Author Topic: Big refunds happening again (Read 10298 times)

Beach Bum · « **Reply #25 on:** July 20, 2012, 07:18 »

Another example of a contributor having to pay for Istock's incompetence. Would definitely drop the crown.

ShadySue · « **Reply #26 on:** July 20, 2012, 07:39 »

Last night, he was waiting to be phoned back. I'm very interested to read how that went.

Mantis · « **Reply #27 on:** July 20, 2012, 07:47 »

Quote from: ShadySue on July 20, 2012, 07:14

To save anyone else contacting me re the pinterest/affiliate thing, here's a screenshot of the email I received. I have blanked out the CR person's name in case they made a genuine mistake: we all make them, and I wouldn't necessarily want to be pilloried in public for mine:

(My pics are off these pinterest locations now, as I contacted pinterest directly.)

Sometimes you've gotta take matters into your own hands. Nice job.

EmberMike · « **Reply #28 on:** July 20, 2012, 10:54 »

What happened to exclusives getting better/faster support for issues like this? I figured things like this would fall under the "protection and resolution" part of the exclusive benefits.

More amazing than anything is that $2,000 in refunds on a single portfolio didn't flag anything in the system and alert anyone to look into it.

leaf · « **Reply #29 on:** July 20, 2012, 12:05 »

Here's an iStock member who had nearly $2000 taken back in the last two months.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=345607

ShadySue · « **Reply #30 on:** July 20, 2012, 12:24 »

Quote from: leaf on July 20, 2012, 12:05

Here's an iStock member who had nearly $2000 taken back in the last two months.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=345607

Yes, this is the thread referenced by the OP.
No surprise: he didn't get phoned back as promised. He got an email with generic information, and told that 'invstigations were confidential' and referred to the uninformative thread about the previous fraud fiasco.

EmberMike · « **Reply #31 on:** July 23, 2012, 19:00 »

So it looks like the end to the fraud case is that vectorbomb is dropping exclusivity and is considering deactivating his entire account.

This is a major loss to istock, but I suppose a gain for buyers everywhere else. Brian is a ridiculously talented artist. His stuff genuinely freaks me out with how good it is and just in general (some of his stuff is just plain freaky scary, like those zombie portraits).

It's incredibly disturbing that istock would do so little to help out an exclusive artist. I always thought that exclusivity gave people some added pull within the company when it came to support and sorting out problems. Obviously that's not the case.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #32 on:** July 23, 2012, 22:54 »

I think things have changed in the last year or so - once, I think there would have been more of an effort to work things out. But contributors are now costs to be controlled, not partners.

I think it's (once again) sad to see how iStock is treating contributors, but I'm glad that the person is going to get on with trying to improve his situation vs. just hoping that somehow iStock will wake up to the dreadful way he's been treated and change what they're doing.

HughStoneIan · « **Reply #33 on:** August 04, 2012, 01:45 »

This is a little late, but I just found this entry from Lobo on the IS thread titled "Refunds now from March,"

Your going to find refund threads are going to be immediately locked down from here in out. There isn't anything the forums can do for you at this point. Send me a sitemail if you're mad. Any addition repostings will result in forum bans.
Thanks, folks.

"There's nothing the forums can do for you at this point". . . except to keep exposing the huge scope of the fraud that's being allowed to happen, so everyone can see it!

ShadySue · « **Reply #34 on:** August 04, 2012, 04:04 »

This current thread in the Help forum:
Two days ago I had an abnormal high number of downloads (24) within 15 minutes- many of them Vetta, and because I feared that this was a credit card fraud I wrote a ticket to contributor relations with all the file numbers, but they couldn't help me.
Now I had again 11 downloads within 4 minutes. Only images that weren't downloaded the last time.
I don't believe that these are regular downloads and I don't want to get dozens of refunds in a few weeks or months.
Is there anyone who can help me and check these downloads or the customer?
Thank you!
Ge was directed to contact CR by someone who had presumably not read the OP.
" I was told that contributor relations is not pertinent to this specific file information"
So, Lobo has banned posting about fraud and refunds, you must take it up with CR, but CR say it's 'not pertinent'.
Then an admin posted:
"Konrad, I've forwarded your issue to Client Relations and they will review the downloads. It is always recommended to report very high or unusual downloads through a support ticket. If it is something fishy, early reporting helps the Client Relations team nip it in the bud."

The admin said to report to Client Relations. Would any contributor who is not a client think to do that? Even if they are also a buyer, would that be the expected route to take?
Also, it can take days for tickets to clear (Lobo said 'a day or so', which isn't always accurate, and even, and even if true, it's far too long in a suspected fraud case). Also, according to Lobo, contributors are not allowed to phone, "no exceptions", even for huge refund/fraud issues.

I don't know the specifics of this case, obviously, but it seems that they do not have a proper system in place, made known to everyone, for people to 'early report' this sort of thing.

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=346011&page=1

Mantis · « **Reply #35 on:** August 04, 2012, 08:35 »

Quote from: HughStoneIan on August 04, 2012, 01:45

This is a little late, but I just found this entry from Lobo on the IS thread titled "Refunds now from March,"

Your going to find refund threads are going to be immediately locked down from here in out. There isn't anything the forums can do for you at this point. Send me a sitemail if you're mad. Any addition repostings will result in forum bans.
Thanks, folks.

"There's nothing the forums can do for you at this point". . . except to keep exposing the huge scope of the fraud that's being allowed to happen, so everyone can see it!

What he is doing is closing the loop on any inlet that helps a contributor solve his/her problem. Contacting corporate doesn't work and now you can't jump into the forums to bring visibility to a totally un-just issue. He is solidifying the "turning a blind eye" to an issue.

JPSDK · « **Reply #36 on:** August 04, 2012, 22:17 »

The amount is so big that the artist should sue the agency for 2 things.
For the refund, which should be borne by the agency.
For not protecting his files from being pirated.
Its a double hurt, and the agency is the ONLY one who can take precautions against fraud.

Sue them!

stocker2011 · « **Reply #37 on:** August 09, 2012, 19:45 »

Sigh, another day, another refund which especially hurts during the summer slowdown

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Author Topic: Big refunds happening again (Read 10298 times)

Beach Bum

ShadySue

Mantis

EmberMike

leaf

ShadySue

EmberMike

Jo Ann Snover

HughStoneIan

ShadySue

Mantis

JPSDK

stocker2011

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