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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What I would like to do, with everyone's support and agreement is wait until we have as many signatures as we can- perhaps a cut off time of Thursday close of play? Then send it to the email address Rachel has suggested, Recorded Delivery to PPH/the founder (can't remember his name), as many press outlets as possible- particularly journalists who have covered the gig economy, the FCA (I know Simon said they aren't interested but worth another shot), IPSE, Citizens Advice, Trading Standards and on social media.
Perhaps we could divide all of that up between us somehow and it would be great to hear of any other organisations people think might be good to send it to.
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P.S Just received this from 'Nick' from PPH customer service in response to me directing him/management to our two threads:
Hello Meri,
I will, of course, mention this thread to the appropriate Team that is handing PPH Community Feedback issues.
Before I do that, I just wanted to clarify that I am not able to guarantee that there will be an answer posted to it nor any timeframe over this.
Thank you,
Nick
PPH Customer Support -
@Meri, ALL. I feel welcomed again! Thank you. I do understand keeping a professional tone is extremely important. It's just this whole situation is surreal. As you can see, PPH is not even responding and all we are talking about here is just "being nice." It's the strategy that needs to be changed, not your beautiful open letter at all. Now if you go up to the post where I mention "Acematiks," you'll see that some extortion is okay when you're dealing with people who are extorting you already every minute. So, here is what I think. Our strategy should be double-thronged: (1) Professional and Decent. This is where Reformers come. You do what you do in your dove style. (2) "Unprofessional" and "Indecent ." This is where Revolutionary (thugs) like myself come in.
So, PPH will negotiate with doves but will have their asses bitten by hawks. This is how negotiation works. If anything, war is another means of diplomacy. And just as in love and war, all weapons should be used. At the end of the day, we all have the same goal: reverting back to the "old" payment method. I just choose the "hard" way and you, Reformers, are going soft. Fine.
Think I've made myself clear. How many people agree to this 2-thronged strategy?
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Great, thanks Rachel. Hoping others can suggest other places to send it to, with an introduction.
Also I am going to have to ask someone to print and send the flipping thing as a) I don't have a printer and b) I cannot afford to post it recorded delivery as all my money is sitting in PPH escrow.
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I do not wish Mohammed's introduction to be added to a letter on my behalf, thank you.
No personal offence, Mohammed, but I feel this is unnecessary attention seeking. Meri's letter is more than adequate as it stands, in fact it is perfect and needs nothing added.
Neither do I wish for a reply back to this. Also unnecessary. I have stated my view. I do not wish PPH to be 'brought to its knees.' Why would I? That's the last thing I want. I am entitled to my opinion. I do not need to justify it or enter into further comment. My signature is for Meri's letter alone.
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Mohamed this is so so obvious. I'm feeling the same, talking to deaf ears. Do not expect anything from the CS, nobody there has the balls to comment this facts but only excuses. They must follow the new traced line and not comment. In fact I tested this "medicine" past month for the first time. I never had been warned about this policy, in fact I received the terms change much later, 2-3 weeks after (and I consider this a lack of ethic because ALWAYS when terms will change must have a previous notification) so I was waiting like a dumb for days, for a week and finally someone came to my with their fairy tale about the new payments condition under the excuse of "protecting" us from frauds etc etc. I confess that I was ashamed for her, I understand that she's only an employee of this business but telling me some lies, this way? Have we lost the decency? Please... Let's be serious and do not treat us like idiots. Everyone knows how the situation turned to bad everywhere on the plane because of the Chinese virus was spread and the fear which mass media and governments are using it for the population control as I belong to the ones who think that's a great mascarade behind this so called "pandemic" situation. All businesses are affected more or less so, if we really are a thinking and moral human race we should HELP EACH OTHER, but not squeeze. Shake our hands to go on and overcome this bad moment. Think about that, as Meri, there are millions of other Meris, Johns, Helens, Michaels who need the daily sustain for their families. This is not the moment to think about make more and more money, no Sir, this is a moment for joining our efforts, all of us, workers and business owners to get ahead and see a shining sun again.
As I said, I'll stay on the other side of the bleachers looking at this show and crossing fingers that someone there, in their peak, will recover the common sense. I'm betting that's still as 50/50.
A great hug and blessings for all of you.
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Hello Meri,
I will, of course, mention this thread to the appropriate Team that is handing PPH Community Feedback issues.
Before I do that, I just wanted to clarify that I am not able to guarantee that there will be an answer posted to it nor any time frame over this.
Thank you,
Nick
PPH Customer Supportin this reply Nick said clearly no guarantee that there will be an answer posted to it nor any time frame over this.
mean totally refuse and he said those team handling PPH Community Feedback issues those did not reply on the 1st thread those cross 100 plus comment
very very sad
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@Rachel, ALL. It's okay, Rachel. No hard feelings. That said, here's how I'm really taking it personal to bring PPH on its knees: my review on Trustpilot (below). I'm actually preparing a LONG LIST of review sites to spread the word about PPH. Within a few days (I promise), PPH will be on almost every review site intended for freelancers. I've got money in escrow. So, let's see if PPH would dare to touch my money, or anyone's money. That'll easily qualify them as outright scammers and fraudsters.
Let PPH BURN. All respect to everyone.
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Meri if we crossed 1000 plus signature they dont responds us because this is not a correct forum where we are trying to raise maybe they are happy for every reply how many us open the forum and check the new reply and they get the money from every click from adsense and they are very happy that we will continue this more and more
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I've not had the time to read through this entire thread, but I've added my name to the signatures post. Suffice to say that there seems to be no coherent or justification for this sudden policy change. As if helping themselves to a quarter of your earnings through this platform wasn't enough, seemingly PPH now need to hang on to the rest for 2-3 weeks. The vague allusion to "protection" and "fraud" as a justification is apposite, but not in the way they presumably intended it to be. Suffice to say that short of an abrupt change of course on this matter, I won't be using PPH for work in future, which is a shame - clients and jobs that I've picked up here in the past have generally been pretty decent.
Not under these terms, though.
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Thanks Sam, your support helps, even if you sadly are forced to work elsewhere.
Just tried commenting about the letter to their Instagram, but the comment wasnt allowed, so they have either blocked comments now, or have set limits...anyone else want to give it a try and see what happens? It might be that you have to be clever with wording....
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@ALL. In addition to Trustpilot, sitejabber is also a review site seen and used my many platforms and freelancers. These are reviews on PPH @ sitejabber (predominantly negative):
https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/peopleperhour.com
This is my review, including a screenshot from my "Payment" page on PPH's new payment clearing policy:
As I promised in an earlier post, I'm spending some "quality" time only for PPH's sake to spread the word about them EVERYWHERE I can.
PPH will me a memory - a bad one - of a platform changing assets and skills of freelancers into a destructive force and liability. I'm putting all my knowledge and experience to bring PPH down. Instead of making money and making PPH profitable, I'm taking it upon myself now to bring PPH on its knees. I've patience and I've done that before with another platform.
What goes around surely comes around, PPH.
Let PPH BURN.
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In addition to Trustpilot and Sitejabber, ScamAdvisor, a site on domain and registration authenticity, is a great option to spread the word about PPH polices and practices.
These are reviews of PPH on ScamAdvisor:
https://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/peopleperhour.com
This is my own review (under "Mohamed Tantawy" in link above):
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I can't see how leaving reviews as an individual will make an iota of difference to...well, anything - they have a ranking of 4.1 based on 4227 reviews. It's a drop in the ocean....I think those of us worrying it will influence potential clients negatively can sleep easy tonight. Viva la revolution.
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@Rachel. Exactly. The main point is not to just spread some reviews here and there but create an impact on customers. Plus, I've just only started and I can clearly see where PPH is ranked positively or not. Now, let me explain it about this "ranking of 4.1 based on 4227 reviews." As I said, ScamAdvisor is about domain and registration matters. So, obviously PPH is ranked rather high. That said, "4.1" is not actually a very high rank, as you think, when it comes to platforms accepting payments such as PPH. So, what my review is doing on Scam Advisor is to draw attention to matters which might escape technical issues. In PPH case, it's policies since policies do not affect a domain name or registration unless they have to do with some site insecurity or vulnerability issues. In short, I'm drawing attention to under-radar issues which go unmonitored and help review sites "correct" or consider" current rankings. Got it, Rachel? I can explain in more technical detail, if you wish to.
@ALL. I'm now taking my efforts to a next level. In addition of writing reviews on sites such as Trustpilot, Sitejabber and ScamAdvisor, I'm going to reach out for established media outlets. Since PPH has the UK as major market, so I'm going to reach out to major newspapers such as The Guardian, The Independent and The Financial Times, etc. and send an email to "News Tip" Departments which, as I did with another platform before, would pick up my story to publish or, if not, I might take the extra step of paying for some content to expose PPH on major freelance and service sites such as CrunchBase and MarketWatch.
You'll just see. Any contributions and help are of course welcome from anyone who wants to help.
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@ALL. As a starter, here is Guardian SecureDrop, a service enabling you to share stories in an anonymous way:
https://www.theguardian.com/securedrop
Those of you who don't give a damn, just as I do, about anonymity, since I have nothing to hide or to be afraid of, can simply submit her or his story to reach out to The Guardian via "Contact Us" page:
https://www.theguardian.com/help/contact-us
One most relevant email address is of The Guardian Editor's: guardian.letters@theguardian.com
I'm now working on a letter to The Guardian, which I'll share with you all and will send a copy of to as many major UK-based major outlets.
@Meri. Do you mind I include a copy of your open letter to The Guardian and to any other media outlet in the UK?
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@ALL. To all of you guys here thinking that individual efforts, let alone "revolutionary" ones, are useless, all I can say is that you need to take a look at this story (below) about academic writing companies (I used to work for many of them before) which, because of individual and collective efforts, are brought to their knees for their fraudulent and abusive polices and practices.
EssayShark, a platform I used to work for, is one platform among many mentioned in a pieced by The New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/us/college-cheating-papers.html
There are so many stories of abuse and clearly PPH is not the first and would not be the last. I'm just too persistent and too patient not to let go and accept to kiss the asses of some scammers.
If you - anyone - accept to be abused and even humiliated to make a living, I do not. What's the whole point of making a living if not made with dignity? Now, for those of you who think "revolution" is rubbish and is such nonsense, I ask you to please show Meri's letter (after her approval, of course) to anyone around you and see what they think. If they - be they are your partners, kids, family or friends - think it's okay to go through what Meri has gone through not just once but possibly many times to get paid for money hard-earned and well-deserved, then I am so ready to stop everything I'm doing and to admit that what I do (and what you characterize as "revolution") is just rubbish (as @Adam said in an earlier post).
I'm asking you all to please read Meri's letter once more with a fresh look and after some discussions we have had so far and to ask yourselves,
"Do I accept to be denied my payment and to literally go beg for money and food for myself and my family when I've money already sitting there in my PPH account but people responsible for managing it do not even care to answer very simple questions?"
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@Meri. Having one or million signatures is irrelevant. It's a matter of principle. Then again, you've seen yourself, you're not alone in this. So, how many people you still want to be abused so anything would change/
I'll continue doing what I'm doing. I do not expect anything from PPH. My only wish is that they try - just try - to touch anyone's money here or come up with yet another lame excuse. If that happens, then it'll be even uglier. I know how to defend what is right.
@All. Asa always, all efforts welcome. I've enough energy and have set my mind to take this issue to as far as it would be. Shortly, I'll share with you my letter to the Editor of The Guardian, which I'll share with as many media outlets as you can possibly think of.
I just believe in what I'm doing. Simple.
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