I had some ELs turned into 28 cents too... So they were a mistake? They were actually 28 cent downloads?

Yes, those sales weren't EL sales to begin with, according to iStock. I had this confirmed by the support desk.

In my opinion, $1000 is way too cheap. Consider the fact you'll never be able to sell that file again. How much money will it make in a lifetime? Then at least double or triple that amount.

Also consider why the client would like the rights. They'll probably use it for a marketing campaign or several media publications for a long time. That's worth something.

I once sold an image (through another agency) for more than $5000. I wasn't involved in the negotiations but somehow the client (a big company) agreed to it. So my advice is, never go too low out of fear. You might be missing out on big bucks.

let's see the other side, imagine I was an illustrator like you, possibly a good competitor with similar work, your site was down and I took advantage on your own twitter saying that my website is running and could give a discount as well, how would you feel?

It's a business, not a playground.
I think it's completely fair to make use of one company's downtime to promote your own images. We're running a business, so this has nothing to do with hurting other people's feelings, it's about competition. It's aggressive, sure, but every business person with a sense of marketing would make use of situations like this. The buyer needs an image, so as Istocks competitor, you have a choice:
1) don't market your own site (to avoid hurting iStocks feelings), wait for an undetermined amount of time for istock to come up (could be hours), while the buyer needs an image NOW
2) use aggressive marketing to earn some money (the goal of any good business), get a happy buyer, destroy your competitor (in this case, iStock, who, by the way, fully deserves to lose buyers over this)

I cannot understand why you dont stop doing business with them. Dont you have any pride or principles?

Pride doesn't pay your rent.

I requested payout before receiving the mail that they were taking the money out.  My balance before they took the money out was showing as .76.  I don't see any balance showing now - not negative numbers, not anything.  Weird. 

I assume either they will take it out of the request I made, or I should be in negative numbers at the moment. 

Ahh, you know you could have gotten the .76 as well, just type it after the dollar amount.

I cashed out as well, right before they removed the money. On the Financials tabs it shows the negative amount.

They recouped the first instalment. Without providing data. I consider this theft if they are unwilling to provide the evidence to support their recoupment claim.

I bet they're waiting as long as possible to get some more interest on the money they are withholding from us.

Quote from: Noedelhap on February 24, 2014, 18:49

Sent a ticket to CR:

Dear Istock Contributor Relations,

I have received your Partner Program Recoupment Notification.
Because your administration has shown to be prone to huge errors affecting many contributors, I want to make sure no mistakes are being made with this recoupment plan.
Therefore, I demand a full, detailed report featuring all misreported sales, the amount paid and the amount recouped before you take any money from my account.

You may email this report to [email protected].

Your sincerely,
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Username: Noedelhap

Don't hold your breath: there's a ticket backlog:

Yeah, I was aware of the backlog, so I doubt they'll respond to it, let alone with a report, but it can't hurt to let them know we're expecting a certain level of professionalism from them.

It was much more than I had expected. "We discovered that there were some irregularities" is a big understatement. And indeed, not even an apology? Unbelievable. Not only because they actually screwed up, but also because we apparently can't expect much more in terms of PP sales.

That was 5 weeks ago. I don't think I got an e-mail. I guess I'll have to go back and look for it.

Don't waste your time. They haven't sent any email whatsoever. They love to keep their contributors guessing.


Not surprisingly, Lobo confirmed that there have been no underpayments, only overpayments. Of course. How convenient for them.

I did bad, in December. Both in terms of PP and regular sales. Luckily, January is on the up again.

Sales are going well. Not better or worse than last year, but it's still steady.