Vote - Original 15%-3,5% service fee VS new 20% Fee structure.
Hello Everyone.
PPH wants to know whether the new fee structure suits the majority of sellers or not? please vote and comment (Comment is important)
If you don't know how to vote, click the Up arrow button next to the post title.
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CS Response :
If you want your buyers to vote go here :
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Gajura, no, that's not the answer. It's not as simple as that. Buyers aren't honour bound to accept a 20 per cent increase in our fees. They'll simply go with a cheaper alternative. It's happening. Have you tried it. Analyse the competition and see where the jobs are awarded - the cheapest, regardless of skill. PPH needs to address this issue - not us.
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dear colleagues, please don't forget to sign petition!
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Adam- same here. I have the next two weeks booked up with work I quoted without realising the 20% would affect me as the wording in that email was so misleading.
Is anyone from PPH reading all these hundreds of comments across the forum? Any other business with this many angry customers would react quicker. Are they just riding the storm and hoping we will all just go away and accept our lot?
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Guys, please relax and try to invite other people to vote and comment. each one invites 1-5-10 whatever , from this page :
https://www.peopleperhour.com/hire-freelancers?cert=6-*
click profile > browse any Hourlie > contact > send post link :
there are 20 pages only :)
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I completely agree that this new structure is unworkable for the gig economy model. PPH is not about long term relationships - it never was. it is about one off jobs, hourlies, interim help and selling your skills on a one-off basis. That's why people use freelancers. If they wanted a long term relationship they would get an employee.
I say this as someone who has a long term client on this platform who has already billed more than £8,000. This means I am automatically benefiting from the new structure. But Im not short-sighted enough to not realise that I could lose that client at any point (no freelance contract is bullet-proof) ND be sent back to the start with the next clients.
Plus I still do plenty of one-off jobs.
I've been with PPH since they started and have purposely let the work I do with them tail off. I don't trust them anymore.
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I am also not in favour of the new service fee change, which has seen our commission increase from 3.5% to 20% overnight. This is unsustainable for us as a business when you factor in 20% VAT, staff costs, overheads, withdraw fees, bidding credits etc. There is no way to offer a quality service and compete to win work when essentially a quarter of that profit is taken by PPH.
I also echo the majority of comments that charging more commission simply makes it impossible to survive and in no way helps to encourage repeat buyers - especially when they are also being charged a commission to purchase a service.
I'm rated #5 on PPH overall, won an award with them last year and have been on this platform for over 8 years, billing more than half a million pounds but i also didn't receive an email or any advance notice of the change.
PPH has been incredible for my business and a wonderful platform to work on for many years but this new structure wipes all of that progress out. I hope that all of our comments are taking into account as the impact on us which we are all feeling and worrying about will also be felt by PeoplePerHour. Even if a return to 3.5% isn't possible due to rising costs on the platform's side, a middle ground that doesn't see 3.5% become 20% overnight with no additional tools or support should at least be feasible. Likewise, there should be a reduction in sellers fees for buying because that, coupled with the fact we all need to increase our prices, is having a huge impact on the volume of orders.
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I couldn't agree more with what Rebecca has said.
The impact on sales has been immense, buyers are now charged 10% and I have sent proposals to people agreeing to go ahead who then change their minds when they see the additional fee that they have to pay.
Now we are charged 20% so either have to take the hit to make it impossible to make any profit or we pass the additional cost on to the buyers which makes it unaffordable for many small businesses.
PPH, there are so few buyers paying £500, let alone £5000 which is just nonsense.
There is no follow up from PPH, the social media pages haven't been updated in a month (though not this has restarted), the support is non existent - what has seriously happened to this once great platform?
I don't believe it is too late to reverse things, why can't there be a vote or a meeting about this? We were never told or was this discussed with the community.
If changes are not made, the impact on a lot of people is immense. PPH you will not make extra money this way, you will only drive people away from the site, the fees are too high.
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No one is in favour of this except Xenios or anyone else who get profit from pph ownership
I also think they tried to bring these changes in shade behind our backs since I havent got any single notification
Please don't forget to sign petition to increase a chance of being heard https://chn.ge/2KPhwqn
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I'm so happy people are taking time out of their day to look at this - I see a lot of familiar faces and although I haven't spoken to some of your directly, it's really nice to see that we're all coming together to make something happen.
PPH has blatantly cloaked this as something that will benefit us, and what's worse, they've said that this comes from feedback from the community? WHO?!?! I WANT TO SEE THIS DATA!!
I wish there was a way to blanket contact all members to sign this petition thing so that it looks much more substantial than just this thread where, let's be honest, most PPH'ers don't come too (some didn't even know it exists).
I've contacted numerous people by message to get the word out and everyone here should do the same. Take out 15 mins and just spread it - it will eventually spread like wildfire.
PPH MUST know about this... It's just now whether they have the decency to reply or indeed, act.
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As much as i agree with everyone 100% this will probably fall on deaf ears! Nearly everything I have ever gone to PPH about has just been brushed aside they basically say "ah well" a sort of get on with it kind of response. If they reverse these fees it will be a miracle as they don't care about sellers they care about their profits but what they fail to understand without us sellers they won't have a profit! 'if you look after us we will look after you' thats the approach that needs to be taken here but its just not the case. a lot of clients are one off's so gives us absolutely no chance of hitting £500 per client its just simply not realistic
I have billed nearly 200k through the site and was awarded the PPH freelancer of the year last year and tbh I thought they would treat us all with a bit more respect and reward our loyalty not punish it!
This thread needs to put in front of PPH somehow if it is to have a chance of succeeding.
I really hope it happens but don't hold your breath!
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I am one of the very few (I suspect) who will in fact benefit from this new structure - but I am still not in favour.
I have been with PPH since they started and have been top cert for a few years. I have one (just one) client who has topped the upper band and is now of 3.5%. But this is freelancing... that client could drop me at any time, putting me right back at the beginning again.
I also don't understand why they promoted and push Hourlies while simultaneously making it clear they want us to have long term clients. It is clearly a money making exercise. The more small jobs that are carried out, the more money they make.
As many people have already said - do not expect any change to this policy. Xenios is money-centred and always has been. This is a business - not an employer. there will always be a new cohort of freelancers to take over where we leave off. No amount of complaining has EVER made a difference and this comes from someone with 10 years experience on this site.
The only thing to do is to rationalise your use of this platform:
Increase your quotes to take account of the fees,
encourage your current clients to come back for repeat work rather than prioritising new customers,
spend more time searching for clients off the site with a view towards not using it at all or only for those clients who have reached the threshold
Drop clients who will not ever reach the threshold
I work almost entirely with small independent business owners and they will suffer from this. I can't help it. The only thing I can do is work within the new structure while doing all I can to get away from the site entirely.
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It really isn't a viable option to "drop clients who will not ever reach the threshold" though. Realistically, how many are going to have a spend of £5k?
Most people who buy on here are startups or small businesses who can't afford to employ somebody full time so put the jobs on there. To get close to £5k it is going to really need to be somebody reselling your services somewhere else to give you the continual work to get to that amount.
Increasing quotes also isn't that viable as it makes it much harder to try and compete with buyers who mostly seem to base things on price rather than quality.
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How can 3.5% for clients over the threashold possibly be seen as a reward?
For the limited amount of buyers that you can actually reach the £5000 billings with - what's the reward here exactly - you would simply receive the same 3.5% rate that we were already on in the first place (for all buyers)!!!
Also, does the total billings cover all workstreams with a specific buyer or just one - how is this calculated exactly - I often have multiple workstreams with the same buyer.
We need immediate action on this and to return to the previous fee structure TODAY!
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Nick - I completely agree with you - it isn't viable. I'm simply being pragmatic.
The only viable response to this is to get off the site and have private clients only. This is why I suggest not focusing on the most expensive clients. Use that time to find private clients who will cost you nothing.
PPH have done something bizarre here and will find their business will suffer. We will leave because there is no other way around it.
I have just put my Hourlie cost up by 20% with an explanation at the top of the description to explain why. My clients either have to pay the extra or go elsewhere. The fact is that if everyone does this, we are all once again competitive (just at a higher level). And of course PPH makes more money from us :(
It is my immediate response to the current situation - I don't see I have much choice. I realise this may not be a sensible approach by everyone.
I fully support moving back to the previous structure BTW and have signed the petition.
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