Agency Based Discussion > Alamy.com

Payout Alamy - cleared balance

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wordplanet:
When I started with Alamy you needed $250 cleared to be paid so it could be worse ...

The worst thing however are the refunds, especially when you wait months for a sale to clear and then way more than 60 days later the image is refunded, beyond Alamy's stated policy, but you still lose your commission. I've had sales for as much as $250 refunded which is really disappointing when it happens. Those of us who've been with Alamy a long time always hold our breath when those $250-450 sales come in until they actually clear.

Of course these days we are holding our breath to even see any three-figure sales. No idea where PA is going with the agency, but even my views (never mind zooms and sales) have dropped precipitously. Hard to gauge what to expect when the coronavirus hit so shortly after the change in management, so it may be a while before we know.

I have to say whenever I've written to follow up on uncleared funds or other issues, the folks at Alamy have always been polite, even after the change in management, though occasionally on a follow up email I'll get an answer that contradicts the first one.

ShadySue:

--- Quote from: wordplanet on May 20, 2020, 00:28 ---When I started with Alamy you needed $250 cleared to be paid so it could be worse ...

--- End quote ---
Except that the drop to $50 is an indication of the relative state of the market since those headier days.

Android Marvin (formerly mb):
KEEP AWAY FROM ALAMY GANG!!!
Looks like a bunch of gangsters took over Alamy in 2020.
I had cleared amount of 81$ back in february and then it somehow 1 day before the end of month became uncleared, and it was lowered to 32$ without any reason.
Next month cleared amount stuck at 49$ !
1$ below payment threshold.
And it stays like that 3 months more, despite dozens of sales every month, none of them was cleared.
Now it is July and I have 10 times more as an uncleared amount and cleared amount is still on 49$.
I am an Alamy contributor for almost 10 years and never experienced something like this before.
There were some single sales that were stuck for a couple of months but never like this.
For me this is by now an obvious criminal activity but I don't know how to handle this situation.
I sent dozen of emails to them from polite to mad, requesting escalation, even mentioning the police but they just doesn't care.
I've got 1 generic answer in total for 5 months.
Any good advice what to do would be appreciated in this situation.
They are acting like a criminal organization and I think that they need some sort of external investigation.
If anybody knows which institutions are responsible for that based on their location I would appreciate that info.
Some contact link/email of those institutions would be nice.
Thank you.

Firn:

--- Quote from: Android Marvin (formerly mb) on July 03, 2020, 01:32 ---KEEP AWAY FROM ALAMY GANG!!!
Looks like a bunch of gangsters took over Alamy in 2020.
I had cleared amount of 81$ back in february and then it somehow 1 day before the end of month became uncleared, and it was lowered to 32$ without any reason.

--- End quote ---

Look at your sales history, not just the recent, but the whole year. Most likey a customer requested a refund for an image he bought from you a long time ago.

I had that happening to me too (and I know it is a common practice with Alamy) and ended up with a negative balance. After a quick search I found the image used on a website - all with proper credits to Alamy and it had only sold once on Alamy, so I knew that someone had purchased my image from them, actually used it, and then still requested a refund which Alamy grants their customers apparently without any problems and even months after the sale.
I find that business practice very unfair, it has extreme potential for abuse and and it's nothing short of a scam to their contributors.

I was first told by their customer support that they would look into it, then that that the customer had purchased a wrong licence (which he noticed months later?) and I would be re-billed and I would see the money "by the end of the week". Waited for 2 weeks, but nothing, contacted them again, was told I would get the money "soon", 2 months (!) later still nothing, contacted them again, the sale was finally re-billed for a much lower amount, but until today the payment was not cleared. So I never got the money and the image is still being used on that website and has been up there for about 9 months without me being paid for it.

It's one of the multiple reasons why I am not really fond of Alamy as an agency. Yes, refunds should be possile, especially with Alamy's non-existing quality control, but not months after the sale and especially not once the image has actually been used. That's like requesting a refund for a cake I already ate.
I can't even really be happy about sales on Alamy, because I never know whether than money might not be taken away from me again in half a year.

Android Marvin (formerly mb):
1. REFUND IS NOT A PROBLEM
2. SINGLE SALE IS NOT A PROBLEM (LIKE BEFORE) - EVERY SALE IS A PROBLEM
First of all refund is not a problem, it is too small.  Also you obviously didn't read my previous comment from the month of May.  Also I didn't mentioned later that temporary cleared amount of 171$ was back to 49$ again and that pi$$ed me off for real. Since that they are not answering at all. I don't have many refunds so they are easy to trace. For the last 365 days (from July 1st 2019.) there was ONLY ONE refund, and it is visible on my Alamy account balance . Refund was back in February, customer bought an image and a few days later it was refunded and immediately both again for the lower price. Refund in total (sale price) was just 21$. I really don't understand how they get from 81$ of cleared balance to 32$ with that refund. After that every sale except one in last 4 months wasn't cleared. Without any public statement and/or personal answer what is going on it looks absolutely like a GANG job.

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