Payment problems

[LiT]

Hi,

 

I don't know if it happened already to other contributors, I received on the 18th of december, from  "finance@alamy.com" the following email:

 

From: Finance [finance@alamy.com]
Sent: 18 December 2013 11:31
To: Finance
Subject: Alamy Ltd-Payment delayed-Your action required

 

Hi,

We tried to send a payment to you on the 2nd Dec 2013, but it has been returned to us by your bank. No explanation
was given.
However, it is likely there is either an error in the bank details we hold for you or the account has been closed.
Request you to
· Check with your bank for correct details
· Update it to “Payment and tax details” in “My Alamy” page.
· Email us
Thanks
Finance team

 

The email is not signed, it looks like a spam, is very cold and affirmative (it is likely there is either an error in the bank details).

 

In fact, there is no error in the bank details I provided. I also contacted my bank who never received any transfer attempt form Alamy "finance" services.

 

I have been travelling all of december and coming back home at the beginning of january, I see that alamy has already added the mention: "Invalid payment details " on my "balance of account " page. Without having been in touch once with me except this email.

 

I just wrote to them today to solve this issue but I am quite ..... off.

 

How would one call this type of practice: Pretend to send a transfer (while the bank hasn't recorded any attempt), then invalidate my account in my "alamy page" while my payment details are correct.

 

In general the payer is the one who should trace the transfer ioperation, not the receiver, nor the bank.

 

If anyone has expereinced this kind of issue, please let me know, for the moment, I can just conclude that Alamy is involved in some sort of abusive practices and methodolgies inorder to avoid to pay what is due...

[LiT]

I would also like to add that on my "Balance of account", the payment appears as paid, again adding to the suspicious practice described above...

[Allan Bell]

Is the money in your account? It should be by now.

 

Allan

[LiT]

Is the money in your account? It should be by now.

 

Allan

 

HI Allan,

 

Did you read my post ? The money isn't on my account, that's the problem.

[John Mitchell]

It's probably just a glitch in the system. Most of Alamy's e-mail correspondence concerning payments appears to be automated. There were problems with PayPal payments last month as well. They were super slow to arrive.

[spacecadet]

It doesn't do to accuse your agent of malpractice, nor to ask people if they've read your post when they ask a question to try to help you.

Alamy are not trying to cheat you, and Allan was trying to help you.

[Allan Bell]

Is the money in your account? It should be by now.

 

Allan

 

HI Allan,

 

Did you read my post ? The money isn't on my account, that's the problem.

 

Sorry I scanned your post and missed that first time around.

 

Allan

[John Mitchell]

It doesn't do to accuse your agent of malpractice, nor to ask people if they've read your post when they ask a question to try to help you.

Alamy are not trying to cheat you, and Allan was trying to help you.

Yes, Alamy is a pretty upfront organization IME. They will no doubt sort things out. Don't forget that the payment threshold was lowered to $75 in December, which probably caused some initial difficulties given the huge number of transactions that Alamy must have had to make. There were probably hundreds (thousands?) of contributors who had never been paid before.

[Michael Ventura]

I very seriously doubt that there is any ill intent on the part of Alamy.  I am sure it will get straightened out.  Payments, to me, have come through fine.  I am sure they are processing many thousands of transfers a month and so a glitch is bound to happen.  Though it is never fun when it happens to you.  

[DavidC]

You've written to MS/Alamy Finance - one guesses that you responded to the e-mail.

 

The fact that you have an entry which says "invalid payment details" simply means that the payment could not be paid because the account did not match the details of the payment's recipient. Your account is not invalidated this means something completely different.

 

Is this the first payment that you would have received - or has payment been successfully made to your bank in the past ?

 

It looks as though Alamy tried to make a payment to you using the details which they held - and your bank did not accept that payment - perhaps because of a simple literal mistake in the account details.

 

Life is far too short to get worked up about what is probably a simple human error - trust you will post to this topic when you have Alamy's response.......

[Lynne]

I received something similar maybe a year or so back. I can't say it was worded exactly the same as I don't have a copy to hand but It was very strange as I had been with Alamy since 2004 and had certainly not changed the bank details since they had been set up and I hadn't been into that area of my account since then. However I took the opportunity to switch my account details to somewhere else which was a job I had been mean meaning to do but never got round to! I haven't had any other issues.

 

However, I remember being puzzled by it at the time.

 

I also agree that Alan was only trying to be helpful and I personally didn't think it was clear that you hadn't been paid as you were suggesting that the email was spam even though the title was payment problems!

 

Lynne

[dustydingo]

. . . for the moment, I can just conclude that Alamy is involved in some sort of abusive practices and methodolgies inorder to avoid to pay what is due...

 

You are of course free to conclude what you choose . . . but I strongly recommend discretion when it comes to accusations . . . in print . . . in public . . .

 

dd

[LiT]

Thank you for your comments. Apparently, the only contributor who had a similar experience is Lynne. Otherwise, I don't really see how it is going to be solved.

 

Let me re-phrase what happened and you will be able to judge if the practices here are normal and professional or simply unprofessional and/or abusive.

 

1. On the 2nd of december, a payment was due by Alamy to my account for pictures sold previously.

2. On the 5th of december, having not received anything, I wrote to Alamy asking if the payment would proceed and when. Here is their answer on the 05/12/2013:

 

"Yes, we can confirm that we’ve sent your cleared balance of $...... to your bank account . Let us know if you do not receive the payment within nine working days."

 

3. On the 11th of december, I checked a last time, nothing was paid and no email from Alamy either. SO, I CONCLUDED THAT THE PAYMENT WILL PROCEED NORMALLY AND THAT IT JUST TOOK TIME...

 

4. On the 12th of December, I took a flight and wnet to travel until the second of january (WITHOUT ACCESS TO MY EMAILS AT ALL during this period).

 

5. On the second of January 2014, I was back and checked my emails and found this email from "[finance@alamy.com]" dated on the 18th of december:

 

Sent: 18 December 2013 11:31
Subject: Alamy Ltd-Payment delayed-Your action required
Hi
We tried to send a payment to you on the 2nd Dec 2013, but it has been returned to us by your bank. No explanation
was given.
However, it is likely there is either an error in the bank details we hold for you or the account has been closed.
Request you to
· Check with your bank for correct details
· Update it to “Payment and tax details” in “My Alamy” page.
· Email us
Thanks
Finance team

 

My conclusions:

 

1. When I asked them on the 5th of december, they assured me that the payment was in porcess and there was no problems BUT, in their email from "finance" they say they tried to transfer money on my account on the 2nd of Dcember 2013 ! Very strange indeed.

2. The email from 'finance" is dated on the 18 of december. iF THERE WAS AN ISSUE ON THE 2ND OF DECEMBER WITH THE TRANSFER, WHY WAIT 16 DAYS TO SEND AN EMAIL and warn me ???

3. I never made mistakes in term of account numbers. In my entire life, I've never experienced a single mistake for a transfer coming to my account. And it is not the first transfer I receive. But of course, here it must be my mistake....

4. I never answered to the "finance" email, because I had no access to my emails while travelling. But Alamy took the liberty to add the mentions : "Next payment date: Not due " and
"Invalid payment details" on my Balance of account page.

Very strange practice indeed ! So, without talking to me or exchanging with me, they decided to close the subject by adding invalidity to my payement details ....

 

 

Even more peculiar, On my Balance of account page, I can now see that the fund have been cleared as if I have been effectively paid.  Of course, none of the money ever arrived on my account.

 

I wrote to Alamy and I'm waiting for their answer (and payment of course). Anyone can say and think or recommend what he/she wants, but I haven't signed with Alamy to have problems at every levels, especially not in term of payments.

 

So, for the moment, the way they dealt with my payment is unprofessional, and suspicious and I remain in doubt regarding their intentions. Hopefully, they will prove me wrong...

 

 

L

[spacecadet]

It would be more useful to have this discussion with Alamy. There has been a problem somewhere and issuing accusations isn't going to help.

 

I am charitably assuming that some of your comments read as they do because of language difficulties. If not you really shouldn't be using words such as 'suspicious' and 'abusive'.

[H_J]

Is it a payment to a bank in the Eurozone? Do Alamy have your IBAN? And possibly they also need the bank's BIC.

[DavidC]

Really do not see what your problem is - Alamy are not disputing that they owe you a payment - and say that the payment which they tried to make was returned by your bank who did not explain why the payment was refused.

 

I can see nothing 'suspicious' or 'abusive' in their actions - but as you obviously do, then it is open to you to close your contract with them and to ask them to pay all sums due to date. I agree with Mark Dunn that using those words is not appropriate - it looks as though a simple administrative error on the part of either Alamy or your bank has been blown out of all proportion - you'll get the money due to you, it may be a month late but it is not the end of the world.

 

As I said in my previous posting - life is too short .........

[John Mitchell]

I believe that you haven't told us whether or not you have successfully received earlier payments from Alamy using the same bank account and information. This would seem to be a crucial factor. If this was your first payment, then the problem most likely lies with the bank that you are using. Try using another bank as Lynne did. The electronic world has become very complicated. That's the price of progress (if there really is such a thing), I guess.

[Lynne]

I hope that what I write below may help alleviate your fears until you receive an official response from Alamy which I'm sure you'll get soon. I think this is simply an IT glitch. I believe there is nothing suspicious about Alamy and their statements/emails to you?

 

I've tried to comment on each of your points but must stress these are just my views from having been with Alamy for 10 years and my own considerable business experiences.

 

Point 1. Every month Alamy process their payments usually on the 1st of the month except when the 1st is a public/bank holiday or a weekend. This month for example, the 1st being New Years Day, my account says the 2nd January payment. However, the money never shows up in my account until at least the 6th of the month sometimes later, especially when there is a weekend in between the processed payment and it reaching my account. In these days of transferring money instantly this can seem slow, but having worked in large organisations which made thousands of payments, the reality is they do take time, why I don't know, but they do. So when Alamy said on the 5th that everything was okay, they would not have know at that time that there was a problem until it was rejected somewhere along the line and they were advised!! I'm sure they processed your payment in the payment run on the 2nd as was stated but they have no control at that point when it reaches your bank so I don't think that there is anything strange at all about what you were told. They were unlikely to be aware of any issue until the 6th of the month at the earliest.

 

Point 2. it does seem quite long before contacting you but perhaps they tried to process it again after the initial rejection - which is common practice? But only Alamy can answer that point.

 

Point 3. I had not been anywhere near my account details and had been receiving payments for years before it happened to me, so I don't think you've done anything wrong at all especially as you say you've received payments before. Strange, I thought at the time when it happened to me as my account details looked right but I have seen worse unexplained IT issues in my time - these things do happen from time to time!

 

point 4. 'The next payment date - not due' we all have that when a new month begins and we don't have enough cleared invoices to meet the threshold - for example mine says that at the moment as I've not had any invoices clear since my payment was processed on 2nd January - at the top of the Balance of account page it states between the 1st January 2014 to 5th of January 2014. So even though you didn't receive the payment for the previous month, the dates at the top of the Balance of account page are only 'referring to the current month' .

I think it's fair to display 'invalid payment details' on your account as they have obviously experienced some issues when processing your payment and there could be various people in the finance department! I think it would be very strange practice indeed not to attach some tag to your account or no one would know there was an issue!!

 

I hope you hear soon from Alamy but I don't see anything unprofessional or suspicious in what you have outlined.

 

Lynne

[dov makabaw]

I receive monthly transfers from Alamy and have never had a problem, even when I have changed banks.

 

By the responses on this Forum this is the experience of all but one other contributor on one occasion. 

 

I understand your suspicion when receiving this automated email but IMO you should have addressed this to MS before publicly making unjustified accusations.

 

I look forward to hearing about the resolution to this issue and the explanation as to where the fault lies.

 

dov

[LiT]

Thank you again for all the comments and help

Ok, let's admit that the term "abusive" is too extreme in the circumstances. However, how unprofessional you have to be to send an email on the 18^th of December about a payment supposedly attempted on the 2^nd of December  (16 days after!).

 

Also, how confused your company must be in term of internal communication when I ask MS on the 5^th of December if the payment is on its way I receive a positive answer while according to “finance team” there was a problem since the 2^nd of December.

 

Maybe it’s just confusion between services, lack of internal communication or lack of care for contributors from the finance services, but it is definitely unprofessional.

 

And yes, this type of behaviour make me become suspicious.

 

By the way, I answered to the MS and finance team, I am still waiting for an answer.

 

For instance I asked a simple question: are the payment coming from the UK or the US ?  I am still waiting for an answer as it seems, MS doesn’t know the answer....

 

Again, would anyone being a service member for contributors not aware of how his/her company pays the contributors ?

 

Another thing, what if , as someone suggested it was a computer glitch and Alamy finance team made an error ? I would still have to justify myself and change or rather enter again my bank details because the error can only be on my side obviously...

 

Of course, it’s easy to accuse but it’s also very easy to give all sort of excuses to justify very peculiar business practices...

I wouldn’t have complained if this had been handled differently (like having an email from finance immediately after the attempted transfer).

[John Morrison]

Mountain... molehill...

 

Sort it out with Member Services... preferably without winding yourself up into such a lather...

[dustydingo]

There's that neat little invention .......... the "phone". Why don't you give them a call and sort it out.

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

Ooh, Phillipe. I just love it when you talk all . . . . sensible

 

dd

[LiT]

To Philippe,

 

You seem to be very aware of how to communicate with alamy as a contributor and also very prompt to laugh at people, I suppose nothing of the kind ever happened to you.

 

Why don't you, in your unfathomable wisdom, provide us with the dedicated phone numbers for contributors ? The one to call MS and the one to call finance directly?

 

Waiting to be enlightned again...

[Guest]

LiT,

 

FYI. Alamy don't pay you direct as you seem to think. They instruct CitiBank (assuming it's not changed recently) around the time of the payment date to pay and then the bank will take it's time to then pay all the recipients for that month.

 

So when you are seeing the payment date from Alamy, that's the instruction date AFAIK.

 

The number for MS is in the contrib section.

[spacecadet]

01235 844608