Commission change - James West comments

[Starsphinx]

48 minutes ago, Alamy said:

 

Hi Kevin,

 

We've checked our records and can confirm the email was sent to you on the same day as everyone else. We can see that you've unsubscribed from our usual mailing list but in this case as the email was a contract change you still should have received the email to the address you registered with (we notice this is different from the one you are emailing us from)

 

We can see you emailed us on Friday evening after the CR team had left for the day, but James W did respond to you saying the team have quite the backlog at the moment and would be able to reply back to you on Monday morning at the earliest.

 

The CR team are working through each response in turn but response times are longer than usual at the moment so we ask you to please bear with us.

 

Thanks,

 

Alamy

 

You can add another one to your list of people who did not receive the email.  Me.  I admit I have not jumped up and down about it as I have been kept well up to date on the forums but the number of people on these forums reporting not receiving the email should tell you that you have a major email problem, a significant number of people have not received them, the majority of whom will not be using the forums or aware they have not received what is a very important communication.  I would politely suggest you get on to this issue very fast, otherwise, come February, if you decide to push through with the cuts despite the strong opposition, you are going to be snowed under with emails from contributors wanting to know why their commission has dropped with no warning.

[Foreign Export]

39 minutes ago, Starsphinx said:

You can add another one to your list of people who did not receive the email.  Me.  I admit I have not jumped up and down about it as I have been kept well up to date on the forums but the number of people on these forums reporting not receiving the email should tell you that you have a major email problem, a significant number of people have not received them, the majority of whom will not be using the forums or aware they have not received what is a very important communication.  I would politely suggest you get on to this issue very fast, otherwise, come February, if you decide to push through with the cuts despite the strong opposition, you are going to be snowed under with emails from contributors wanting to know why their commission has dropped with no warning.

 

Need to retain an objective view here - I think Alamy have clearly explained that KevinS may not have supplied them with his current email address

 

And clearly they did send him the email to the address they had on file

 

Lets keep it in perspective

[Alamy]

37 minutes ago, Starsphinx said:

You can add another one to your list of people who did not receive the email.  Me.  I admit I have not jumped up and down about it as I have been kept well up to date on the forums but the number of people on these forums reporting not receiving the email should tell you that you have a major email problem, a significant number of people have not received them, the majority of whom will not be using the forums or aware they have not received what is a very important communication.  I would politely suggest you get on to this issue very fast, otherwise, come February, if you decide to push through with the cuts despite the strong opposition, you are going to be snowed under with emails from contributors wanting to know why their commission has dropped with no warning.

 

Hi Starsphinx, 

 

We've checked and can confirm that this email was sent to you as well. However, when sending emails to a large number of people there is always a risk that some emails end up in peoples spam folders and so on.

 

All the best

Alamy

[formerly snappyoncalifornia]

3 hours ago, Alamy said:

 

Hi Starsphinx, 

 

We've checked and can confirm that this email was sent to you as well. However, when sending emails to a large number of people there is always a risk that some emails end up in peoples spam folders and so on.

 

All the best

Alamy

There have been important questions posed in this thread that have gone unanswered. While I'm glad it is being monitored by Alamy seriously, is that what has caught your attention? Are we down to discussing emails? Where have I seen this before? 

[chris_rabe]

I'd still like to know if we can get our images removed immediately should we decide not to accept the new terms and leave.

 

I don't see how Alamy could hold on to the photo for 6 months in this case, so assuming we'll be good to get them taken down without delay, but would be good to get confirmation.

[KevinS]

3 hours ago, Foreign Export said:

 

Need to retain an objective view here - I think Alamy have clearly explained that KevinS may not have supplied them with his current email address

 

And clearly they did send him the email to the address they had on file

 

Lets keep it in perspective

You might consider refraining from assuming things you have no information on. I did not supply Alamy with any wrong email address. What happened is that Alamy used a different address to send from. This caused the update to go into a spam folder at my mail provider (not on my Mail program here). I've found it and passed the info on to CR, who could now improve their service. It was Alamy who used a different address, not me.  

[KevinS]

11 minutes ago, formerly snappyoncalifornia said:

There have been important questions posed in this thread that have gone unanswered. While I'm glad it is being monitored by Alamy seriously, is that what has caught your attention? Are we down to discussing emails? Where have I seen this before? 

Some of us didn't get the update. This is the best place to look into this and fix what's wrong. Sorry if you disagree.

[KevinS]

"Thanks for your email, please read the following information. This is an automated response, but if your question has been answered below, we’ll assume you’re all set and we won’t clog up your inbox with a reply. If it hasn’t been answered then you can expect a personal reply from us very soon."  ~from CR

 

This is the message that I find ambiguous. Never sure if they're going to answer, or assume I'm all set. I don't mind a response coming to my inbox. How do they know if the question was "answered below"?

[Allan Bell]

6 minutes ago, Skyscraperfan said:

By the way, what happened to the Alamy contributor's group on Facebook? I can't find it anymore.

 

As far as I know there is no "Alamy contributors group" on facebook.

 

Perhaps you are thinking of "Professional Stock Photographers Group" of which there are members from Alamy as well as elsewhere.

 

Allan

 

 

[formerly snappyoncalifornia]

12 minutes ago, KevinS said:

Some of us didn't get the update. This is the best place to look into this and fix what's wrong. Sorry if you disagree.

My comment was intended to be critical of Alamy's failure to respond to the big questions. If you believed it was critical of your issue then please accept my apology. 

[KevinS]

1 minute ago, formerly snappyoncalifornia said:

My comment was intended to be critical of Alamy's failure to respond to the big questions. If you believed it was critical of your issue then please accept my apology. 

No apology needed, I see your point. I think Alamy is waiting a bit longer before composing some replies. Would not like to be in their shoes right now. I think James' proposal has just drawn unexpected attention to some problems with their business plan.

[Allan Bell]

16 minutes ago, KevinS said:

No apology needed, I see your point. I think Alamy is waiting a bit longer before composing some replies. Would not like to be in their shoes right now. I think James' proposal has just drawn unexpected attention to some problems with their business plan.

 

Agree with you. The last  announcement appears to have been rushed out without due thought.

 

It would be prudent on Alamys part to take time to make a considered judgement before making another announcement, or announcements.

 

Allan

 

Actually I meant James Wests video announcement not the last one above.

 

ITMA

 

[Allan Bell]

Just now, Skyscraperfan said:

There was a closed group only for Alamy contributors, but I did not check it for years, as I never had any major problems with Alamy until now. It was not organized by Alamy, so it was a kind of "refuge".

 

That is what I am talking about. It started of with Alamy contributors but has since expanded its base to others as well.

 

Allan

 

 

[Ollie]

1 hour ago, formerly snappyoncalifornia said:

There have been important questions posed in this thread that have gone unanswered. While I'm glad it is being monitored by Alamy seriously, is that what has caught your attention? Are we down to discussing emails? Where have I seen this before? 

Speaking of unanswered questions I have yet to see an explanation of what Alamy proposes to do about dividing receipts from sub-agents.  Will Alamy also cut the percentage allowed to sub-agents, in order to maintain our already-low 30% share on sub-agency sales?

[John Mitchell]

9 hours ago, Martin P Wilson said:

 

Indeed I was but businesses do no need to be that large before ammorality kicks in. Think the Abilene Paradox in psychology/ group behaviour.

 

Note that I said amoral, not immoral - very different things.

 

Yes, size doesn't matter when it comes to amorality. I guess the big ones tend to stand out more, though.

 

Had to Google "Abilene paradox". Very interesting. Is there an "Alamy forum paradox" as well?

[John Mitchell]

1 hour ago, JeffGreenberg said:

> James, You should be properly dressed, pressed shirt at least

 

If the Stay-50/50-Revelation hits in middle of night, PJ's are acceptable.

Properly pressed of course.  A name brand cologne helps.

 

No loud plaids, please.

[Shergar]

1 hour ago, JeffGreenberg said:

> James, You should be properly dressed, pressed shirt at least

 

If the Stay-50/50-Revelation hits in middle of night, PJ's are acceptable.

Properly pressed of course.  A name brand cologne helps.

Once I started the video and saw who it was I immediately stopped it, put on clean socks, underwear and a suit before resuming the video.

[John Mitchell]

23 minutes ago, Shergar said:

Once I started the video and saw who it was I immediately stopped it, put on clean socks, underwear and a suit before resuming the video.

 

Jolly good. I've sent my suit to the cleaners. Hope it's ready in time for the next video. I mean, it should be a two-way street.

[Thyrsis]

2 hours ago, Ollie said:

Speaking of unanswered questions I have yet to see an explanation of what Alamy proposes to do about dividing receipts from sub-agents.  Will Alamy also cut the percentage allowed to sub-agents, in order to maintain our already-low 30% share on sub-agency sales?

This was talked about on the ‘other’ thread about the cut.

 

 

I asked Alamy that very question, also if this change will apply to agencies:

 

"The distribution commission will be remaining the same.

 

The new contract will apply to all contributors and agencies on that contract."

[ChrisC]

18 hours ago, Colin Woods said:

Its a 20% cut Chris. Its ten percentage points, but dropping from 50 to 40 is a drop of 20%. The percentage points trick is as old as they come but still very effective. Don't be fooled by it. Not just here, its a principal weapon in the politicians arsenal. 

Hi Colin, it was late, but I did realise it is a drop to us of 20%, so Thanks for pointing it out.

 

I was paraphrasing James saying, "we are only currently up 2% after a lot of serious growth, so it;s acceptable for us to drop your fee by 10%", but I forgot to say it's a drop of 20%.which isn't really acceptable

Chris

[ChrisC]

18 hours ago, KevinS said:

Apparently the technology company known as Alamy can't manage a simple email list. I've contacted CR and James W. CR sent an ambiguous auto-response, so I'm not sure if I'll get an answer about emails or not. James sent my concern about the auto-response on to CR without comment. Maybe he didn't think it was ambiguous. Things don't seem good at Alamy. 

I normally always receive any e-mails Alamy related, but sounds like seeing as this is a bad new story, it is being hidden under the carpet

Chris

[Thyrsis]

27 minutes ago, JeffGreenberg said:

 

"on that contract"

as in, there are other contract(s) NOT subject to 40/60???!!!!

what are those other contracts receiving?  60/40???!!

Who knows........

[KevinS]

13 minutes ago, ChrisC said:

I normally always receive any e-mails Alamy related, but sounds like seeing as this is a bad new story, it is being hidden under the carpet

Chris

Chris,

 

I posted one page back that Alamy has changed the address they send from, at least to me. This change triggered a spam filter at my provider. The update message never made it to my computer. I view this as an Alamy-caused problem. I don't believe I was notified of the change in the sender address Alamy used.

 

        That address is; contibutors@em.alamy.com

 

The "em" refers to some email software Alamy is using to send bulk emails.  

[losdemas]

1 hour ago, JeffGreenberg said:

 

"on that contract"

as in, there are other contract(s) NOT subject to 40/60???!!!!

what are those other contracts receiving?  60/40???!!

(suddenly chokes & accidentally sprays cappuccino all over workspace) 

 

Why is that a surprise, Jeff? Contributors and agencies submitting to many outlets will have agreed terms agreeable to both parties. I'm sure that you're no stranger to this. 

[John Mitchell]

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