But what you don't seem to be understanding is that if it is a 'routing issue' as seems likely - then the problem probably isn't at iStock.

But I'm sure that they'll be trying to find out where the problem is.

(Who do you blame if a letter goes missing? The senders?)

No I don't work for iStock

But, in the first post on that thread which you linked to, there is reference to this probably being a routing issue. Which would certainly make sense. I've certainly experienced similar problems with other sites which were down to routing.

Routing issues are notoriously difficult to sort out quickly - somewhere between them and you there will be some computer which isn't working right. Someone brighter than me can probably point you towards a howto for route - tracing .... which would probably identify the point on the chain between them and you (or you and them - more significantly) which is causing the problem.

EDIT: somewhat ironically - I've been getting timing out issues with this forum over the past few days. The internets are like that.

Certainly SS is an interesting site and I know that it is well liked. I'm absolutely keeping an eye on it.

But currently - (and I know that things change all the time) - I think that the SS library has too much material which just doesn't look good enough and which makes the site seem less than serious.

Not to say that they have't also got some very useable images.

Maybe they should have a spring clean - and start accepting a few less images. Raise the bar, so to speak