Yeah, I couldn't believe it when I saw it on the forum. I would like to say that they must be happy banging nails in their coffin, but no one will leave FT and FT will carry on as it always has, because they can.

Yeah not just shocking but sad very sad it was the first site I joined and used to love being a contributor with them, but recently have took all my images off exclusive and started uploading them at other sites.
I only wish I could attend one of the Fotolia board meetings if only to bang a few heads together and make them see what they are doing to us contributors and perhaps make a little change 

Quote from: massman on February 01, 2010, 13:19

... but no one will leave FT and FT will carry on as it always has, because they can.

I will __ most definitely. Do they really think they can increase prices to the customers by over 30% and pass none of it to us? They are supposed to be paying us a fixed % royalty on our sales and when prices go up then so should our commissions. I've taken copies of all the relevant documentation and am seriously considering taking court action to recover the difference.

Once again FT are acting as Istock's Chief Exclusivity Recruiting Officer.

I did.  That dictatorial attitude drove me away long ago.  Actually, I left eight images there just so I could "stay in touch."   

Quote from: massman on February 01, 2010, 13:19

... but no one will leave FT and FT will carry on as it always has, because they can.

I will __ most definitely. Do they really think they can increase prices to the customers by over 30% and pass none of it to us? They are supposed to be paying /us a fixed % royalty on our sales and when prices go up then so should our commissions. I've taken copies of all the relevant documentation and am seriously considering taking court action to recover the difference.

Once again FT are acting as Istock's Chief Exclusivity Recruiting Officer.

BTW, they never really did. And all depends on where one happened to register. Even though I registered from withink EU, I'm $$ contributor meaning that one my credit is 1$. Whereas others may have their credits praiced in Euros or Pounds and in fact earn significantly more per credit.

In they are selling their credits in variying prices, then they need to give us variable commissions for every sale based on the credit spent price. Just like IS does.

If they are selling their credits in variying prices, then they need to give us variable commissions for every sale based on the credit spent price. Just like IS does.

Exactly. The % commission stated should be paid to the contributor __ that's all we're asking for.

If a UK customer buys the basic package of 20 credits then those sales are being paid at just 25.5% commission to Gold level contributors. If you are a UK customer you have to buy a package of 700 credits or more before you are paying equal or less than they are paying us.

I just requested payout and am ready to pull my port.
I was already sick of all their sneaky tricks and about my pics being sold on all sorts of sketchy partners i know nothing about. This one is just the drop.
A question though: i've never closed my account before.... my payout request on FT is now pending and my credits are at $0,78. (they can keep that). Should i wait until the money hits paypal before closing my account or is it safe to do it right now?
Thanks!

OM,

I havent taken all my images off Fotolia ( I need the income !) just took them from exclusive images so I can sell the same images elsewhere. 

Not sure which Warren he's talking about, mate; there are two of us.
WarrenP

Quote from: warren0909 on February 01, 2010, 14:06

OM,

I havent taken all my images off Fotolia ( I need the income !) just took them from exclusive images so I can sell the same images elsewhere. 

Not sure which Warren he's talking about, mate; there are two of us.
WarrenP

Oh no, not 2!  Sorry hadn't seen that. I'll go with Warren0909's strategy.

My post vanished?  

This is just shocking.  I hope there is some misunderstanding.  The reply to Warren is confusing to me, but the tone seems pretty dismissive.

If they really aren't going to be passing this increase on to contributors then I think Gostwyck is right - they are doing the work of recruiting exclusives for Istock.

Maybe an admin will come on and explain what's going on?  Or perhaps Matt can find out?  

Quote from: stardust on February 01, 2010, 14:13

Do wait for the money to come through, artemis, nothing is safe with them.

Thankies, will do

By the way, probably not what you want to hear right now, but it might be better not to have your account closed, but to delete all your images yourself. That way, you keep your cannister level. You never know, if they are sold some day or some kind of miracle happens you might want to go back. But do keep in mind, if you go and keep your account with an empty port, and one day you want to go exclusive elsewhere, you will have to check their partner sites before exclusivity. Seems to take ages before pixmac and co. delete images.

Don't think so! People have been having trouble with the partner sites and becoming exclusive to istock. When you've deleted them on FT, wait a while, and then contact pixmac or any other site you can still find your images on directly.

This may actually be even worse than we realised at first, especially for USA contributors.

I've got a buddy who is an infrequent buyer of images from FT. He usually buys the minimum package of 21 credits which will now cost him �20 or �0.95 per credit. If he then buys a Medium image for 5 credits it will have cost him �4.75 or about $7.60.

If that image happened to be from a UK contributor at Gold level the royalty will be 1.7 credits which, at �0.75 per credit, will pay �1.275. That's less than 27% of the purchase price __ not the 34% commission that is supposed to be paid.

Now let's assume the image purchased was from a USA contributor at Gold level. The Medium image still costs 5 credits, yes? The contributor gets 1.7 credits which, with a conversion ratio of 1/$1, will result in a payment of $1.70. That's the equivalent of �1.06 or just 22.4% of the original purchase price __ much, much less than the 34% commission the contributor is entitled to.

Even if the UK buyer buys the largest credit package available (3200 credits at �2000 or �0.63 per credit) the USA contributor will still only receive 33.6% of the purchase price __ still less than the stated commission of 34%.