PayPerPost continues to suffer from crippling software development and their relationship with bloggers is suffering badly as a result. I’ve personally had three instances in the last few months where I reserved an op, wrote a post, then during the submission process some technical issue has caused the system to fail. Three different instances, three different bugs, no accountability whatsoever.
In one of the cases I managed to sneak my way in and snatch the op once the system was functioning again. In two of the cases, including today’s issue, I was told “thank you for your ticket” and then notified that it was a software problem and that they’re going to fix it. When I asked about my money in the first case I was told that I would not be paid. In this case I’ve put the question out to them asking what about my money, and I expect the answer will remain the same. I use their system, I work hard, I don’t get paid.
I can handle software problems. I’ve dealt with them before, it’s part of being an early adopter. But this is the first time I’ve dealt with a company that makes mistakes with my hard work, effort and money, and simply absolves themselves of any commitment.
This lack of concern for their community manifested itself last when they altered the definition an English word in their terms of service without notifying anyone at the dictionary companies. They also failed to notify the community about the changes, leaving many to face blanket rejections with no explanation.
Whenever problems arise, the PPP team heads out in full force to defend themselves on various blogs that post about the problems as you can see in the two posts I linked to in the last paragraph. I’d rather see the PPP team work to solve the problems and put significant effort into customer relations. They seem to be falling flat in that area big time.
So why am I still working with them? Well for now they have a monopoly as far as the smaller bloggers are concerned. So long as that monopoly holds, they can continue to treat bloggers poorly and there isn’t a whole lot we can do about it without cutting out a big chunk of income. It’s a very unfortunate situation for us, but it’s given me some extra incentive to work harder and break through to become a bigger blogger. Once I get more traffic, I should be able to draw in ReviewMe advertisers. ReviewMe has far better customer relations at this point in time and is a great alternative for those who have popular, high volume blogs.
So until they lose their monopoly within this segment of the market or I move into another segment of the market, I guess I’m just gong to have to live with the fact that sometimes I just won’t get paid.
PayPerPost
(3 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...
6 responses so far ↓
1 Lavender // May 30, 2007 at 6:08 am
Thank you for your honest account of your experience so far with PPP. I had only recently run across thier ads and was contemplating signing up - I think now I can wait a tad longer. Best of luck with your plan, it sounds like a good strategy. Looking forward to hearing how you go, Cheers!
2 Marc // May 30, 2007 at 9:03 am
Thanks for the vote of confidence Lavender. That’s a great blog you have. The photos are beautiful.
As for whether or not you should wait, I don’t think waiting will make any difference. If you’re going to make the plunge you may as well do it now. Statistically I’m getting paid a bit more than 97% of the time, so it’s not like I’m begin completely screwed. It’s an issue for me since the other programs I use pay me 100% of the time without fail. They never cause me any problems whereas with PPP I seem to be submitting tickets about software problems every other day. When they’re just interface bug it’s not that big a deal, but when it means I don’t get paid, that becomes an escalated issue for me.
3 AIeditor // Jun 18, 2007 at 3:39 pm
I just did a post for a taken Opps & then it told me that all posts have been taken.
It is my second experience.
I sent a support ticket just now.
It is a crap feeling, doing so much but at the end the submission for my post had been disabled.
I feel like swearing so much now!
I do not feel like taking any more Opps at PPP until they assure me that it is fixed!
Do you want to exchange links with my Movie Special blog?
4 Marc // Jun 19, 2007 at 7:31 am
I know the feeling exactly AIeditor. It’s even worse when you find out that they aren’t going to care about your support ticket.
As for the link exchange, I appreciate the offer, but reciprocal linking across PPP sites is not a good idea over the long haul.
5 Harvey // Jul 5, 2007 at 5:36 pm
I had a similar experience with ReviewMe. A technical error happened, which is fine. I emailed tech support, and it took more than 48 hours (or whatever it was) for them to get back to me, by which time the review had expired and been canceled.
I was left with a review that had taken 45 mins to write that they wouldn’t take because of a technical glitch, and I didn’t get paid on this one. I’m not going to cry over a few dollars, and as a developer I know technical bugs happen, but it does leave a sour taste in your mouth.
6 Marc // Jul 5, 2007 at 5:52 pm
That’s why I didn’t complain the first (undocumeneted) time it happened to me
The second time was increasingly irritating. I now have a third case in the ticket system awaiting a response.
I realise stuff happens, but at some point you’re just shafting your partner in business. I think PPP’s crossed that threshold by a significant margin. Perhaps they’ll realise that three instances (which could have easily been four) in a few months is just too much to keep burning people on.