Author Topic: The One Refund You Want (Read 5377 times)

Sean Locke Photography · « **on:** February 24, 2014, 22:37 »

Funny, the one time IS decides not to allow a refund, when a contributor wants to upgrade from a smaller to larger size. I was always happy to get those, when I knew it was an upgrade.

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=359186&page=1

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #1 on:** February 24, 2014, 22:58 »

I cannot think of any reason to deny size upgrades - at any time. Downsizing is different and should be handled by whatever refund policy an agency has.

This has been suggested for years and at one time I thought there was agreement from iStock (when there still was such an entity) that it was a good idea.

I have to imagine that Getty does this for Getty Images clients, so perhaps it's just that they can't be bothered to implement the feature for the small business site.

shudderstok · « **Reply #2 on:** February 24, 2014, 23:57 »

if the terms of download and refunds are 14 days then they are 14 days. not roughly 70 to 85 days.
seems like you guys just love to nit pick anything IS or GI.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #3 on:** February 25, 2014, 00:27 »

Quote from: shudderstok on February 24, 2014, 23:57

if the terms of download and refunds are 14 days then they are 14 days. not roughly 70 to 85 days.
seems like you guys just love to nit pick anything IS or GI.

You should read this. You can re-download a file at any time - no time limit.

http://www.istockphoto.com/faq/downloading-files#faq-redownloading

And we're not talking about refunds, but paying more to get a larger size of a file you already licensed. And for what it's worth, I was advocating this when I was an iStock exclusive - as were lots of other iStock exclusive contributors, not just customers.

This is about offering good customer service. What it seems like to you is your business.

shudderstok · « **Reply #4 on:** February 25, 2014, 00:58 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on February 25, 2014, 00:27

Quote from: shudderstok on February 24, 2014, 23:57
if the terms of download and refunds are 14 days then they are 14 days. not roughly 70 to 85 days.
seems like you guys just love to nit pick anything IS or GI.

You should read this. You can re-download a file at any time - no time limit.

http://www.istockphoto.com/faq/downloading-files#faq-redownloading

And we're not talking about refunds, but paying more to get a larger size of a file you already licensed. And for what it's worth, I was advocating this when I was an iStock exclusive - as were lots of other iStock exclusive contributors, not just customers.

This is about offering good customer service. What it seems like to you is your business.

this is not a discussion about re-downloading so no need to deflect.

it is a discussion about refunds within 14 days, and the buyer is upset that she wanted a refund 70-85 days after purchase to upgrade.

i don't think any company would want to have in their employ extra staff expenditures and/or have the additional accounting expenditures to handle clients who need to be treated with kid gloves and don't read the terms of service and/or feel they should somehow be treated differently.

would you feel this strongly about the total lack of customer service in refunding the purchase if they bought an XXXL Vetta and 70-85 days later they wanted a refund and only really used an XXS Vetta? Would you be so vocal and supportive of customer service at having $85 or more disappearing from your account almost 3 months later? or would this be another excuse to nit pick IS and GI?

Ron · « **Reply #5 on:** February 25, 2014, 03:43 »

Quote from: shudderstok on February 25, 2014, 00:58

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on February 25, 2014, 00:27
Quote from: shudderstok on February 24, 2014, 23:57
if the terms of download and refunds are 14 days then they are 14 days. not roughly 70 to 85 days.
seems like you guys just love to nit pick anything IS or GI.

You should read this. You can re-download a file at any time - no time limit.

http://www.istockphoto.com/faq/downloading-files#faq-redownloading

And we're not talking about refunds, but paying more to get a larger size of a file you already licensed. And for what it's worth, I was advocating this when I was an iStock exclusive - as were lots of other iStock exclusive contributors, not just customers.

This is about offering good customer service. What it seems like to you is your business.

this is not a discussion about re-downloading so no need to deflect.

it is a discussion about refunds within 14 days, and the buyer is upset that she wanted a refund 70-85 days after purchase to upgrade.

i don't think any company would want to have in their employ extra staff expenditures and/or have the additional accounting expenditures to handle clients who need to be treated with kid gloves and don't read the terms of service and/or feel they should somehow be treated differently.

would you feel this strongly about the total lack of customer service in refunding the purchase if they bought an XXXL Vetta and 70-85 days later they wanted a refund and only really used an XXS Vetta? Would you be so vocal and supportive of customer service at having $85 or more disappearing from your account almost 3 months later? or would this be another excuse to nit pick IS and GI?

You are missing the point, they DO refund images well over 14 days, but when its in favor of the contrib they stick to their 14 day period.

KB · « **Reply #6 on:** February 25, 2014, 11:43 »

Quote from: Ron on February 25, 2014, 03:43

You are missing the point, they DO refund images well over 14 days, but when its in favor of the contrib they stick to their 14 day period.

That's a bit unlikely, don't you think? I mean, considering that IS gets 85% of a sale, isn't it they who lose out the most with a policy such as this?

I think it's most likely that they have a policy of allowing refunds to big buyers whenever they ask, regardless of whether they want to buy a bigger file, smaller file, or no file at all. But for most buyers, especially smaller ones, they won't bend on the 2-week limit, even for something as sensible as crediting towards a larger file. They're idiots, and they've proven it countless times.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #7 on:** February 25, 2014, 11:54 »

Point was, you'd think they'd want to encourage buyers to have a good experience and want to upgrade often in the future so everyone gets more money. In this case, the contributor/buyer gets screwed, so he has to pay twice, but IS is happy, because they got twice the royalties for the same usage.

And yes, we've tried over the years to get them to implement it with no luck.

MichaelJayFoto · « **Reply #8 on:** February 25, 2014, 12:05 »

Quote from: shudderstok on February 25, 2014, 00:58

this is not a discussion about re-downloading so no need to deflect.

It is not a discussion about a refund either, so your refund policy hint is a deflection by itself. It is a discussion about a product upgrade with an additional fee which iStock still does not offer but always used to deal with the way described.

In the end it is the least useful way to change customer relations policies you can think of.

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Author Topic: The One Refund You Want (Read 5377 times)

Sean Locke Photography

Jo Ann Snover

shudderstok

Jo Ann Snover

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Ron

KB

Sean Locke Photography

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