Quote from: dolgachov on March 01, 2014, 10:39

seems like everyone i know is affected. should be 9000 only.

is there anyone on this forum, who is selling via PP on iStock and who is NOT affected by this "backfire" action?

I am, but only because I removed enough files so I made barely over $10 in pp during that time.

Same here but i've only mad $1.20 since Sept (only 5 images remaining)

To my surprise, a few days after I sent the support ticket I received an excel file from Support, with all sales data: File ID, purchase date, original dollars received, revised dollars received and the difference.

So if you want your data, sending a support ticket should do the trick.

To my surprise, a few days after I sent the support ticket I received an excel file from Support, with all sales data: File ID, purchase date, original dollars received, revised dollars received and the difference.

So if you want your data, sending a support ticket should do the trick.

Received my csv too. It is almost unbelievable. The image IDs they sent really are my images! But that is nothing compared to the fact that the difference in royalties on the csv file actually matches up to the total amount they are taking away from me! Still can't believe they calculated it right. I always though they were getting the numbers from crystal ball. 

More worrying are the numbers themselves... originally received $39.84 adjusted to $0.28 How much did the customer pay then??? Don't like this at all 

More worrying are the numbers themselves... originally received $39.84 adjusted to $0.28 How much did the customer pay then???

Best to look on the iS forums for this sort of info, which no-one here is liable to have.
According to Lobo:
"The overpayment issue was caused by a database numbering overlap which caused certain subscription downloads to be labeled as image pack downloads thereby resulting in a higher royalty rate being paid on those transactions. To arrive at our correction we identified the incorrectly labeled downloads and calculated the difference between the erroneous image pack royalty rate and the correct subscription royalty rate."
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=359490&page=1

similar happend to me, Istock support send me the CSV, i see some ELs and some on demands sales convert to $0.28, and i ask why istock convert my els and ondemands into $0.28?

and this is the istock support answer:
" I'm not sure what you mean by ELs, as those are not part of PP. Essentially, the majority of Partner Program downloads are from subscriptions (the .28 royalties), not image packs.
Are you saying that prior to September you received a lot of image pack sales and now you are getting none? "

i don�t understand istock! they only will pay us $ 0.28 for each sale no matter if it�s an El or an ondemand!!!! ELs and ondemands are not part of PP?

Thinkstock have different Extended license too! please see the link http://www.thinkstockphotos.com/legal/license-information

waiting istock replay...

I'm by no means an expert in the PP, but they don't use the term 'on demand', which I believe is SS terminology. They sell 'image packs' to those who don't want a sub.

What seems to have happened (I have no idea if it really happened, but it's what they're saying and it seems feasible) that a lot of subsription sales wrongly showed up as image pack sales because of some database coding foulup. That certainly would explain why so many people were reporting a lot of high priced downloads which they'd seldom had before, yet there was no reason why buyers should suddenly have started buying image packs in vastly increased numbers.
If a buyer really buys an image pack, you do get an enhanced payment; you can search out the details for yourself.

But they say: "ELs are not part of PP!!!"

I've found in the past that CR reps aren't always up to speed.
Or they speedread your ticket and don't quite 'get' it. I've noticed this especially if you try to give background info about your issue (guaranteed to confuse them) or bring in two issues, no matter if closely intertwined.
I find the same with most companies' support, and suspect it's the way they're trained and the speed at which they have to work.
I've had at least five totally different answer to the same question from different reps.

Added:  the EL situation appears very odd: you have to 'contact us' by phoning or emailling if you want one. Wonder how often that happens?

Quote

According to Lobo:
"The overpayment issue was caused by a database numbering overlap which caused certain subscription downloads to be labeled as image pack downloads thereby resulting in a higher royalty rate being paid on those transactions. To arrive at our correction we identified the incorrectly labeled downloads and calculated the difference between the erroneous image pack royalty rate and the correct subscription royalty rate."

So it's almost the same story as shotshop and depositphotos. The only difference is that Istock makes mistakes when they scam us.

Not in any real sense.
Assuming both DP and iS are telling the truth:

In Shotshop, they get to keep any number of large value sales while you only get a sub sale, with the approval of DP: deliberate malice, with perhaps some stupidity/incompetence in thinking contributors would never find out, and if they did, they would just accept it.

With iS, it seems to be mostly total incompetence. No-one got the large value sale, it was an accounting/IT mistake. Whether there was any malice, e.g. saving money by letting too many IT people go or not hiring enough competent people, I couldn't possibly say.

Wow, I am shocked!  I had wondered if these numbers were pulled out of thin air...

Though I don't like how this whole thing was handled, it's at least a relief to know the numbers match up.  Maybe this new team dedicated to the PP know what they are doing and this sort of thing won't occur anymore. 

I sent a ticket asking for a breakdown, the day I got the email? But no csv for me yet?

I cannot understand why you dont stop doing business with them. Dont you have any pride or principles?

you still have portfolio at thinkstock Mr. Principles!

Are we getting paid the correct amount for ELs through PP? If not I would like to know because I will be disabling my files if I am only getting 28 cents for ELs. Does anyone know?

Quote from: BD on March 03, 2014, 15:12

Are we getting paid the correct amount for ELs through PP? If not I would like to know because I will be disabling my files if I am only getting 28 cents for ELs. Does anyone know?

How can any contributor answer that question unless they do a purchase to see how that item is recorded and paid?

As I mentioned above, I had an EL amount for a sale in October 2013 and it has not (at this point) been "corrected" to a 28 cent sale. But whether any other sales that I saw as 28 cent royalties should have been something else is something I have no data enabling me to check anything.

Some contributors did that for the Depoitphotos � Shotshop issue (purchased and then saw how it was recorded and paid). Why would they be less concerned for this deal? It would be about the same thing (getting paid a sub price when they customer bought in EL). Perhaps I should have been more specific. My concern is that this is intentional.