Author Topic: Account Cancellation and Restrictive Clauses (Read 9529 times)

bigmac · « **on:** March 07, 2008, 11:57 »

I am fairly new to stock photography and when I first started I tested the water with a few agencies uploading a handful of images to them all before concentrating on the one which worked best for me. Things have worked out reasonably well with that agency and I was planning on going exclusive when possible. In anticipation, I have been attempting to close accounts elsewhere. You know whats coming next....

One agency just wont reply to my account cancellation requests. Two others are insisting that despite a portfolio of only a handful of images, they will implement the clause stipulating that images must remain on their sites for 6 months. With one agency the 6 month rule applies only when you request deletion of images. So, effectively that means I cant go exclusive until September. Extremely galling as the portfolios with those agencies are so small and have only produced one sale in the last 4 months.

As I say, my fault for not reading the small print, but does anyone have any advice?

Pixart · « **Reply #1 on:** March 07, 2008, 12:01 »

Nope, I've heard that most of them will delete a single photo if you have an exclusive sale of a file, but never cancelling an account.

Sometimes the wait can be a good thing. Maybe by September you will fall victim to the latest best match changes at your chosen agency and will see the negative side of exclusivity! (But hopefully not!)

ludesal · « **Reply #2 on:** March 07, 2008, 12:14 »

bigmac, could you tell me which agency wont reply to your account cancellation requests and with which ones, appart from DT, you must leave your images at least 6 months?
I'm asking because I'm planning to be exclusive by the end of the month and I might have missed something...

thanks!

fullvalue · « **Reply #3 on:** March 07, 2008, 13:04 »

To be exclusivef at IS you don't need to cancel your accounts elsewhere, you just can't sell any pictures elsewhere.

sam100 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 07, 2008, 13:30 »

Here is a trick to have your account deleted at the sites you want... buy some credits, download/purchase pictures from those sites.
Then upload them as your own, and as soon as they are accepted start bragging in each forum on how good your pictures are, post excamples... i'm sure someone will find/see his own pictures and report you to support... and eventually your account will be suspended...:-)..

Isn't that a good and very effective methode...lol..

Patrick.

lisafx · « **Reply #5 on:** March 07, 2008, 18:11 »

Quote from: latex on March 07, 2008, 12:14

bigmac, could you tell me which agency wont reply to your account cancellation requests and with which ones, appart from DT, you must leave your images at least 6 months?
I'm asking because I'm planning to be exclusive by the end of the month and I might have missed something...

thanks!

I would like to know this too. I don't ever plan to go exclusive anywhere (although I have uploaded exclusive images to some sites that allow it), but I would sure like to know who just won't respond to the request....

snurder · « **Reply #6 on:** March 07, 2008, 20:10 »

I recently got an account cancelled at Albumo without any hassles. After rereading their terms and seeing that an account coud in theory be cancelled at any time, I just wrote them a polite email, saying I just did not have time to maintain. They never replied to the request, but on random checks of the account, I found that after about 4-5 days my login no longer worked, and all of my blog links promoting my pics showed blank pages.

I was just not happy with the traffic there. As I shoot mainly food, I was dismayed that the top selling food image had 53 downloads in Sept and still had 53 downloads in January. With about 280 images online there, I had one sale for $ .50 in Feb.

My time for micros is limited, and I would really just reather stick with a few select places that are worth my effort. Albumo just became another upload and check chore with little benefit to me.

Karimala · « **Reply #7 on:** March 26, 2008, 02:48 »

Quote from: snurder on March 07, 2008, 20:10

I recently got an account cancelled at Albumo without any hassles. After rereading their terms and seeing that an account coud in theory be cancelled at any time, I just wrote them a polite email, saying I just did not have time to maintain. They never replied to the request, but on random checks of the account, I found that after about 4-5 days my login no longer worked, and all of my blog links promoting my pics showed blank pages.

I was just not happy with the traffic there. As I shoot mainly food, I was dismayed that the top selling food image had 53 downloads in Sept and still had 53 downloads in January. With about 280 images online there, I had one sale for $ .50 in Feb.

My time for micros is limited, and I would really just reather stick with a few select places that are worth my effort. Albumo just became another upload and check chore with little benefit to me.

You're lucky! I tried to cancel my account at Albumo, too, but they replied with a snotty e-mail that said because I am bound by the 400 day rule, they would close my account but leave my images online. They never did close my account.

A fellow contributor and I did some detective work last week on Albumo. We discovered their real address and tracked their "offices" down to an apartment about 10 minutes from where I live. They also registered their LLC through some cheesy legal website instead of dealing directly with the California Secretary of State. I'll be so glad when my 400 days are up. What a waste of time.

fotografer · « **Reply #8 on:** March 26, 2008, 03:27 »

I think that a lot of the time when people complain about Dt not replying it's because the e.mail was never sent. When you send an e.mail to support you have to scroll down to the bottom of the 2nd page that comes up and click on the button to confirm that you want the e.mail sent. I was caught out by that the first couple of times I tried to send e.mails.

null · « **Reply #9 on:** March 26, 2008, 04:14 »

Quote from: Karimala on March 26, 2008, 02:48

A fellow contributor and I did some detective work last week on Albumo. We discovered their real address and tracked their "offices" down to an apartment about 10 minutes from where I live. They also registered their LLC through some cheesy legal website instead of dealing directly with the California Secretary of State. I'll be so glad when my 400 days are up. What a waste of time.

This is rather interesting. Why did they chose the stealth way, if they hadn't anything to hide? Could you put their "real" address and "cheesy" site online, so it's picked up by Google?

yingyang0 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 26, 2008, 18:10 »

Quote from: Karimala on March 26, 2008, 02:48

A fellow contributor and I did some detective work last week on Albumo. We discovered their real address and tracked their "offices" down to an apartment about 10 minutes from where I live. They also registered their LLC through some cheesy legal website instead of dealing directly with the California Secretary of State. I'll be so glad when my 400 days are up. What a waste of time.

It's not really a secret requiring "detective" work (10 second search). If they actually wanted to be stealthy it is very easy to hide the actual owners of a company. The terms of all the contracts clearly say that Home Mines LLC is the company that owns the site. Here is the contact info if anyone is interested.

Address:
4941 Stamas Ln. #3
Fair Oaks, California 95628
United States

phone: 916-967-1301
email: [email protected]

Karimala · « **Reply #11 on:** March 27, 2008, 05:56 »

Quote from: FlemishDreams on March 26, 2008, 04:14

Quote from: Karimala on March 26, 2008, 02:48
A fellow contributor and I did some detective work last week on Albumo. We discovered their real address and tracked their "offices" down to an apartment about 10 minutes from where I live. They also registered their LLC through some cheesy legal website instead of dealing directly with the California Secretary of State. I'll be so glad when my 400 days are up. What a waste of time.

This is rather interesting. Why did they chose the stealth way, if they hadn't anything to hide? Could you put their "real" address and "cheesy" site online, so it's picked up by Google?

The cheesy legal site where they purchased their LLC is http://www.amerilawyer.com/

Quote from: yingyang0 on March 26, 2008, 18:10

It's not really a secret requiring "detective" work (10 second search). If they actually wanted to be stealthy it is very easy to hide the actual owners of a company. The terms of all the contracts clearly say that Home Mines LLC is the company that owns the site. Here is the contact info if anyone is interested.

Address:
4941 Stamas Ln. #3
Fair Oaks, California 95628
United States

phone: 916-967-1301
email: [email protected]

The problem I have had all along with Albumo is they do not provide the contact information on their website itself. We have to track it down, and to me it doesn't matter if it takes only 10 seconds. We shouldn't have to do that period.

I'm really uncomfortable having my images on a site that is run out of someone's apartment, uses a gmail account for its e-mail address and home phone number for its business phone, and uses an online lawyer to become incorporated. That just doesn't spell "professionalism" to me.

Contakt · « **Reply #12 on:** March 27, 2008, 07:00 »

Don't forget Michael Dell started with $700 working out of his front bedroom.

lisafx · « **Reply #13 on:** March 27, 2008, 10:09 »

Yeah, but Michael Dell wasn't asking for you to upload your ID. If all albumo wanted was a credit card it would not be such an issue.

And FWIW they should at least have an e-mail address in connection with their site. Something along the lines of [email protected] would not be too much to expect. Gmail for a professional business? Unheard of.

Gregor909 · « **Reply #14 on:** March 27, 2008, 11:33 »

Quote from: bigmac on March 07, 2008, 11:57

Two others are insisting that despite a portfolio of only a handful of images, they will implement the clause stipulating that images must remain on their sites for 6 months. With one agency the 6 month rule applies only when you request deletion of images.

How about deleting every single image manually?
I know it's a pita if you have a large portfolio, but I don't think you will need 6 months for that.

yingyang0 · « **Reply #15 on:** March 27, 2008, 12:23 »

Quote from: lisafx on March 27, 2008, 10:09

And FWIW they should at least have an e-mail address in connection with their site. Something along the lines of [email protected] would not be too much to expect. Gmail for a professional business? Unheard of.

To be fair the gmail was in connection with the website's registration. The site offers a contact form on the website, and a P.O. Box mailing address. Though, I agree that they should have a support email address in connection with the actual website.

Quote from: Karimala on March 27, 2008, 05:56

Quote from: FlemishDreams on March 26, 2008, 04:14
This is rather interesting. Why did they chose the stealth way, if they hadn't anything to hide? Could you put their "real" address and "cheesy" site online, so it's picked up by Google?

The cheesy legal site where they purchased their LLC is http://www.amerilawyer.com/

@Flemish - they didn't do anything stealthy in regards to corporate registration. Karmala is complaining that the the agent that registered the corporation is an attorney with a solo practice that uses a mediocre website. The company is properly registered using the "real" address.

@Karimala - I don't really understand why it matters how they registered the LLC. The only offending thing to me is that they actually paid the website price when they could have spent just $70 and used the free forms on the SoS website.

PenelopeB · « **Reply #16 on:** March 27, 2008, 13:09 »

Big stock has a 90 day rule for photos accepted as well.

Karimala · « **Reply #17 on:** March 28, 2008, 04:40 »

Quote from: yingyang0 on March 27, 2008, 12:23

Quote from: lisafx on March 27, 2008, 10:09
And FWIW they should at least have an e-mail address in connection with their site. Something along the lines of [email protected] would not be too much to expect. Gmail for a professional business? Unheard of.

To be fair the gmail was in connection with the website's registration. The site offers a contact form on the website, and a P.O. Box mailing address. Though, I agree that they should have a support email address in connection with the actual website.

Quote from: Karimala on March 27, 2008, 05:56
Quote from: FlemishDreams on March 26, 2008, 04:14
This is rather interesting. Why did they chose the stealth way, if they hadn't anything to hide? Could you put their "real" address and "cheesy" site online, so it's picked up by Google?

The cheesy legal site where they purchased their LLC is http://www.amerilawyer.com/

@Flemish - they didn't do anything stealthy in regards to corporate registration. Karmala is complaining that the the agent that registered the corporation is an attorney with a solo practice that uses a mediocre website. The company is properly registered using the "real" address.

@Karimala - I don't really understand why it matters how they registered the LLC. The only offending thing to me is that they actually paid the website price when they could have spent just $70 and used the free forms on the SoS website.

Let's just put it this way. I don't like Albumo. Period. End of story. I don't like how they conduct business. I don't like how they handle customer service issues. I don't like the lack of communication. I don't like how the have two TOS's that say two different things. Etc. etc. etc. When my 400 days is up, I'm gone.

fotoKmyst · « **Reply #18 on:** March 28, 2008, 08:03 »

hi, i just submitted a new posting from someone who got good advice from a retired lawyer,etc.. what to do if they do not respond after the agreed turnaround time, usually 1 business day:
instead of posting it all over again, here's the thread...

http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php/topic,3629.0.html

yingyang0 · « **Reply #19 on:** March 28, 2008, 16:02 »

Quote from: fotoKmyst on March 28, 2008, 08:03

hi, i just submitted a new posting from someone who got good advice from a retired lawyer,etc.. what to do if they do not respond after the agreed turnaround time, usually 1 business day:
instead of posting it all over again, here's the thread...

http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php/topic,3629.0.html

A better way to have the photos taken down would be to have a lawyer write a take down notice under the DMCA. If the website is hosted in the US then by sending the take down notice you are almost guaranteed to have the photos taken down very quickly. (notice that you're going around the actual website and having the ISP where the website is hosted take down the offending images).

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Author Topic: Account Cancellation and Restrictive Clauses (Read 9529 times)

bigmac

Pixart

ludesal

fullvalue

sam100

lisafx

snurder

Karimala

fotografer

null

yingyang0

Karimala

Contakt

lisafx

Gregor909

yingyang0

PenelopeB

Karimala

fotoKmyst

yingyang0

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