MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => iStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: nruboc on April 04, 2011, 13:49
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Everyone who has a complaint about IStock, I would like to give a possible remedy that actually worked for me. I had a situation where I requested my images be removed from ThinkStock and after 6 months of waiting they still were not removed.
So I filed a complaint with the BBB (Better Business Bureau) of Canada.
http://www.bbb.org/canada/ (http://www.bbb.org/canada/)
It appears that IStock is eager to keep their A+ rating. In order to do so, they must resolve all complaints. A few days after complaining, my images were down. A great way to get some action taken if you have a legitimate complaint.
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I can't believe this slipped my mind.
Of course, great job!
Yes, go ahead and keep informing the BBB as this has a major impact on iStock credibility and their image.
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The same story with my father. He asked to remove his images just after thinkstock appears instead stockxpert. All images are still there! Every time hi writes to support and ask why they didn't remove images they replay him with standard answer (please wait for three months)…… but this no need to say that three months passed long ago...
How do you think will this BBB complaint work for non Canadians?
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The same story with my father. He asked to remove his images just after thinkstock appears instead stockxpert. All images are still there! Every time hi writes to support and ask why they didn't remove images they replay him with standard answer (please wait for three months)…… but this no need to say that three months passed long ago...
How do you think will this BBB complaint work for non Canadians?
I wouldn't think that would matter. If you do business with istock, I would think you qualify to file a complaint.
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At some point I hope to pull all my stuff out of IS and if they don't do that in a reasonable length of time, this will be a good tactic to employ.
There is indeed a point where a business is no longer just "disorganized" or "screwed up", but has crossed the line into "shady" and "dishonest".
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Hi nruboc,
Glad it worked out for you. My images are still there in spite of several complaints and requests of removal. My mails are being forwarded and I never hear back. I was thinking about sending a DMCA takedown notice, but this seems better.
I just have no idea which radio buttons to check here ?
Does your complaint concern employment practices?
Yes No
Does your complaint allege discrimination?
Yes No
Does your complaint allege civil rights violations?
Yes No
Has this complaint case ever been involved in litigation?
Yes No
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I don't think istock is unique in their practice. Every agency is reluctant to remove images. When it happened to me (not with istock, won't go into who) I sent them a very stern warning that they were infringing on copyright as they were displaying my property without my consent. After 6 months of waiting, my account was taken down within 36 hours.
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Everyone who has a complaint about IStock, I would like to give a possible remedy that actually worked for me. I had a situation where I requested my images be removed from ThinkStock and after 6 months of waiting they still were not removed.
So I filed a complaint with the BBB (Better Business Bureau) of Canada.
[url]http://www.bbb.org/canada/[/url] ([url]http://www.bbb.org/canada/[/url])
It appears that IStock is eager to keep their A+ rating. In order to do so, they must resolve all complaints. A few days after complaining, my images were down. A great way to get some action taken if you have a legitimate complaint.
If this gets out, which it seems to already have, iStock may need to start hiring more staff.
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Start flooding the BBB with complaints about the clawback! ;D
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GREAT idea. Circulating!
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Someone needs to contact this iStocker:
I just noticed my account dropped $60+. I haven't received an email or sitemail regarding this action. Are we getting Banged again?
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=321042&page=1 (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=321042&page=1)
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What about the rounding down of commissions that I read about on another thread? We could all put in a complaint about that.
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There are so many valid things to complain about, thanks for posting this nruboc, i hope many of us will file a complaint :)
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What about the rounding down of commissions that I read about on another thread? We could all put in a complaint about that.
Oh, yes. That, too. For sure.
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Someone needs to contact this iStocker:
I just noticed my account dropped $60+. I haven't received an email or sitemail regarding this action. Are we getting Banged again?
[url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=321042&page=1[/url] ([url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=321042&page=1[/url])
Thread is locked and admins are contacting him/her privately. That way, none of us can know exactly why their account dropped $60.
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Thread is locked and admins are contacting him/her privately. That way, none of us can know exactly why their account dropped $60.
Yup. How long before the thread disappears?
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There are so many valid things to complain about, thanks for posting this nruboc, i hope many of us will file a complaint :)
Sure no problemo... actually VB inc should get some thanks too, because he inspired me to post :)
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There are so many valid things to complain about, thanks for posting this nruboc, i hope many of us will file a complaint :)
Sure no problemo... actually VB inc should get some thanks too, because he inspired me to post :)
You're such a hater! ;)
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Hi nruboc,
Glad it worked out for you. My images are still there in spite of several complaints and requests of removal. My mails are being forwarded and I never hear back. I was thinking about sending a DMCA takedown notice, but this seems better.
I just have no idea which radio buttons to check here ?
Does your complaint concern employment practices?
Yes No
Does your complaint allege discrimination?
Yes No
Does your complaint allege civil rights violations?
Yes No
Has this complaint case ever been involved in litigation?
Yes No
Hi There,
I put 'No' for all of those, but you may interpret 'employment' in the first question differently. Since they are paying you. I think either a Yes or No for the first question would apply
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Can people also complain about their crappy customer service and their rudeness?
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Really great idea! Thanks so much for sharing this!
I might suggest only contacting BBB with specific complaints though. If they are suddenly flooded with all sorts of complaints along the lines of "they suck", I think they may not take them as seriously.
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Really great idea! Thanks so much for sharing this!
I might suggest only contacting BBB with specific complaints though. If they are suddenly flooded with all sorts of complaints along the lines of "they suck", I think they may not take them as seriously.
I completely agree. As far as reputation is concerned, iStock has already done a fantastic job of shooting themselves in the foot many times over. But for e-mails and requests that go unanswered for weeks (I've always had a pretty decent turnaround time for my support tix), the BBB is definitely the way to go to get things moving if all else fails.
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Can people also complain about their crappy customer service and their rudeness?
to be honest the only rudeness I've seen is on the forums from the likes of Lobo, whenever I've contacted customer service directly they have been very polite.
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Can people also complain about their crappy customer service and their rudeness?
to be honest the only rudeness I've seen is on the forums from the likes of Lobo, whenever I've contacted customer service directly they have been very polite.
It hasn't affected me, but it appears that customer service is very very slow on response time to customer inquiries in several threads I've seen regarding refunds, people buying credits and not having them appear in their account, etc.
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There are so many valid things to complain about, thanks for posting this nruboc, i hope many of us will file a complaint :)
Sure no problemo... actually VB inc should get some thanks too, because he inspired me to post :)
You're such a hater! ;)
With good reason :)
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Someone needs to contact this iStocker:
I just noticed my account dropped $60+. I haven't received an email or sitemail regarding this action. Are we getting Banged again?
[url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=321042&page=1[/url] ([url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=321042&page=1[/url])
Thread is locked and admins are contacting him/her privately. That way, none of us can know exactly why their account dropped $60.
It was really annoying to see how quickly Andrew locked that thread. What a great way to earn our trust back!
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Hi nruboc,
Glad it worked out for you. My images are still there in spite of several complaints and requests of removal. My mails are being forwarded and I never hear back. I was thinking about sending a DMCA takedown notice, but this seems better.
I just have no idea which radio buttons to check here ?
Does your complaint concern employment practices?
Yes No
Does your complaint allege discrimination?
Yes No
Does your complaint allege civil rights violations?
Yes No
Has this complaint case ever been involved in litigation?
Yes No
Hi There,
I put 'No' for all of those, but you may interpret 'employment' in the first question differently. Since they are paying you. I think either a Yes or No for the first question would apply
Thank you. I decided to put no for all of them. Hope to finally see some action and I find my complaint very legitimate as I already tried to deal with iStock directly.
As Lisa said, I hope people won't abuse the system. I know it's more complicated than so, but legally they would be in their right to cut commissions whenever they want to right? And I don't see how they would address this sort of complaint with anything other than a "no thanks". (And no, I don't endorse the paycuts)
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Hi nruboc,
Glad it worked out for you. My images are still there in spite of several complaints and requests of removal. My mails are being forwarded and I never hear back. I was thinking about sending a DMCA takedown notice, but this seems better.
I just have no idea which radio buttons to check here ?
Does your complaint concern employment practices?
Yes No
Does your complaint allege discrimination?
Yes No
Does your complaint allege civil rights violations?
Yes No
Has this complaint case ever been involved in litigation?
Yes No
Hi There,
I put 'No' for all of those, but you may interpret 'employment' in the first question differently. Since they are paying you. I think either a Yes or No for the first question would apply
Thank you. I decided to put no for all of them. Hope to finally see some action and I find my complaint very legitimate as I already tried to deal with iStock directly.
As Lisa said, I hope people won't abuse the system. I know it's more complicated than so, but legally they would be in their right to cut commissions whenever they want to right? And I don't see how they would address this sort of complaint with anything other than a "no thanks". (And no, I don't endorse the paycuts)
I agree, just complaining in general about istock and how it works would probably have a reverse effect, i was thinking about for example the people who see $0 royalties for about 2 months now and as only reply get: we're looking into it...all the others who want their images gone from the PP or the other way round, etc. all very specific and justified things to form a complaint for...
Would you guys think a $10 EL at less than $0,50/credit (which is about 1/3rd of the normal credit price) is a valid reason for complaint? I really dont know, imho it sounds very incorrect but thats my guts speaking, not sure if this is the sort of thing BBB is for..
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Would you guys think a $10 EL at less than $0,50/credit (which is about 1/3rd of the normal credit price) is a valid reason for complaint? I really dont know, imho it sounds very incorrect but thats my guts speaking, not sure if this is the sort of thing BBB is for..
I would try the forums here, the istock forums and contacting iStock support before anything else.
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Thanks Tyler :)
I wont try their forums, im 100% sure Lobo will forward me to CR and lock the thread, so i skipped that step and put up a ticket for support, 99% sure though i'll just get the standard 'its a discount for certain buyers' reply, but i'll await that one before taking further steps :)
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Thanks Tyler :)
I wont try their forums, im 100% sure Lobo will forward me to CR and lock the thread, so i skipped that step and put up a ticket for support, 99% sure though i'll just get the standard 'its a discount for certain buyers' reply, but i'll await that one before taking further steps :)
You could start a problem specific thread here too. Not everyone reads every thread, and your problem is a bit off topic to the original post, or perhaps more specific than the original post. You could start a thread with a good informative subject title and you might find someone else who has figured it out before.
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True Tyler; for now im just going to wait for the response from CR ... i'll keep you guys posted :)
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Would you guys think a $10 EL at less than $0,50/credit (which is about 1/3rd of the normal credit price) is a valid reason for complaint? I really dont know, imho it sounds very incorrect but thats my guts speaking, not sure if this is the sort of thing BBB is for..
I would try the forums here, the istock forums and contacting iStock support before anything else.
No, that credit price is not out of the ordinary, unfortunately.
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Would you guys think a $10 EL at less than $0,50/credit (which is about 1/3rd of the normal credit price) is a valid reason for complaint? I really dont know, imho it sounds very incorrect but thats my guts speaking, not sure if this is the sort of thing BBB is for..
I would try the forums here, the istock forums and contacting iStock support before anything else.
No, that credit price is not out of the ordinary, unfortunately.
But just because its not out of the ordinary it doesnt mean its ok and we shouldnt complain about 'bad business'.
If i hire a real estate dude to sell my house for me and he on his own decides to sell my house for 1/3rd of the price we agreed on, just because the buyer is 'a good loyal customer' its not ok either...
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Progress so far:
My images are still at Thinkstock. Apparently my account at StockXpert has been cancelled (I get that message when I click "forgot pass"). That wasn't what I asked for however, and I had a payment of $59.xx pending there, which I doubt I'll ever see. I was planning for that to be my last payment from StockXpert.
The site below still reads 7 closed complaints, so mine hasn't been closed yet:
http://www.bbb.org/calgary/business-reviews/stock-photograph-suppliers/istockphoto-lp-in-calgary-ab-42552 (http://www.bbb.org/calgary/business-reviews/stock-photograph-suppliers/istockphoto-lp-in-calgary-ab-42552)
Practically this means they're selling my images and I have no way of receiving due royalties as my StockXpert account is gone - I'm opted out of the PP program at IS. I won't jump to any conclusions, but I hope they will do what's right.
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Really great idea! Thanks so much for sharing this!
I might suggest only contacting BBB with specific complaints though. If they are suddenly flooded with all sorts of complaints along the lines of "they suck", I think they may not take them as seriously.
+1
I agree: Complaints should be pointed and as specific as possible.
By now we all have enough personal experience and instances to provide for said sorts of official complaints or reports to an agency like the BBB.