Students having coursework written by freelancers on PPH

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Charlotte

• November 24, 2019 18:57

Hi guys,

It would be great if you could put a complete stop to people asking for coursework to be written and freelancers on PPH actually doing it for them. Have just come across someone with two years worth in their profile, unfortunately for them they were stupid enough to ask me. This is completely immoral and an absolute disgrace that people in the UK are making their way through university with freelancers from PPH writing their coursework. Disgraceful on every level and yes I have reported them.

Many thanks,

Charlotte

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• Official comment

  

  YannisS

  • November 25, 2019 10:46

  Hi Charlotte,

  I would firstly like to thank you for reporting such cases. Our moderation team reject around 10 project posts that regard with educational work per day. However, there might be others that slip our attention. As of early 2020 we are revisiting our moderation processes and guidelines, in order to make them stricter and more efficient, so that this kind of projects are not published.

  Once again, many thanks for your support!

  All the best,
  Yannis Sliman
  Product Manager @ PeoplePerHour

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  Simon

  • November 25, 2019 13:32

  It is encouraging to hear that PPH are attempting to put a stop to this. I'm still seeing a lot of it and only last week I had a direct message from someone who wanted me to do coursework, although they wouldn't admit that it was coursework. It seems an odd way of trying to get an education and considering the amount of money they want to pay, they clearly have a very low opinion of the qualification they are trying to get.
  
  This ties into a related issue that needs to be addressed. and that is the low value of budgets. Many buyers seem to be completely out of touch with the amount they need to pay a freelancer in any given discipline. A self employed freelancer has to make their own provisions for sick pay, holiday pay, pensions, equipment etc, and their pay needs to reflect that. There is also the issue that bidding for jobs that don't materialise uses up time which has to be paid for by the jobs that are taken up.
  
  For example, I saw a job posted recently where the buyer insisted that it was "30 seconds work" and was therefore highly paid at £6. By the time anybody has read to the point that said "30 seconds work" they have used 30 seconds. If 12 freelancers submit a bid, taking 5 minutes over the bid, an hour of time has been used and the freelancer hasn't even been appointed yet. That time has to be paid for.
  
  If you hire a plumber to mend a leaking tap they have to handle the appointment by telephone. Turn up in a van they paid for and insure and maintain. Bring tools they had to buy and insure. Come into your house, for which they need more insurance. Mend the tap, Pack everything away again. Raise the invoice and complete their accounts. Do you argue that they only spent 10 minutes on the tap and refuse to pay more than £5? This is what is happening every day for the freelancers on PPH. We can be very economical to employ compared to getting somebody on site, but there is a limit.
  
  Then there is the other issue where freelancers who are new to the site and who have no ranking will try to do anything at all, just to get some ranking points and feedback. There needs to be a better plan to get these people integrated into the platform that doesn't involve them offering to do anything, including coursework, for almost nothing.

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  Charlotte

  • November 25, 2019 16:34

  Hi Yannis,
  Thanks for your swift reply Yannis. That's great that improvements are in progress to stop both people posting coursework and those who complete the coursework of others for money.
  Many thanks
  Charlotte

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  YannisS

  • November 26, 2019 07:18

  Hi Simon,

  Thank you for the detailed input!

  Exactly, some times it's a challenge for our moderation team to spot such coursework projects, as in some cases there is no indication, at least initially, that educational work is requested.

  Regarding low budget projects, again, this is something we are currently reviewing and aiming to address early 2020. Apart from the edge cases (like the one you mentioned), some buyers may not be able to set a proper budget for their project as they might have no prior experience in this area/industry. We are planning to tackle this.

  Regarding your last point, we are also aiming to make the selection process more efficient so that we increase the quality of our freelancers.

  All the best,
  Yannis

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