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
-
@Meri, ALL.
This response from CS is making me even angrier. This is a damming evidence against PPH that they've been planning it all along and setting up a payment processing procedure with an external supplier without any single piece of communication to let PPH freelance community know what is going on. SHAME. SHAME. SHAME.
The level of dishonesty is beyond imagination.
Now, please Meri, contact CS again, if possible, and ask them to contact their supplier so you can get access to your money because if they say their hands are tied, then you will do it yourself. Please try this. You're not alone and you've my full support. It's a disgrace and I really wish I could do more for you. I'm doing what I'm doing and please reach out for me so I can help in any way. God bless you Meri.
-
@Meri, ALL.
PPH is clearly subcontracting more services so now they'd vindicate themselves of any responsibility. This gives you an idea of what's ahead of you, freelancers. PPH is simply going to withdraw from frontlines and is outsourcing more and more services, so freelancers here might, one day, get an unanticipated notice that PPH no longer exists or has been restructured under new T&Cs and, as such, even "loyal" freelancers might have to start over on any PPH platform might have. How evil!
-
Mohamed- there's no point. I have asked him who all of PPH's suppliers are and who manages their 'external escrow' and if they can point us in the direction of the relevant legislation/regulations, but I don't expect a truthful answer.
At the start of the week I was saying I wanted PPH to work and would continue using the platform but after the response I had yesterday I am continuing to find a way to move beyond PPH and to stop using it. I feel so desperate and demoralised, I may even start to look for an actual job!
-
It isn't a surprise though is it? It's just like the answers we always get if we query policy. They give a carefully worded answer that doesn't actually say anything and imply that it isn't their fault and somebody else has made them do it. When they say the policy has been implemented for "specific reasons" have they ever given a reason? If their hands are tied, who is doing the tying? If it is a result of an actual law, like an Act of Parliament, they would be able to tell us what it is, and we would be able to understand.
They have now decided the money is in escrow, which is new.
-
@Meri, Simon, ALL
There is no question now almost everyone is beyond PPH. Meri, you can still do freelancing, though, but you need to make it a side gig. I've been a freelancer myself for so many years on so many platforms and, as I said, I might be fortunate to have so much in my basket of education, skills, etc. to manage to get jobs online or even from people I might know around. If you're good in writing, then writing gigs could be your thing (plus, as I said, other things to do). I'll follow up with a list of platforms (some of them are for academic writing). I really want t help you Meri - and anyone in a similar situation - as much as I can. That said, I'm ding what I'm doing. I'm not going to leave PPH alone.
-
I don't think anybody here believes that in order to do freelance work they have to work for one of these online platforms and stick with it. These platforms are just a tool for us to use. Unfortunately, some of us have built up a reliance on some of them. I have done some freelance work before PPH existed. In fact I was doing a freelance project 25 years ago, before I was using the internet and it involved actually speaking to people in person. I haven't had much freelance work that hasn't come through PPH at some point in the last 5 years, and I still need to get what I can out of them.
-
@Meri, ALL.
A suggested list of freelancing and academic writing platforms (unlike PPH, these platforms have been around for years and did not have a single issue like PPH always has frequently):
1. Academic Minds: https://www.academicminds.co.uk/
2. Academia-Research: https://www.academia-research.com/
3. EssayShark: https://essayshark.com/
4. Writerbay: https://www.writerbay.com/
5. Workana (Latin America-based freelancing platform; English-speaking freelancers are on high demand and are paid decently): https://www.workana.com/en/
Let me know if you need an "insider's" detail about any of these platforms. All I can assure you of that you do not wait that long (except for Workana) as you wait on PPH to get orders and get paid. The payment arrangements are flexible including one week, 2-weeks and a month.
-
I was looking for any possible new platforms recently and stumbled across one of the big employment agencies (Reed or Indeed, I can't remember which) and they had some jobs for remote working. I've been meaning to go back and look in more detail and possibly register. That could be where some of the projects that have disappeared from PPH are going.
-
@Simon, ALL.
Exactly! That's what I'm saying in excerpt I keep sharing here from my planned a book about freelancing and PPH payment policy. I've also shared a very interesting book on freelancing industry (in a way earlier post) and I'm now sharing it again. I was about to translate it before the pandemic but things have changed. That said, this book is worth reading really. It's on Amazon already with a cheap Kindle copy. Here is the book:
(This snapshot includes a censored part from a post that has not been published.)
-
@Meri, ALL.
I'm back again! My block has been lifted for some reason.
"
@Meri, ALL. Predictably, PPH blocked my access to initial "Open Letter" page/post initiated by Meri. Are you blocked as well there, guys? We can still create a lot of pain for them in this post/thread or in as many posts as we can here or elsewhere. Keep the conversation going."
-
@Florin, ALL.
Sure, Florin, most welcome. This thread has transformed in to something else completely - all the more thrilling. Stay tuned, whether you are a "peace keeper" or a "revolutionary."
@Florin. I mentioned something about hugs in an earlier post. Can I get a response? Thanks.
-
@Florin, ALL.
I've even a funnier story about a customer I once had. He wanted me to do research about using Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) in porn industry. Like in a meme above, I was expecting integrity from the customer but, eh, how would anyone expect a customer asking to do research about porn-related matters? Honestly, I took it as a matter of "pure" research but, reading the fine print later, I got to realize I was working for an a**h**l. I used any "thuggery" skills and I got paid eventually. Now, looking back not just at freelance work but ah how and where and with whom people choose to work could tell you a lot of what they should expect down the road. This is an interesting idea I believe I'll include my planned book as well.
-
@Florin, ALL.
This is a snapshot of my NFT project. Actually, I find sharing some of my work here interesting since it shows in so many subtle ways PPH actually works. Usually, freelancers just share general comments about payments, customers, policies and rarely does anyone get into finer details to see how a platform, not just PPH, having thousands of people doing so many things for just as many people and, in doing so, have so much diversity in experiences. Isn't that just something worth telling in a book or whatever format? That's what I think and that's what I'm doing. Even though I'm still technically on PPH but I consider it just a "memory," as you, Florin, I guess said it is and would soon go away.
-
Unlike some of the posts on this thread, I have no wish to bring PPH to its knees. I simply want it to recognise that it's made a mistake and put things right. Unfortunately the implemented payment changes are already having a negative effect, if my work through PPH is anything to go by:
The week commencing 24th May, I had seven jobs through PPH, w/c 4th July, I had one.Hardly scientific proof of a mass shift away, I know, but it feels significant to me and not surprising. I am actually now getting paid - on average - more quickly for the work I acquire outside of PPH and that is hardly a good advert for the platform...and often with no fees, either.
PPH, you CAN do something to stop this. Reconnect with the many sellers who have helped build your business, work WITH them rather than against them...and you may just be able to turn this around.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
702 comments