MicrostockGroup

It is nearly September now and we still haven't got the partner program royalties for July. Is it just me or is this much of a delay totally unacceptable?

They get to make interest off our earnings while we sit here and get nothing. Yet nobody seems to be complaining about this. I don't see any reason why they can't pay us the first of every month or at least within the first week. It's not like someone needs to manually go through and total up what everyone made during the month. It is all electronic so they should have all the numbers they need to do payouts as soon as the month ends.

Such a long delay could be grounds for a lawsuit.

And for the record, I didn't opt into the partner program until I went exclusive. So no I'm not taking a measly 25 cents per download.

Exclusives get more than 25 cents.

I agree with you - I think it's hugely unprofessional - but more than that, it does make me question Getty as a whole. What are they up to here? Why just PP - is there more shenanigans going on behind the scenes at other sites we don't know about? 

This topic isn't about whether the PP commission is fair or not. There are lots of other topics talking about that.

And yet you did opt in and have remain opted in. Measly 25 cents, 38 cents or whatever, the whole program was and remains a bad one. From day one when they bought StockXpert and dishonored those people (me included) who opted out yet proceeded to post their photos for sale at Thinkstock anyway. And continue to do so.

You know the saying...put up or shut up.

I was just reading the iStock forum topic about this and was wondering what . is going on there. While I personally don't really care, it is obvious that this can't be just technology. I think there are two main things in the area of PP:

1. They appear to delay the earnings report more and more. Now it seems to hardly hit before the end of month folowing the month for which the earnings are.
2. There appears to be problem with opting-in new files for many months (at least that's what people tell in the IS forums). Their staff aknowledged that it is really the case but that's it.

As I said, this can't be technology that is blocking these two things from being fixed. There must be more to it. I also highly doubt this is just ignorance. It seems that they don't want to fix it and they have a reason for not doing it. What reason?

I aslo feel ashamed by the approach that IS staff takes to these two topics in the forums. They play games with contributors a) pretending that everything is just fine with the PP earning being reported this late and b) bashing anyone that complains about the PP opt-in problem telling them that that is not the topic of the thread. Unethical. In may early days of microstocking I got the impression that IS is the best place with the best staff. It is sad it turned this way.

One thing I don't understand is the fact that StockXpert manages to post the Thinkstock earnings consistently a week earlier than IS does - considering the source is the same 

On a related note: On the StockXpert-forums someone posted a very polite reply from a senior IS director that he got after asking for the missing payments. It really is completely different from the BS you get on the IS forums about the "rare and fleeting beast" and some such - check it out here (big post halfway down the page):

http://www.stockxpert.com/forum/show_messages/28132/2

I wonder why a message like that is not possible on the IS forums - it would go a long way in calming the waves...

Probably will be tomorrow...

The forums seem to have been put in the hands of people who have been ordered to maintain tight censorship, encourage the iStock cult and to project what they imagine to be a super-cool attitude. The result is not entirely happy, or even appropriate, for a serious business. But, of course, for most contributors it isn't a serious business.

Not that I'm in the PP, but when it started, payouts were made around the middle of the month, and now it's the end of the month, with no explanation.

You would think that even iStock/Getty could process a month's worth of partner sales 31 days after the fact.  And you'd be wrong.  They just announced a fsckup in the sales processing that will delay reporting until tomorrow.  I wonder what their excuse will be then.

I would guess that they bothered because it's extra income... Just a guess.

Yeah, well, hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it? Neither do I see a reason for this hostility, nor do i appreciate being called a prostitute...

This is what we/they were promised:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=88699&page=1

Payment structure is similar to SS - at least if your exclusive - they have OD downloads (image packs) now, and I fail to see the difference beween a $0.25 download on SS or Canstock and one in the partner program. Apart from the fact that I have three downloads per month on Canstock and three digit figures in the partner program, that is