Quote from: Striving on April 08, 2015, 05:01
I'm glad you got paid. I haven't been paid yet and was owed over $200.00+. Now my balance reads $7.00!!!! Yeah, same here: No response to my inquiries.

Same here - contacted IS 10 days ago who a few days later told me to contact Getty - not a word back - the customer service issues are appalling - have no idea what is going on, can get no one to respond other than to pass the buck and meanwhile over a $100 missing from my account for a month. I think its time to pull images from IS - too much hassle for too little return.

I have been travelling over the holidays and had not checked my portfolios for close to 3 weeks - I was totally shocked - not a single download in that time on IS - not one since the 9th of December - in the same period I made almost $70 on SS - only about $20 on DT but at least something -  I know my sales have been getting worse on IS worse but this is beyond belief. They must really be suffering a massive loss of customers. 

I live here in Hong Kong and am a Hong Konger and even I agree its a stupid place for this event - this is one of the most expensive cities in the world - hotel rooms are between US$300 and $500 for even a simple mediocre business hotel. The cost of renting a place for shoots would be more expensive than they can imagine. Pollution means we see blue skies less than half the time and live with permanent grey haze so outdoor photography is challenging. If you think I exaggerate do a search on "Hong Kong" and you will see the lack of diversity in photographs on offer.   

Singapore or Bangkok are a much better choice - in fact Bangkok would be a terrific choice - interesting culturally and affordable.   

I love your portfolio - great job - agree with Sean - lose about half of the baby photos because there are just so many of them not because they are not good - I am impressed with your work. Best of luck - Stocksy would be foolish to reject your work IMHO.

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on October 23, 2013, 11:47
I've just found out that the info iStock gave me was wrong. You don't have to have a separate card from them at all, once you click on the sign-up it takes you to the Payoneer site and Payoneer asks if you have a pre-existing account you want to pay into. It's nothing to do with iStock, payoneer will just issue direct payments into whatever account you happen to have.

FYI I have used a Dreamstime labled payoneer for IS for years - no problem.

Quote from: PZF on October 23, 2013, 09:54
OK - thanks to all. Will pursue...
It seems the sites that use it ALL want you to have THEIR Payoneer card which sounds just crazy....not to mention expensive!!!
Thanks again.

I use the same card for all the sites and it works very well. I am a fan of payoneer and think it's a sensible option for people outside of North America and Europe.

Quote from: Ron on October 12, 2013, 20:26
I dont think its smart to abandon PayPal. Its extremely popular in the USA and you can get a lot of overseas buyers if you use PayPal, I know for example in Germany PayPal is popular because Germans do not like to use credit cards, they want to make bank payments, which is easy with PayPal.

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/ent-online-attract-shoppers

Yes Paypal is great if you are located in North America or parts of Europe but they have no legal presence in Asia and they stole hundreds of dollars from my account and I was unable to get jurisdiction over them legally to try and get my money from them - I see paypal and I run in the opposite direction - they are beyond disgraceful in how they treat people in certain parts of the world. I have never hated a company more than I do paypal because they manipulate unequal situations -  I could get my money from them if I travelled to California and took legal action but obviously not an option when we are talking about less than a thousand US dollars - and they are well aware of that.

I favour the Payoneer route myself - and if it is a large purchase and I dont have a big enough balance then I transfer money into the account -but I feel safer using them online than credit cards. And I view Payoneer as evil. Honestly I do.

I was looking for a photo yesterday and the pages took so long to load - as in 3 plus minutes per page load if at all - that I gave up completely. Not that I really care that much I was just looking up something for a friend but I kept thinking how many customers must have simply given up - the site at this moment is essentailly not useable - at least from Asia.

Best of luck to Sean - I am a buyer primarily - I stopped buying from istock quite a long time ago. From time to time there were exclusive istock shooters who I secretly wished would leave istock so I could purchase their work - Sean was one of them - I know I am not alone. I look forward to being able (at least I hope so anyway) to buy your work very soon.

Quote from: jatrax on February 14, 2013, 04:51
Despite everyone lumping Istock and Getty into the same hat I think it is important to make a distinction.  When the Google Drive deal was announced the first posts in the Istock forum by admins amounted to "what deal?  Umm let us get back to you on that we need to check with corporate".  They could have been lying but I do believe Istock staff were not informed of this, or at least it never got down to the level of people who post on forums.  The Google Drive deal was done by Getty and it seems they neglected to inform Istock about it until it came out in the wash.

Istock staff MAY care about their contributors but their bosses at Getty certainly do not...

I am afraid I disagree with this and think you are perhaps a tad naive - istock IS Getty - we are not talking about a sale that just occurred here - we are talking a sale that happened YEARS ago now - I know people are trying to find a way to justify the behaviour of istock staff because it makes you feel better and you want very much to believe that they are honest, moral people - but they ARE GETTY - istock has not existed for a long time - those who did not agree with Getty and its approach long ago left istock - the people there are not istock people they are Getty people and they do Getty's bidding  - they are Getty people through and through, 100%. To believe otherwise is naive - if they were not Getty people they would have left  istock a long time ago.

It is naive too to think you have a personal/emotional relationship with Getty/Istock employees - it is a business - they are running Getty's business. Nothing more, nothing less. You are not a friend to them and they are not your friend. You are a commodity only.

Another supporter:

Open Rebellion At iStockphoto

http://outwardtrends.blogspot.hk/2013/01/open-rebellion-at-istockphoto.html

Quote from: EmberMike on October 25, 2012, 15:56
I'm a on-and-off SS subscriber. It varies depending on my workload. If I'm particularly busy with client work that requires enough stock images, I keep the subscription going.

This is me exactly - I would say I maintain my SS sub around half the time or maybe a little more. I used to buy at DT up until last year but their price changes became confusing and then they have less choice so tried SS and boy, they are great. 

Quote from: Pixart on September 05, 2012, 03:15

Quote from: cmannphoto on September 05, 2012, 02:28You need to check you browser settings or something because it is fine on my screen

Yup, you are probably right.  This is what I see (or don't see).

Same 4 me ...

oh and Mr istock "emberMike" - just to let you know - it is peak time for half the world - the world does not revolve around western canada - it is Tuesday smack dab in the work day and deadline time so sorry, you screw your buyers in half the world  - which means I suppose that your buyers in Austral/asia are so few you can afford to alienate them by not considering their "peak time" - otherwise yes Sunday would make sense for downtime - which tells me secondly you are not growing in the part of the world that is doing best financially and is growing fastest. Ominous for istock.

How badly can you run this site I wonder? SS never ever has these issues.

Quote from: tab62 on July 05, 2012, 00:04
Yes, some of you are making a killing on DT but the last four months I seen my sales go down by 90%. Each month seems to be getting worse and worse- I am still uploading praying that things will get better but so far nothing. I wonder if I am the only one? 

Sadly my numbers are way down as well, especially noticeable the last couple of months. I have no explanation for this but I am saddened by it because I used to be one of their biggest fans and supporters, both as a contributor and buyer. But I must confess that their price rises led me to switch over to SS as a buyer which proved to be of better value when considering both price and selection. I have gone back and looked at DT again since they said they were adjusting their prices but I don't see any changes so will continue to stick with SS for the forseeable future.   

No not for me (I am in Asia). Try this:

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

Quote from: wut on April 16, 2012, 22:38
What I like about IS reviews is that they can appreciate a different photo, artsy etc, probably because they have the Vetta collection.

Can non-exclusives get into Vetta now? That would be awesome if we can ...?

I can add my input as a buyer - I looked at them about 2 years or so ago and did not bother with them because their offering was too small. I took another look 3 months ago and was impressed that their number has grown - I opened an account and have been buying there ever since - I also would be happy to pay a little more too if they raised prices.

yup slow for me too - especially over the past 6 weeks or so ... but simply ebb and flow methinks ... or so I hope.

Are there actually exclusives that are going to drop the crown after this? I suspect not too many as most will probably feel vested and not willing to take the risk whatever their misgivings about Getty might be - as has been the case over the last few years they will most likely continue to say "I will wait and see ...".

As more of a buyer than contributor I do wish more exclusives would leave IS because I would love to have access to the ports of many of them (I have not purchased at IS for years for a variety of reasons). But I doubt it.

Am I the only one who kinda really does not feel that sorry for them if I am being totally honest? I mean they hung with the evil empire - in their tweets they talk about shutting their mouths when they saw bad stuff happening - I know the economy sucks and maybe finding jobs will be harder but if they sat back and watched the contributors get screwed and kept their mouth shuts and continued to work for them regardless when others (see Rob S) left as a matter of principle - sorry but you kinda get what you deserve no? Am I just cold hearted and harsh? 

Quote from: luissantos84 on December 12, 2011, 22:22
Hello,

A few of your file downloads were paid royalties at the wrong rate
and we have made adjustments to your account balance to make up the difference.

A balance adjustment of $0.05 was added to your account.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you have any questions, hit us up anytime by email ([email protected]) or phone (1-866-478-6251).

   The iStock Team

Lol - me too but I got more !!
Hello,

A few of your file downloads were paid royalties at the wrong rate and we have made adjustments to your account balance to make up the difference.

A balance adjustment of $0.27 was added to your account.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you have any questions, hit us up anytime by email ([email protected]) or phone (1-866-478-6251).
   
    The iStock Team

Quote from: YadaYadaYada on December 10, 2011, 01:32
What a negative place. Its for buyers not us. It rememebrs what they searched for before and targets them with similar results. I builds sales and you complain.

I am a buyer

Quote from: ShadySue on December 08, 2011, 15:29
I go into Harrods, see the price of soap, squeak and walk out again. Will the shop drop their price? There seem to be plenty of people willing to pay a huge premium just to have a bar of soap with a Harrods wrapper.

The problem is too that IS is not Harrods - it is the dollar store acting like it is Harrods - and shoppers at the dollar store do not want to shop at Harrods and shoppers at Harrods do not want top shop at the dollar store - IS has lost its way big time.

Quote from: sjlocke on December 08, 2011, 02:50
Hmmm, let's see... Serving images to buyers after they had seen them earlier to entice them back vs. the cost of contributors who have nothing better to do than look at their ports.  Probably worth the money.

Not to mention the buyers who will think the photo(s) they may be interested in buying are already being used for another campaign and are hence overexposed, prompting them not to buy.

Quote from: Pixart on December 03, 2011, 04:58
Since they seem to have learned absolutely nothing in the past couple years, I predict that they:

1.  Will lower commissions while raising redemed credits
2.  Will raise prices
3.  Will break something that wasn't broken

4. And will continue their slow yet inexorable decline - then be sold off at the end of the year before it get too pear shaped.