MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => iStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: heywoody on June 22, 2012, 11:44

Title: This brought a smile..
Post by: heywoody on June 22, 2012, 11:44
Got the below from IS.  While, naturally, I'm over the moon about the $0.05  ;) it looks like we have some bugs in the bug fix:

They dropped my royalty rate - I'm at the absolute bottom of the royalty heap, nowhere to drop  :-[

in what universe is 5% of $1.06 = $0.02?  ???

Image ID 0018524378 ain't one of mine - some poor sod is seriously out of pocket  ;D

Hello,

Between January 1-4 a bug occurred which incorrectly dropped your royalty rate by one level, meaning you were paid 5% less on downloads during that period. We have run a script to identify downloads that should have been paid at the higher rate between Jan 1 and Jan 4, 2012. Your account has now been credited with the outstanding amounts. Below is a summary of affected downloads.

     FileID         Amount Paid     Correct Amount   Difference         Date
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0018524378          $01.04               $01.06             $00.02        1/30/2012
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0014920627          $00.66               $00.69             $00.03        1/2/2012
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Amount Paid: $0.05

If you have any further questions please contact Contributor Relations.
                       
Best Regards,
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: cmannphoto on June 22, 2012, 12:00
You might want to remove those image numbers so not to offend the contributor
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: luissantos84 on June 22, 2012, 12:07
ahah perhaps you should call them ;D
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: cathyslife on June 22, 2012, 12:22
The phone call will cost more than $.05.  ;D
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 22, 2012, 13:01
IS has once again messed up the books. There are many contributors affected - and the first "Royalty Adjustment" e-mail was larger than it should have been and full of other contributor's files. The second one was at least our own files, but was a duplicate of one sent out April 19 2012

Couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery! See the help thread  (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=344867&page=1)for the official status.
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: ThomasAmby on June 22, 2012, 13:08
Yup, my balance just bumped with about $120.. I'm expecting them to remove them again, since the referenced photos/illustrations aren't mine. Bravo
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: Newsfocus1 on June 22, 2012, 13:09
Similar email for me today, except in my case I've been credited with nearly $5 of another contributors money. Not worth worrying over 5cents but I'll certainly let them know about the $5. At least it wasn't the refund I was expecting when I saw I had an  "adjustment" email. Wonder how many more mistakes the script threw out? Regards, David.

ETA OK no need to let them know then, they're already on it.
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: Paulo M. F. Pires on June 22, 2012, 13:18
I got an email announcing the rumbling amount of ... 0,03$. Not mine, and no balance update ( I'm too many "floors down" to be struck by a "level bug".. I think )

Anyway, they are powered by Microsoft? ( error in the error information... ).
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: jcpjr on June 22, 2012, 13:34
I received $0.02. Not sure where I'll spend it.
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: lisafx on June 22, 2012, 13:46
I got the letter too.  $5.35 for me.  I didn't even think to look and see if it was my files. 

Guess I better go back and comb through them.
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: StanRohrer on June 22, 2012, 13:52
I got a refund for image 3116877 (not mine).  Check out the picture! ;-) I think that sums this up pretty well.
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: m@m on June 22, 2012, 13:56
I got 0.10, not my image either...but I think I'll use all of that money to go celebrate with the Miami Heat basketball team in South Beach...  
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: mayaartist on June 22, 2012, 14:03
I got $2.10 not mine image too
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: ShadySue on June 22, 2012, 14:39
I got 0.13c on two files; neither of the files were mine.

It seems to be contagious: a couple of months back I got a stroppy email from Alamy saying I'd put my own website URL into the description field of a file; but the file they referenced wasn't mine. It happened to lots of people and an apology email came in the next day.

Last week my stockbroker sent me a blank tax year end note, which I thought I shouldn't have got anyway, and today the apology letter came in, explaining that 'a number of our clients' had received this communication in error.

Slainte
Liz
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: oxman on June 22, 2012, 16:23
I got the same email this morning...  ::)
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on June 22, 2012, 17:13
So they've backed out both the erroneous payments from today, but my balance decreased by less than expected. I checked the PP and that added May 22nd's money, but even accounting for that, the numbers didn't add. Then my balance dropped by another $1.16 but even with that the numbers don't add up. I've been keeping screenshots today with today's sales and the balance at the bottom of the window in cae there's a chance of making sense of what's going on (and in particular having evidence if they suddenly take away much more than the $29.30 they added today by mistake).

If anyone has more at stake than $30, I'd strongly suggest you try to track what they're doing so you can ensure you're not losing money on this snafu.

I've checked the daily and monthly CSV plus today's sales via the my_uploads page and so far can't make anything add up correctly.
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: StanRohrer on June 22, 2012, 17:18
This whole episode reminded me of the iStockPhoto Predictions For 2012 thread from last year....

The same people that wrote the code are now fixing it.  The same people that are fixing it will write the next code.  So I can only see more and longer outages.  Eventually we will hit one where the accounting is so screwed up that iStock will have to admit it can't be fixed. Oh that will be a bad day - but I see it coming in the trends.

We are not quite there yet - no admission of failure.  ;-)
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: w7lwi on June 22, 2012, 20:46
I got all of $1.15.  Didn't even look to see if they were mine and have no intention of doing so.  IS giveth and IS taketh away. Blessed be the name of IS.   ;D
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on June 22, 2012, 21:29
Oh, god, I just got this:

    We have run a script that should have paid out your 2012 Redeemed Credit royalty rate from Jan 1 to Jan 4, 2012 to rectify the royalty change that occurred at that time. Unfortunately this script was processed incorrectly, inaccurate payment and information were sent via e-mail to those affected. We will be removing the incorrect payments made (today - June 22, 2012) and will insure the correct amounts are sent out as soon as possible.

    Total Amount Removed: $0.69.

    We apologize profusely for this inconvenience. If you have any further questions please contact Contributor Relations.

    Best Regards,
    iStockphoto


UN-EFFIN-BELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: Mantis on June 22, 2012, 22:21
Oh, god, I just got this:

    We have run a script that should have paid out your 2012 Redeemed Credit royalty rate from Jan 1 to Jan 4, 2012 to rectify the royalty change that occurred at that time. Unfortunately this script was processed incorrectly, inaccurate payment and information were sent via e-mail to those affected. We will be removing the incorrect payments made (today - June 22, 2012) and will insure the correct amounts are sent out as soon as possible.

    Total Amount Removed: $0.69.

    We apologize profusely for this inconvenience. If you have any further questions please contact Contributor Relations.

    Best Regards,
    iStockphoto



UN-EFFIN-BELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But they do have your best interests at heart!!
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on June 22, 2012, 22:55

But they do have your best interests at heart!!

Of course they don't. but that's not the point. The point is that they apparently don't have a clue about their accounting system. THAT is scary. And I don't attribute it to malice. but it's still scary.
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: Noedelhap on June 22, 2012, 23:13
I did not even bother to check which two images they were talking about, but the big sum of $0,41 I received is for two images that are not mine, either.
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: ShadySue on June 23, 2012, 00:57
It's that 'new kind of trust' JJ spoke about. >:(
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: Mantis on June 24, 2012, 15:48

But they do have your best interests at heart!!

Of course they don't. but that's not the point. The point is that they apparently don't have a clue about their accounting system. THAT is scary. And I don't attribute it to malice. but it's still scary.

Well, I was being facetious.  Totally agree with you.
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: RacePhoto on June 27, 2012, 10:25
Oh wait, mine is even better. (lower) What a waste of time.

Hello,

    We have run a script that should have paid out your 2012 Redeemed Credit royalty rate from Jan 1 to Jan 4, 2012 to rectify the royalty change that occurred at that time. Unfortunately this script was processed incorrectly, inaccurate payment and information were sent via e-mail to those affected. We will be removing the incorrect payments made (today - June 22, 2012) and will insure the correct amounts are sent out as soon as possible.

    Total Amount Removed: $0.06.

    We apologize profusely for this inconvenience. If you have any further questions please contact Contributor Relations.

    Best Regards,
    iStockphoto

And guess what? It wasn't my photo either! So I got someone else's credit, then it got reversed, so in the end, nothing changed except I got a couple of good laughs. Six cents?
Title: Re: This brought a smile..
Post by: donding on June 28, 2012, 10:40
I'm just happy I deleted my port there.... ;D Sounds like the same ol same ol...messing up the books for their benefit so you don't know what's yours or theirs. As long as it's messed up they ain't gotta pay and it's money in their pocket...it's called cash flow....lol