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Adobe Stock / Unfairly Blocked - My Story
« on: January 24, 2024, 18:12 »
Hi
Allow me to vent my frustration, and sorry if my english is bad.
I joined AS in 2020, a few years before that i was creating a collection of hand-drawn calligraphic names and words.
The volume reached 5k then filtered to 4k, not that impressive volume, but you can say it's somehow unique and rare.
I was planning to sell and create my own website, but i'm sure some of you know how hard and costly this is, especially the promoting, so i cancelled the idea and picked AS after reading some good reviews about it.
I begin to upload my work there, and honestly it wasn't painful with their clean UI, a direct EPS file upload without the JPG, and the CSV import to index the content at once.
Even the first month wasn't a zero earnings, which made me excited to continue uploading the whole work.
My humble target was only to hit the number $50 per month, which will cover my electric bill! it's like AS is paying your electric bill each month which is cool.
But then things got better, $100, then $200, the average was $250 which made me create new artworks.
2 years passed until Nov 8, 2022. I was checking my portfolio every morning to find that there was like a $300 extra earnings added to the last amount i checked before i sleep, and that amount was increasing like every 1-3 minutes until it stopped at around $640 and something within around 2-3 hours.
I felt happy in the beginning (this is good for me and for Adobe!) then a bit worried about whether Adobe provide protection for its contributor's work or not, in case someone decides to download and resell outside U.S., plus, my gut told me to report to them what happend to check if that's okay and normal, then they will thank you for the good work and for increasing their profits! (what a fool for thinking about both ideas!).
Anyways, i received a quick reply which thanks me for reporting this issue and our financial team will check suspicious sales. The next day my account received a nice block, and (You should contact us) was written on the page.
I sent them the normal and natural message which says why my account is blocked? and blah blah, then i received which seems like an automated response that says (Since your account has appeared in the context of highly irregular sales activities, the account will remain blocked until further notice).
I waited like 1 week, then sent them "Hi, wondering what happend and when you can remove this block, etc. and what this until "further notice" usually takes!" but i was like talking to a wall, then sent them another message 2 weeks later to remind them, then a 3rd final one that explains the nature of my designs and that someone could need a lot of files like a wedding cards service, necklaces with names on it, etc, created some scenarios for what could possibly have happened that time, a long message that will make that wall say something, but there was no response either.
Of course, I didn't expect the ugly feeling I went through to be this big! i had read a similar story that time for a guy on a Discord group who had suffered an extreme mental breakdown and didn't want to design anymore. I'm sure there are many others are feeling this way.
When I was waiting for any update from them like a beggar, I discovered two significant defects and some nonsense connected to what's called Adobe Artist Relations moderators and the rules they follow, as well as the admins in the Adobe Community.
What pushed me to post this is the word (Integrity) that i noticed today on Adobe website in their footer area, after I had almost forgotten the whole thing.
*Will continue the story if someone is interested! i'm really tired now! thx
~ Continuing..
AS disaster 1: When my issue was still unresolved, I sent about three messages without receiving a response. At that point, I began to lose hope.
A few months ago, a friend advised me to persevere and suggested that I direct my attention to the manager. Taking their advice, I sent a new message, and it seems to have worked! I received a reply stating, "I was able to talk to my moderator, and we were able to recover your files. Here's your new portfolio at this link. However, you can't withdraw your previous earnings, and if this issue repeats, your account will be automatically blocked again."
Although I didn't like the outcome, I replied with, "Okay, thanks a lot for your help. But why are my earnings being seized? I don't understand! If you can provide solid proof that I did something wrong, I will delete the account myself. Can you at least tell me how to avoid this 'suspicious sales' issue? Can I hide my portfolio when I notice something unusual or pause sales when I see someone downloading a lot of my files?
He replied "As for the suspicious sales; I don't think there's anything you can do to avoid these. As long as you comply with our Terms, you shouldn't be banned, Just let us know if you see any suspicious sales or activity in the account, so i can inform the correct department ahead of time."
*I've attached a screenshot, and I've hidden his name because he seems like a regular employee who follows orders.
Focus on the part (Just let us know if you see any suspicious sales or activity in the account) which i precisely did! Hello!
AS disaster 2: When it comes to the Adobe Community, the help from admins and experts is undeniable, but it appears that they consistently support Adobe's stance, even in the face of evidence and facts. This leads me to believe that their assistance is not entirely for free; there might be some form of compensation involved, at least a significant discount on Adobe products! I can't be certain, but it doesn't seem entirely free.
There were numerous replies between me and the experts! in Adobe Community, but in short, they were confident that Adobe Stock would not block anyone unless they deserved it, and it's easy for them to distinguish between fake sales and real sale, so, I will just gently say, 'They are not being honest with themselves.' I'm actually thinking about making a list for those whose accounts were unfairly blocked, because there are so many.
Imagining the daily loss of revenue and the effort in building the portfolio is very frustrating because of their stupid terms and rule, beside the psychological harm they caused for us.
Will update this if there's anything new, thanks for reading.
Allow me to vent my frustration, and sorry if my english is bad.
I joined AS in 2020, a few years before that i was creating a collection of hand-drawn calligraphic names and words.
The volume reached 5k then filtered to 4k, not that impressive volume, but you can say it's somehow unique and rare.
I was planning to sell and create my own website, but i'm sure some of you know how hard and costly this is, especially the promoting, so i cancelled the idea and picked AS after reading some good reviews about it.
I begin to upload my work there, and honestly it wasn't painful with their clean UI, a direct EPS file upload without the JPG, and the CSV import to index the content at once.
Even the first month wasn't a zero earnings, which made me excited to continue uploading the whole work.
My humble target was only to hit the number $50 per month, which will cover my electric bill! it's like AS is paying your electric bill each month which is cool.
But then things got better, $100, then $200, the average was $250 which made me create new artworks.
2 years passed until Nov 8, 2022. I was checking my portfolio every morning to find that there was like a $300 extra earnings added to the last amount i checked before i sleep, and that amount was increasing like every 1-3 minutes until it stopped at around $640 and something within around 2-3 hours.
I felt happy in the beginning (this is good for me and for Adobe!) then a bit worried about whether Adobe provide protection for its contributor's work or not, in case someone decides to download and resell outside U.S., plus, my gut told me to report to them what happend to check if that's okay and normal, then they will thank you for the good work and for increasing their profits! (what a fool for thinking about both ideas!).
Anyways, i received a quick reply which thanks me for reporting this issue and our financial team will check suspicious sales. The next day my account received a nice block, and (You should contact us) was written on the page.
I sent them the normal and natural message which says why my account is blocked? and blah blah, then i received which seems like an automated response that says (Since your account has appeared in the context of highly irregular sales activities, the account will remain blocked until further notice).
I waited like 1 week, then sent them "Hi, wondering what happend and when you can remove this block, etc. and what this until "further notice" usually takes!" but i was like talking to a wall, then sent them another message 2 weeks later to remind them, then a 3rd final one that explains the nature of my designs and that someone could need a lot of files like a wedding cards service, necklaces with names on it, etc, created some scenarios for what could possibly have happened that time, a long message that will make that wall say something, but there was no response either.
Of course, I didn't expect the ugly feeling I went through to be this big! i had read a similar story that time for a guy on a Discord group who had suffered an extreme mental breakdown and didn't want to design anymore. I'm sure there are many others are feeling this way.
When I was waiting for any update from them like a beggar, I discovered two significant defects and some nonsense connected to what's called Adobe Artist Relations moderators and the rules they follow, as well as the admins in the Adobe Community.
What pushed me to post this is the word (Integrity) that i noticed today on Adobe website in their footer area, after I had almost forgotten the whole thing.
*Will continue the story if someone is interested! i'm really tired now! thx
~ Continuing..
AS disaster 1: When my issue was still unresolved, I sent about three messages without receiving a response. At that point, I began to lose hope.
A few months ago, a friend advised me to persevere and suggested that I direct my attention to the manager. Taking their advice, I sent a new message, and it seems to have worked! I received a reply stating, "I was able to talk to my moderator, and we were able to recover your files. Here's your new portfolio at this link. However, you can't withdraw your previous earnings, and if this issue repeats, your account will be automatically blocked again."
Although I didn't like the outcome, I replied with, "Okay, thanks a lot for your help. But why are my earnings being seized? I don't understand! If you can provide solid proof that I did something wrong, I will delete the account myself. Can you at least tell me how to avoid this 'suspicious sales' issue? Can I hide my portfolio when I notice something unusual or pause sales when I see someone downloading a lot of my files?
He replied "As for the suspicious sales; I don't think there's anything you can do to avoid these. As long as you comply with our Terms, you shouldn't be banned, Just let us know if you see any suspicious sales or activity in the account, so i can inform the correct department ahead of time."
*I've attached a screenshot, and I've hidden his name because he seems like a regular employee who follows orders.
Focus on the part (Just let us know if you see any suspicious sales or activity in the account) which i precisely did! Hello!
AS disaster 2: When it comes to the Adobe Community, the help from admins and experts is undeniable, but it appears that they consistently support Adobe's stance, even in the face of evidence and facts. This leads me to believe that their assistance is not entirely for free; there might be some form of compensation involved, at least a significant discount on Adobe products! I can't be certain, but it doesn't seem entirely free.
There were numerous replies between me and the experts! in Adobe Community, but in short, they were confident that Adobe Stock would not block anyone unless they deserved it, and it's easy for them to distinguish between fake sales and real sale, so, I will just gently say, 'They are not being honest with themselves.' I'm actually thinking about making a list for those whose accounts were unfairly blocked, because there are so many.
Imagining the daily loss of revenue and the effort in building the portfolio is very frustrating because of their stupid terms and rule, beside the psychological harm they caused for us.
Will update this if there's anything new, thanks for reading.
