MicrostockGroup

So today I get a notice from IS:

"We regret to inform you that a refund has been issued for a purchase of your file #5688410:

client did not want this image.

Regards,
The iStockphoto Team"

Okay, it's only around five dollars, and certainly not the end if the world.
But the thing that bothers me is that the file was downloaded early in the morning and I did not get this notice until late in the afternoon.

Now how do I know that the client is not keeping the file and then asking for a refund?

If the file had been downloaded in error, and immediatly contacted IS, would I not have recieved a more timely message?

Maybe am being too suspicious, because my wife has a habit of buying five or six of the same garment in different colors and then returning all but one or two.

What's to stop a designer from doing something similar?

Funny since I got a similar email today but this one was "customer downloaded the wrong file"

Just curious - how does one provide proof that they deleted it? And wouldn't it be easy to transfer it to another computer before deleting it?

+1

Stock photography is all about selling photos to people who prefer to pay for it instead of stealing it.

If a buyer wants to get a photo for free and don't care about having a valid license for it, paying a license and then asking for a refund is definitively not the safest and most efficient way to proceed 

The same way, buyers could wonder whether they are purchasing a license from the actual copyright holder of a photo: they need to trust the photographer on that point as you need to trust the buyer here.

Valid point, and I think for the most part, people are honorable. By the same token, I don't wear rose-colored glasses. There are always a few cheaters in the crowd. Just like cheater contributors, there are cheater buyers.

In the four years I have been contributing, I can count on one hand the number of times this has happened to me. I'll take those odds any day! (Hope I just didn't jinx it.) In a horrible economy, I think we can all expect things like this to happen more and more. But it's still stealing, and the bad economy is no excuse, though some are sure using it as one. Including big business. 

They sign the form, or whatever, scan it and upload it.  Or maybe there's an online agreement.

They don't have to ever really delete it if they don't want.  Of course it's the honor system.  iStockgestapo isn't going to raid your house.

I buy photos for my company projects on IS. There have been a few times I've downloaded a file I didn't need or ended up finding a better one so download that one too. It never occurred to me to try to get a refund, I just keep the extra files. If its only a few bucks, who cares?

I returned a file once, but it was just an exchange for a larger size. So, there wasn't any certificate of destruction. I don't know what their policy is, but I assume if you were frequently returning files they might refuse to refund your money.

Maybe companies are cracking down on designers...making them return any photos they didn't use for a project.

That is ridiculous!  Why didn't the client used a comp image first? 

If Istockphoto agrees to make a refund for such a reason, it should not be deducted from the photographer's earnings.