Author Topic: FOTOLIA - NOW PAYING LESS THAN 16% !!!!!! (Read 42761 times)

XPTO · « **Reply #25 on:** February 03, 2010, 13:10 »

I think that a good measure against this way of working of FL would be if we could come up with a good mail, stating all the negative actions, wrong-doings and deceptions that FL has been submitting it's contributors, as well the damage they constantly inflict on us and starting to send it to every site, magazine and client using FL images.

Just googling we get a lot of references.

This way they would know that they were collaborating with an agency that is dishonest in the communication, using deception to lower the commissions and exploitive with their contributors.

We are "bombarded" with fair-trade products rightfully showing how multinationals exploit people in poor countries. Well, we're being exploited also so let's show FL costumers the way they operate and present other agencies (like SS and DT for example) that could serve them as well, but use greater respect with their contributors.

This mail should state only factual events so there would be no place for legal action from FL.

I think subversion is the only way to fight people like the FL, since it's impossible to unite microstockers in any organized action.

FL is one of the biggest agencies to me (and I live from stock alone) but I'm tired of getting worried with this crap, when I should be more preoccupied with taking new photos. I don't wish FL to fall but if they don't start respecting us, I don't care if they fall because the buyers will go to other agencies where we all have the same images.

Let the clients of FL know that when they buy an image from this agency they are contributing to people that exploit the good-will (and pockets) of their contributors.

If a photographer leaves it's easily replaced by another, but does the same happens if a client leaves?

I think FL would start listening then...

gostwyck · « **Reply #26 on:** February 03, 2010, 13:18 »

Quote from: photoshow on February 03, 2010, 13:03

Anyone expecting fair and honest business practices in thier dealings with Fotolia has not been paying attention the past four years. They have a long history of self serving business practices that have shown little to no regard to the wlefare of their greatest asset (the contributor) and have always paid full service to their greatest concern (their greed)

Fotolia has always been known to bait and switch at the contributors expense.

True enough Bobby but this one really does take the biscuit. In particular it's the sleight of hand (or 'cut by stealth' as another poster put it) that really grates. When is a 'percentage' not actually a percentage? When it's at Fotolia.

Maybe they're are already gearing up to sell the company and both the slow payments and these further erosions of commissions are intended to boost cash and profitability.

donding · « **Reply #27 on:** February 03, 2010, 13:56 »

Whats really sad and PMO is that pulling my port...I can't collect what they already owe me. I'm still going to pull it and just eat the money..but I am a small fry. Just think of all those contributors that are small frys that don't sell much on there..like me...that pull their ports and FT keep's their small earnings. That is wrong plain and simple. They don't care because they are at the bottom of the barrell anyway and the money they make off these current practices will more that make up for any losses they get from these bottom of the barrel ports plus they get to keep the money on top of it so they are doubling their profits...Man that is so greedy!!!

Pheby · « **Reply #28 on:** February 03, 2010, 14:38 »

Donding - if you haven't reached payout, couldn't you just buy images of your fellow contributors? FT will profit from that also, but at least you'd help someone else or a few people to reach payout. Maybe people who are going to leave there could help eachother in that way.

donding · « **Reply #29 on:** February 03, 2010, 15:05 »

Quote from: stardust on February 03, 2010, 14:38

Donding - if you haven't reached payout, couldn't you just buy images of your fellow contributors? FT will profit from that also, but at least you'd help someone else or a few people to reach payout. Maybe people who are going to leave there could help eachother in that way.

That's proubably what I'll end up doing. I started deleting the old mud covered files first, then someone pointed out that we needed to wait to see what was going to happen then everyone do the same thing after we find out the result. I have a total of 28.856 on there. I don't quite understand if I did make payout how the .856 would be paid. I guess they would have to cut a penny in half for my credit.

Pheby · « **Reply #30 on:** February 03, 2010, 15:13 »

You're right: The .856 wouldn't get paid out to you, you can only convert full whole credits.

Artemis · « **Reply #31 on:** February 03, 2010, 15:42 »

Quote from: donding on February 03, 2010, 15:05

Quote from: stardust on February 03, 2010, 14:38
Donding - if you haven't reached payout, couldn't you just buy images of your fellow contributors? FT will profit from that also, but at least you'd help someone else or a few people to reach payout. Maybe people who are going to leave there could help eachother in that way.
That's proubably what I'll end up doing. I started deleting the old mud covered files first, then someone pointed out that we needed to wait to see what was going to happen then everyone do the same thing after we find out the result. I have a total of 28.856 on there. I don't quite understand if I did make payout how the .856 would be paid. I guess they would have to cut a penny in half for my credit.

I'm in the same process donding. Decided to pull my port; waiting for the payout to hit paypal to delete them all. Now i'm just deleting the older stuff and of course not uploading. I'm pretty keen on getting my stuff out there asap (this one final drop too much really angered me), but if the intentions of a group action after some things are more clear is serious i'll happily wait until then as well.

OM · « **Reply #32 on:** February 03, 2010, 16:29 »

Quote from: gostwyck on February 03, 2010, 13:18

Quote from: photoshow on February 03, 2010, 13:03
Anyone expecting fair and honest business practices in thier dealings with Fotolia has not been paying attention the past four years. They have a long history of self serving business practices that have shown little to no regard to the wlefare of their greatest asset (the contributor) and have always paid full service to their greatest concern (their greed)

Fotolia has always been known to bait and switch at the contributors expense.

True enough Bobby but this one really does take the biscuit. In particular it's the sleight of hand (or 'cut by stealth' as another poster put it) that really grates. When is a 'percentage' not actually a percentage? When it's at Fotolia.

Maybe they're are already gearing up to sell the company and both the slow payments and these further erosions of commissions are intended to boost cash and profitability.

You might just have something there. Standard practice at corporations getting ready to sell.

cathyslife · « **Reply #33 on:** February 03, 2010, 16:56 »

Here's my prediction...their selling to Getty.

madelaide · « **Reply #34 on:** February 03, 2010, 17:02 »

Quote from: gostwyck on February 03, 2010, 12:25

Has anyone noticed what has been missing from this thread (and the others) being highly critical of Fotolia?

Matt Hayward. Normally comes here attempting to do the management's job for them. Maybe he can't bring himself to do it this time.

Yes, I noticed this, but he may be away on vacation, who knows?

I sent a mail to FT support, asking them to talk clearly about the changes, and commenting about what is unfair about it. I don't think they will bother about me, but it is a protest. But do it politely.

sharply_done · « **Reply #35 on:** February 03, 2010, 17:09 »

Quote from: gostwyck on February 03, 2010, 12:25

Has anyone noticed what has been missing from this thread (and the others) being highly critical of Fotolia?

Matt Hayward. Normally comes here attempting to do the management's job for them. Maybe he can't bring himself to do it this time.

Or it may be that he's no longer doing that job, or doesn't have the time - his blog says he's now a manager at the Seattle Hard Rock Cafe.

lisafx · « **Reply #36 on:** February 03, 2010, 17:20 »

Nice gig! Guess we won't be seeing much of him around here.

arquiplay77 · « **Reply #37 on:** February 03, 2010, 17:35 »

I´m a contributor from Spain, and i get paid in dollars from fotolia and from anyother site. I wish 1 credit would be 1 euro though that is not true.

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #38 on:** February 03, 2010, 17:41 »

Quote from: cclapper on February 03, 2010, 16:56

Here's my prediction...their selling to Getty.

If that actually happened it would probably shift all the significant non-exclusives to iStock. And, of course, Getty would asset strip Fotolia and then close it a year later. It could be a very good move for Getty.

tamasvargyasi · « **Reply #39 on:** February 03, 2010, 17:45 »

I`m also from EU, and when I registered to FT 2-3 years ago I got the US $ as currency. And now for europeans there is euro, but FT dosen`t allow me to change my US currency to euros even I`m from europe. It`s a bad management and infrastucture over there at FT.

gostwyck · « **Reply #40 on:** February 03, 2010, 17:46 »

Quote from: arquiplay77 on February 03, 2010, 17:35

I´m a contributor from Spain, and i get paid in dollars from fotolia and from anyother site. I wish 1 credit would be 1 euro though that is not true.

If you live in Spain how come you're not paid in Euros? I see they've got an office/website in your country.

The plot thickens!

gostwyck · « **Reply #41 on:** February 03, 2010, 17:48 »

Quote from: tamasvargyasi on February 03, 2010, 17:45

I`m also from EU, and when I registered to FT 2-3 years ago I got the US $ as currency. And now for europeans there is euro, but FT dosen`t allow me to change my US currency to euros even I`m from europe. It`s a bad management and infrastucture over there at FT.

Getting paid in Euros would be worth nearly 40% more so I wouldn't hold your breath about any changes soon.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #42 on:** February 03, 2010, 17:57 »

Quote from: gostwyck on February 03, 2010, 17:46

Quote from: arquiplay77 on February 03, 2010, 17:35
I´m a contributor from Spain, and i get paid in dollars from fotolia and from anyother site. I wish 1 credit would be 1 euro though that is not true.

If you live in Spain how come you're not paid in Euros? I see they've got an office/website in your country.

The plot thickens!

I seem to remember some old discussions about this. Depending on when someone signed up - and I think in some cases where from (IP address) - FT assigned each contributor a 'home'. In the early days FT had fewer sites.

People had asked in the past to get moved to somewhere more appropriate - generally to get a more favorable exchange rate. AFAIK the answer was always "no". I can see why they wouldn't want someone switching weekly trying to play currency trading games, but if someone moves from the US to Spain, or UK to US, it would seem reasonable to let them switch. Then they get paid in local currency.

Of course, when the Euro was less than the US Dollar, people were happy to be paid in dollars, but these days, not so much

OM · « **Reply #43 on:** February 03, 2010, 18:00 »

Actually i should have twigged long ago that something about Fotolia was not quite as it should be........ it was when Chad Bridewell started posting in forums under THE CHAD.

Anyway, his latest pseudo-apologetic epistle just can't be taken seriously. He advises every contributor to get in touch with support; individually no less. I think that he imagines that UK actually has 'support'. Well take it from me, THE CHAD, it doesn't. When they give advice, it's usually written so that it is incomprehensible even to native speakers and if it can be understood, the advice is probably erroneous anyway. Advice about US ITIN tax was incorrect. Despite repeated emails requesting a hard copy letter on FT notepaper (W7 or something), all anyone got was a worthless email and then stonewalled. The email reply to Warren0909:

"it will have been a technical issue on the £1 - it must have been, while updating our website.
I have no answers for you as far as the other why why why's. We update our website sometimes, we change prices sometimes. We create new products sometimes. Why? Because we decide to Smiley
Kind regards,
Fotolia Team U.K."

is utterly disdainful and unprofessional. Seems like they may have George Bush working for them probably from behind a monitor somewhere in Bengal.

For starters, I'll take advice offered earlier (reversible actions). Stop uploading and cancellation of subs participation. Then I'll wait and see if more drastic action is required.

borg · « **Reply #44 on:** February 03, 2010, 18:06 »

On that topic on FT forum, nobody talks about the difference between the EU,UK i USA which was till now ... Only about a new change in credit price...

But currency problem of different income between contributors from EU-UK-USA still remain...

Phil · « **Reply #45 on:** February 03, 2010, 18:26 »

over half the times I've emailed support (which isnt a lot) they tell me to email chad

(who never bothered to respond to 8 emails over 6 months (they weren't even complaints or anything just questions about my account etc)

madelaide · « **Reply #46 on:** February 03, 2010, 18:31 »

Quote from: borg on February 03, 2010, 18:06

But currency problem of different income between contributors from EU-UK-USA still remain...

This is something old, and explainable in FT's terms. I thonk people should concentrate on one problem at a time, or discussions lose focus.

gostwyck · « **Reply #47 on:** February 03, 2010, 18:44 »

Quote from: madelaide on February 03, 2010, 18:31

This is something old, and explainable in FT's terms. I thonk people should concentrate on one problem at a time, or discussions lose focus.

Not at all. It illustrates perfectly that there is a symptomatic lack of fairness and care from Fotolia regarding it's contributors.

Had an inequality like that developed on any of the more reputable agencies it would have been addressed immediately.

Why should one contributor be paid 40% more/less than another of the same ranking?

Why do you think Fotolia's default currency of $US seems to apply to virtually every contributor outside of Britain and possibly Germany/Denmark. Because it costs them 40% less in payouts maybe? Funny how they're very happy to price the customers in the most appropriate currency though isn't it?

Why are you such an apologist for Fotolia anyway? Are you pimping yourself to take over Mat Hayward's position or something?

OM · « **Reply #48 on:** February 03, 2010, 18:53 »

Quote from: jsnover on February 03, 2010, 17:57

Quote from: gostwyck on February 03, 2010, 17:46
Quote from: arquiplay77 on February 03, 2010, 17:35
I´m a contributor from Spain, and i get paid in dollars from fotolia and from anyother site. I wish 1 credit would be 1 euro though that is not true.

If you live in Spain how come you're not paid in Euros? I see they've got an office/website in your country.

The plot thickens!

I seem to remember some old discussions about this. Depending on when someone signed up - and I think in some cases where from (IP address) - FT assigned each contributor a 'home'. In the early days FT had fewer sites.

People had asked in the past to get moved to somewhere more appropriate - generally to get a more favorable exchange rate. AFAIK the answer was always "no". I can see why they wouldn't want someone switching weekly trying to play currency trading games, but if someone moves from the US to Spain, or UK to US, it would seem reasonable to let them switch. Then they get paid in local currency.

Of course, when the Euro was less than the US Dollar, people were happy to be paid in dollars, but these days, not so much

When I joined 2 years ago, there were a few options: Join US and get paid in USD, join UK and get paid in GBP with 60 pence credits,
join Germany or France sites and be paid in Euro but have to complete registration in either German or French. Now, I live in a eurozone country and if it hadn't been for the language barrier, I would have gladly signed up for Germany to be paid in euros (also missing preypal's 4% commission on currency conversions). So, I chose UK and even at 60 pence credits the currency cross rates at that time meant that there wasn't much difference between payment in € or GBP.
About 8 months after joining UK, FT introduced the EU site for anyone preferring payment in euro but registration in English. At that time the cross rate GBP/euro had gone from 70% to almost parity, making payment in 60 pences to be converted to spendable euro, a very bad deal. FT would not allow transfer of a UK account to a EU account and the only way to achieve that would be to start from scratch: delete the UK portfolio and resubmit images as an EU contributor. I considered this to be too risky, having already suffered the whims of the 'rejectors' in the past!

The only advice I would give to recent members who deem themselves in a disadvantageous position with regard to country/currency is to start afresh. Pull everything from the present location (especially if you don't have too many uploads/sales) and re-submit to the country/site of your choosing.

madelaide · « **Reply #49 on:** February 03, 2010, 19:09 »

Quote from: gostwyck on February 03, 2010, 18:44

Why are you such an apologist for Fotolia anyway? Are you pimping yourself to take over Mat Hayward's position or something?

Don't be ridiculous, gotwyck. Just because I don't agree with some of the whiners, it doesn't mean I am on FT's side.

And read OM's post. I don't think there is any conspiracy on FT's currency calculations. It's just the most convenient for them.

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Author Topic: FOTOLIA - NOW PAYING LESS THAN 16% !!!!!! (Read 42761 times)

XPTO

gostwyck

donding

Pheby

donding

Pheby

Artemis

OM

cathyslife

madelaide

sharply_done

lisafx

arquiplay77

BaldricksTrousers

tamasvargyasi

gostwyck

gostwyck

Jo Ann Snover

OM

borg

Phil

madelaide

gostwyck

OM

madelaide

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