PeoplePerHour (PPH) Worst Freelance company support, Complete SCAM

Hi all,
During surfing the internet I found peopleperhour.com. I really got impressed with site design and all other features. So I decided to give a shot, I signed up and completed my profile with original profile pic, provided my other freelancing work profile, certificates about SEO internet knowledge and personal phone number. But not my actual full name because I wanted to use my brand name which I usually use on all other freelancing portals. A day after my profile was live.

They have paid featuring service which cost $14.95. So, I created my two hourlie (services) and spent $15 each on it. My service got was listed only 2-3 hours maximum on the first page then it dropped to 4-5th page. I was very disappointed only 30-50 views while paid "featured" in a week. I had not made any sale in during paid feature. After a week when paid feature was over I get a hourlie sell out for $10. I completed my job and buyer was happy with my service and gave me an another order. So, I was quite happy I made my first two sales.

BUT (The turning point)

I added my Paypal to their withdrawal page, the PPH redirected me to Paypal asked to share my name/contact info by sign in to Paypal via PPH application. In the next second, my full information is on pph dashboard but still my payment option was pending?? They were asking for Paypal statement.
I contact to their customer support asking why my payment is pending. Their reply surprised me, they were asking for my Government issued ID, utility bill or Bank Statement !! to verify my identity. I was surprised why thy were asking my personal id to upload on their server?
here conversation mails

I asked them, "I have connected my paypal account with your site and shared all info. asked but still my account is not approved, it shows pending in withdrawal account section."

They replied "All transactions that are processed on Peopleperhour go through our standard security checks.Unfortunately our payments team was unable to verify your account electronically, hence you are unable to make payments on our site. Please login to your PPH account and follow this link in order to upload your documents
1. Personal Identification:
• A copy of a Government issued ID with all information clearly visible (Passport, Driver’s License or National ID Card)
2. Address Verification:
• A copy of a recent utility bill or Bank Statement showing your name and address (less than 3 months old)
3. Source of Payment Verification:
• In case you are withdrawing funds to a Bank Account, PayPal or Skrill, a choice of: 1) a Bank Statement clearly showing..........(please check attached email screenshots)

I asked them why they have not asked me all these verification when I applied to join your site? OR when I was purchasing your paid feature service.

Then I got a quick reply like an automated answer, saying"Please note that your account remains unverified that's why our payments team asked to provide proof. So please provide the requested documents then we will forward it to our payments team and verify your account. Hope this is clear."
I replied them, saying, that "it is not clear, is this computer generator message? I think you have not read my full message. You have not answered my question. I invested $30 in your site and this is your customer service?"

After that they escalate my query to a Senior Advisor

The Senior Advisor was trying to remind me their TOS and security procedure. But has not answered any of my questions. He also included "if you are not willing to provide your documents, unfortunately you won't be able to continue using our platform. In that case, I will consult with the Payments Team, so we arrange that your payment will be sent to the account provided, and then we will move forward and deactivate your account."

I clearly told him that I am not comfortable giving any information apart from a Paypal statement, to a company with only an email address. How a faceless company will handle my confidential data and privacy? Will it be safe? or they will sell to third party sites or something else... PPH doesn't share verified company details publicly, but expecting from others to share personal details, which makes pph untrustworthy.

They could easily verify my ownership via paypal statement (because paypal always verify ownership of users) that's why asking govt id does not make any sense to me.

After uploading paypal statement
I requested them to send my payment to my paypal and please also make sure to delete my all info, pictures, certificates, and paypal statement from your server completely.
after that I got a final email saying he is not here to get in any argument and listed their Terms and Conditions....

It has been over a week but still I've NOT received any Payment from them my account is blocked and they are no replying my email.

I tried to contact through Facebook page, but there they are entertaining with automated FAQS, and now they also blocked me from the page when I tried to contact in the comment box.
YES, they not even asked me "what happen, how we can help you". Nothing, I mean which company does that?

I will advice you all to stay away from them, they are not trustworthy, their support extremely poor.

I apologize for not being word-perfect in English

 

I am using PPH as a freelancer from last 6-7 months. I verified my account providing those documents and so did thousands of other freelancers. They stated this very clearly on their Terms & Conditions. You should've read them before you decided to create an account with them.

 

After a few years and 20000 usd earned they are keeping 400 usd in the escrow for similar stupid reasons:
https://www.facebook.com/dandumitrascudev/posts/1982340955361547