OM ,

was just gunna mention that it was a reply I got to some simple questions I had asked them Ill post it here
This is what I asked first and the reply I got  :-

Ok
the grey box to the left "info" it used to have the credit value, ie in my case £0.75, late last night that changed to £1 so a lot of people are now thinking they get more for 1 credit tham they used to !! only prob is that now that line has vanished fron the info box no one knows as a contributor how much credit is worth ?

Responses: Fotolia : All you need to be concerned with, Warren, is what you will receive, and that has not changed. Our credit packages have changed, that is all. Your payout stays the same.

Kind regards,

Fotolia Team U.K.
0208 816 72 84


So then I sent this :-

1 Why did it go up to £1 in the info box ie 1 credit = £1 (for us that is)
2 Why did that then Vanish after an hour or so ?
3 Why is it still not there (even if it is still the same at £0.75) ?

If it was a mistake then thats ok we all make mistakes but we do derserve to be told what happened and why so many people were thinking the credit value had gone up. To say " all you need to be concerned with" is just not good enough.

I like Fotolia I honestly do but come on treat us with a bit of respect and honesty we deserve PLEASE.


And the reply which took my breath away was :-


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

Kind regards,

Fotolia Team U.K.
0208 816 72 84

Yeah, I couldn't believe it when I saw it on the forum. I would like to say that they must be happy banging nails in their coffin, but no one will leave FT and FT will carry on as it always has, because they can.

Thanks for posting Warren. I find that last reply showing total disdain for you as contributor/writer of the email and for Fotolia contributors in general. Really rather shocking.

Yeah not just shocking but sad very sad it was the first site I joined and used to love being a contributor with them, but recently have took all my images off exclusive and started uploading them at other sites.
I only wish I could attend one of the Fotolia board meetings if only to bang a few heads together and make them see what they are doing to us contributors and perhaps make a little change 

Quote from: massman on February 01, 2010, 18:19
... but no one will leave FT and FT will carry on as it always has, because they can.

I will __ most definitely. Do they really think they can increase prices to the customers by over 30% and pass none of it to us? They are supposed to be paying us a fixed % royalty on our sales and when prices go up then so should our commissions. I've taken copies of all the relevant documentation and am seriously considering taking court action to recover the difference.

Once again FT are acting as Istock's Chief Exclusivity Recruiting Officer.

Quote from: gostwyck on February 01, 2010, 18:33

Quote from: massman on February 01, 2010, 18:19
... but no one will leave FT and FT will carry on as it always has, because they can.

I will __ most definitely. Do they really think they can increase prices to the customers by over 30% and pass none of it to us? They are supposed to be paying us a fixed % royalty on our sales and when prices go up then so should our commissions. I've taken copies of all the relevant documentation and am seriously considering taking court action to recover the difference.

Once again FT are acting as Istock's Chief Exclusivity Recruiting Officer.

I did.  That dictatorial attitude drove me away long ago.  Actually, I left eight images there just so I could "stay in touch."   

WOW that response just blows my mind!! As soon as I reach payout I'm pulling all my images off there.....they proubably won't care since there are plenty more joining on a daily basis and they don't care about all us contributors that helped to grow their site to what it is today. They to were my first site and the first site I made a sale on. HOW RUDE!!!!

Quote from: gostwyck on February 01, 2010, 18:33

Quote from: massman on February 01, 2010, 18:19
... but no one will leave FT and FT will carry on as it always has, because they can.

I will __ most definitely. Do they really think they can increase prices to the customers by over 30% and pass none of it to us? They are supposed to be paying /us a fixed % royalty on our sales and when prices go up then so should our commissions. I've taken copies of all the relevant documentation and am seriously considering taking court action to recover the difference.

Once again FT are acting as Istock's Chief Exclusivity Recruiting Officer.

BTW, they never really did. And all depends on where one happened to register. Even though I registered from withink EU, I'm $$ contributor meaning that one my credit is 1$. Whereas others may have their credits praiced in Euros or Pounds and in fact earn significantly more per credit.

In they are selling their credits in variying prices, then they need to give us variable commissions for every sale based on the credit spent price. Just like IS does.

With the deplorable reputation that Fotolia has for communication with its contributors, I'll wait awhile to see what really is happening. If it is a bad as it appears today then I'll be forced to follow in Warren's footsteps.

Quote from: Danicek on February 01, 2010, 18:52
If they are selling their credits in variying prices, then they need to give us variable commissions for every sale based on the credit spent price. Just like IS does.

Exactly. The % commission stated should be paid to the contributor __ that's all we're asking for.

If a UK customer buys the basic package of 20 credits then those sales are being paid at just 25.5% commission to Gold level contributors. If you are a UK customer you have to buy a package of 700 credits or more before you are paying equal or less than they are paying us.

OM,

I havent taken all my images off Fotolia ( I need the income !) just took them from exclusive images so I can sell the same images elsewhere. 

I just requested payout and am ready to pull my port.
I was already sick of all their sneaky tricks and about my pics being sold on all sorts of sketchy partners i know nothing about. This one is just the drop.
A question though: i've never closed my account before.... my payout request on FT is now pending and my credits are at $0,78. (they can keep that). Should i wait until the money hits paypal before closing my account or is it safe to do it right now?
Thanks!

Do wait for the money to come through, artemis, nothing is safe with them.

Quote from: warren0909 on February 01, 2010, 19:06
OM,

I havent taken all my images off Fotolia ( I need the income !) just took them from exclusive images so I can sell the same images elsewhere. 

Not sure which Warren he's talking about, mate; there are two of us.
WarrenP

Quote from: warren0909 on February 01, 2010, 19:06
OM,

I havent taken all my images off Fotolia ( I need the income !) just took them from exclusive images so I can sell the same images elsewhere. 

I understood what you wrote, Warren. I think that is a sensible course for me to follow too. I'm too old to cut off my nose to spite their face.

Quote from: WarrenPrice on February 01, 2010, 19:19

Quote from: warren0909 on February 01, 2010, 19:06
OM,

I havent taken all my images off Fotolia ( I need the income !) just took them from exclusive images so I can sell the same images elsewhere. 

Not sure which Warren he's talking about, mate; there are two of us.
WarrenP

Oh no, not 2!  Sorry hadn't seen that. I'll go with Warren0909's strategy.

 

Yeah sorry Warren forgot you had posted gere too !!

My post vanished?  

This is just shocking.  I hope there is some misunderstanding.  The reply to Warren is confusing to me, but the tone seems pretty dismissive.

If they really aren't going to be passing this increase on to contributors then I think Gostwyck is right - they are doing the work of recruiting exclusives for Istock.

Maybe an admin will come on and explain what's going on?  Or perhaps Matt can find out?  

Quote from: stardust on February 01, 2010, 19:13
Do wait for the money to come through, artemis, nothing is safe with them.

Thankies, will do

Quote from: Artemis on February 01, 2010, 19:41

Quote from: stardust on February 01, 2010, 19:13
Do wait for the money to come through, artemis, nothing is safe with them.

Thankies, will do

By the way, probably not what you want to hear right now, but it might be better not to have your account closed, but to delete all your images yourself. That way, you keep your cannister level. You never know, if they are sold some day or some kind of miracle happens you might want to go back. But do keep in mind, if you go and keep your account with an empty port, and one day you want to go exclusive elsewhere, you will have to check their partner sites before exclusivity. Seems to take ages before pixmac and co. delete images.

Thanks stardust! I'm aware of this and still giving it some thinking. Right now in anger i'd love to close my entire account (and let them keep their sorry *ss quarter of a download subscription count)... but you never know what the future brings, so i'll probably end up deleting them one by one. I do want ALL my pics taken off their partner sites as well though and wonder if this will happen automatically if i delete my pics on FT...

Don't think so! People have been having trouble with the partner sites and becoming exclusive to istock. When you've deleted them on FT, wait a while, and then contact pixmac or any other site you can still find your images on directly.

On contributors page it says 1 credit = 1 USD.

On buyer page (info) it says 1 credit = 1.2 USD.

If that is the case, it is not fair at all.

This may actually be even worse than we realised at first, especially for USA contributors.

I've got a buddy who is an infrequent buyer of images from FT. He usually buys the minimum package of 21 credits which will now cost him £20 or £0.95 per credit. If he then buys a Medium image for 5 credits it will have cost him £4.75 or about $7.60.

If that image happened to be from a UK contributor at Gold level the royalty will be 1.7 credits which, at £0.75 per credit, will pay £1.275. That's less than 27% of the purchase price __ not the 34% commission that is supposed to be paid.

Now let's assume the image purchased was from a USA contributor at Gold level. The Medium image still costs 5 credits, yes? The contributor gets 1.7 credits which, with a conversion ratio of 1/$1, will result in a payment of $1.70. That's the equivalent of £1.06 or just 22.4% of the original purchase price __ much, much less than the 34% commission the contributor is entitled to.

Even if the UK buyer buys the largest credit package available (3200 credits at £2000 or £0.63 per credit) the USA contributor will still only receive 33.6% of the purchase price __ still less than the stated commission of 34%.

Quote from: gostwyck on February 01, 2010, 22:16
This may actually be even worse than we realised at first, especially for USA contributors.

You can use your logic the other way, and UK photographers get a much higher percentage than they would from sles to USA. 

This has been discussed before, and it seems FT considers that in the end, for them, it will all be the same $$.  of course, this means that sales in UKP and EUR would be equivalent to sales in USD.  For us members it doesn't look different, but UK members get more than non-UK ones, in real money. 

And I wasn't even given a choice upon joining FT, I had to join FT US.