Author Topic: Shutterstock disabled my portfolio, haven't received a payment, no notice (Read 8260 times)

MilanStojanovic · « **on:** January 15, 2018, 23:06 »

I was on SS for around 3 years, with portfolio of ~3500 images. All my images got disabled, without any notice: "This contributor has no active images in their portfolio writes when I visit https://www.shutterstock.com/g/milanstojanovic. I can still login into my account.
What I suspect happend is that in late December, out of blue, someone bought 12 EL (out of 14 images in that series), most of those images aren't that popular, and they all looking alike (similar compositions, one cute woman portraits).
At first I thought it's a bug, went here to check if someone posted about same behavior, saw nothing similar. Still since I earned ~250$ in a day, which if a lot more then usual I didn't get my hopes high. December finished, and soon I got regular automated email stating that my earnings have been compound and that I'll receive earnings in full ("regular" sales + those 12 EL). Around ~5th January my portfolio went missing. I wrote to support on several occasions, no replay. I wrote to them yesterday too, on another topic (15th passed by, which is a time I should received a payment), and posted on SS forum:https://forums.submit.shutterstock.com/topic/70862-missing-images-thread-read-this-before-reporting/?page=26&tab=comments#comment-1654335

I'm ok with them ... evaluating is it a fraudulent transaction and such, but what's upsetting is they didn't give me any notice or replied to my support tickets. At the mean time, sales are down

Any advice, how to even get them to respond? Did anyone had some situation, how did it end?
Thanks!

cobalt · « **Reply #1 on:** January 15, 2018, 23:30 »

It´s surprising that you are not getting a reply. They should at least talk to you. i would keep writing to contributor support and ask in the forums.

Obviously it is not your fault. And of course they need to check what happened.

Please let us know how this proceeds and hopefully you will get your portfolio activated soon.

rinderart · « **Reply #2 on:** January 16, 2018, 01:10 »

Unbelievable , well Not really. But, Please stay On this and let Us Know. Im Getting a feeling theres more to this. Please keep us informed.

Nico · « **Reply #3 on:** January 16, 2018, 01:47 »

Hi, About a year ago I had my account terminated by mistake by SS without any notice from them (no email, no warning, nothing). I panicked and sent them messages both on the support form and forum. It took almost a week to get an answer from them, and they finally put my portfolio back online.

- Time to understand what was happening: 2 days (when they terminate a portfolio, images are disappearing gradually every hour)
- Time to get a reply from SS: 1 week
- Time to get portfolio back online: 3 days (the same as when they terminate a portfolio, when they put it back, images appear gradually)

In total I lost almost 2 weeks of sales because of this event, it was a super low month.

And still, no excuses from SS, no compensation for the lost sales, and mostly: no notice at all before or after it happens. You are alone in front of a huge company that doesn't consider you at all...

I really want SS to fight all kind of bad behaviours (thieves, keyword spammers, money laundering, ...) but they do it with occasional collateral damages which are terrible for normal contributors.

CrFx · « **Reply #4 on:** January 16, 2018, 04:44 »

Quote from: Nico on January 16, 2018, 01:47

You are alone in front of a huge company that doesn't consider you at all...

This is something a company should consider.
Are we nothing for them? ... well the post says it all and is a sad truth.

YadaYadaYada · « **Reply #5 on:** January 17, 2018, 08:33 »

Quote from: Nico on January 16, 2018, 01:47

Hi, About a year ago I had my account terminated by mistake by SS without any notice from them (no email, no warning, nothing). I panicked and sent them messages both on the support form and forum. It took almost a week to get an answer from them, and they finally put my portfolio back online.

- Time to understand what was happening: 2 days (when they terminate a portfolio, images are disappearing gradually every hour)
- Time to get a reply from SS: 1 week
- Time to get portfolio back online: 3 days (the same as when they terminate a portfolio, when they put it back, images appear gradually)

In total I lost almost 2 weeks of sales because of this event, it was a super low month.

And still, no excuses from SS, no compensation for the lost sales, and mostly: no notice at all before or after it happens. You are alone in front of a huge company that doesn't consider you at all...

I really want SS to fight all kind of bad behaviours (thieves, keyword spammers, money laundering, ...) but they do it with occasional collateral damages which are terrible for normal contributors.

They never answered or told you why?

MilanStojanovic · « **Reply #6 on:** January 17, 2018, 20:44 »

Flash news, I got my portfolio activated. Reason why they disabled it is - fraudulent purchases. How many, they didn't tell, they will pay me once they figure out ...
So, its good news in the end

angelawaye · « **Reply #7 on:** January 17, 2018, 20:53 »

Wow, your account gets disabled because of that? What is going on over there!

Artist · « **Reply #8 on:** January 17, 2018, 23:35 »

Quote from: MilanStojanovic on January 17, 2018, 20:44

I got my portfolio activated. Reason why they disabled it is - fraudulent purchases.

I am still wondering if some fraud purchases are found then why disabling contributor portfolio without investigating the whole topic and hurting their earning for a week or two.

Anyways, congrats mate.

JimP · « **Reply #9 on:** January 18, 2018, 09:28 »

Quote from: angelawaye on January 17, 2018, 20:53

Wow, your account gets disabled because of that? What is going on over there!

What should they do, pay him? You want fast action when someone steals your image and uploads, you want slow when someone downloads all from one account EL, which looks very suspicious. They disable to investigate to keep more fraud from going on. They allow accounts to stay while investigating theft or we could report people we don't like and get them shut down for a week. See the difference?

leremy · « **Reply #10 on:** January 18, 2018, 09:49 »

How does this "disabled period" affects your image ranking once it came back online?

YadaYadaYada · « **Reply #11 on:** January 18, 2018, 20:00 »

Quote from: MilanStojanovic on January 17, 2018, 20:44

Flash news, I got my portfolio activated. Reason why they disabled it is - fraudulent purchases. How many, they didn't tell, they will pay me once they figure out ...
So, its good news in the end

Good news. Seems anyone with a fake credit card could close down the competition by targeting people with similar. Good that SS figured out it wasn't you that did this. My question is, why would someone buy 12 EL from the same person and series? Watch for use and watch for stolen images sold by someone new. 12 ELs makes no sense when they could have stolen them with a sub or lower pack price.

MilanStojanovic · « **Reply #12 on:** January 18, 2018, 20:25 »

Quote from: leremy on January 18, 2018, 09:49

How does this "disabled period" affects your image ranking once it came back online?

Hm today sales regular, like any other day. It's back to normal

YadaYadaYada · « **Reply #13 on:** January 18, 2018, 20:26 »

Quote from: MilanStojanovic on January 18, 2018, 20:25

Quote from: leremy on January 18, 2018, 09:49
How does this "disabled period" affects your image ranking once it came back online?
Hm today sales regular, like any other day. It's back to normal

Good to hear, just like the being back is good to hear.

qunamax · « **Reply #14 on:** January 19, 2018, 04:53 »

I thought fake and stolen credit cards were left back in 1990s.

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

MicrostockGroup Sponsors

Author Topic: Shutterstock disabled my portfolio, haven't received a payment, no notice (Read 8260 times)

MilanStojanovic

cobalt

rinderart

Nico

CrFx

YadaYadaYada

MilanStojanovic

angelawaye

Artist

JimP

leremy

YadaYadaYada

MilanStojanovic

YadaYadaYada

qunamax

Related Topics

Sponsors

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors