ANOTHER Fee Increase? Are you joking?
Sellers like myself are struggling with the race to the bottom mentality on this site already. At least 95%+ of my clients are below the 700 threshold -- I'll be paying 20% on everything.
Your fees are outrageous -- the 3.50 fee per invoice was bad enough, now it's even more. Did you even announce this increase? You will lose the high quality freelancers and the site will continue it's decline if you continue down this path.
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Official comment
Hello to all of you,
My name is Natalie and I am the Customer Support manager at PPH.
First of all, please, I want to let you know that I understand your frustration and I shall not go against it. You are TOP Sellers and I am personally following and reading every single feedback, complaints you may have and, always, escalating them to my team. Meri, I hear your concern; always am.
Nevertheless, at PeoplePerHour, we are constantly monitoring the platform and looking for improvements that will benefit the community overall. Research among community members has shown that a fee structure that encourages the building of high-value long-term relationships between Buyers and Sellers is something the majority of Sellers welcome and will reap clear financial benefits from. The new structure significantly reduces commission once your relationship is well established, and doesn’t reset earnings each month like total billing structures and, even if you currently don’t have enough earnings with a specific Buyer for this change to be beneficial to you, this is bound to change as time passes and your earnings with them stack up, thus clearly benefitting you in the long run.
I have gone through the thread and would also like to point out that we informed all of our active users that this change would be into effect from the 1st of July and, as from this date, you will be able to see your updated service fees structure on the Control Panel of your Payments section.
I have no problem replying to your inquiries, one by one, and you are free to email me or even send a support ticket requesting from me - I shall reply asap.
Please though keep in mind that your feedback is not a waste and I am glad you have created this thread so I can review your complaints and thoughts and pass them through.
I hope you have a lovely day.
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Yep, I have been on the site for years and have worked with over 250 clients. I have a 100% rating. Of those clients, about 5 are still around and would be over the threshold. The vast majority are new or don't have the budget to reach that threshold.
I will be going from about 7% per month to close to 18%+ More than double. That is an absurdly high commission. I have no choice but to look elsewhere.
After all the effort I put in building that top cert and 100% rating, it's all for nothing.
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Have you guys seen this from last year https://blog.peopleperhour.com/blogroll/important-announcement-regarding-service-fees/
It seems there's no difference now between newly registered sellers and more established sellers. It say:
"Established and loyal members, worry not! To date we have honoured the Service Fee scheme that was applicable at the date you registered to avoid incurring any fee increases.
Going forward, so as to be be fair to everyone, we will continue honouring this for our regular and loyal Sellers"
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the terms pages :
Legacy Service Fee Structures are subject to a minimum Billing limits, in the event a Seller’s Billing within a calendar month is less than £50 | €60 | $65, then starting from the next month onwards, PPH reserves the right to charge the the Seller a Service Fee of a 5% (excl. VAT) on all work billed (earnings), above the first £500 | €600 | $650 earned in the month which has a 20% (excl. VAT) Service Fee, independent of the Seller’s date of registration.
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The email says "We are reaching out to let you know about upcoming reductions to our services fees. No action is needed on your part. The change comes into effect on 1st of July 2018 and we believe this can lead to a substantial increase in your take-home pay. "
DOUBLING my fees for most clients is not a reduction. They lied about a significant increase in fees.
Freelancers like me (100% rating, $40,000+ in sales, 250 clients) will see fees almost double because most clients are new. I only have a handful of clients who spend a lot of money. They know that this change makes them more money, they tried to paint it as a discount.
The vast majority of sales on this site would be low budget or one-offs. They know that. They are exploiting freelancers. It's extremely dishonest to paint this change as a good thing.
They are messing with people's livelihoods. This change will make it extremely difficult for me to pay my bills. I am very anxious and worried right now.
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I just feel so sad and undervalued. And lied to. PPH, at least be transparent when you're putting up your fees, rather than treating us all like idiots and telling us our fees are being lowered.
I suspect they're all just sitting back waiting for threads like this, rolling their eyes and laughing, knowing that many of us can't just walk away. I long for the day when I don't need to use dishonest sites like this to earn an honest living.
I'm still waiting for a reply to a point I raised about fees now actually being 24%. I suspect a stock response at best, ending with the hope that I have a nice day.
A year's worth of excellent work, 100% ratings and Top Cert. What for? To earn PPH more money.
Sigh.
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Same here Hannah -- I have been with PPH for over 3 years, so I'd fall into that "established members" category. I have helped over 250 clients, have a 100% rating and have done close to $40,000 of transactions. This change will almost DOUBLE the fees for my work over the course of a month. It's a race to the bottom, ripping off freelancers all the way. I am re-evaluating my use of this site at all.
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It saddens me, Paul, that the greed of PPH takes over, with no regard for the livelihoods and personal circumstances of the freelancers that earn PPH their money.
Yes, businesses put up their rates but be transparent about it. Then we can decide if we want to be part of that greed, keep fighting to earn a decent living on here or walk away. People will walk away, but others will join, all with different reasons and situations, like I did a year ago, full of hope and the belief that freelancing can be a way to make a living, and accept these new rates.
And in a year's time, people will be joining threads like this when things inevitably change again. And so the cycle of greed continues because PPH know they can.
It truly is saddening.
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I think traffic to the website has been dropping. They haven't been smart with their marketing. So, they are trying to squeeze the freelancers so the owners can continue making the same profit with less buyers.
I have noticed my sales declining, hourlies are purchased less every month. If I make the same as a previous month, I'll find myself higher on the sales leaderboard because earnings are dropping for most freelancers. Some of my bigger clients have already left because of fees.
Why should I give 20% of my work away to a company that isn't improving their platform substantially and isn't bringing in enough buyers?
It would be nice if PPH said why they are doubling fees for many of us. What do we get in return? Are they going to launch a new marketing campaign or an Ad blitz to generate more work?
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I agree with you all the fees are far too large especially when a lot of sellers are so price sensitive. My simple and affordable hourlies will never meet the requirements so are always liable for high fees making them worthless to promote or do. I mainly used them to help get down to the 5% commission.
However, I would understand a slight increase if there was better support i.e live chat, the instant return of funds. A flyer design of £35Ii got paid £26 without the paypal deductions and not including the fee for the proposal and I have yet to see any changes that reflect any postive changes to the platform.
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I still can't get over the shock of this. I too feel sad and let down. I cannot stress how much this will change mine and my family's lives. 20% for what- PPH doesn't even have a phone number and got rid of their online chat. I am also astounded that nobody from PPH has even bothered to reply.
I have a choice between under delivering on my work, putting my prices up or leaving entirely. I could be running a high-value adwords campaign for the cost of the fees now. I have earned nearly £100k over the last five years on PPH- none of my clients are repeat buyers with the exception of one- nobody wants more than one business plan and all my work is under £500- start up businesses don't have more than that to pay for a business plan.
I don't understand why nobody from PPH thought to canvas seller's opinions on this- and yes Hannah, you are right, they are probably all sitting there rolling their eyes and laughing until it all blows over.
I just feel what is the point in all my hard work-and so sad and let down.
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Looking around these forums I see dozens of unanswered questions. Where are the support staff? We are paying 20% for this?
I haven't sold an hourly for days -- traffic is drying up. Where are the buyers? Looking at the jobs that are listed, they are "race to the bottom" jobs that could only be done by people in third world countries. $4 for a 1,000 word article? That's absurd.
I think the site is on its way out and I need to figure out how I will pay my bills this month. PPH really threw us under the bus.
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