Author Topic: New ID requirement - no sales unless you upload ID (Read 10325 times)

Jo Ann Snover · « **on:** January 07, 2016, 11:55 »

I have a small number of photos at Pond5 (don't have more because the sales are so low and their upload process so cumbersome) but I found out today, totally by chance, that if I don't upload an ID my work can't be sold there.

I don't remember getting any e-mail from Pond5 about this, but thought I should post here in case anyone else (like me) didn't upload an ID when originally creating my account and didn't know about this new requirement.

I received e-mail today asking me to fill out a survey telling them what they could improve. At the end, it asked me for my Pond5 user name and account e-mail address. I logged in (which I haven't done for over 6 months) to find out because I had no clue. The upload page had the following alert:

"Welcome! To protect you and your work, we ask all contributing artists to confirm their identity. Your files will not be able to be sold until a valid photo of your ID is uploaded. The accepted types of identification are a passport, drivers license, or other government-issued ID."

There was a note somewhere else on the page that they were urging contributors to complete this step by Jan 1 2016...

I made a JPEG of my driver's license with all the ID numbers pixelated and uploaded it. The response message was:

"Please wait about 7 days for the ID review process to complete. Meanwhile, feel free to upload and prepare your content for the curatorial process.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us."

Sales are so slow there (for photos) that it doesn't matter, but if I had a large portfolio which suddenly wasn't for sale because of a new ID requirement they never told me about, I'd be pretty ticked. Shame I can't go back to the survey and add mishandling this requirement to my list of how they could improve

click_click · « **Reply #1 on:** January 07, 2016, 12:17 »

Thanks for letting us know. I also did the survey but I was already logged in and after I read your message I logged out and back in again to make sure I didn't miss anything.

My ID which I had to update a couple years ago still seems to be valid. So no surprise for me but it is concerning that you didn't receive a notification email from Pond5 about this.

Perhaps you can inquire about this issue and find out whether they never informed anyone upfront or if their email got stuck in Spam filters or something of that kind.

Me · « **Reply #2 on:** January 07, 2016, 12:30 »

Message to upload ID has been on login landing page for months, maybe back to September

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #3 on:** January 07, 2016, 13:08 »

Quote from: Me on January 07, 2016, 12:30

Message to upload ID has been on login landing page for months, maybe back to September

But I don't log in to Pond 5 regularly, and possibly am not the only one. Anything requiring a contributor to take action on their account should be sent via e-mail.

They know where to find me - the survey they asked me to complete demonstrated that.

Shelma1 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 07, 2016, 13:22 »

I signed up three weeks ago and submitted my ID, but it has still not been reviewed. Emails go unanswered.

sharpshot · « **Reply #5 on:** January 07, 2016, 13:27 »

Even worse if you have audio files. I already verified my ID but they wanted me to do it again for audio files just a few months later. I only had 2, so told them they could delete them, as I don't want to keep sending my ID. They should send an email and give us time to upload ID before deactivating files. This is something they can definitely improve on.

ACS · « **Reply #6 on:** January 07, 2016, 13:34 »

I did this several months ago. Since I login almost everyday naturally I noticed maybe in the very first day. At that time it took ~1 week. They didn't accept my national id (not US) at my first attemp then I sent them photo of my passport in the second round.

About the necessity of P5 sending emails to users, you are a hundred percent right.

ACS · « **Reply #7 on:** January 07, 2016, 13:50 »

On the other hand, being not able to sell anything until the new ID verification, doesn't seem true to me. Why they would limit P5's sale potential for such a reason?

DC · « **Reply #8 on:** January 07, 2016, 18:11 »

I haven't uploaded mine yet but I'm still having a good start to the month.

Having said that, I should probably do it soon to ensure that I can keep selling.

roboz · « **Reply #9 on:** January 07, 2016, 20:07 »

Maybe that's the reason why some of my clips pending for 12 weeks now and explains that I had not one sale on more than 5 weeks... I've never received a mail about providing new ID in my private mail account, checked my account, too - nothing. But I guess, it won't do any harm to send them a copy of my current photo ID. Let's see if it is changing the things at Pond5 to a bit better than it is at the moment.

Thanks for posting, Jo Ann

seawhisper · « **Reply #10 on:** January 08, 2016, 09:58 »

Hm I'm not sure. I have ONE sale on pond5 last year. Still my id is hanging there for months now awaiting verification.
This whole site is ridiculous...

rimglow · « **Reply #11 on:** January 08, 2016, 10:45 »

I always thought that they were a video site that dabbled in photography. The key word being dabble.
Started off well, but then lost interest.

BigBubba · « **Reply #12 on:** January 09, 2016, 01:38 »

My id is pending for weeks...but I still get sales.

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Author Topic: New ID requirement - no sales unless you upload ID (Read 10325 times)

Jo Ann Snover

click_click

Me

Jo Ann Snover

Shelma1

sharpshot

ACS

ACS

DC

roboz

seawhisper

rimglow

BigBubba

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