I'd like to share my experience with Colourbox. I uploaded and keyworded 25 images. I made a sale worth 20 cents, so quite small, but of course I wasn't expecting much with 25 images.

I have a full-time job unrelated to photography and a family, so I don't always have time to dedicate to micro stock, and colourbox fell off my radar for a while.

After a few months, I went to log in again, and although it allowed me to log in, I was redirected to a simple page that said, Thanks for using Colourbox, your profile is now deactivated, good luck elsewhere. I was shocked. I wasn't informed, there was no email telling me this was happening. And what about my 20 cents? Even worse, what if I made more sales in those few months when I wasn't looking, and now they've scampered off with my money?

Amazingly unprofessional, in my opinion. I contacted them about this, asking what had happened. The response I got was, paraphrasing, Yes, I can see that you had 25 images, we have deleted them from our database, your images were not in demand, you would have been disappointed with the sales, anyway, etc. An actual paragraph:

"I am concerned that a relatively small amount of images will be difficult to find for any customer out of +20 mio images. Especially in the areas that are not unique (Buddhas, sunsets etc.). Furthermore, many of the motifs (despite good photo quality) are not so demanded by our customers, and together with the fact that we already have many suppliers of monkeys, sunsets, bridges etc. I am afraid that you may be disappointed with a cooperation. I can un-delete your material if you are interested but I am not convinced if you will be satisfied with the sale?"

I responded that I was unhappy with how they handled my case, and that I either wished for my account and my images to be reinstated, or to receive my 20 cents. I have never heard from them again, despite contacting their customer services team many times. When I log in, I get the same bland "thanks but no thanks" page.

I have given up now because it's 20 cents, and also because yes, I can see that they have many many images of Buddhas and that the majority of them are terrible. So why they chose to delete mine will have to remain a mystery.

Contribute to them with fair warning - they might run off with your earnings!

I'd like to share my experience with Colourbox. I uploaded and keyworded 25 images. I made a sale worth 20 cents, so quite small, but of course I wasn't expecting much with 25 images.

I have a full-time job unrelated to photography and a family, so I don't always have time to dedicate to micro stock, and colourbox fell off my radar for a while.

After a few months, I went to log in again, and although it allowed me to log in, I was redirected to a simple page that said, Thanks for using Colourbox, your profile is now deactivated, good luck elsewhere. I was shocked. I wasn't informed, there was no email telling me this was happening. And what about my 20 cents? Even worse, what if I made more sales in those few months when I wasn't looking, and now they've scampered off with my money?

Amazingly unprofessional, in my opinion. I contacted them about this, asking what had happened. The response I got was, paraphrasing, Yes, I can see that you had 25 images, we have deleted them from our database, your images were not in demand, you would have been disappointed with the sales, anyway, etc. An actual paragraph:

"I am concerned that a relatively small amount of images will be difficult to find for any customer out of +20 mio images. Especially in the areas that are not unique (Buddhas, sunsets etc.). Furthermore, many of the motifs (despite good photo quality) are not so demanded by our customers, and together with the fact that we already have many suppliers of monkeys, sunsets, bridges etc. I am afraid that you may be disappointed with a cooperation. I can un-delete your material if you are interested but I am not convinced if you will be satisfied with the sale?"

I responded that I was unhappy with how they handled my case, and that I either wished for my account and my images to be reinstated, or to receive my 20 cents. I have never heard from them again, despite contacting their customer services team many times. When I log in, I get the same bland "thanks but no thanks" page.

I have given up now because it's 20 cents, and also because yes, I can see that they have many many images of Buddhas and that the majority of them are terrible. So why they chose to delete mine will have to remain a mystery.

Contribute to them with fair warning - they might run off with your earnings!

what? hahaha terrible

you know if we were talkin about 50 100 dollars yes they wanted to keep in anyway couse thats what greedy people do .but 20 CENTS? 20 CENTS?and not to mention this the person who bought this pic and he is gonna use it somewhere he or she will make more money thanks to this picture than the photographer who only sold it for 20 cents.
i wanna believe that they were just bored to ad you 20 cents to your pp account couse well 20 cents is a joke amound of money,and now they dont care.
thats why is best to stay with the top agencies out there regardless of their dumb rejections at times than wasting your time and energy on these small agencies.when you are not getting many sales from ss or adobe maybe these sites are another option but unfo this kind of thing happens and you lose your sleep over it.
just think that you posted your pic somewhere someone stole it and move on.i was close to join them after i signed up but when i read so many negative reviews about cb i am glad now i didnt put not even a single photo on them
good luck rippin of their top contributors.