Is anybody else had ever problems with PPH?

[SEO4Success]

In middle of November I registered on People Per Hour with the hope that I can find more work for my company. A week later I found a guy with an eBay store, wanted to get online marketing for his store. I advised him that it won't be easy, I can do only off-site SEO, link building, article submission for him as an eBay store is not something that can be changed in anyway. I also told him that we should work at least 6 month to get results. I offered him that he only has to pay 100 GBP as deposit and when I send the reports about the job was done during the 30 days, he will need to pay the rest.

When the 30 days period ended, I sent my invoice, he refused to pay, because he didn't get any result. This was the first time he said that. Actually he used my service 30 days long then refused to pay. We were changing some emails then he asked a refund from PPH. I immediately contacted them and stated that the work was done according to the proposal and I have right to raise the invoice. At the first time they did not give back the money, but the guy asked for a refund again. Then PPH gave back the deposit. I notified PPH that the case was already reported to the local authorities and kept invoicing the guy, after that they deactivated my account.

I have worked for other freelance sites for years without any problem. When I needed I got help and support from those sites. How could that happen that someone works 30 days long for someone that never complains about the service, then refuse to pay, and the company who took the deposit on behalf of someone else gives back the money? Is it only me who experienced problems with PPH or this is a normal way of their working? I sent out the invoice to the company that operates the eBay store, what else can be done?

 

[fisicx]

Not much you can do about it really. SEO + PPH is a pretty toxic mix and you will get all sorts of dodgy dealers on both sides. Write this one off to experience and don't use PPH to offer SEO services again.

 

[wood1e2]

Hi,

not sure if this will get me into trouble with PPH but I find they only ever work for the person buying the service, never actually for the provider!

And the way that PPH is set up these days, as with 'Fiverr copies' is to drive the price down.

Which is a free and open market.

The trouble is, customer or potential customers then believe they can have a 'full magento e-commerce site for £100'

Or rescued from their 'Manual Notice for £50'

It provides a false market, mainly because of the international element to the providers on the site.

That is why, I only ever bid for things that potential customers are willing to discuss prior to me proposing.

If the potential customer hasn't got the money or believes I should be cheaper, or even worse, cannot enter dialogue and let me explain what they could have/might want/issues surrounding their idea, or how wondeful their idea is...

Then I cannot be bothered to fight for the work.

What I am finding more these days is people have gone cheap and realised they haven't got what they wanted!!!

Anyway, I would put it down to experience, or work out where this customer is and chase him outside of PPH, it won't cost you a huge amount to go to County Court.

As long as you can prove and substantiate what you did, and even if it doesn't get you anywhere, I think it is worth the nuisance value alone!!

PPH have another website, and their business development manager, kept plugging me for ideas...they soon stopped when I told them how much I wanted per hour for my services...So to my mind it shows the sort of people you are dealing with when it comes to PPH themselves.

And this new website is soo Fiverr...Do they not think that Google watches to see which websites are 'offering link buying'!! And not discount it!!!

end of rant

 

[SEO4Success]

Thanks wood1e2. I agree with you. Those freelancer sites especially PPH are to drive down the prices, but this job wasn't that cheap, that is why I took it. I wanted some nice review just to show it to my future customers. Everybody needs to begin somewhere

That is what I am planning to do, take to court the company outside of PPH, but it takes time and even I can proof that he never applied the changes I suggested to him and have all the reports about the tasks I've done, there is still a chance that the judge will decide against me and at the end it will cost me more and more money. :-(

 

[grgzy]

I have ordered many services from PPH, Is what works well is creative such as articles, press releases or graphics.

I have tried to get people to help with applications, software, seo etc but I find most are driving the price down and effecting the quality. I have also had more than one person try to conduct business out of PPH and they ended up either being from india or Ukraine where they claim to be from the UK on the site or just a blatant scammer.

There are some talented people on PPH however do not assume the sellers (or even some buyers I predict) are verified or vetted in anyway.

 

[wood1e2]

I don't think there is any vetting. I do 'well' as I refuse to work for $5 per hour, I am in the UK.

Although a lot of people seem to have bought a lot off hourlies...which is just Fiverr to me. How any of the SEO hourlies that provide 1million friends on facebook and 50 go-zillion back links for $5 are actually affective I don't know....

But people are buying them.

 

[Anonymous PPH user]

I have registered to the forum only to answer to this thread. I think you'll like it.

I have had one job so far (as seller). I wanted to spend my earnings because it's too little to withdraw and don't have plans to grow on PPH. So, I posted a project and got my first proposal as a buyer.

Check this out: The freelancer is new so PPH team thought it is wise to "Guarantee" that I, as a buyer, will not have anything to fear. This is what the "PPH Guarantee" says:
"This Seller is new but carefully curated and verified for their skills by the PeoplePerHour team. As a newbie, the Seller cannot raise a dispute which makes it 100% certain that you get all of your money back in case you decide to ask for a refund."

As to their "carefully verified", it's all bulshit. Nobody verifies.
I was absent from the website for weeks, but for no obvious reason my Cert level, as seller, has gone up since my last visit. (from level 2 to level 3).

I believe anybody can make some money working on PPH, but start slow! They don't offer good protection in case you don't get paid.

April, 2015

 

[Anonymous PPH user]

It's funny that the bidder I mentioned did not seem genuine at all. His proposal was generic and his portfolio is filled with logos that have different styles. On a closer look, I have found that this talented young man has the 1997-2003 NBA Golden State Warriors logo in his portfolio

What a bright kid he must have been, to create a logo for a NBA team in the 90's. Judging by his appearance I would say he was the age of 5 when the creative process took place.

Carefully curated and verified seller's profile:
[PPH website]/freelancer/ramji/sr-web-designer-and-developer/918096

 

[DesignerNick]

It is the buyers that you really have to watch, some of them know how to play the system and will as often as they can.

A lot of people do expect full sites for £10, you will notice they get reposted every so often too.

I think as a seller if you choose your proposals carefully, take a decent deposit and keep all conversion in the timeline you will be fine.

 

[The Resolver]

Apart from these 'guaranteed' transactions, PeoplePerHour T&Cs claim to run a dispute resolution system but in reality it is simply that PPH makes an arbitrary decision (with no arbitration rules or even guidelines to regulate how it does that) . It confuses terminology with phrases that are contradictory to each other:-

"

• PPH may reach out to both parties in order to mediate and try and bring the Dispute to resolution.
• PPH will aim to make a resolution decision on behalf of both parties within seven (7) days"

Making a 'resolution decision' means that it cannot be mediation. It does provide space for the parties to try to resolve between themselves but provides no technology to assist the parties to evaluate their positions or generally to reach such agreement.

eBay and PayPal have proven time over time how vital it is to the success of a trading platform that it has its own DR process to resolve just this type of dispute between members. A published study using member activity from hundreds of thousands of eBay transactions has proven beyond doubt that when you offer a resolution process that sellers participate in, you enjoy greater customer loyalty (and yes, before anyone comments, I know that many people complain about the standard of eBay/PP's resolutions but, given they handle 60 million disputes a year, the 'satisfied' numbers drown them out).

SEO4Sucess's experience and his reaction shows how PPH will fail to gain the level of traction they deserve and such as they would achieve in the long term with an effective internal , but independently managed, DR process. Once the Online Court becomes a reality, many PPH members will opt for that if PPH have nothing to offer them. In a much closer time frame (i.e.January 2016) they are going to face requests from their members buying services not required for business purposes (e.g. designs for personal or social reasons) who seek more than repayment (i.e. consequential damage) to participate in external ODR (Online Dispute Resolution) services through the impact of the European Directive on ADR (assuming that PPH do not breach the associated Regulation on ODR that comes into effect in January 2016 by not providing a link from their site to the European Union's ODR signposting website which will refer buyers to an independent dispute resolution service) . Of course that link will also lead to claims even for the much larger numbers of B2B transactions simply because they will be unaware of the limitation in the legislation to consumer disputes. Having their own DR process would avoid redirection to European Law regulated outside services.