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Author Topic: When the end of the month isn't the end of the month...  (Read 5106 times)

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« on: December 09, 2012, 17:11 »
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I can deal with pretty much any payment system, as long as it's predictable and reasonable.

I wasn't thrilled with PhotoDune's payment system which seemed to be the worst of both worlds - you have to request a payment, unlike SS or 123rf, but when you do, you have to wait until the 15th of the following month to collect your cash.

Imagine my delight to discover today, following a painfully slow exchange of e-mails with support, that when they say "the end of the month", making a request on November 30th - according to their clock in Melbourne - isn't soon enough to qualify.

"We manage our affairs according to time at our headquarters (AEST), which is based in Melbourne, Australia. Withdrawals are processed on the last day of each month, which was November 30th, and on that same day (but after the withdrawals were processed) we also made those deposits for the bundle warnings to the authors."


I had two sales on November 30th after the bundle deposit that he refers to, so I assume they wouldn't count either for the payment to be made December 15th. (I think he means bundle earnings, not bundle warnings).

With SS it's so simple. What you earn up until midnight their time (Eastern Standard) is paid out a week or so later. No rubbish about processing payments on the last day of the month so you don't get that money for another month.

The bundle sales ran from November 13th to 20th, so processing them before the end of the month should have been no problem.

I post this so anyone else who thinks that they can make a request to be paid on the last day of the month won't be fooled as I was by this insane definition of the "end of the month".

And Merry Christmas to me from Envato...


« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2012, 17:28 »
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Yeah, I planned to purchase the last bundle before I left the office one day and it was already "tomorrow" in Australia so I missed it! 

Reef

  • website ready 2026 :)
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2012, 18:13 »
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Its a culture thing! America is a fast paced culture. Need it now not tomorrow, with a "can do" attitude. Australians are way more relaxed, even a little lazy, and typically prefer the pub, beach or BBQ to an office.

« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2012, 18:45 »
+2
Well wouldn't we all prefer the beach to the office?!

I know about the time difference; what got my goat was that even using their own time, they didn't make the cutoff at the end of November 30th, but the day before so they could process payments on the 30th.

I think it's about being straight and following through on what you say. The help is quite clear (although incorrect) in saying "Payments are processed at the end of each calendar month and paid out on the 15th of the following month (or the next business day)"

They actually process payments before the end of the calendar month and should fix the help to say what they do. They they should do that. Every month. No BBQ on the beach exceptions! :)

« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2012, 18:54 »
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These guys just delight in making you jump through hoops.  Earlier this year I closed my account at PD.  They refused to pay me the $12 balance - said I had to wait a year before I could request it.  That's right, a year.    I entered an event in my calendar and you can be d@mn sure they'll get an email from me on that date.  And I'll post their response here.


« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2012, 19:37 »
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Its a culture thing! America is a fast paced culture. Need it now not tomorrow, with a "can do" attitude. Australians are way more relaxed, even a little lazy, and typically prefer the pub, beach or BBQ to an office.
You'll get yourself into trouble with statements like that....

Reef

  • website ready 2026 :)
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2012, 02:29 »
0
Its a culture thing! America is a fast paced culture. Need it now not tomorrow, with a "can do" attitude. Australians are way more relaxed, even a little lazy, and typically prefer the pub, beach or BBQ to an office.
You'll get yourself into trouble with statements like that....

The question is which part will get me into trouble? ;) 

microstockphoto.co.uk

« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2012, 05:14 »
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Its a culture thing! America is a fast paced culture. Need it now not tomorrow, with a "can do" attitude. Australians are way more relaxed, even a little lazy, and typically prefer the pub, beach or BBQ to an office.

Well wouldn't we all prefer the beach to the office?!

Well, I prefer the pub to the office, and I prefer the office to the beach and bbq, but I am neither Australian nor American - so this could actually make a good nonsense poll, with a lot of choices.

« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2012, 05:30 »
0
Its a culture thing! America is a fast paced culture. Need it now not tomorrow, with a "can do" attitude. Australians are way more relaxed, even a little lazy, and typically prefer the pub, beach or BBQ to an office.

Well wouldn't we all prefer the beach to the office?!

Well, I prefer the pub to the office, and I prefer the office to the beach and bbq, but I am neither Australian nor American - so this could actually make a good nonsense poll, with a lot of choices.

YEAH!  give me an old Cornish pirate pub anytime, open log fire, big fat pints of lager, the smell of tar and mahogany. the distant sound of a ships bell, the old cobbled streets.
Ahhh, who * wants to sit here doing micro. :)

« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2012, 05:50 »
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To me, end of the month is rather more vague than you are making it.
If I say I will "see you at the end of the month" it doesn't mean I won't see you until the first day of the next month at precisely one second past midnight. It means in the last few days of the current month.

But it would obviously be better for people if they had a more specific cut-off point.

« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2012, 10:38 »
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You may have a point linguistically but legal agreements do very poorly with ambiguous language. The concept of the reasonable man is used sometimes in trying to untangle such confusion. It wouldn't be hard to make a case that as they have stats pages that switch from one month to the next at midnight on the final day, that's the meaning they should use consistently

« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2012, 10:57 »
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It gets better.

 I just went to set up the cash out for the end of December and what do I see on the radio button for taking my full balance at the end of the month but this text:

"All earnings available at 31 Dec 2012 23:59:59"

So they do have a definition of the end of the month, even if it's not what they do and not what support told me...

« Reply #12 on: December 10, 2012, 11:04 »
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So I just reopened the support ticket with the following. I'll post here with any answer I get.

"I just went to set up a cash out for the end of December - and unless you've just changed the text there, I assume I saw the same thing for November when I tried to cash out last time:

All earnings available at 31 Dec 2012 23:59:59

So the cutoff is not some time earlier on the last day of the month as you said, and apparently your finance people practice, but the last second of the last day of the month. By that definition you should have processed my earnings for November for payment on December 15th.

It is less the money itself than utter frustration at the many ways agencies try to drag out paying artists. You've already long since had money from the customer and are making money on the float.

What I want you do to is get management involved to get the text on the site fixed to reflect what you're actually doing - or do do what the text on the site currently says you're going to do and pay out the balance that's in the account at the very end of the month.

Doesn't seem like a lot to ask."


« Reply #13 on: December 10, 2012, 13:46 »
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Pfff, with a stock agency at the other end of the globe, with requirements for payouts like this I just request the payment 2-3 days before the month is over just to be on the safe side. Then I can just leave it at that and forget about it.

« Reply #14 on: December 10, 2012, 16:00 »
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If Envato had been so kind as to follow your schedule with crediting to me the earnings from the bundle, that might have been a great idea.

But they say it takes 10 days to figure out how much to pay me  (bundle sales were Nov 13-20) and then credit the earnings to me conveniently after the cutoff for the month...

« Reply #15 on: December 10, 2012, 16:08 »
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Pfff, with a stock agency at the other end of the globe, with requirements for payouts like this I just request the payment 2-3 days before the month is over just to be on the safe side. Then I can just leave it at that and forget about it.

Exactly. I missed payment one time because of this. I requested in the last day of the month, but for their Aussie servers was already next month, hour 00:25. Missed by 25 minutes, figure that :P

Don't worry JoAnn, you'll get the cash. And it'll be worth it, I had a file in a bundle a month ago and it earned me over $1000.


 

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