Penalize Hourlies with late deliveries
If you wanna know more details, please go to my account and check out the hourlies I bought till now and look by yourselves how long these people needed to have the work done and how long they promise they will have the work done and how many of them really care about the job, or how serious they are taking their hourlies? 50% or less? This is crazy! If they do not need the job, go and have some fun somewhere else and PLEASE do not waste other people's time!!!
I was trying to be nice all the way and I really didn't want to pay those hourlies which are delayed like 10 days, 20 days or even 1 month! Are you kidding me?
-
What about the hourlies that take a job (without knowing what it involves), then spends time organising other hourlies to actually do the work. Its almost 2 weeks late, on a 1 week project. I have responded everyday to the hourlies questions. Its late because he did not have the skills/knowledge to do the work.
-
Yes, Paul, it sounds good in saying that but in all fairness - I have found PPH to be extremely slow in responding to emails now. I have had one in for over a week with no response and even left a VM. You used to be able to ring a real person and speak with them - but no longer. Now it is just a waiting game and if a buyer is in a hurry, you can't wait. You are left taking a chance that the buyer will either not leave a bad review or that if they do, PPH will sort it out. Can't rely on either and as PPH usually won't remove the ratings unless in extreme situations, it makes it rough sometimes.
These are rare cases though - as buyers are normally great. It is just those few that can ruin it. Just like, it is just those few freelancers / sellers that can give the rest a bad name. It is not something that is black-and-white and why PPH must be more hands-on with the individual moderation.
Responding to emails and other communications in a timely and customer focused manner is a MUST as well and PPH need to do a bit of work here as their customer service is slipping as they grow.
-
I found this thread because I was looking for a way to suspend an active "hourlie" with a new buyer. They need more time to provide additional details, etc. I'm not sure how this works on PPH. But if late deliveries are to be penalized, where does that leave sellers like myself, who have to delay delivery on the buyer's request?
Would it not also create more work for PPH support staff, who would have to arbitrate in more disputes between buyer and seller?
The whole concept of hourlies on the PPH marketplace is flawed, and should be re-examined.
In my opinion, hourlies should be done by "delivery" and "review". A seller should be able to make a "delivery". This would show when they actually delivered an hourlie (with proof). Buyers should then be able to "review", or request revisions. Better yet, both parties should be allowed to "suspend" an on-going hourlie job, if more details or clarifications are required. Would that not prevent arbitrary penalites?
In my particular current situation, I would simply "suspend" the hourlie, until the client was ready with my details.
As for swearing clients...well...cuppa, anyone? :)
-
I currently have several hourlies in progress. One of these has just gone overdue because of the client not responding... Am I to be penalised for this? Also the pph availability settings pretty clearly say i only work week days, yet hourlies bought on the weekend are expected to still be delivered???
I am a big fan off PPH and currently have a 100% rating, penalising freelancers for clients slow responses will make that quickly change.
-
What about the hourlie that promises a week (as did all the people). But then spends the first week trying to find somebody to do the work. When this sub-contractor cannot do the work, he wastes another week, looking for somebody else. This goes on for weeks. Its now over 4 weeks, and still very little to show for the work.
Every time they send something through, I have to test it. Their programmer does not even test the basic functionality of their work.
There has to be a better way. I have responded within 24hrs of any questions raised.
-
My latest experience is that I have two outstanding for over a week, I'm waiting for a response from both of them. One I could bill for because I have actually done the task asked - I'm simply waiting on a small add-on. The other came back with the other side of a discussion with their hosting company and asking for my assessment. I made my assessment and haven't heard a thing back.
The hourly system is attractive but I think the devil is in the detail and it isn't implemented that well at the moment. We need to be able to advertise what we can do; posting my hourlies helped me think of some of the things people might want help in that are also finite, achievable, realistic, can be clearly specified and measured by results.
Despite all these SMART factors, there are clients who have bought an hourly because they have a budget for a piece of work and the hourly matches their budget. I've worked with clients like this in the past, not necessarily here on PPH, and I now have a policy of politely refusing the work. The hourly helps in these situations because it states 'I will do x'. It does not state 'I will do z instead because you the client, can only pay that much for z'. I don't even try getting these people to give me the job as a separate job, they're already abusing the client-freelancer relationship and I feel they aren't likely to stop simply because I get them to agree a reasonable price and time on the job. I can survive without the stress they are all too likely to create. -
My problem is someone buys from me and I ask them to send me more detail so I can do the job and they simply don`t reply...after about a month I get an automatic negative feedback score through no fault of my own FOR NOT DELIVERING and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it! So all my hard work which adds up to 100s of hours per week pleasing the many buyers I have and getting a good feedback score comes to nothing because the system has no way for me to cancel the job without being punished. pph is a wonderful idea and the amount of traffic it gets sure does bring in the sales but the feedback system needs to be thought through again!
-
Some freelancers are indeed pigs, but most of the time delay is due to the client's fault.
Once or set all the details and go to work, the client comes up with new ideas and specify.All at the same time delivery and same money.
If you say no, threatened by negative feedback, dispute, not pay and more. Not to say that the language used by some clients disappointing.
-
A client misreads the advert and goes ahead and buys they then find out I am not selling what they had imagined I was selling and decides to ask for a refund ..I agree to the refund and I get an automatic negative feedback! Let me know when the doctors have been to take away whoever it was that thought up that clever idea.
-
Sorry Israr, but I think you're posting in the wrong thread... PPH fees are an entirely different, though pertinent, issue.
As for sellers getting automatically penalised for late delivery of Hourlies, I think it's a ludicrous idea!
For example, I currently have an active Hourlie, whereby half of the work is done and the buyer needs to send some additional information for the remainder to be completed. Although the Hourlie was advertised as 2 days, when the buyer purchased it, they actually stated 'take your time, we're in no rush, we just want it done right'. Furthermore, once the first half was done, they clearly stated they would be busy over the next few days, and would send me the required information afterwards.In short, we both agreed that the Hourlie would take longer, and both buyer and seller are perfectly happy with the situation. At the same time, if PPH were to implement an automatic penalty, this would create conflict or ruin a job that is absolutely fine.
What on earth would be the point? To alienate both sellers and buyers, maybe?
As long as PPH ups their game in terms of CS response times, this should be able to be handled manually just fine. I also completely agree with everyone who has suggested some form of 'Accept' button or similar on the side of the seller with regard to Hourlies. Otherwise, some buyers can see this as a type of shopping cart, and if an Hourlie even remotely looks like what they need, they will buy it without necessarily thinking about the fact that there is an actual person on the other end, who actually needs to be able to do the work.
Mistakes happen - people (buyers) might assume that someone can complete a job, because their Hourlie was badly phrased and implied it (seller's mistake). Surely, even a buyer in such a situation would prefer for there to be an 'Accept' button for the seller to click, as if the seller can't deliver, they can say so upfront, and save a lot of time, hassle and bad ratings on both sides...
But then no-one from PPH seems to actually be reading the forums anymore, so what does mine, or anyone else's opinion matter? Despite the fact that without users, there would be no PPH!
-
There is one other freelancing site I will refrain from naming it for obvious reasons that penalize sellers at every step of the way. I being a seller obviously do not want to be slave driven in this day and age. I therefore second the opinion of all sellers on PPH who oppose penalty. As a matter of fact I vehemently oppose penalizing sellers when PPH themselves coerce sellers to setting an impossible time frame of a maximum of five days to accomplish a task regardless of the complexity. PPH ought to be able to strike a balance in terms of being friendly with the buyer and the seller alike. Should PPH start penalizing sellers as I can see its "PLANNED" then I am sure I am not going to be the only one leaving PPH at the first instance.
-
If PPH does go ahead with the plan of penalizing sellers for whatever reason the buyer may be bickering about then rest assured a lot of sellers will have no option but to kiss PPH goodbye. All of a sudden PPH will experience a huge attrition from a sellers' standpoint. Those that would remain with PPH would have an opportunity to up the ante for a while until they are disgusted of being penalized and they too would leave. This is what I foresee happening should PPH implement penalty on sellers as planned.
-
If PPH does go ahead with the plan of penalizing sellers for whatever reason the buyer may be bickering about then rest assured a lot of sellers would have no option but to kiss PPH goodbye. In other words dump PPH. All of a sudden PPH wpuld experience a huge attrition from a sellers' standpoint. Those that would remain with PPH would have an opportunity to up the ante for a while until they are disgusted of being penalized and they too would leave. This is what I foresee happening should PPH implement penalty on sellers as planned.
I therefore suggest that PPH not take any hasty decision based on a few irate buyer's feedback. Just to be fair, PPH ought to look at both sides of the argument as it were.
-
I just say an hourly has been paid even though he said the job was finished and TOTALLY ignored the changes I asked him to make as his first attempt wasn't to brief. He ignored them and took the money. I have no product and it took him 4 weeks to even answer the first brief and send anything. Then two weeks to ignore my request for a few changes but you paid him the money. I would like my money back I have no product. Please tell me how.
-
I just say an hourly has been paid even though he said the job was finished and TOTALLY ignored the changes I asked him to make as his first attempt wasn't to brief. He ignored them and took the money. I have no product and it took him 4 weeks to even answer the first brief and send anything. Then two weeks to ignore my request for a few changes but you paid him the money. I would like my money back I have no product. Please tell me how.
-
Dear Paul
The reason that we have this delay is because the accept many projects. They finished first two stage very quickly and we paid near 50% of it. Then delays started they were not working on the project. One day broken leg, next month accident, changing management and ...
But I could see that they are getting projects here more and more. Case are different and I strongly believe pph has to have more control on big projects.
I have paid £3500 and lost three season of revenue.
There should be a way that we can solve this kind of problems on pph please check
http://support.peopleperhour.com/entries/30253848-More-control-on-medium-and-large-projects-
-
So, what happens if you are the person trying to deliver the Hourlie that has a 1 day turnaround and your client has not supplied the details requested to start the job? I have chased the client twice now, can see that they have read the last message offering a Skype call to help them and I still don't have the details. It's now the evening of the day I need to deliver this and the client has prevented me from starting! This affects my rating, not theirs. Do I give them a refund to avoid the late penalty or do I wait because this is best practice customer service in the world outside of PPH? Tough choice!
-
If a client hired you and have not send the job details or the client is not communicating within weeks, just RAISE AN INVOICE! You will be surprised on how they will reject the invoice within minutes! You can then ask them for details. This is how i bring client back. Since i know my intention is not to get paid without doing the job, it don't feel guilty.. Mind you, don't raise the invoice if you haven't heard from the client in a day or two, he may be busy. I once raise an invoice when i haven't heard from a client for nearly a month and as soon as i raise an invoice, he just send a message within a day.
-
someone help me. ?
http://www.peopleperhour.com/freelancer/mohammed/accountant/573427
-
The problem is that the PPH system is flawed. Fiverr works the right way and only schedules the work in your queue once the client has provided the information required to deliver their project. If they don't deliver it, the get reminders from Fiverr, not the seller, to say deliver it!
I've had to cancel several Hourlies from ignorant clients. I can see they are logged in, so must see my friendly messages asking for their details so that I can deliver. I even have one who bought an Hourlie on Saturday, and it's due today, and I can see they are logged in as I type this but they are ignoring my messages to deliver their data. So, I cannot hit the deadline. I've allowed up to 1 month for clients to deliver content for a 5 day Hourlie!!!
This is a problem of dealing with SMEs overall. Corporate clients happily pay more, follow up, and want their work delivered promptly.
Things to fix:
1 - PPH should change the length of time we can allocate to an Hourlie.
2 - PPH should not start the countdown clock for the seller until the client has delivered the information required.
3 - PPH should send the client the alerts to say provide the info required.
4 - PPH is also losing cash by clients not delivering work, so they should build in terms to say the client loses a 50% cancellation charge if the client fails to provide the information within a reasonable timeframe.
5 - PPH will then stop spamming sellers say 'you haven't delivered' because the system will know the clock hasn't started.
-
Just to add my 2p to this. I had a buyer who purchased a website review for a website he didn't yet have, but wanted me to review when it was complete. He was still waiting for his website a month after buying my hourlie - I decided to give him a refund to avoid an automatic refund and automatic negative review from PPH on my profile. In this circumstance, PPH fails both of us because the buyer will have wanted his report when his website was ready - and they fail me because they penalise my rating and produce a negative review on my profile that is unjustified. What does PPH have to say about this?
-
I work and buy hourlies - 80% my jobs were never finished 6 weeks later or the person cancelled after saying they had no time to complete as agreed when they write proposal.
I just relist a new hourlie - but I really would like to get 2 of the jobs done as the end of the year is coming to a close - I know that it is because they dont pay much - and I work for low pay also :)
I'm not blaming any system for this and not sure that a penalty will solve anything. But I'm taking my leftover 2013 jobs off to the other micro sites in Jan as I can't keep going around and around. if I can get my jobs done on time then I can make more cash then I can pay more so better all round.
-
-1 definitely. I really hope you don't start rolling out penalties as many of the new changes seem to be geared at screwing freelancers over. It's a common experience for someone to buy an hourlie, then not actually get around to explaining what they might want done for a day or two (in which time the hourlie was technically supposed to have been delivered.) In several cases I've experienced, I will have a reasonable discussion with the client on the workstream, and any penalty system based on some kind of clock within which to deliver hourlies by, will not take into account the flexibility that sometimes need to be considered.
As others have said before above - we should not get penalised with a 1 star rating when we end up having to refund clients who buy hourlies and change their minds/ fail to provide information.
-
As I've said previously, definitely -1 from me too.
Just last week, I had someone buy an Hourlie, then requested a refund 15 MINUTES LATER! Bearing in mind that I've set Sunday as my day off, and this Hourlie was purchased on a Sunday (hmm... PPH days off not working properly...), I was still going to respond kindly to them and explain that I would start work on the next day, ie. the Monday. Except by the time I logged in to my account and started writing them a message, they had already cancelled! Sorry PPH, but this is ridiculous behaviour for a Buyer. Surely if PPH was going to give bad ratings to Sellers for refunds and the like, they should consider situations like this first!
So back to what I advocated the last time I wrote in this thread - there should really be an Accept/Decline button or similar option, so that both the Buyer and Seller are clear on what is required and what can be delivered before the Hourlie is purchased, as at the moment, Hourlies are almost like a products off the shelf rather than services with real people behind them that have to actually do the work!
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
236 comments