As far as I know, DPC only got us $1 credit sales.  I never had many of those  and was never thrilled to get them anyway so DPC closing is no great loss.

FT has dropped a lot the past 3 weeks or so but it is not the $1 credit sales disappearing so has nothing to do with DPC.  It feels like image buyers are finding ways of getting things for free so sales are dropping almost everywhere.

DPC closed just over 3 weeks ago. Other than the drop straight after that, sales have been good. Only down in volume and now $'s have caught back up to the level before DPC closed it's doors. I'll only be about 400 sales down on the previous month but with better $'s. I can handle more $ per sale and volume will no doubt go back up.

I also noticed a decline in credit sales on FT, it used to be about 20% of all my downloads, sometimes more, last couple of months it has gone down to about 1 credit sale per 10 downloads.

I haven't noticed any reduction in Credit Sales as such, had a good % this morning etc. What I would say is the volume of sales that weren't via credits but are valued between $1.65 & $3.3 have increased. Sales etc are still very good at FT, even after the DPC dip, which should only be short lived as buyers sort themselves out. So while there maybe a slight drop in Vol sales per day after the closure of DPC the larger sales are starting to make up for it.

Edit. Just to be clear, this thread originally related to the specific issue of US sales dropping to near zero. As we now know it seems that it was due to the DPC closing it's doors. Sales with FT as a whole continue to perform well overall (from my experience, ymmv).

Is dpc still active or did they close it down?

If they closed it and most us sales came from it, it would explain the drop.

Are you all opted into dpc?

Yes. well spotted!!!

I don't know why the support team didn't pick up on this when I queried it last week. I guess it will take time for people using that scheme to set up on Adobe Stock or go elsewhere. I'm seeing an improvement this week. It may also explain why there was a sudden increase in sales just before it closed.

Quote from: w7lwi on April 25, 2016, 20:39

Maybe the problem has been fixed

No, the problem is still there.

Yeah, that's how mine looked. I know from speaking to others (don't post here) that there is a problem. Your graph (and others) goes someway to confirm this.

US earnings for the last 6 days look rather abnormal, indeed. Not really zero $/day, but very close. I attached my weekly US revenue rate (% of the total).
~2% instead of the usual ~20% average.

Yeah, that sort of looks like what happened to me. It's improved so far today, about 15%. Below average but not the extreme of the previous days! Hopefully what ever the reason was has passed, been resolved!

Thanks guys, this is what I was thinking. I'm used to recording and monitoring data so when I see something like this then normally rings alarm bells. It's a sign that something has broken.

That said, last week was a good week, especially volumes which were around / over 100 a day so it could be a bit of balancing out. I thought it would've been applied to all sales and not just to US sales, which went to more or less nothing. As you've mentioned, this never happened before. Even Christmas holidays it didn't happen over 4 days.

I was personally thinking it may have been a server issue somewhere (before and conspiracy theories materialise), which was why I contacted support, nothing yet from them. The way things stopped it looked like a fault somewhere. The good news is they seem to have come back on day 6. I've earned more in the first few hours today than all the other days when the potential problem was there with US sales. Fault fixed? or balancing out finished?!?! Who knows but I'll be keeping an eye on it anyway.

So, you're panicking after not having US sales only for 4 days? And write support about it? LOL

Exactly ..... I know, I know  for some reason a wave of paranoia kicked in...... I think I need a couple of days off, some sleep and general R&R. Too many long days with out some time to chill out!

Edit. I should change the title to "Have you worked yourself so hard that it's driven you to complete paranoia" 

My US sales has been increasing for the last 4 months with peak this april (~25%) which was also my best month at Fotolia.

Same here.... just the last 4 days have dropped right off. When you look at the graph for the year it looks like it's flatlined this week. It didn't even do this over the Christmas holiday. I've sent a request to support to see if there is a reason to it. A bit concerning as it impacts on my earnings, which is not good when it's your day job!

Anyone not based in the US noticed a large drop in US sales? Normally avg about 25-50% but for the last 4 days it's been around 5%.

Not for similars, but identical images.

+1
They also recommend keeping images that are the same but processed differently (so look different) to approx 3 I think.

Quote from: HalfFull on December 21, 2015, 11:01

Quote from: Microstockphoto on December 21, 2015, 03:48

I dont think ss has any involvement in the fraud either but they own rex so they are ultimately responsible for what is going on there

Exactly. And, let's see if the same practice was continued this year as well! It's probably a little early to tell as payments are still being/yet to be made by agencies *cough* claiming on behalf of contributors. Let's not forget, this money wasn't going into the persons pocket who carried out the forging so why do it? There are a lot of questions that need answering and SS has to open it's books for investigation otherwise this will hang around them like a fart in an astronauts suit!

I want to see results of the accusations and a investigation just like you. Haven't received my DACS for this year, it's direct deposit into my account. Makes me suspicious why an agency would get paid, not to artist. Makes me suspicious why BAPLA would want to collect for us when membership costs �350.00 per annum for associate.

I've had mine but I applied direct. I just keep a record of what is sold and / or attach my sales statement from Alamy. That way I keep 100% rather than giving and more to agencies, who fairness, already take more than enough from us!

Politics! BAPLA wants to take over from DACS and control distribution. They want to grab money and power claiming it's on behalf of members. What will follow is only BAPLA members will be paid.

Rex did this before they were owned by SS. Read the whole story before making a wrong conclusion or accusing people. This is a partial investigation of Rex and one employee embezzling with forgery, but people jump to accusing SS?

Read every word, then read this. http://tinyurl.com/qavypbt

I've read both documents and my original statement still stands,

"Anyone who submits to Rex, owned by Shutterstock, may want to read this article from the EPUK. Basically, an emoployee/s of Rex have been filling in and Fraudulently signing forms claiming the DACS money without the Contributors permission "

At no point did I say it was a SS employee, only that Rex was owned by SS.

I certainly wouldn't trust any of them as far as I could throw them but, DACs is probably the most trustworthy of them. EPUK has done a great job in the past for standing up for photographers rights so I have no doubt they will continue this battle on until we have answers. The trouble is, Libraries & Photography councils etc all see photographers as a way to make money and when they see this big pile of money, they all want a bit of it even though it's not intended for them.

It all feels like there needs to be some proper regulation put in place but, then the politicians will get involved and no doubt they'd add quangos with an agenda to filter some of that pile of cash towards them.... for managing it of course!

In either event, Fraud has been committed and Rex (SS) needs to open their accounts to investigation to ensure this is not a wide spread thing within their company otherwise trust & share prices could tumble further!

Anyone who submits to Rex, owned by Shutterstock, may want to read this article from the EPUK. Basically, an emoployee/s of Rex have been filling in and Fraudulently signing forms claiming the DACS money without the Contributors permission http://www.epuk.org/news/rex-a-gross-betrayal-of-trust And we're supposed to trust Image Libraries! I just hope the Police are involved and a proper investigation is carried out!