We Need an Open Forum!!!!
Hi,
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Ann Aug 2, 11:36 EEST Hi, I put in a proposal for a job a couple of days ago. I was contacted literally a second after I put the proposal in and was asked to go on Skype chat with 'Simone'. I was asked to write a series of 5 blog posts on various things, with a photo and a review of a camera. All fine, until she asked if I have Paypal which I thought was odd. She then asked what my rate was, which is on the proposal of course. I said it would all have to go through PPH and she completely ignored that. At the end, I asked if she was hiring other writers (there were about 20 proposals for the job) and she said no, only me. I said that she would have to put the deposit in escrow as PPH have strict rules about that and she said knew that as she's been working with PPH for 5 years - but she has no record with you showing on this job and no previous feedback or buys. She wanted the first piece the following day. I didn't send anything and cancelled my bid. I smelled a big rat. I have the feeling that a lot of us may have been offered the job in circumstances against PPH rules and it's not legitimate, but I had no way of contacting the other proposers to ask. We desperately need an open forum here so we can co-operate with each other and protect ourselves against this sort of thing. As it is we have no way of checking with each other in situations like this. I understand there used to a forum but it was taken down. If PPH wants sellers to feel secure and not so isolated, please consider reinstating the forum. If you look at the Questions section of Support, you’ll see that I’m not the only one who wants this. Please, fellow Sellers - comment below and back up this request. The guys at Support say that's the best way to get this done, and it will be for the benefit and safety of all of us, to help combat sharks like 'Simone' who just want to rip us off. Regards, Ann |
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Official comment
Hi Ann,
Comment actions -
An open forum is long overdue. Presently PPH is biased towards buyers, and unfortunately there are far too many time wasters using the site for jobs they never award. Communication between freelancers would soon weed out the abusers on here.
There should also be a way that restricts buyers posting jobs that a) have little or no information b) the incorrect experience grading and c) uploading multiple posts for the same job. It is not our job to report this. The same goes for freelancers who don't buy credits and post proposals on the job CB instead.
Thanks Ann for suggesting this. I hope PPH finally takes notice of issues we have been complaining about for some time.
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I completely agree, I feel that I am constantly wasting my purchased credits on jobs which never get awarded. Equally, I am bombarded by buyers who want to contact and pay outside PPH. I am sure lots of people are happy to do this, but I am not and it feels like you get penalised for playing by the rules by losing so many proposal credits that you never see again. Pull your fingers out, it's a bit shameful to allow your business to be falling into disrepute in this way.
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Hi Ann,
I totally agree with you.
In another portal where I work, are open for news, forums for freelancers and customers.
It is very useful. You can ask about questions, help other freelancers, share complaints with colleagues or clients, to report freelancers or clients.
And sometimes laugh a while ...See if PPH realizes, and makes it once.
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I've had job offers on other sites which I stupidly fell for and did some work with a promise of payment at the end of it, which never came. It turned out that the 'employer' was taking briefs from iwriter.com, submitting my work, and getting paid for it, before disappearing.
I've since been approached several times with this kind of scam and they all have a few things in common:
- They all ask for 500ish word articles on different topics
- They want a 2-hour turnaround on the work
- They ask to contact you over Skype
- They refuse to use Escrow or any other secure service to guarantee payment and may disappear if you insist on it
Of course if you've already used some credits applying for this kind of work it would be great if PPH would give those back in return for having these people weeded out from the site, so perhaps that would be the best way to approach it. PPH could do a call-out saying 'these are the things to look out for, report them to us when you find them and we'll give you the credit back'.
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I totally agree with the idea for an open forum. It's becoming a common thing to find fake accounts and fake jobs. With a limited number of proposals available a month this is affecting my small business.
I too was contacted by 'Simone' like the above seller, but 'Simone' and others like her have also placed similar vacancies over the past few months. This is a worrying time to be on PPH, particularly for small businesses like mine or even new sellers who may not be as familiar with site rules as other long-standing members.
It's important for the communication to flow, as at the minute we are reduced to writing something in comments to warn other sellers, but by then it's already too late. People have already bid on that job and are in a potentially exploitable situation. With a message board, this would help to protect the legitimate members of the site.
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Here's fake buyer 'Oliver' with yet another new profile and a new FAKE job!
https://www.peopleperhour.com/job/500-words-articles-on-visa-and-credit-cards-1242447
Steer clear and report.
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Also hoping for an open forum after wasting far too much of my precious time dealing with 'Simone'/'Oliver', who even got free work out of me and still has the audacity to keep posting bogus jobs even after so many complaints. It's becoming harder and harder to identify genuine jobs and these crooks need to be banished from PPH forever.
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All of this work comes from a site called iwriter.com. Although it's fair enough if some enterprising people have got accounts on there that qualify for higher paid work and they want to farm that out, most of the time they actually want to get others to write the content for free, which they then take to iwriter and get the money for. If anyone here has been sent a brief from one of these people, I also suggest contacting iwriter and telling them, as they can see who has accepted the brief and hopefully ban them at that end too
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And again...
This guy is infuriating me.https://www.peopleperhour.com/job/28-high-quality-articles-1000-words-1244464
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Hmmm...the posts I'm submitting on the clarification boards of fake jobs like 'Unique Contents Required' asking for sellers to comment here are now being rejected by the moderators and not posted. This is on the grounds that they don't conform to the posting rules and is despite other sellers putting up posts which don't conform to the rules either.
I wonder why that is...?
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I agree we need our own way of discussing things with each other - if not an open forum then why not our own PPH Facebook group or something similar? That way we can let everyone know about problems and fake customers.
On another note has anyone noticed a lot of spam messages at the moment? I offer an Hourlie writing an article. I keep getting people messaging me offer to write an article for me. Why would I need this as it is what I do? I've had three in the last few days and don't understand why.
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Well, somewhat predictably, this has got precisely nowhere as yet.
As we have no forum (!) I'm tagging these next issues on to this one, in the hope that commenters here will see it.
If you agree with the points made in this other post, please go and comment. Maybe we can get something done there?
@Anna-
Is there a specific address for Strat, or do I just FAO it?
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Anna, I frequently posted comments on the jobs in the 'clarification section' and gave critical feedback about PPH on the FB page.
Now all my 'clarification section' comments are moderated, so only the most bland thing gets through. My FB account is also banned from placing any FB comment.
I guess I upset PPH and I upset too many buyers.
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