Quote from: Elenathewise on February 28, 2013, 17:17
I am actually impressed they balanced the change with a 25% increase of short-term referral payments.

sorry but there isn't anything to be surprised about, they pull that out to trick really tiny brains, they are saving 2 Million per year so a 1 cent more its irrelevant, far from a surprise but a cheap move

I would be surprised if they raised us (that I would), its not a cent in referrals for 2 years that will make us go crazy

p.s: I have no referrals

Quote from: luissantos84 on February 28, 2013, 17:24

Quote from: Elenathewise on February 28, 2013, 17:17
I am actually impressed they balanced the change with a 25% increase of short-term referral payments.

sorry but there isn't anything to be surprised about, they pull that out to trick really tiny brains, they are saving 2 Million per year so a 1 cent more its irrelevant, far from a surprise but a cheap move

I would be surprised if they raised us (that I would), its not a cent in referrals for 2 years that will make us go crazy

p.s: I have no referrals

Luis, I agree they will save a lot of money this way; however, they could have changed the referral program and NOT offer an increase. And someone who continuously and actively providing referrals for them will make some money out of it, just not people who done some referral work five years ago and stopped since.
Plus, if they direct the saved money into more advertising, everyone could win.

Quote from: crashoran on February 08, 2013, 16:26
Walmart made profits of $15.7 billion last year and pay their workers minimum wage. History repeats itself people. No reason to expect Shutterstock to treat us like anything other than cheap employees.

If you expect to be treated like trash and you put up with it, they you can also expect that not to change.

We teach people how to treat us in large part by showing them what we are willing to put up with.

Quote from: Elenathewise on February 28, 2013, 18:25
Plus, if they direct the saved money into more advertising, everyone could win.

I don't know their plans

Quote from: Elenathewise on February 28, 2013, 17:17...I am actually impressed they balanced the change with a 25% increase of short-term referral payments...

It's an empty gesture. An increase limited to 2 years means that in most cases, the referrer won't start to earn any significant amount. Just when a new contributor is starting to build up a portfolio that earns, the referral period will be over.

Quote from: Elenathewise on February 28, 2013, 17:17

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on February 28, 2013, 16:11
I do wonder whether their right to change the terms gives them the right to abandon the lifetime guarantee that they gave.  Surely that promise explicitly ring-fenced the arrangement against the "we can do what we like" clause? It may have been an unwise promise but trying to unsay it years later strikes me as rather dodgy.

I am sure there is a fine print somewhere that referral program terms are subject to change; just as all our "agreements" with stock agencies.

My point is that while they can obviously change the terms for new referrals, I have doubts about whether they can cancel a promise they made that clearly stated it was irrevocable. Fortunately, it doesn't affect me but I can imagine that whoever referred Yuri is going hotfoot to a lawyer.

as it takes at least 2 years for a new contributor to have a successful portofolio, why will I refer newbies in future ?... Thanks SS, I won't loose anytime to refer someone.
What's next ?

Quote from: Pierdelune on March 05, 2013, 13:49
as it takes at least 2 years for a new contributor to have a successful portofolio, why will I refer newbies in future ?...

You won't, and neither will I. This effectively kills off the referral program.

I can understand the cost-savings incentive to cut the referral program. I wish they had just done exactly that and were clear about their intentions. Instead we got this empty gesture of offering a "raise" to $0.04 with a 2-year cap on earnings. It's very istock-like, calling a paycut a raise.

Maybe I'm wrong and they really do expect people to continue referring contributors under this new program. I just don't see how anyone will be motivated to go through the effort to get a cut of the weakest 2 years of a contributor's earnings. If you get anything at all. Remember some folks sign up and then take quite a while to upload anything. I had a great referral, the guy got 500 DLs per day. But he didn't start out like that. It took a long time to get to the point of seeing any significant income.

Quote from: crashoran on February 26, 2013, 22:19
Still no response to our emails, forum posts, or Buzz responses.

Welcome to Shutterstock, a company that screws over contributors and completely ignores you.

Shutterstock ? Welcome to the world of stock photography my dear.

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on March 02, 2013, 08:38

Quote from: Elenathewise on February 28, 2013, 17:17

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on February 28, 2013, 16:11
I do wonder whether their right to change the terms gives them the right to abandon the lifetime guarantee that they gave.  Surely that promise explicitly ring-fenced the arrangement against the "we can do what we like" clause? It may have been an unwise promise but trying to unsay it years later strikes me as rather dodgy.

I am sure there is a fine print somewhere that referral program terms are subject to change; just as all our "agreements" with stock agencies.

My point is that while they can obviously change the terms for new referrals, I have doubts about whether they can cancel a promise they made that clearly stated it was irrevocable. Fortunately, it doesn't affect me but I can imagine that whoever referred Yuri is going hotfoot to a lawyer.

What amazes me most about this was the extremely short notice period for such a profound change in the terms. Referrals from over 5 years ago (like my own) have gone to earning $100's per month ... to zero ... in just 3 weeks.

Some folk might have been investing their time and money to gain referrals, right up to the begining of February, only to find that the terms that they had based their investment decisions on, have changed almost overnight.