Try emailing them.

FT will block and terminate accounts for any reason or no reason without paying you what's due.  Been there, done that.  Moving on.

the picture posted by the OP says to call to solve the problem. So have you called to find out how to solve the problem? Can you even get through to someone? Have you tried reaching out to Mat Hayward? Maybe he can help you sort it out.

Not doubting anything anyone is saying...a couple of months ago I reinstated my account and have been re-uploading my port, so I would like to keep in touch with what is happening and why. 

I've been trying all the ways I can, they told me there is a suspicious account activity on my account, Someone randomly buys my images I don't know who is that. and the second problem is I have purchased images For myself, it's actually happening in the beginning of my stock program to check my images are ready for sale, at That time I have no sales and views and I don't know it was a problem, I explained all about this to Fotolia And tell them to cancel the self purchased credits, but I think they don't even think about this to resolve The problem. Now I realize that my account is blocked for a long time like other contributors and my credits is just a dream

If buying your own images is against their terms, then doing so would cause your account to be blocked. So it sounds like they didnt block it for no reason at all, they actually have a couple of reasons. unfortunately, ignorance isnt a defense when it comes to legalities.

What you did is against the rules. Therefore they blocked your account. You can try to call them and explain what happened and maybe they will give you a second chance. But i doubt it. Sending email to the support won't do much cuz they will just refer you that you broke they rules and therefore your account is locked.

Whether he broke the rules or not, FT did not extend any business courtesy to inform the OP of their actions/decisions. That's Sh!tty business practices, period.

They stated in their "Upload Agreement"

"We may terminate this Agreement or remove any Work or suspend your account without prior notice. In the event of your breach of the terms this Agreement or as part of our investigation for fraudulent or illegal activities or in response to law enforcement requests, we will notify you prior to terminating your account. We will have no payment obligation to you if we terminate the Agreement for cause. You may terminate this Agreement at any time upon at least 3-month notice to us in a manner that we prescribed on our Website. We may deny the uploading of any Work our Website."

However i do agree that they should explain him why they blocked his account. That's why i advised OP to call them rather than sending email.

You are missing the point. "Prior written notice" does not constitute "informing" the OP after the fact that they indeed closed his account. You would expect that any company would send you a notification that they closed your account, mainly to begin the dialog as to why. Instead FOTOLIA closes your account without prior written notice then does not complete the loop by letting you know they actually did that. There have been cases reported in past years where they did this and the artist was correct - FT wrong. Instead they choose to leave you hung out to dry without any way of

1. Being informed that your account is closed
2. Defending/explaining your position for further consideration to reopen your account.

Seriously, you have to log in to see that your account is closed is a bullish!t way of conducting business. At least send the artist a notification that their account is closed to allow them to rebut the reasons why, if warranted.

FT did explain to the OP why his account was blocked. He posted the conversation above. He downloaded his own images, which is against the terms. As well as some other problem going on.


The terms you posted Sandbox do seem a little contradictory, but i would think that by now, everyone pretty much should know "their game, their rules." Do something wrong, dont be surprised if you get blocked, simple as that.

Yes but I believe that the OP is saying he tried to log into his account and 'discovered' that it was closed and the explanation came later when he emailed them.

Its their rules. I know what you guys think and i agree, its not fair and yes their rules sound kinda contradictory, but i guess they just want to be able to terminate anyone anytime without or with explanations depends on the situation. But in this case, where he downloaded his own images its very clear why its happening.

 If i understood correctly his account is just "blocked" its not terminated yet, so OP have so some talk to do with fotolia and then they will decide what will happen next.

On the other hand fotolia have internal "message" system where you are receiving messages about your approved images and your sold files etc. There should be message about this matter as well, and i think and i'm 90% sure that OP received email regarding this issue.  Jinesh Gopi please correct me if i'm wrong.

I have no email alert about this problem am actually sending a message to the support team to know about this. This is all happened in the time of payment request, they decided to block my account after two months of payment processing. Now it's just blocking thanks for the kindness, and they told me the investigation is going on, I don't know what is next