People Per Hour Review: Update

It's been over a year since I joined People Per Hour. When I initially reviewed the site I offered a mixed bag but came to the conclusion that, on the whole, it was worth it.

I've changed my mind.

Use the site with caution - people are whoring themselves out for as little as £6/hour. When I've complained about this do you know what PPH said? "We are a global platform, some people will charge what is reflected in their country".

Ummm... isn't that what sweatshops do?

Anyway, that is clearly a LIE. If they *were* a global platform they wouldn't need to send me tweets like this:

I'm pretty sure that globally, somewhere, someone is awake and working for PPH.

It's a dastardly, murky world with little gumption as far as I can see.

On £60.00 I earned I only received £49.20. You don't need to be a mathematician to work out that is shocking. In fact, for the £90.00 I've earned via the site this month, I've only actually had £75.80. I would rather give a free hour to the client that have the greedy PPHers take the money. And what are they taking the money for? Pure profit?

Oh, if you ARE a keen maths brain you might notice that actually they are taking MORE than 15%.

I tried to get in touch with them. To contact them it took 4 clicks and poking around the site to find out how to do this - which is dodgy. If a company haven't got a very clean and honest way to contact customer service then they don't offer honest, clean customer service as far as I'm concerned.

I mailed them. How dare they steal a further £1.70! That is really bloody rude, actually. The answer? It's VAT.

YEAH? Then be upfront about it!! Don't provide a patronising "earnings calculator" that doesn't include VAT. What is the bloody point?

This screen shot says is all. In the background you'll see my earnings AFTER they've taken their commission. It very clearly says £49.20. Yet, in the foreground you'll see their "earnings calculator". This tells a different story. The Earnings Calculator is designed, from what I can see, to help you work out what you'll really earn (NET) after you've charged your client. In this instance, I invoiced £60.00 and could expect to get £51.00. Yet, I only got £49.20...

Sorry, I'm seething. Can you tell?

REVIEW UPDATE. On a scale of 1-5 (1* being the worst) I award People Per Hour the following:

Honesty? *
Clarity? *
Site layout? *
Customer Service? *
Value for Money? *
People I've met using the site? *****

Overview: Don't touch them with a bargepole.

I'm off to find something better. Anyone got any suggestions?

British Gas. Again. What *is* it with these people?

I ceased being a British Gas customer on 23rd August. I switched as British Gas were incapable of following simple admin requests.

Here is a picture of the final, final, actual final statement. You can see that the statement
date is the 4th of October. You can see that the statement period is until the 23rd August.

Notice the dreadful maths here too - balance-£156.68, what you paid - £166.68. Hm.  I don't have the energy (pardon the pun) to fight that. They win.

You might wonder then, as indeed I am, why they felt the need to send me this letter dated the 12th October.

Slightly smudged - it was raining, I wasn't crying with frustrating and stress or anything...!

Maybe if British Gas didn't waste so much money sending letters to people who aren't, in fact, their customers then they might not have to raise the price of energy.

Now I begin to question whether they are still treating me like a customer and whether I will get billed for energy already supplied to me by the more admin savvy EDF? Time will tell.

I am living in fuel poverty. Price hike or not, I can't afford to turn on the heating.

How much are British Gas making on the sly?

It doesn't have to be British Gas. In this instance, it is. But it doesn't have to be. All companies get it wrong - every person has a complaint about one company or other. But British Gas has got *everything* wrong.

I moved house. I am a tenant. By definition tenants move. I called British Gas to say "hey, lucky you, you supply the energy to my new rented house. WOO! Please register me as the account holder."

Well, according to their advertising they have heard the term "landlord" before.

This happened AFTER the landlady had called them to request a final bill.* The property had been empty for a while and so she'd taken on the bill. That is fairly normal behaviour in my vast experience.**

Over the course of the next couple of months the following happened over and over again.

1 British Gas write to my landlord at my address with a bill for the energy used since I moved in
2 I call/email/tweet British Gas to pay
3 I can't pay as I am not the account holder
4 I call/email/tweet British Gas to complain

And so, again, and again.

At one point, British Gas - post offering me verbal and empty apologies for their admin error - very kindly and generously passed on my landlords debt (actually mine) to a debt collection agency. Nice people. Only the "debt" had my mobile phone number, my email address and my landlords name attached to it. They couldn't talk to me due to the Data Protection Act. Great.

Eventually I was allowed - after too many phone calls and emails on my part - to pay my bill. I am honest like that and only ever want to pay what I owe.

At this point I switched to EDF Energy. And looked forward to the day when British Gas would leave my life forever.

He is so cute, and all warm in front of clever advertising fire. Who wouldn't want to be green *and* warm?

EDF did everything and I happily set up the Direct Debit and got on with being busy.

Last week I got a bill from British Gas. The maths didn't add up and so I called the complaints team. Again. Just to check. I no longer trusted them to get the admin right and the £51 bill seemed too much energy from August 17th when EDF took over on the 23rd!

I spoke to a lovely man at British Gas. Oh, by the way, everyone I spoke to at British Gas was lovely. It isn't their fault that they don't work for EDF.

EDF did request that British Gas cancel the account and stop supplying energy to my property. British Gas took this request and failed to process it. Sorry? Is there anything that you do do right?

I have requested a full investigation into ALL communication between us and want a full explanation. I doubt that will ever happen. But why should I pay for energy twice?

How much money do British Gas make from unsuspecting customers who aren't going to question them?


*That bill arrived. She paid it. I know this as I actually happen to know her rather well.
**I am 28 and have had 13 addresses. 7 of those as a "bill payer" and tenant responsible for choosing energy suppliers. Therefore, I feel qualified to use 'vast' as my experience status in the land of bill paying and tenanted properties.