is PPH procedure to return any money they might have held in various escrows to their PPH wallet"

    So circumstances were quite unusual and it appears the buyer was less than scrupulous.  I was very unlucky to be caught out in this way.  I think that the suggestion of keeping on top of the HOURLIE by invoicing before the deadline (with a partial invoice if necessary) is the only way to stop deposits/funds being lost.

    Going forward, I will be wary of the HOURLIE and watch the deadline like a hawk!!

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  • Biljana

    How many days should we lay down money on my account that I can raise the money?

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  • Si

    At which point is an hourlie considered delivered? is it upon payment of the invoice? or is it upon delivery of the work? I always deliver a first draft the work within the specified time if I have had the required information from the buyer. but as a buyer can sometimes take days to come back to me with notes or amendments, how can I control the amount of time needed to finish the project, and it seems unreasonable of me to invoice before the buyer is happy with the work…. something here needs to be sorted here as I think my cert rating is being hit by the fact I'm making sure my clients are happy. Really not convinced PPH have it right.

     

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  • Jayson

    Hello,

     

    I am new here at PPH, Because Currently I am Individual Contractor at oDesk. My question is How do i know if Buyer or Client here on PPH if they are payment method verified, Like at oDesk you can see there if The clients are PAYMENT METHOD VERIFIED,

    Thanks,

    Jay

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  • Sofia

    Hi Jay - this question is not related to the thread - can you post a new query, or if you have, please link to it from here.

    Thanks

    Sofia

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  • Entrepreneur

    Please help !

    I haven't heard from the seller, he just disappeared and  he does not  approve my refund what shall I do ?

    Many thanks 

     

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  • Paul

    This is nothing to do with this thread. email support@peopleperhour.com

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  • Neil

    One of my  clients has recently been  auto refunded despite me teelling him this could happen... some people are just too busy to  check PPH every day... Anyway he is happy to continue the work can some one please contact me so I can sort this out?  What happened to the email customer service?

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  • Paul

    What happened to the email customer service?

    It's still there. Supposedly it works.

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  • Media Naranja

    I agree with the majority on here, the freelancer should deliver on time, I do & I am relatively new to PPH but not the industry, however the freelancer has to be in a position to be able to start the work in the first place with all the information & client brief needed. This is two way communication process? Though if people advertise an hourlie for peanuts and a buyer only wants to pay peanuts, I'm out for a start & the buyer shouldn't expect anything less than the amount they are willing to pay. It cuts both ways...

    A lady walks into a fancy cake shop to order a celebration cake. She speaks to the baker and says she would like to order a cake, but doesn’t want to pay the price the baker has quoted. The baker asks the lady how much she is willing to pay. The lady replies that she has added up the price of the flour, sugar, eggs, icing and decorations and it comes to £X and that is the price she is willing to pay. After some consideration the baker agrees to the lady’s request, takes her address and says her cake will be delivered in one week.

    A week later the lady receives a parcel from the bakery. With excitement the lady opens her parcel to have a look at the cake. Inside the box she finds a bag of flour, a bag of sugar, 6 eggs, some ready to roll icing and some decorations. She phones the bakery for an explanation.

    The baker informs the lady that she got exactly what she paid for – the ingredients for the cake. She did not pay for the qualifications, time, passion, expertise and experience to make the cake. In life you only get what you pay for!!’

     

    Some people are just not realistic. Some think there's a magic button to create the work - if there was I'd own one, we all would. Everything just like on various websites becomes generic & mediocre. There are too many on this site selling something for nothing & equally buyers wanting something for nothing. Equally, as I've seen recently copied artworks and freelancers passing work off as their own when it's clearly not - that is IP theft and whole other side to this site.

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  • Rich

    That is just stupid. She should have ordered butter too!

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  • Media Naranja

    ...must be a fat free cake or some random ridiculous allergy! ;-)

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  • Joseph

    @Media Naranja

    "The baker informs the lady that she got exactly what she paid for – the ingredients for the cake. She did not pay for the qualifications, time, passion, expertise and experience to make the cake. In life you only get what you pay for!!’"

    Yes and no.

    If the client expects something amazing but is only willing to pay a meagre sum, the contractor is obligated to let them know that low price will equal low quality. Having the client only discover this when the job is done is unprofessional and unethical on the part of the contractor.

    Ultimately it comes down to clients listening to prospective contractors when they say the client's expectations are too great, and contractors having the confidence and ethics to tell prospective clients, "I can't do a great job, so I can't do the job."

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