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
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For the first time in the history of People Per Hour, Freelancers outnumber buyers by far - I think for every buyer there are about 15 freelancers now. I don't know the ratio, but the jobs that used to get about 10 proposals now get about 70. Competition is very very high. Back in 2021 and prior, you were seven times more likely to get a job you applied for than you are in 2023. Also, I think back then they had a marketing machine for the site that worked very well, and there were about 4 times as many jobs. I don't think they market the site anymore.
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I think Joseph is right. PPH was good, now I don't even bid anymore. I've had three cases where the buyer put the money in escrow, I did the work. And the client was gone. PPH said ... "sorry" you're SOL. And the jobs seem really low rent. On Guru.com they locked my account after a buyer approved and paid, 30 days later the buyer wanted his money back, so my account was locked. That locked another client's $2,000 deposit, so they contacted me outside Guru.com. I then worked for them directly, for over $14,000. Guru.com eventually closed my account. The lost both a client and a freelancer ... why. Because they are so afraid of chargebacks.
I think the same thing is happening on PPH. Chargebacks cost them so much, that they are holding our pay for 30 days (or two weeks if you're lucky). That's a real turn-off for freelancers. And Upwork is not charging 20% for small jobs. Upwork may be the only winner of these sites. But even they are having issues. Stock is down, and they are recruiting on LinkedIn for new hires - guess even they won't hire from Upwork freelancers.
So I think the whole industry is a mess. Too bad, I really liked PPH. Sad ... :(
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I spent years building a decent profile on here, and flirting with TopCert on occasion depending on how much work I was doing through PPH.
I pop in now five or six times a year to work for one historic client. It's a binfire. What a pity, what a mess. Is anyone actually making a living here any longer (apart from PPH, that is?).
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I still make money regularly off the site but I spend half my time messaging to remove offers that just plagiarise my content which should be done quicker than 7 days. There is a complete lack of interest - made me laugh the other week at they keep promoting freelancers on social media who have not been active in years. Told to raise in an email (never got a response when I did ) a freelancer of the week post was done and surprise no work since 2022. It’s like they don’t care anymore
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I don't think new buyers are coming to this site anymore. Plus, older ones seem to have deserted it.
That means being left with a few one-offs and a lot of scammers and low paying projects. Also there's been a general reduction in work across the board due to impact of cost of living / AI improvements / many things.
PPH have shot themselves in the foot with removing the chat helpline. Waiting more than 7 days for a simple answer is not good enough. Most of the queries on this help forum could be answered simply, but no PPH ask them to raise a ticket.
Adam's right. They don't care any more, which is sad because we all run our own little businesses. We could be a goldmine of information and help to them if they let us. The social media experts alone could publicise PPH far better than PPH do themselves. Just hire us!
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I have been getting more work through PPH recently, especially in the last two months. I had just about given up and had barely had a new project for two years and was only here when historic clients contacted me for repeat work. That had just about been enough to stop my ranking dropping below the middle of Cert 5. I had been doing some entirely different work elsewhere and wasn't looking for new projects anyway.
Over the last 6 months or so I found I was getting direct contacts about fairly sensible projects and then I had a big follow up project that moved me to the top end of Cert 5 and my other work had stopped, so I came back here looking for more. There are very few projects posted, although I have picked up some work that way in the last few weeks.
I suspect there are two things happening. First, a lot of the high end freelancers have left and I am now closer to the front of the queue when work does come in. It is surprising how long I stay on the monthly leaderboard for my field with relatively low earnings. I also think there is more work compared to the last 2 or 3 years. I am seeing UK companies outsourcing data handling and admin automation again, when these had previously disappeared. My concern is that PPH will do their best to drive them away. -
Two big clients that I effectively made a living from pre-pandemic are gone from the site. In fact, they pushed so much work through PPH in the mid-2010s that I suspect a lot of people were earning working solely for one or the other.
The big names and brands have all vanished. That’s a pretty damning vote of no confidence.
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Covid pulled so many people onto the site that PPH exploited the side hustle mentality and ultimately this destroyed freelancing sites. Despite the commission being reduced - the services and marketing are now so shambolic it is hard to see how it will improve. I remember the big tv promotion and digital marketing but this has all stopped. Now we have spam of freelancers who come with a knowledge of Canva and the 'I'll do it' attitude that has just killed the site.
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