So, is Pepper Content a real company? – Yes, it isn’t some fake company.
Do Pepper Content pay well? – I was happy with the rate offered.
Does Pepper Content fetch you work? Yes, they did
Does Pepper Content make payments on time as promised? – No
Is there something dubious about the way they operate? – Oh Yes, read on…..
Around August, 2021 I notice one “Aditya” (Last Name not displayed), trying to reach out to me via LinkedIn messenger asking me if I was interested in joining a so called “largest group of content providers in the world”. I didn’t care till I decided after a couple of weeks to see what it was all about. I was then told that someone from the company was trying to reach out to me. This friendly lady assured me that they pick only the best and that there is a test to pass. I was eager now to take this test where you are given three attempts to clear the test with a minimum score of 10.
The test is kind of a sham because you’ll know how AI or some human intervention is certainly used here. The test has 20 questions and there is also a time setting which means there IS a minimum time to complete the test. I thought I nailed it first time and worst case should get 19 0r 18 but when the result was announced (instantly after the test) I was surprised to see I scored an 8. I certainly knew something was amiss. You are then given a second opportunity because the score was less than 10. On the second attempt too, I thought I nailed it. This time I scored a 12. I was Congratulated and was informed that work would come soon. I got a dubious feel about the company the way the test was handled. Other formalities such as Bank details and a formal agreement were all taken digitally.
Work did come soon and it wasn’t difficult though it WAS painful to write on topics I don’t like to write about. Work is done via Google Docs. Your work is reviewed by Editors thrice and after that it is delivered to the client. Based on your time of delivery and accuracy each reviewer rates your work and it is in your interest to do good work to keep ratings up. The sad thing is that you come up with the meat (the most difficult part of the work) and you can watch editors editing (dicing and slicing) your work in real time. These Editors have an easy job now that you have done the most important part of the work. On top of this some or most of these Editors are using Grammarly to correct your work. Didn’t we learn in school that it is “Tom, Dick and Harry”, (note the punctuation). Grammarly will flag this phrase as erroneous and according to Grammarly it should be “Tom, Dick, and Harry” with the comma after Dick, which is WRONG. Pepper content editors will simply accept what Grammarly mentions and will blindly tell you it is wrong too. I know that because this was an error that was flagged by Pepper Content editors as mistakes in my content.
And now for the most important bit, payment. When I joined pepper content I was told that I would be paid in 45 days which means for the work done in September I would be paid at the end of October (it was eligible for the 45 day payment) but in October I received an email where it was promised that the payments would now be paid in 30 days of completion of work. BUT THAT DID NOT HAPPEN. Pepper content paid me “58 days” after submission of final work. I was paid in November for work completed in September. I have clear documents and screenshots of the work submitted and of the payments received. This late payment proved beyond doubt that all those reviews of female students (I recall reading two of them) from colleges in Delhi on Quora claiming that they did 70+ projects for pepper content were all fake.
As for communication they may seem prompt but they can be very cold and can completely shut-off too.
What Pepper Content does not know is that freelancers from India have been working for clients around the world for decades and payments from these clients are super prompt. I did most of my freelancing work with Elance (now UPwork) and some clients even agree to pay upfront for projects (called Escrow Payments) and the payments are released as and when work is completed (25%, 50%, 75% and so on). And here is a company that must be getting payments from clients in a similar fashion and when do they pay you? After 58 days!
I still keep getting intimations about work from Pepper Content but I won’t waste my time on these guys anymore and neither should you.
P.S – On your dashboard there is a setting for “Availability”. Make sure it is disabled if you aren’t looking for work or if are busy with work and cannot take up more assignments. I have a feeling it does work as a criteria for ranking. You will also find miscellaneous and weird figures (though small) appearing for your projects before you are paid.
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