Author Topic: Fotolia missing credits? (Read 17798 times)

cdwheatley · « **on:** June 19, 2008, 17:37 »

I had a 100 credit extended license sale today. Checked my stats page and saw that I was credited 37 credits. Went back to the stats page about an hour later and the credits were gone

I emailed support and they said it takes a couple of days?

I have never noticed this before when selling an extended license on fotolia, usually the credits show right away and stay there. Anyone have any ideas or similar experiences?

I was thinking maybe the buyer changed their mind but I am still showing the sale.
I this some new policy that I am not aware of?

madelaide · « **Reply #1 on:** June 19, 2008, 18:23 »

I had an EL earlier this month, and didn't see this problem. I hope this is not a buyer gviing up a purchase - good luck!

Regards,
Adelaide

jsnover · « **Reply #2 on:** June 19, 2008, 18:25 »

I've never had the experience you just did with an extended license, but yesterday I checked stats during the afternoon and as I'd just requested a payout, my balance was small and I made a note of it. A couple of hours later my balance dropped down by a few dollars (I think it was one $2.22 sale). I didn't bother to contact support, but did look to see if I had any site mail about a refund or something of that sort.

Except that you reported something similar I wouldn't have thought anything more about it. It does make you wonder if there's a site glitch of some sort. I have found support to be largely useless in my recent exchanges with them...

I will keep a closer eye on the numbers now though

cascoly · « **Reply #3 on:** June 19, 2008, 18:29 »

my credit balance also dropped by about $1 while 'sold files' stayed the same

cphoto · « **Reply #4 on:** June 19, 2008, 18:30 »

There are reports of disappearing credits on both US and French Fotolia forums.

cdwheatley · « **Reply #5 on:** June 19, 2008, 18:36 »

Right, something going on there. I would not have noticed except it was a big sale. Support gave me a canned response and closed the session

The rest of sales from today are there, just the one missing.

sam100 · « **Reply #6 on:** June 20, 2008, 01:45 »

Hi,

Been happening before, actually several times to me... admins are deniying there is a problem.

http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=5076.msg52800;topicseen#new
http://us.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12307

Very frustrating.
How much money goes into fotolia pockets this way..?..

Patrick H.

PrecariousPosition · « **Reply #7 on:** June 20, 2008, 02:04 »

Great thread.

Now I know I need to watch them like a hawk.

Although I've already gotten the impression that Fotolia shouldn't be trusted any further than I could throw one of thier managers (which, incidentally, I would love to do).

Peter · « **Reply #8 on:** June 20, 2008, 02:26 »

Perhaps the buyer purchased your image, and didnt like it. So he requested money return. It is possible.

sam100 · « **Reply #9 on:** June 20, 2008, 02:31 »

Quote from: Peter on June 20, 2008, 02:26

Perhaps the buyer purchased your image, and didnt like it. So he requested money return. It is possible.

Didn't get a message from refund... and .. wouldn't be quit logical, purchasing a L standard ... then requesting for a 3 credit refund because he only needed an XS license....

Patrick h.

erwinova · « **Reply #10 on:** June 20, 2008, 04:19 »

First I doubt about the problem, I'm sending the message on 05-31-2008:

Dear,

On May 30, I got sold image with ID 7352674 in XS size, my credit increase from 46.98 to 47.33, but after few hour when I refresh my page and found that my credit go back to 46.98.

Please investigate the problem.

best regards,

And I got replay:

We are not sure we understand your request. Our records show the following information for the transaction you made reference:
05-29-2008 12:00:15 pm Photo Sale credit +0.35
Everything seems to be fine.

It happen twice, I forgot the first one.

cphoto · « **Reply #11 on:** June 21, 2008, 00:35 »

Quote from: patrick1958 on June 20, 2008, 01:45

Hi,

Been happening before, actually several times to me... admins are deniying there is a problem.

http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=5076.msg52800;topicseen#new
http://us.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12307

Very frustrating.
How much money goes into fotolia pockets this way..?..

Patrick H.

I'm going to watch it too.

Well say they scrub $1 from each of their 50,000 photographers every months, that's an extra $50,000/month

jsnover · « **Reply #12 on:** June 21, 2008, 02:11 »

It happened again - my sales count just rolled back by one file and my $$ balance by 37 cents (what I get for one XS sale). I have a screen capture of the before and after, and the sold files list for today is unchanged (i.e. no removed entry in that list).

I guess I'll write to support, just so I can say I have, even though it appears that no one else has gotten anywhere with these complaints.

They've got a bug in there somewhere...

cdwheatley · « **Reply #13 on:** June 21, 2008, 02:14 »

Quote from: cphoto on June 21, 2008, 00:35

Quote from: patrick1958 on June 20, 2008, 01:45
Hi,

Been happening before, actually several times to me... admins are deniying there is a problem.

http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=5076.msg52800;topicseen#new
http://us.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12307

Very frustrating.
How much money goes into fotolia pockets this way..?..

Patrick H.

I'm going to watch it too.

Well say they scrub $1 from each of their 50,000 photographers every months, that's an extra $50,000/month

Well... it was $37.00 in my case, kinda obvious. I put in a second email to support and am waiting for a reply. I seriously don't think it is intentional. It has to be a glitch. Maybe they can't figure it out? That would be like committing suicide.

cdwheatley · « **Reply #14 on:** June 21, 2008, 02:16 »

Quote from: jsnover on June 21, 2008, 02:11

It happened again - my sales count just rolled back by one file and my $$ balance by 37 cents (what I get for one XS sale). I have a screen capture of the before and after, and the sold files list for today is unchanged (i.e. no removed entry in that list).

I guess I'll write to support, just so I can say I have, even though it appears that no one else has gotten anywhere with these complaints.

They've got a bug in there somewhere...

Good job on the screen capture

a.k.a.-tom · « **Reply #15 on:** June 21, 2008, 08:33 »

gee, where have I heard all this before? to this day ( couple years later) I have not been given an explanation.

leszek · « **Reply #16 on:** June 21, 2008, 21:10 »

In order to get the bug fixed (or at least generate some healthy interest on the part of the admin to investigate) do not send a report saying that YOUR money disappeared. Instead, tell them that you have been credited with unearned credits (out of Fotolia pocket). I bet this will create a flurry of activity

OTOH, funny how the bugs (if there are really ones present) seem to always hit the photographer...

Beckyabell · « **Reply #17 on:** June 22, 2008, 00:05 »

OTOH

Clue me in.... haven't heard this one yet.

leszek · « **Reply #18 on:** June 22, 2008, 02:34 »

On The Other Hand

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com

jsnover · « **Reply #19 on:** June 22, 2008, 14:36 »

It's been a rather quiet week for sales, so I went through the entire lot 6-15 through 6-22 and compared the sales reported item by item (the page with the tiny thumbnails) with the statistics, and I have the money for 2 sales (total of $1.85) missing from my total. One is the .37 cents I caught via screen capture and the other $1.48 was the money I thought I saw disappear earlier but wasn't sure.

I don't know if it's related to subscription sales as I had one of those on June 17th and one on June 14th, but the money was subtracted from my account on the 21st and 19th.

One interesting, but probably unrelated note: One day I had a sale right before midnight server time - 11:55:56pm. In the satistics report, the sale showed up by count on the correct day, but the money got added to the following day's total. That isn't the issue with the missing sales however, as the week overall is $1.85 short.

If anyone else has anything specific they can point support to, perhaps we can get this fixed and get our money back...

NYTumbleweeds · « **Reply #20 on:** June 22, 2008, 22:42 »

I had the same problem at Fotolia. I have the lowest sales there but when I logged in I found my earnings down to almost zero. I emailed & was told basically all's well, session closed. I opened a new "session" and responded to which I was then told an image was essentially returned, "end of session". It took several tries & new "sessions before they credited most of my missing earnings back.
What is this "image return" policy there??

Thanks!
Kellie

jsnover · « **Reply #21 on:** June 23, 2008, 13:42 »

Chad has replied in another forum and on FT's own forum to say that these disappearing $$ are credits when a fraudulent purchase has been discovered.

http://us.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12307

I guess I don't know what to think or do. I've been contributing to microstock sites for over 3 years and only one other time have I had a purchase reversed because of fraud on the part of a buyer (on SS). I've had two in one week at FT, apparently.

There's no way for me to track or identify these credits, although Chad suggests something might be coming.

cascoly · « **Reply #22 on:** June 23, 2008, 14:22 »

Quote from: jsnover on June 23, 2008, 13:42

I guess I don't know what to think or do. I've been contributing to microstock sites for over 3 years and only one other time have I had a purchase reversed because of fraud on the part of a buyer (on SS). I've had two in one week at FT, apparently.

There's no way for me to track or identify these credits, although Chad suggests something might be coming.

if they can subtract our $, then FT has the info required to be able to notify us of that fact. i can understand fraud & chargebacks, but they need to let us know what's happenng [and NOT in a forum few are likely to visit]

rene · « **Reply #23 on:** June 23, 2008, 15:04 »

I think Chad is not telling the truth. Too many credits disapear, even EL credits. Why someone with stolen credit card bought EL ?
Even if it happend I don't understand why we should give FT money back for stolen images from their site. If like owner of photo store asks Canon refund for a camera stolen from his shop.

sam100 · « **Reply #24 on:** June 23, 2008, 15:12 »

In my case it was not fraude...
A XL sale, 1.48 credits only gave me 0,37 credits...
The previous times just the same... not the correct amount added to my credits amount.

Chad's answer doesn't explain the problem i'm seeing too often.

Patrick H.

cphoto · « **Reply #25 on:** June 23, 2008, 16:25 »

Quote from: rene on June 23, 2008, 15:04

I think Chad is not telling the truth. Too many credits disapear, even EL credits. Why someone with stolen credit card bought EL ?
Even if it happend I don't understand why we should give FT money back for stolen images from their site. If like owner of photo store asks Canon refund for a camera stolen from his shop.

I find interesting that this issue only seems to happen with FT. I sold more than 40,000 images with other agencies and they never took some credit back because of fraud.

cdwheatley · « **Reply #26 on:** June 23, 2008, 17:23 »

Right! does sound a little fishy. Looks like I am out an EL sale. After my third try with support they gave me the same fraud information that was on the forum. A lot of issues with that site lately. Five more months and I won't have to worry about it.

madelaide · « **Reply #27 on:** June 23, 2008, 20:03 »

I checked my download list vs my statistics, and they match.

It is indeed fishy that such a problem happened only in FT, but not impossible. Unless it continues, it's hard to claim they are cheating.

Regards,
Adelaide

cphoto · « **Reply #28 on:** June 23, 2008, 20:27 »

Quote from: cdwheatley on June 23, 2008, 17:23

Right! does sound a little fishy. Looks like I am out an EL sale. After my third try with support they gave me the same fraud information that was on the forum. A lot of issues with that site lately. Five more months and I won't have to worry about it.

I can't see why someone using a stolen Credit Card would buy an EL. That's kind of stupid.

Seriously if you're stealing images you'd probably try to download as many as you can without getting too much attention...

cdwheatley · « **Reply #29 on:** June 23, 2008, 21:43 »

Quote from: cphoto on June 23, 2008, 20:27

Quote from: cdwheatley on June 23, 2008, 17:23
Right! does sound a little fishy. Looks like I am out an EL sale. After my third try with support they gave me the same fraud information that was on the forum. A lot of issues with that site lately. Five more months and I won't have to worry about it.

I can't see why someone using a stolen Credit Card would buy an EL. That's kind of stupid.

Seriously if you're stealing images you'd probably try to download as many as you can without getting too much attention...

Agree, why would a thief, savvy enough to hack the system go for the max purchase. But its kinda hard to point fingers without actually knowing what is really going on. If in fact someone did return my file or buy it fraudulently, there should be a better system in place to keep us in the loop. Probably a lot of contributers with suspicious minds right now.

jsnover · « **Reply #30 on:** June 23, 2008, 23:24 »

Quote from: patrick1958 on June 23, 2008, 15:12

In my case it was not fraude...
A XL sale, 1.48 credits only gave me 0,37 credits...
The previous times just the same... not the correct amount added to my credits amount.

I'm not sure about this, but is it possible that you're actually getting 1.48 added and 1.11 subtracted for one of these "fradulent sale" reversals?

In your list of sales with the thumbnails (the sold files screen), does it say Credits 4 and Credits earned .37? Or is it just when you add up the day's total that you're 1.11 short of what you should have?

sam100 · « **Reply #31 on:** June 24, 2008, 00:57 »

Quote from: jsnover on June 23, 2008, 23:24

Quote from: patrick1958 on June 23, 2008, 15:12
In my case it was not fraude...
A XL sale, 1.48 credits only gave me 0,37 credits...
The previous times just the same... not the correct amount added to my credits amount.

Or is it just when you add up the day's total that you're 1.11 short of what you should have?

That's what has happened several times. When i started noticing strange total numbers i started keeping data on a spreadsheet from every sales. On several occassions totals don't match. I got suspicious after a payout a few months ago. Had requested a payout, my total credits was deducted and was (if i remember correct) 0,47 credits. That day when i had my first sale my total went to minus (yes negative) -1,01 .... that's when i started monitoring the numbers.

Patrick H.

Peter · « **Reply #32 on:** June 24, 2008, 01:41 »

Chad gave an explanation oabout this on FT forum.

leaf · « **Reply #33 on:** June 25, 2008, 02:07 »

Quote from: Peter on June 24, 2008, 01:41

Chad gave an explanation oabout this on FT forum.

can you link the thread?

fotografer · « **Reply #34 on:** June 25, 2008, 02:25 »

Here's the link http://us.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12307
The post is down near the bottom of the page.

Quote from: leaf on June 25, 2008, 02:07

Quote from: Peter on June 24, 2008, 01:41
Chad gave an explanation oabout this on FT forum.

can you link the thread?

Peter · « **Reply #35 on:** June 25, 2008, 03:06 »

now click My Credits (and there is new feature) - Other credits. You can see declined credits. I have 2 times (didnt even noticed) 2x1.1 credits.

reason: Buyer's credit card declined

leaf · « **Reply #36 on:** June 25, 2008, 03:13 »

Quote from: fotografer on June 25, 2008, 02:25

Here's the link http://us.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12307
The post is down near the bottom of the page.

Quote from: leaf on June 25, 2008, 02:07
Quote from: Peter on June 24, 2008, 01:41
Chad gave an explanation oabout this on FT forum.

can you link the thread?

thanks.

jsnover · « **Reply #37 on:** June 25, 2008, 10:07 »

When I checked my account this morning, FT has now added entries into the My Credits section that indicate a reversal because a buyer's credit card was declined. It then says the date and time of the "Photo buy credit". I'm happy to see that there is now accounting for this that the contributor has access to.

I was somewhat surprised to see the dates of the two original transactions that I had reversals for. One was for March 18th 2008 and the other for May 3, 2008. I then went back through my sold files list to see if it was the same buyer and it was not.

How does it take months to find out about a stolen credit card? I had expected that these would be recent transactions. Is there any point at which my prior earnings can be considered safe - i.e. not subject to a reversal?

Anyone else who had a credit rollback might want to check their own account. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to post the name of the two downloaders in a forum, but if anyone wants to know the names of my two, PM me and I'll pass them along for comparison.

pixelbrat · « **Reply #38 on:** June 25, 2008, 22:05 »

I just went through mine back to Nov. and have 2 sales that were reversed due to declined credit card. On May 9th I had $1.85 removed due to "Buyer's credit card declined" on an original sale date of March 26th. Again, on May 21st, same reason, for an original sale date of April 17th. Both were different people. JSNover, I'm about to PM you so we can compare notes on the names to see if any are the same.

madelaide · « **Reply #39 on:** June 26, 2008, 11:17 »

It may be a stupid question, but from this "declined credit card" issue, does it mean a buyer downloads images before their credit card is approved? So they get our images without paying?

If so, is this the norm in sites?

Regards,
Adelaide

sam100 · « **Reply #40 on:** June 26, 2008, 11:26 »

Quote from: madelaide on June 26, 2008, 11:17

It may be a stupid question, but from this "declined credit card" issue, does it mean a buyer downloads images before their credit card is approved? So they get our images without paying?

If so, is this the norm in sites?

Regards,
Adelaide

I know that if my Visa gets stolen, and i phone to Visa that within the hour the card is blocked world wide.

Patrick H.

fotoKmyst · « **Reply #41 on:** June 26, 2008, 12:26 »

WOW, that's scary (missing credits)...
And bad business practice (allowing credit card fraud).

How do you delete your portfolio from FT?
can you do that? I don't want to stay with FT
to get my images screwed up like this.

HELP advise please how to delete my portfolio

jsnover · « **Reply #42 on:** June 26, 2008, 13:28 »

Quote from: madelaide on June 26, 2008, 11:17

It may be a stupid question, but from this "declined credit card" issue, does it mean a buyer downloads images before their credit card is approved? So they get our images without paying?

I don't operate any merchant sites, but I do a lot of purchases over the internet and generally there's some sort of approval, at least electronically, before my order is accepted. Some sites want the 3 digit code from the back of the credit card. Most want the billing address of the card.

I gather that if a merchant generates a lot of chargebacks (credit charges that are reversed because they were fraudulent) the bank will close their account or charge them higher processing fees. The idea is that the merchant needs to make reasonable attempts when the card isn't present (i.e. no physical card to swipe) that the purchase is legit, and they don't want to deal with those who don't.

As I mentioned before, I have only had one previous reversal because of a declined charge - and it was via one of SS's per-image sales back when they had such things. So either other sites are doing a better job of managing the problem or they're eating the loss and not passing it on to the photographer.

I still find the fact that the charges were so long ago very puzzling. I did post in the Fotolia forum and one other off-site forum that Chad monitors (or has in the past anyway) and no comments or explanations.

Peter · « **Reply #43 on:** June 27, 2008, 02:45 »

Quote from: fotoKmyst on June 26, 2008, 12:26

WOW, that's scary (missing credits)...
And bad business practice (allowing credit card fraud).

How do you delete your portfolio from FT?
can you do that? I don't want to stay with FT
to get my images screwed up like this.

HELP advise please how to delete my portfolio

send a message to FT support and they will close your account for you.

madelaide · « **Reply #44 on:** June 27, 2008, 19:17 »

Quote from: Peter on June 25, 2008, 03:06

now click My Credits (and there is new feature) - Other credits. You can see declined credits.

I checked the past 12 months and saw no red dot. Nice!

Quote from: jsnover on June 26, 2008, 13:28

So either other sites are doing a better job of managing the problem or they're eating the loss and not passing it on to the photographer.

That's what I would expect them to do. If they prefer not to do a verification prior to accepting a payment, we should not be punished.

Regards,
Adelaide

DanP68 · « **Reply #45 on:** July 08, 2008, 23:36 »

I just lost 33 cents for some unknown reason. There is no message that a sale has been returned, or that they "caught another bad guy."

I have a measly 4 sales this month, 2 XS for 70 cents, and 2 Small for $1.40. Yesterday it added up to $2.10 as it should. Today it is down to $1.77.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, has this many issues. Just Fotolia. I don't trust them.

jsnover · « **Reply #46 on:** July 09, 2008, 00:26 »

You won't get a message, but did you check the My Credits section? That's where they implemented the note which will say something like this "Buyer's credit card declined (Photo Buy credit, 03-18-2008 12:08:46 am)" and then there's the amount they are subtracting.

I don't know how quickly the note shows up (as it didn't when my two chargebacks happened and only afterwards did they implement a feature to show the reversals).

Their site is just broken - many small things that don't work (some that have been broken since before V2 and just never got fixed). While the sales were great I didn't mind so much, but in the last couple of weeks they've just plummeted (more than other sites and my 7 day rank is dropping like a large boulder

I think someone's family member must have been hired to write the code and no one can just fire them and get someone who knows what they're doing...

DanP68 · « **Reply #47 on:** July 09, 2008, 01:32 »

I just got the message about 30 minutes ago. "Buyer's credit card declined," and this was for a sale made 4 days ago. I never have this happen anywhere but Fotolia.

Peter · « **Reply #48 on:** July 09, 2008, 02:43 »

me 2. I was deducted -2.2 credits.

Buyer's credit card declined (Photo Buy credit, 05-17-2008 )

rene · « **Reply #49 on:** July 09, 2008, 03:55 »

Quote from: DanP68 on July 09, 2008, 01:32

I just got the message about 30 minutes ago. "Buyer's credit card declined," and this was for a sale made 4 days ago. I never have this happen anywhere but Fotolia.

I sure that others sites have the same problems but they dont rollback our credits. What does Fotolia is not normal. Payment issue is not our (contributors) problem. That's why Fotolia keeps 72-62% of every sale.

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Author Topic: Fotolia missing credits? (Read 17798 times)

jsnover

jsnover

jsnover

jsnover

jsnover

jsnover

fotoKmyst

jsnover

DanP68

jsnover

DanP68

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