An Open Letter to People Per Hour: Please Comment Below on Payments
Dear People Per Hour,
I wanted to let you know just how much havoc, chaos and panic you have caused in my life since you announced your decision to subject us to the new payment clearance process and times. If you are a freelancer reading this, please comment below so we can try to support each other and so that we can let PPH know what damage this is causing us and that we, as freelancers, are not only the lifeblood of the platform but also real people with real lives and families to support.
I am a freelancer, but I am also a single parent to two young children. We have all lived through a year and a half of the most disruptive time in any of our lives due to the pandemic. I am sure it hasn’t escaped PPH’s attention that freelancers have had a rough ride during this time. I am mainly referring to the UK here as that is where I am from, but I am sure these problems are global for freelancers. As freelancers, we did not enjoy the benefits of furlough, of the Job Retention Scheme and many of us were not eligible for government grants or benefits. As we start to move out of the pandemic, many of us are reeling from the effects and have now been served a huge blow by PPH-a platform that is supposed to support us as freelancers and make our lives easier-by making us wait up to 18 days to receive money we have earned and worked hard for.
I don’t know about other freelancers, but my family relies solely on the money I earn from PPH and we live from invoice payment to invoice payment. We don’t live beyond our means, there is only me earning money and I work very hard.
On Friday, I came to the realisation that due to the new payment clearing processes, we did not have enough food to last us the weekend, let alone 18 more days. My rent was due on Friday, and I have not been able to pay that. So, we are hungry and on top of that I am now really anxious about not paying my rent. I earnt enough money this month to pay my rent and buy us food and everything on top, but it is sitting in my PPH account, and I cannot access it. This morning, my son’s school had to arrange a delivery from our local food bank. I have never, ever had to ask for anything like this before, but we had no choice.
I have not heard anything from PPH that makes me understand why they are doing what they are doing. I simply do not believe that in the world of instant payments, high tech and on-demand services why they need to hang on to our money for 18 days. It just won’t work for me in the long term, but at the moment, I am wondering what we will do in four days’ time when the food runs out, when I can’t pay my internet bill leading me not being able to work at all and when the stress of this will just be too much to bear.
I hope people don’t think I am being overdramatic, for some freelancers this will just be a frustrating experience, but for some of us, this is having real life, damaging effects on our lives and the lives of the people we love- and I am sure I am not alone.
Please comment below and tell PPH how this is affecting your life if you can.
Yours Sincerely,
Meri Williams
-
Hi guys,
I was wondering if anyone who has been paid since all this started could tell me how long the processing period was once their 14 days were up? As you can all imagine we are more desperate than ever and we have another food bank voucher but trying to work out when the funds will actually hit my bank and my landlord is getting really quite cross now. My oldest payment 'clears' on Saturday (14 days)- if anyone could let me know how long it took them once their funds were avaliable to withdraw for it to actually arrive in their bank I would be so grateful.
Also, if anyone had a payment 'clearing' on a weekend could you let me know- I am just trying to figure out if it will be an automatic thing or if a PPH person has to manually do it.
Thank you everyone!
-
@Meri
I've just got a payment today. It was 14 days + less than 24 hours. As I can see, it's different from one freelancer to another. Some here say they finally got the money in over 48 hours (52.5 hours) and some within the stated 48 hours AFTER the clearance period. So, if your money is to be cleared on next Sat. (July 17), add 48 hours, meaning you should expect your money - finally - on July 19. That said, PPH said weekends are already included in the day counts but this is not exactly true. It just covers the first 14 days but if you happen to have your additional 48 over weekends so I guess you'll need to wait after the weekend and start counting.
Hope that helps.
Please ask anything, Meri. I really want to help in anyway I can. God bless you.
-
@Meri, Adam, ALL.
That's what I'm saying, Meri. Just put the maximum limit so you do not give dates to anyone. I've dug for this post to show you how payments are processed and withdrawn. As far as I can see, I cannot see any clear pattern but my guess you'll get paid on Mon. (July 19) or Tue. (July 20). That said, I, neither do Adam I guess, have any idea why we are processed more quickly.
-
Gadi B., joined PPH in 2012, Top Cert, Excel Developer
Cheers for all the very professional writers who have spent plenty of time writing out what's on their mind. It took me several days and many hours to read this entire thread from the beginning to the end.
For over two weeks I have avoided clicking the "Accept" button on this annoying popup showing for me over every page of PPH. Am I the only one who had this tactic? I was hoping for a miracle that would change PPH mind and the new T&C would be reverted. Today however I'm going to click that T&C "Accept" button only because I owe some responses to buyers whom have been waiting all along for my feedback. Although I'm going to click "Accept" now, I'm totally opposing this change with the clearance periods.
Despite being a big fan of PPH since the beginning, in the past 2-3 years I witnessed how the platform has lost its quality, my income potential decreased in a parallel manner with dropping count of new buyers’ inquiries and lower paying jobs on offer. I’m watching the plummet of this platform in agony, as it has been responsible for tens of thousands of pounds that I have proudly earned through it over the years. In some years it even constituted my major source of income.
Luckily I have Fiverr as a backup and over there I'm running stronger than ever. Going forward I will shift my efforts from operating in PPH to Fiverr's favor. There are also clearing periods in Fiverr but I receive 10 to 20 direct NEW inquiries daily in Fiverr and maybe 2 in PPH monthly (in a good month). No need to be strong in math to conclude which platform works stronger with a much higher profit potential. I am quite easily getting Fiverr buyers pay my hourly rate which I charge in PPH for my Hourlies (AKA Offers). As opposed to what I read in this thread several times, I would like to tell you all that also Fiverr can be a great source of income with buyers who pay reasonably and even leave a tip!
The issue that devastated my belief in PPH is the dishonesty displayed with the clearance period introduction. In the original blog post it was claimed that this is being done for the sake of sellers' protection from malicious fraud whereas PPH official comment to this thread from 8 days ago blames the "new regulations" (go to Page 1 to see it). Sorry, but I don't buy it either way. The latter sounds like a vague attempt to put down the fire and hang the fault on a mysterious 3rd party. If there is indeed a new regulation to follow, which regulation is that exactly?!
Why the funds received from a buyer who pays me £50 and has already transacted with me dozens of times in the past for legit work identifiable in the workstream is subject to the same clearance period of a brand new buyer who makes the first transaction in PPH? This is what puzzling me the most – The globalization of the clearance periods NO MATTER the seniority, credibility and track record of sellers and buyers alike. In the proclaimed “analysis” that PPH made prior to the implementation of the clearance period, none of these factors were taken in account? Again, I don’t buy it. I worked as an e-Payments specialist for 7 years and trust me if I tell you that I have experience with that sort of regulation or fraud protection as they claim. The clearance period is not related to any legal matter by a government authority, that’s for sure. I wrote a long message to PPH Customer Support at the end of last month and Ioannis replied me with a long message of his own, but I wasn’t even slightly convinced by his explanations.
As many other long time sellers of PPH platform, I believe we all deserve more clarity and more honesty. I swear, when the sellers' fees were raised in the past, I didn't feel as bad as I feel now about the whole clearance period implementation tale. I lost my appetite to operate in PPH and there are many here like me who will shift their business elsewhere. It’s painful and sad but reality bites sometimes and we need to learn to cope with it and take actions accordingly... (i.e. Move yourselves to other platforms)
-
I had just contacted their support team to know when exactly they will ALLOW me to withdraw my money. They said today, I will be able to do so. And further I asked what is this all about, and this was their response, just FYI,
"Every payment you will receive will go under the Clearing period yes, however the days the clearing period lasts depends on the earnings you had the previous 2 months and it is divided in 3 tiers:
Over 6000 GBP in the past 2 months: 3 days
Between 2000 and 6000 GBP in the past 2 months: 7 days
Under 2000 GBP in the past 2 months: 14 days
So it will not always be 14 days."
And I am wondering if its only me thinking that there is no logic and honest reasoning behind such rules.
-
@Gadi, ALL.
You've put it nicely, Gad. That said, this is what, as you've already read, something each and everyone who has commented so far has shared in their own way. That said, PPH has shown to everyone here a dark side of freelancing all of us must have known, if not when we joined or started freelancing anywhere, then at some other point: freelancing platforms is a new form of plantations as in US South. When the crop yield is good, slaves receive a more lenient treatment. But when there is a crackdown on slavery (as in The East Coast's/North's proposition to abolish slavery) or when the economy is bad (as when the East Coast/North take the lead in industrialization and economic progress), slaves receive what you've seen a taste of over the years and only very recently in this payment clearance policy a utter disregard to the fact that slaves (aka freelancers) are also people, not machines (or as in US South, bulls dragging plows) churning out money for PPH and only condescendingly to slaves.
I believe at this point many of you, freelancers, can now connect the dots better and see the connection between old plantation slavery and "Top Talent" slavery. Unless you're a capitalist (and that's no leftist or socialist idea I'm floating here but that's what I think you could see happening here), everyone else is just part of a "global labor force" making a living, however and whatever he thinks he is a "white collar."
Right?
-
PPH could have done this so differently.
I suspect that most of us would have grumbled about but tolerated a blanket 3 day clearing period across all payments, regardless of level. The insulting 'rewarding loyalty' comment from PPH about the speedy top tier payment clearance was actually rather telling, suggesting that they could actually have just kept it at 3 days to start with. Maybe it's their fall back position?
Unfortunately, the lack of a constructive and reactive response makes me think they've left it too late and potentially fatal damage has been done. I have now set up on two alternative platforms and I'm only keeping my PPH account faintly simmering, in the forlorn hope of a phoenix like recovery.
Luckily, PPH accounts for just a small part of my work, but I really do feel for those who have focused their energy solely on PPH over other platforms/revenue streams etc, and built up a good cert and reputation on the site. For them, this will seem like starting over and that is never easy.
-
Gadi,
Good point of view. This stuff of the clearing, the safety payments, about caring us, innocent workers from the possible malicious employers is a big bull****t. Yes, just BS. Lies and misery. They simply want more money by keeping the founds for more days and receiving more interests from the bank(s).
Thank God I have a lot of good work within Upwork and believe me, I don't care about the bad a***s who planned this crap are doing a hard life for a lot of colleagues. In some moment their Karma will act. This never fails.
Have a great day all of you and blessings.
-
@VoiceoverPaul, ALL.
That's the way freelancing and actually life works. So, given our collective experience here, I believe here are five commandments I'd love to share with you:
1. Never Have One Employer. You may never know when your employer will turn against you.
2. Never Have One Partner. You may never know when your partner might cheat on you (it's just a matter of time).
3. Never Have One Friend. You may never know you've always been with your arch enemy.
4. Never Have One Life. Spies, mad people, deviants and many more give us alternative ways of life.
5. Never Have One Style. You may never know when your partner, companion or employer changes his style. Then, you'd be out of company.
-
@Florin, ALL
I'm in tears (just joking). I'm wondering why do you still use contracted/censored forms like "bull****t" and "a***s"?
As far as I can see, this is not public TV. It's not a platform, or a thread, anyone has shown any kind of respect to PPH, either. So, why would not you call a spade a spade?
Is it manners, Florin? I'm asking seriously.
-
@Florin
Well, this is self-censorship, then. Hmmm. It's of course up to you to write anyway you want. But what's the point of using this form of writing when everyone knows what you mean? Plus, on some platforms, an * cannot be read properly, so you might end up having a jumble of inexplicable signs and characters. After all you're talking to humans and as far as I can see no one is a spy here (unless outed) or is using a different language other than English. So, why do not we stick to "proper English" Florin?
(I've stopped using these abbreviated forms in early internet days when, for example, your "LOL" used to be a secret word only people in late 1990s or early 2000s could tell tell what it's all about. (In hindsight, "Lots of Laughs," (="LOL") seems now weird because at least me do not know what your "lots of laughs" are actually or how many they are if I could count, let alone "measure how you laugh. You see? Better use plain English, please.)
-
@Florin.
Here is, for example, one way you could share your amusement (instead of "LOL"): 😂 (You see? Emojis, despite not an option on PPH messaging boards, is still a reality off PPH.
Here is an emojipedia of laughter on different platforms and apps, Florin:
https://emojipedia.org/face-with-tears-of-joy/
That said, please let me know if you need any fix to your emoji-sharing habits and, of course, about your self-censorship. After all, I'm here to help. Count me as Mother Teresa on PPH. Respect.
-
@VoiceoverPaul, ALL.
Oh, we are losing "The Voice of Wisdom." God bless you, Paul. We, or at least me, will miss so much your few but extremely important interventions to introduce some wisdom to a thread now going beyond an original aim. (Any tears needed for this "Good luck"? I'm asking because I'm not good at goodbyes. So, I need to know what I should do, especially that someone else here offered hugs. I just do not want to hug the wrong person or say goodbye to someone who is not leaving. Appreciate you let me know about manners and protocols, if I may say, of leaving (and hugging).
You'll be missed, Paul. A sigh.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
702 comments