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Author Topic: I'm locked out of Fotolia but earnings are not paid out  (Read 18772 times)

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ela

« on: May 28, 2010, 15:04 »
0
Hi all, i decided to tell my story, maybe it will help others to be careful with agency who does not respect their contributors.
I have been selling my pictures at Fotolia for a few years, earned bronze tan, everything was fine, untill the droped earnings from sales. Then i decided to stick with another agency, i gave more than 100 pictures for free to Fotolia, deleted all exlusive images and decided to ask my payment as im done with Fotolia. I wrote to support and got an answer telling me to hang with them for a month and i will receive more money, but they cant tell the details yet, they said wait and you will see. Ok so i waited few months - nothing. I contacted support again and asked if i will receive the extra money they promised and if not - i would like to receive money i have earned. They asked me where i want to receive my money, i answered them where i want to receive my money.
I waited few days and then tried to log into my account, guess what - My Account Was Deleted.
I created new account and asked again what . is goin on, explained the situation.
After long conversation and explainings all they could tell me is - we are sorry your account is deleted and cant be restored. I contacted again and again, at least asked them to pay me my earned money!
The answer im receiving is - we have already answered your question...

Im completely disapointed, where do i stand in this situation? I have lost over hundreed pictures i gave them for free and the money i have earned, they havent payed, nothing..
i feel like a trash honestly, been faithful for Fotolia for years and now that.. If anybody from Fotolia member could contact me i would be very grateful, as for some reason im unable to post on Fotolia forum like they are afraid im gonna tell others about this story :'(

Erika
« Last Edit: May 29, 2010, 03:02 by ela »


« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2010, 15:24 »
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I can't believe they acted like that?!  ???
I hope someone will show up here to explain the situation, which is VERY embarrassing for Fotolia.

I'm quite happy with them so your story really leaves a bad taste in the mouth  :-\
I'm so sorry for you.
FT staff needs to give a valid explanation and just pay you what they owe you.

« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2010, 16:25 »
0
Erika,

I'm very sorry to hear about your problems with that - Ft isn't good at all dealing with us members.

Just one point however, as this was brought up earlier by a colleague who also left FT to be exclusive elsewhere: those free photos, were those FT paid 0.50 credits in exchange of having them in the free collection?  Because I believe you need to buy them back to have them removed from FT as well, and I believe you can not be exclusive if you still have any free images in FT.

« Reply #3 on: May 28, 2010, 16:32 »
0
I closed my account a couple of weeks ago.  At least, I think I did - I never got an actual acknowledgement, and haven't received the few dollars that were left in the account.  My login stopped working, and as far as I can see - by keyword searching - my files are no longer online, so maybe I've successfully walked away from this creepy operation. 

ela

« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2010, 16:39 »
0
Thank you guys for the replies, its good to know that somebody understands me..

Yes i earned the credits from free images, but i also earned from normal images, so at least they could have payed me for that. And i dont understand why they promised me to give me extra money if i will wait few months, and then just delete me. Anyway, after they kicked me out, i signed exlusive with DT, and things are goin much better, but its still such a heartache to be treated like this, so thats why i decided to share it with others..

ela

« Reply #5 on: May 28, 2010, 16:47 »
0
at least they could pay you the dollars you have earned Stockastic, we all know that at Fotolia every dollar is hardly earned.

Now when i talked with you guys i feel much better, screw Fotolia, i dont wanna have anything to do with them, i will stop begging them for money i earned, because this whole story really ate my nerves.

donding

  • Think before you speak
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2010, 19:14 »
0
You need to try to get a hold of Chad. Try through the customer support on the main page if you have to. They are suppose to pay you the money owed. From what I understood, Chad said, they will issue 1099's rather you withdrew the money or not. I don't know if this relates to you, but Chad told me they make final payout if you close your account rather it was to the payout limit or not, so keep on them. I just ask to have my account deleted last week and still am waiting for a reply. They withheld taxes on me at the beginning of the year for my screw up, but they HAVE to pay you that money especially if they give you a 1099 or withheld taxes. Otherwise they'll have the IRS on their back.

ela

« Reply #7 on: May 29, 2010, 03:01 »
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i dont know what does it mean 1099..
i remember before all this mess started, long time ago, i asked support if they can delete my photos because to delete one by one is hard, but i havent received replied so i deleted it by myself. Later i received message asking me why i want to close my account, i told them that i do not want to close my account, all i want was to delete photos, but keep my account in case one day i will decide to come back.
anyway, i was thinking, maybe its my fault, maybe i made a mistake somewhere, so at least support could tell me, i was begging many times to solve my problem, or at least give me a few dollars so i will not feel like this, but the only one answer they can tell me is 'we are sorry to hear that'.
Something must be going really wrong with FT.

« Reply #8 on: May 29, 2010, 03:41 »
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Hello Erika,
I would strongly suggest to contact directly Oleg Tscheltzoff. You can find his email in Management section on Fotolia blog ( http://blog.fotolia.com/us/ ).

That was for me best way to solve things so far. They probably processed old request to delete portfolio and overlooked next communication with You. They should do final payment (at least).

Good luck.

« Reply #9 on: May 29, 2010, 06:20 »
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You need to try to get a hold of Chad. Try through the customer support on the main page if you have to. They are suppose to pay you the money owed. From what I understood, Chad said, they will issue 1099's rather you withdrew the money or not. I don't know if this relates to you, but Chad told me they make final payout if you close your account rather it was to the payout limit or not, so keep on them. I just ask to have my account deleted last week and still am waiting for a reply. They withheld taxes on me at the beginning of the year for my screw up, but they HAVE to pay you that money especially if they give you a 1099 or withheld taxes. Otherwise they'll have the IRS on their back.

A 1099 whether you were paid the money or not????  Sorry to be OT but I've having a hard time wrapping my mind around that.

donding

  • Think before you speak
« Reply #10 on: May 29, 2010, 10:50 »
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You need to try to get a hold of Chad. Try through the customer support on the main page if you have to. They are suppose to pay you the money owed. From what I understood, Chad said, they will issue 1099's rather you withdrew the money or not. I don't know if this relates to you, but Chad told me they make final payout if you close your account rather it was to the payout limit or not, so keep on them. I just ask to have my account deleted last week and still am waiting for a reply. They withheld taxes on me at the beginning of the year for my screw up, but they HAVE to pay you that money especially if they give you a 1099 or withheld taxes. Otherwise they'll have the IRS on their back.

A 1099 whether you were paid the money or not????  Sorry to be OT but I've having a hard time wrapping my mind around that.

Ok let me try to explain this. I don't know if you live in the US or not. The conversation I had with Chad had to do with them taking taxes out of my earnings. At the beginning of the year I hadn't filled out the ...I think it's called the W9....saying I was self employed. I told him I had not filled one out the previous year so I didn't think much about it. Of course as everyone knows that changed in 2010. Of course I went back and filled out the W-9. I ask him if he could credit the taxes withheld from my account and he said those taxes had already been paid to the IRS and they could not credit it back to my account. I then ask him about another concern about them withholding taxes when there was the possibility I wouldn't reach payout this year, therefore would not receive the monies and why I would be paying taxes on monies that were not yet received. He told me that they had many conversations with the IRS about this and that was the correct way to do it. I then ask him rather that means I would be getting a W-2 as well as a 1099 for the monies earned after I filled out the W9, even if I had not received the monies and he said yes I would get both. I then ask him how that would be handled if you closed your account and could not collect the monies owed because it was below the payout level. I told him that someone on here had been told that they could not collect the money owed them upon account closure because they had not reached minimum payout. He told me that they pay the monies owed, rather it be at payout level or not upon account closure and said that who ever was told that needed to contact him. That's pretty much a summery of the conversation. So from what Chad said you will get a 1099...at least for the US...so you need to ask for the money. As to rather they can legally withhold taxes on money which an employee, which would mean you if you didn't fill out the W-9, is legal I don't know and rather they can legally issue 1099's without actually paying the money...again I don't know if that is legal, but I would get a hold of Chad and tell him what is going on.

ela

« Reply #11 on: May 29, 2010, 12:47 »
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Thank You Clairev, i will try to contact him.

Speaking about taxes, im not from US, and they took 30% off my final sale, but i filled another form they requested and then they took less.

ela

« Reply #12 on: June 05, 2010, 08:12 »
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thought i will let you know guys, i have contacted Oleg, but no luck, im sure he is very busy person, anyway i guess its over now, now fotolia name sounds like a curse to me :)

« Reply #13 on: June 05, 2010, 09:56 »
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I am new micro person. I follow you on forum and read much bad note on this agency. How many  is true and how many is propaganda by people here wheb talk bout Fotolia,  I  not expert to separate truth / lie.
I am much curious to know what  really Fotolia.  Thk.

lisafx

« Reply #14 on: June 05, 2010, 10:31 »
0
I am new micro person. I follow you on forum and read much bad note on this agency. How many  is true and how many is propaganda by people here wheb talk bout Fotolia,  I  not expert to separate truth / lie.
I am much curious to know what  really Fotolia.  Thk.

All the agencies have their good and bad points, and they all have people who like or don't like them.

This board is not a place for propaganda though.  Most people who share their experiences are telling the truth, at least from their perspective.  I haven't read anyone who is just making up lies about any of the agencies. 

The best way to find out about an agency is to join and judge for yourself :)

BTW, even though some report having a negative experience with Fotolia - if you are non-exclusive and serious about making money in microstock I think they are an important agency to join.  They are consistently my #2 earner.

« Reply #15 on: June 05, 2010, 10:55 »
0
I am new micro person. I follow you on forum and read much bad note on this agency. How many  is true and how many is propaganda by people here wheb talk bout Fotolia,  I  not expert to separate truth / lie.
I am much curious to know what  really Fotolia.  Thk.

All the agencies have their good and bad points, and they all have people who like or don't like them.

This board is not a place for propaganda though.  Most people who share their experiences are telling the truth, at least from their perspective.  I haven't read anyone who is just making up lies about any of the agencies. 

The best way to find out about an agency is to join and judge for yourself :)

BTW, even though some report having a negative experience with Fotolia - if you are non-exclusive and serious about making money in microstock I think they are an important agency to join.  They are consistently my #2 earner.

Thank you for reponse. But what I mean is since Fotolia officials do not come here to make their explanation on negative comments or topics, it is very one sided . If I want make bad call on IStock I go to forum Istock .
I think to be fair to Fotolia, we go to forum Fotolia. Or let Fotolia officials know we have a problem debated here
so they can come give proper respond, so we know it is not one sided accusation.
You understadn point ? Lisafx?

« Reply #16 on: June 05, 2010, 11:15 »
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Well, the helpdesk responses from FT have been arrogant to say the least ( not going to dig them all up here but i remember: "we make changes when and how we like them and you (as contributor) shouldnt worry about it). The posts in the Fotolia forum often  are deleted and there have been reports from people being banned (without payout) because Fotolia didnt like their tone, in their forums or elsewhere.
Lisa is definitely correct saying FT is a good earner; whether you want to work with them is up to you.
I choose NOT to work with an agency who treats there contributors like crap ( Ela's case is yet another perfect example out of many) and still am happy i did.

« Reply #17 on: June 05, 2010, 11:21 »
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But what I mean is since Fotolia officials do not come here to make their explanation on negative comments or topics, it is very one sided . If I want make bad call on IStock I go to forum Istock .
I think to be fair to Fotolia, we go to forum Fotolia. Or let Fotolia officials know we have a problem debated here
so they can come give proper respond, so we know it is not one sided accusation.
You understadn point ? Lisafx?

It's entirely up to FT if they want to come here to defend themselves but nowadays they rarely do so. Complaining on their own forum is unlikely to get you far as your post will probably be ignored/locked/deleted and also get you banned from accessing the forum. The discussion on either forum may be one-sided but in both cases it is due to FT's policy.

« Reply #18 on: June 05, 2010, 11:57 »
0
Thank you for reponse. But what I mean is since Fotolia officials do not come here to make their explanation on negative comments or topics, it is very one sided . If I want make bad call on IStock I go to forum Istock .
I think to be fair to Fotolia, we go to forum Fotolia. Or let Fotolia officials know we have a problem debated here
so they can come give proper respond, so we know it is not one sided accusation.
You understadn point ? Lisafx?

Fotolia is notorious for deleting any threads in their forums that are critical of them in any fashion.  In fact, they are also notorious for deleting accounts when anything negative is said about them.

lisafx

« Reply #19 on: June 05, 2010, 12:31 »
0


Thank you for reponse. But what I mean is since Fotolia officials do not come here to make their explanation on negative comments or topics, it is very one sided . If I want make bad call on IStock I go to forum Istock .
I think to be fair to Fotolia, we go to forum Fotolia. Or let Fotolia officials know we have a problem debated here
so they can come give proper respond, so we know it is not one sided accusation.
You understadn point ? Lisafx?

Yes, I understand your point. 

In addition to what Artemis, Gostwyck, and Dnavarrojr have explained, let me just add that the administrators of the microstock sites, including Fotolia, monitor these forums.  When they feel the need to jump in and say anything, they do. 

You seem to be acting like people are talking about the agencies behind their backs.  What you fail to realize is that this forum is public and it is a valuable resource for the sites to judge how their policies are being received by the contributors.  Not to mention the value of contributors being able to ask questions or make complaints and receive help and advice from fellow contributors. 

If you want to go directly to Fotolia or any other site and ask about their policies, feel free.  What's stopping you?

ela

« Reply #20 on: June 05, 2010, 13:11 »
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btw, i wanted to post this story to fotolia forum but i was not able to do it, not sure why i havent had this option, so my freedom of speech was kinda shut down. so thats why i came here to tell it.

donding

  • Think before you speak
« Reply #21 on: June 07, 2010, 13:31 »
0
ELA ..... you need to contact support. You don't have to be logged in, the link is on the main page. Tell them what has happened and ask them to respond to you via your e-mail. I just closed my account last week and requested payout. They posted back to my account and e-mailed me saying to log in to get the answer. Just like others on here I wasn't able to get the answer because my account was closed. I contacted support on the main page and got the question's answer sent to my private e-mail....so contact customer support through the main page.

Have you even tried???

« Reply #22 on: June 07, 2010, 18:05 »
0
I closed my account a few weeks ago and I've accepted that I'll never see those last few dollars.  I'm not going to email support again and beg them to email me directly instead of posting to a closed accoun, or try to contact "Chad" by friending him on Facebook, or by calling his mother at home while hopping around the room on one foot.  No more hoop-jumping.   I've moved on.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2010, 18:07 by stockastic »

« Reply #23 on: June 07, 2010, 18:48 »
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Hello I am new here and a fellow contributor suggested this site.

Foololia huh? I just quit them and I dont trust them at all. I also could not get on "error 505" not long after I dropped them. I dont trust their reviewers, they are rude and if you ask too much or express your opinion or worse question their rejections of your photos, you might as well quit. And getting paid? Good luck. Seven people I know have so far quit Foololia. I can go on and on but I think you get the message. And to think they have some of your personal information! Not mine. I refused to give it to them UNTIL I would see the cash build. I have to question when a site requires photo Id but wont allow you to black out important numbers that are no way needed to make payment. If you have Paypal you should be set. Tell me why they would need you drivers license number.

Polo
« Last Edit: June 07, 2010, 18:59 by Polo »

ela

« Reply #24 on: June 08, 2010, 03:49 »
0
@donding
jeepers creepers have you even read my posts, of course i did


 

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