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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Florin - My response to you was flagged as "pending approval" (probably because I shared my Fiverr referral link as well, LOL). Just Google "what is Fiverr gig". It's basically the parallel of Offers / Hourliers in PPH.
@ Neal & Simon - I would say main difference between US and UK buyers is about tipping. Based on my rich experience in Fiverr with 400+ orders by Americans and 100+ by British, I can evidently conclude that Americans tip more often and higher than the British buyers. Unfortunately despite years of requests from freelancers and buyers alike to include a tipping system in PPH, none has been developed to date. Another aspect why it could be more profitable in that sense to work in Fiverr rather than in PPH.
Joseph - You should raise to PPH the idea of having cash advance system to help freelancers in your situation who are short in cash. In Fiverr this feature was introduced earlier this year. It is basically giving the freelancer a cash advance (loan) and then the system deduct from your future sales 20% towards repaying the cash advance until it's fully paid. Obviously Fiverr is harvesting profits on this as the cash advance comes with quite a hefty interest rate of 13.6%, however between remaining totally broke vs. paying some interest Fiverr's loan and not dying from hunger, it's better than nothing. Just Google "Fiver Cash Advance" to learn how it works.
PPH - I'm sorry if it sounds as if I'm praising Fiverr in every comment. Although I am still a TOP-CERT seller and I do like also working in PPH, buyers with money nowadays your platform doesn't really contain. I have done nothing wrong and fresh new inquiries just stopped coming in a few months ago, PPH became dry as the desert for me and for many other long-running highly ranked sellers. Now most of my income comes out of Fiverr, their systems seem more enhanced and supply of work is tenfold larger. There is a lot of space for improvement for you PPH. At the highest importance, stop expanding the platform by flooding it with more new freelancers and start working more seriously on bringing in People With Money for your existing People Per Hour.
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Joseph, you got it the other way around. It's better in reality. Before you even earn they give you the cash advance. Then on every future sale you do, they deduct 20% towards paying the given cash advance, and they continue doing so on future sales until the given cash advance is fully paid.
Based on your example, you ask for a cash advance of $300. If afterwards you had a sale of $100, they deduct $20 as the standard sellers fee. 40% out of the remaining $80 would be deducted to cover the payout amount, and this would be deducted in the same manner from any future sales until payout completion. Obviously the payout amount is higher than the cash advance, and that's how they do money in this scheme.
I would like to note that this feature is not available to all sellers and the amount you can receive as a cash advance varies based on your track records and sales.
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I'm really feeling sick after reading some guys justifications of the PPH crap policy. They do not understand that only a very small amount of freelancers could earn +3.000 monthly but the huge bulk, like Meri and a lot as she are suffering because this outstanding abuse, never and ever seen in other web platforms. 20% off, +charge for transference, +charge for currency exchange (which is always lower! than the international rate!! as I have to exchange pounds for dollars) and now 20 days to have the money of YOUR WORK?? Is this or not a huge abuse and usury?? It's disgusting have such "colleagues". This smells as a propaganda, are they maybe on some PPH payroll?
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Hello everyone, hope you have all been keeping well. Is everyone else experiencing a 'low/off season' at the moment? My work has almost completely dried up on PPH, there is almost nothing on the platform in my category...I noticed PPH offering buyers lower fees a while ago and thought maybe they had also noticed there was no work on the platform, but it hasn't improved for me. Would be interested to know if anyone else is experiencing the same? Does anyone know how PPH is marketing the platform to buyers?
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@Neil "Americans clients are rude and very unprofessional."I have found UK clients to be rude in the same way, at times. Because I am an America, I suspect that is why I have gotten clients that ARE professional/not rude. That said, we all know that clients come in all shapes and sizes.I disagree that "Working through the third party is very important in freelancing world." I have found that getting a client to pay me a retainer is the best way to work. They pay, then I work. On PPH we do the work first. Which is OK, if we then get paid right away.
With the current system, the client pays a deposit, then agrees to release our payment. Then we get paid? Oh no! Now the client gets 14 more days to decide if they want to charge-back their credit card payment. And so this is why we are all suffering these long wait times.
For me, using LinkedIn to get clients seems a better bet.
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Eric & Karen
I agree, I also had bad experiences with some UK clients who seemed not to be very interested to rush their payment. This matter is something absurd. I'll explain why: let's say that you need an X product. For example some trousers. Ok, you go to the store, pick up your favorite but it needs some adjustments, they are too large. The store's tailor take your measures and ask you to wait half hour. Well,, he did a good adjustment, you are ready and what now? Could you leave the store without Pay for your buy? Not there, but anywhere else, could someone to pick up an item and go home without paying AT ONCE?? No kidding, this story about clearance, security and other bs it's just an infamous pretext to hold your money as much as possible and gain more bank interests. It's a simple dirty, beggarly game. The whole world is like a big store. Do you need something? Ok, you'll have it but you'll have to pay at once to have it. Do not accept and kneel down when some abuser want to take advantage and disparage from your work. Fight for your rights.
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Eric & Karen - I personally gave up, I get a fresh new inquiry for my long-running "past" good-selling Offer only 2 to 4 times a month. Luckily I had Fiverr as a backup...
There are a LOT of people who send proposals on advertised jobs however so sellers are totally flocking PPH, and most of them are new sellers without a single sale.
Check out this job as an example: https://www.peopleperhour.com/freelance-jobs/design/logo-design/i-need-a-logo-designed-3438836
There are 106 (!) sent proposals. At what point did the buyer started feeling he is being spammed?! LOL, almost a proposal sent for every Dollar the buyer is willing to pay. This is insane.
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I've mostly given up with PPH. That is not a decision I've taken, there just isn't any work for me. I get little bit of repeat work and that is all I use PPH for now. For me, it isn't the payment delays and the poor support that is the problem it goes much deeper than that. I spend more time with Upwork now but that is just more of the same. There are too many freelancers, not enough projects and years of auctioning projects to the lowest bidder has resulted in buyers expecting something for virtually nothing. I'm finding myself having to "apply" for a new job, every time I want another 3 hours of low paid work.
I have dug up some old skills from my past and found alternative work. That came from Indeed. It is not ideal, because it is graduate work paying less than the UK minimum wage, if I actually calculate it as an hourly rate. At least I won't have the constant drain on my time of chasing small projects along with dozens of other freelancers. -
I agree Simon there are more issues than just poor support and payments. (I believe for me I have to deliver work today to guarantee payment for the end of the month). These sites are advocating low wages through an influx of poorly skilled freelancers or people that just want a side hustle. It has had a real domino effect on the industry caused predominantly by the pandemic and greed. This site is not the worst for this - as people like Steven Bartlett promote business models like fiverr which frankly is great if you live in India (or other developing countries) but if your UK based after commission you can't make any living.
I am still working on here but considering going back into employment after 10 years of freelancing. My sales have significantly dropped due to low traffic, people copying my offer (even imitating it) and if the commission returns back to normal next year then it will not be viable to continue.
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The funny thing is if there had been adequate notice (like two or three months) I wouldn't have gotten myself into that kind of situation - I'd have taken measures to shield myself. But due to the suddenness of the whole thing I took drastic steps that have had lasting effects over the months.
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Hi there. All of you are perfectly right. Miserable "artists" are prostituting their work everywhere. For example I saw some great designs in Fiverr offered between $20 - $40! I calculate at least 2 working days work time. In Freelancer there are $150 - $200 projects with bids for $30. There is a group of people who's bids never exceed $50 even for the big projects. This is insane. It's an unfair competition and unfortunately most of buyers are chasing the low prices but not the quality. For me, quality is above everything, I never could sell mt work for coins. With all my respect for all the colleagues everywhere, mostly Indian and Pakistanis freelancers are doing a terrible damage to this office. In PPH existed a good restriction for the fixed price projects bids, nobody could bid -10% of the amount. I always appreciated this. However now, with this dumb payment policy I have months without taking jobs here. I cannot wait for 3 weeks payments. Avarice will destroy this site.
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Seems that some genius there closed this dialog
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The page you were looking for doesn't exist
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Seems like they don't like Joseph's comment.
The post An Open Letter to People Per Hour: Please Comment Below on Payments has a new comment.
Joseph
CHRISTMAS JOKE: A buyer paid me on the 9th. Day 14 was yesterday 23rd. I really needed that money. But PPH are closed from the 24th to the 3rd of Jan. Except that the joke is not funny and has really messed up my Christmas.
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This is just too sad - I can't see why funds cannot be released - banks do it, PayPal does it, and other financial institutions don't hold on to funds for 14 days because of money laundering issues - I don't think other platforms do either once you establish and verify your identity - very odd that PPH seems to think this is a legal requirement they have to adhere to.
Just too awful when it lands people in financial jeopardy - no matter what time of the year!
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I think we all see that, as PPH withholds payment, it's less attractive to good freelancers. Or freelancers that take on smaller projects where they will never make enough on PPH to get paid quickly. And so a lot of bad freelancers, desperate for work will keep bidding. And so clients will continue to see less value in the proposals they receive. I've noticed that the quality of jobs on PPH is swirling the bowl.
So I suspect PPH will continue to go down.
I'm motivated to use Linkedin to prospect. It's working well. Too bad, I liked PPH
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Strange this 14 day period is not mentioned in the FAQ see
It mentions that it can take a maximum of 3 days for the money from the buyer to reach your account but once in you can withdraw. So when the invoice status changes from PENDING to PAID you should be able to withdraw according to PPH own FAQ.
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