I've just had a sale but my balance stayed the same. Underneath the image sold, it says "Not downloaded yet. The pending status will be changed if refund is not requested in 3 months"

Are they joking ?

I have that too, from a few days ago.  Someone purchased, but did not download.  Until he downloads, he can claim his money back, so we do not get our share.

I think they do that because of some occasional confusions they claim to have happened before, people thinking they were buying the object in the photo, not a jpeg file.  Sounds stupid, but they say it happens.

I think there was a thread about this some time ago in their forum.

Regards,
Adelaide

Mine was a landscape shot depicting sea and rocks !!!! Go figure ))

Quote from: ljupco on November 05, 2008, 08:04Mine was a landscape shot depicting sea and rocks !!!! Go figure ))

They probably thought they were buying a beach property for 5$ 

This is the thread:
http://www.featureimage.com/forum/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=443

QuoteWe were updating the database. The process is completed.
All old images marked as downloaded.

All new images will be marked as downloaded when they are actually downloaded.
We have cases when people think they are buying real goods and there is no way to prove we delivered these goods to them if they claim money back. It happens not often.

We have a statement "Please be advised that you are purchasing an electronic downloadable image only, not the items pictured.", and we will try to make it more obvious.

Yeah, in Sept. I had a refund because the person thought he was buying a glass tray not a picture of one. I don't think we should have to support stupid people. If they buy it,  they bought it.

No DL for 4 months here.

Quote from: dbvirago on November 05, 2008, 20:38
Yeah, in Sept. I had a refund because the person thought he was buying a glass tray not a picture of one. I don't think we should have to support stupid people. If they buy it,  they bought it.

Maybe it's something legal, so people have the right to ask for a refund? Personally I prefer that cancellation than the refund-after-download reported in FT and DT.

Regards,
Adelaide

Quote from: dbvirago on November 05, 2008, 20:38
Yeah, in Sept. I had a refund because the person thought he was buying a glass tray not a picture of one. I don't think we should have to support stupid people. If they buy it,  they bought it.

, are people really that naive!?  Wow.

I have experienced a customer buying a picture of vintage headphones, and then writing back a couple weeks later inquiring as to when the shipment would arrive. 

People really do scan and not read things, you would be surprised how easy it is for people to get confused in ecommerce.

Quote from: zymmetrical on November 06, 2008, 14:00People really do scan and not read things, you would be surprised how easy it is for people to get confused in ecommerce.

What about a picture of a sexy girl with headset? Not that there are many pictures like that on stock of course 
How do you ship an item like that? A carton box with punched holes in it?

I guess FP is dying. Just one sale since July and I used to have 1-3 per month. When is the funeral? Maybe a group funeral would be cheaper.

It seems that no site started after 2005 made it or will make it. Peanuts and loads of work uploading and in some instances even helping to debug the site. SS,DT,IS,FLA,STX,123 is already enough work.

I still have regular 1-3 sales with them, but they seem to be struggling, given a site mail they sent a while ago.

Regards,
Adelaide

I still get 1 or 2 sales a month and with the higher commissions they beat some of the other small sites.  I just hope they have low running costs and can keep going.

FP could have been a great place to license images, unfortunately they came later in the field (and that incredible % to photographers! admirable, but not so business-wise, surely), plus they rely heavily on 'word of mouth' marketing system.
We were demotivated in submitting new images because of the slow sales, that don't benefit from adding new images regularly (tried it for several months, before giving it up).

regards
Val

Quote from: madelaide on November 10, 2008, 15:12
I still have regular 1-3 sales with them, but they seem to be struggling, given a site mail they sent a while ago.

Regards,
Adelaide

Yes! I saw that  and it did'nt look very promising.
Also, my sales reflect this, as I have not sold there in nearly 9 months!

I have stable sales there - slow indeed, but stable!