Finally got a reply back:

Quote

"Hello,

Thank you very much for writing.

Regarding the closure of Stockfresh, we are going to pay all contributors who are above the $50 minimum payment threshold, as stated in the Contributor Agreement (https://stockfresh.com/info/ca).

If you are below the $50 minimum payment threshold, you can either
        a) wait for customers to download your images to reach the threshold before October 17 and make a request before November 1, or
        b) contact support to have your images removed from the website without payment at any time, with immediate effect.

If you have any other questions let us know.

Best regards,
Customer support
https://stockfresh.com"

As sales are basically non-existent, there is no way I'll reach $50 before October 17th. Which means that any balance below $50 will not be paid out (if I understand correctly)...Which is very, VERY BAD.

Now you think they are a turd?

I found that Stockfreash is based in Hungary.
I dont know if the CEO is still involved in the acyivity of SF but I intend to claim against the company and those behind.
There are several ways to report internet fraud (*) (I guess we are in this category) in the EU.
This is a general one at EU level:
https://ec.europa.eu/anti-fraud/contacts/fraud-reporting-form_en
The other one through the national police
https://www.europol.europa.eu/report-a-crime/report-cybercrime-online
There are probably other ways to proceed as well, If you have ideas let us know.
There must be also claims options fron non EU countries
I will wait few days before claiming but will do so when the best option is clear-

(*) I know < 50 dollars is not much money, but it is not acceptable. What next? company having buisiness models based on unreached limits?
I guess we are > 4000 contributors (?)  a vast majority below the threshhold (most ask payment when reaching the limit) so say 3000 contributors with an avg of 25 dollars: this is 75.000 dollars
Individaully the fraud is small, but with the numbers it is far from being peanuts.

One additional wrinkle in this story.  I just sent SF the following message:

Quote

I attempted to request payment of royalties on my account.  You now require a Certificate of Residency.  As a US resident, the cost of such a certificate is $85, which coincidentally is the amount of money owed to me.  Additionally, processing of the certificate and mailing it will likely take longer than you plan to be in business.  Is there any less onerous way to demonstrate my citizenship/residency that will satisfy your requirements? 

Thank you for your attention.

so this is a kind of new threshold in case you were over 50 $....
This seem to confirm that SF is not the "fair" agency we though they were!

Since they added this requirement some time back, I've successfully processed numerous payments by providing an invoice. It's an alternative to the residence certificate and is accepted. You just need to add these details:

TO: Stockfresh.com Kft. Medve utca 24, Budapest 1027 Hungary
EU VAT No.: HU23009701

Hope that helps.

I hope so too.  I'll give it a try.

Quote from: disorderly on September 26, 2020, 10:02

One additional wrinkle in this story.  I just sent SF the following message:

Quote

I attempted to request payment of royalties on my account.  You now require a Certificate of Residency.  As a US resident, the cost of such a certificate is $85, which coincidentally is the amount of money owed to me.  Additionally, processing of the certificate and mailing it will likely take longer than you plan to be in business.  Is there any less onerous way to demonstrate my citizenship/residency that will satisfy your requirements? 

Thank you for your attention.

you don't need to make it as complicated for yourself.. just a utility bill will do..

Turns out I didn't need to worry.  SF Support said an ID was all they wanted, and under the circumstances, they didn't even need that.  They put in a payout request for me, and that'll be that.

Just received an update from Peter following my reply:

Quote

Hey Colin,

It turns out I was a bit too worried about the financials of the business, and communicated prematurely. I�m a developer and this is not my strong suit. The bottom line is that everyone will be able to request their earnings starting Oct 17. Until then it�s business as usual ($50+ payouts).

I apologize for the confusion, and if you have any questions feel free to email me at any time.

Best regards,
Peter

Good news after all! To be honest, I didn't expect an update after my reply, but it's confirmed: it turns out everyone WILL be able to request their earnings after Oct 17.

I got a similar statement after talking directly with Peter. Good news.

Good to hear they are paying everybody out. I was disappointed when they launched that they were just trying mostly to recreate StockXpert instead of building something that was pushing the industry forward. That said, I have respect for all of them running the agency. It is not an easy thing to do. They treated me great, and I was happy with what had been going on recently. I'm pretty much 100% passive now (waiting to see what happens with no real reward for creating more content), but I'd love to jump back in if any of these players have a new and inventive idea. I've run stuff myself, and I know that I'm just not cut out for that.

Just a reminder to anyone with a balance at StockFresh that it's now time to send in a payment request. I did (for $40.95) and it's now pending.

I had to throw together an invoice in Word and upload a PDF of that with the request - as I don't have a TAX ID document - so I'm hoping I've done all that I need to.

You have until Nov 1 2020 to make your request

Thanks for the heads up, I almost forgot them already...

Quote from: Mir on October 17, 2020, 16:35

What is the certificate of tax residence they are requesting?

I wrote to them about that; a US certificate cost as much as SF owed me.  I was told not to sweat it, that a copy of your ID with an address would suffice.  In my case they didn't even require that much.  They put the payment request in for m and I got the money a few days later.

Thanks, I received my payment.

Has any who submitted a payment request after 10/17 received their payment yet?  Mine has been pending since 10/19.

Stockfresh is now an affiliate site for Shutterstock, i.e. every image on an image page links to the image on shutterstock with a referral link. Not a bad a idea by Peter, he can now earn money from the site without doing anything.

Stockfresh should be put in the "Sites that no longer exist" section in this forum and removed from the list of sites in the sidebar, but that's up to Tyler. :-)