Semmick Photo Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 @ spacecadet please fix your quote, I didnt say all of that. And yes, I will be closing my account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManWay Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Alamy is a UK company and much of its business is in the US so why should it bear the cost of paying into euro accounts? Another thing, it's rather bad form to run down your agent on a public forum. Alamy is not our employer and we don't have to use it. If we do, we abide by the contract. First, If this is how you feel why haven't you come to the forums asking alamy to charge a fee to the Euros before today since you're so favourable to the the idea of us being punished? Second, this forum is managed by alamy, and if it's public it's because alamy decided this way. Contributors have the right to express their opinions, and if alamy provides a space where we can do it, actually benefiting the agency by the input (although not always positive) we give them, we have the right to do it. I don't think alamy mandated you as moderator or master-censor. When alamy feels a discussion is not of interest it blocks it as it has happen numerous times, and down the road may even make the forum visible only to contributing photographers. Until then, censor your own opinions when you see fit and let other make those decisions for themselves. I'm also entitled to my opinion. I'm censoring no-one. Skrill charge an exchange commission, but so do Citibank currently. I hardly think that bearing a cost of doing business is punishment. Just because you can express an opinion doesn't mean you should. Skrill have many charges including exchange and transaction fees Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kensplace Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 The contract I signed didnt have that on it. Alamy is a UK company and much of its business is in the US so why should it bear the cost of paying into euro accounts? Another thing, it's rather bad form to run down your agent on a public forum. Alamy is not our employer and we don't have to use it. If we do, we abide by the contract. At a guess though, previous alamy contracts will have had a part in saying they can amend the terms of the contract with X days notice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatrioticAlien Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 If people do get billed by this, you just ask for the expense to be reimbursed. I just looked at my email. "If you’re based in the UK or US and get paid by bank transfer, or get paid via Skrill we’ll continue to absorb all the transaction fees that go with paying thousands of photographers." Main point "or get paid via Skrill we’ll continue to absorb all the transaction fees" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kensplace Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 So, as I understand it, Alamy is not charging anything, its a paypal fee, and for some a bank fee? (or a skrill or whatever it is charge under some circumstances). It will be free fo uk customers who do bank transfers, and now we have the option of the money going straight into paypal? I buy a lot on paypal anyway so welcome a paypal option, not that I have had any sales yet lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Semmick Photo Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 Sure they can, I can also close my account. And I will. I am not having this. Even if it was 0.1%. I am not accepting this. Either they change it back to 175 dollar (and why was that free and 100 dollar isnt) Or they take the cost for paying me 100 dollar. Spacecadet seems to be happy enough to pay an extra 3.4% over his earnings. I wonder why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Semmick Photo Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 If people do get billed by this, you just ask for the expense to be reimbursed. I just looked at my email. "If you’re based in the UK or US and get paid by bank transfer, or get paid via Skrill we’ll continue to absorb all the transaction fees that go with paying thousands of photographers." Main point "or get paid via Skrill we’ll continue to absorb all the transaction fees" Why are EU photographers and the rest of world singled out. Unfair treatement. Never seen this before at any agency. Last thing I am going to say about this,. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Semmick please edit your post, I didn't say that! Thankyou children for the red arrows. btw. They are an air display team here and I quite like airshows. Anyone care to top me up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Semmick Photo Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 Hey man, you misquoted me, and I use the word seems, I am not putting any words in your mouth, you seem to have to words into mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulstw Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 When you get into photography it's very hard to do anything free of charge. Kit = costwebsite = subscriptionsoftware = subscriptionplugins = costselling kit on ebay = feesAlamy = 50% feeHow do we expect other business' to provide a service like wire transfers for free? Alamy absorb the cost of UK and US transactions because that's likely bringing in a boatload for them so absorbing the transaction costs makes sense. I do feel there should be an option for people in the EU. Stay with the £175 or lower it and get a fee via the transaction vendor. Closing accounts and leaving Alamy isn't really going to hurt Alamy much, however, blaming Alamy for lack of sales, fees, transaction costs isn't going to provide an answer to why portfolios aren't selling well. That responsibility lies with the person behind the camera. A shocking truth and I'll incur a few red ones for that but it's the truth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Morrison Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 @ And yes, I will be closing my account. The 'greenie' is from me. Is this a promise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Elias Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 I'm also entitled to my opinion. I'm censoring no-one. Skrill charge an exchange commission, but so do Citibank currently. I hardly think that bearing a cost of doing business is punishment. Just because you can express an opinion doesn't mean you should. Why do you write to yourself? If I'm receiving my payments for $175 without fee, and now I'll be receiving a $100 payments without option to decide what level of payment I prefer and so I'm forced to pay a fee, yes it's punishment. The cost of doing business is being paid already from the 65% commission to the 50% commission drop. Why don't you propose that alamy charges for server storage of our images? And an aditional fee for advertising. And another for the water in their toilets flushers? After all it's a "cost of doing business"? And you can add other all sort of costs leaving nothing but pure profit for alamy. Great, no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wild Life Ranger Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 This is a poor do - contributors scrape together small image sales over many months and pay Alamy 50% really its a bear face cheek to charge a contibutor for the monies he or she is lawfully due. Also the level of censorship on the forum is unacceptable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 "Alamy is a UK company and much of its business is in the US" but what about the Germany office, can't Euro payments be handled through that? According to the Alamy website there are "sales teams in Germany", presumably they get paid in Euros without a fee? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManWay Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 When you get into photography it's very hard to do anything free of charge. Kit = cost website = subscription software = subscription plugins = cost selling kit on ebay = fees Alamy = 50% fee How do we expect other business' to provide a service like wire transfers for free? Alamy absorb the cost of UK and US transactions because that's likely bringing in a boatload for them so absorbing the transaction costs makes sense. I do feel there should be an option for people in the EU. Stay with the £175 or lower it and get a fee via the transaction vendor. Closing accounts and leaving Alamy isn't really going to hurt Alamy much, however, blaming Alamy for lack of sales, fees, transaction costs isn't going to provide an answer to why portfolios aren't selling well. That responsibility lies with the person behind the camera. A shocking truth and I'll incur a few red ones for that but it's the truth. We pay for our equipment, time etc. Alamy get 50% of revenue and should expect to incur cost of paying us our share - as do all other agencies I know of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatrioticAlien Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 If people do get billed by this, you just ask for the expense to be reimbursed. I just looked at my email. "If you’re based in the UK or US and get paid by bank transfer, or get paid via Skrill we’ll continue to absorb all the transaction fees that go with paying thousands of photographers." Main point "or get paid via Skrill we’ll continue to absorb all the transaction fees" Why are EU photographers and the rest of world singled out. Unfair treatement. Never seen this before at any agency. Last thing I am going to say about this,. My understanding of that statement which I posted from the email. quote from the email "get paid via Skrill we’ll continue to absorb all the transaction fees" this sentence is implying that as long as you this skrill thing to transfer money over, you won't have fees to pay, since Alamy will be picking up the fees. That is implied by using "absorb all the transaction fees". However, we will have to know more from Alamy on this agreement with this company on how it will work. Lets not forget that it was just today we leant about how they plan to do it. And doesn't come into affect until november or December, so there is still time to fix and change things people aren't happy with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Semmick Photo Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 @ And yes, I will be closing my account. The 'greenie' is from me. Is this a promise? What did I ever do to you? Cheap shot, why do you always make things personal? Werent you the one inviting me to dinner a week ago? Since you would love to see me go, I might just hang around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulstw Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 When you get into photography it's very hard to do anything free of charge. Kit = cost website = subscription software = subscription plugins = cost selling kit on ebay = fees Alamy = 50% fee How do we expect other business' to provide a service like wire transfers for free? Alamy absorb the cost of UK and US transactions because that's likely bringing in a boatload for them so absorbing the transaction costs makes sense. I do feel there should be an option for people in the EU. Stay with the £175 or lower it and get a fee via the transaction vendor. Closing accounts and leaving Alamy isn't really going to hurt Alamy much, however, blaming Alamy for lack of sales, fees, transaction costs isn't going to provide an answer to why portfolios aren't selling well. That responsibility lies with the person behind the camera. A shocking truth and I'll incur a few red ones for that but it's the truth. We pay for our equipment, time etc. Alamy get 50% of revenue and should expect to incur cost of paying us our share - as do all other agencies I know of. They do pay us our share. Their share pays for server costs, expansion, future proofing, licensing and staff to name a few. It's ok though, cause there's always the alternative. Selling images RF for $0.95 a go? There's a cost with everything we do, transaction fees are no different. Maybe I just got used to it too much with selling loads on Ebay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Morrison Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 @ And yes, I will be closing my account. The 'greenie' is from me. Is this a promise? What did I ever do to you? Cheap shot, why do you always make things personal? Werent you the one inviting me to dinner a week ago? Since you would love to see me go, I might just hang around. Dinner... would that be with whine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManWay Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 When you get into photography it's very hard to do anything free of charge. Kit = cost website = subscription software = subscription plugins = cost selling kit on ebay = fees Alamy = 50% fee How do we expect other business' to provide a service like wire transfers for free? Alamy absorb the cost of UK and US transactions because that's likely bringing in a boatload for them so absorbing the transaction costs makes sense. I do feel there should be an option for people in the EU. Stay with the £175 or lower it and get a fee via the transaction vendor. Closing accounts and leaving Alamy isn't really going to hurt Alamy much, however, blaming Alamy for lack of sales, fees, transaction costs isn't going to provide an answer to why portfolios aren't selling well. That responsibility lies with the person behind the camera. A shocking truth and I'll incur a few red ones for that but it's the truth. We pay for our equipment, time etc. Alamy get 50% of revenue and should expect to incur cost of paying us our share - as do all other agencies I know of. They do pay us our share. Their share pays for server costs, expansion, future proofing, licensing and staff to name a few. It's ok though, cause there's always the alternative. Selling images RF for $0.95 a go? There's a cost with everything we do, transaction fees are no different. Maybe I just got used to it too much with selling loads on Ebay. They do pay us our dwindling share yes and continue to extract more and more for themselves with these increasing 'contract' changes. I know there are costs which we have to bear but why is this all one-way traffic? RW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kensplace Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Im still at a loss as to what exactly people are saying alamy is charging for? Didnt they just say it was paypal taking the fee, not them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Either you , sorry one, wants a lower threshold or one doesn't. Most did so presumably Alamy has had to make some changes to reflect the extra cost of the extra transactions. Skrill seems to be Alamy's fee-free option- can anyone tell me it definitely costs more than Citibank's exchange loading does currently- about 2%? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Mayall Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 I am sitting on the fence with this one, hoping that Alamy will offer contributors a option for the original threshold of $175 and pay no extra fees or $100 and pay the fee that Alamy ask for. Alamy has really pushed the financial limits over the past years, contributors are paying up from often silly low licensing fees to taking cuts to help establish the U.S. office e.t.c., a little bit here and a little bit there soon adds up to a sizeable chunk from the contributors payout. So Alamy please offer us a option, as i have said i am sitting on the fence and won't take much to hop off the fence to the other side. " not a threat " Paul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidC Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 I know that I'm old and a bit slow with all this high tech finance and analysis stuff but I read, and quote the e-mail sent to me..... "What's changed? We’ve lowered the payment threshold to $100. However as some of the payment methods we’re using are expensive we’re passing on these costs. We aim however to ensure that every Contributor has a payment method which means they can receive their money for free." Now, they have either the intention that every contributor will have a payment method which means that they can receive their money for free - or they are blatant, bare-faced liars. What do you think ? I do note the ambiguity of the "we aim" bit - but then communications are not their prime skill are they ? A number of contributors made a big fuss over a long period about the threshold for payment - it has happened - personally even my small business did not suffer waiting for $175 payout and I wonder how many who treat this stock business seriously were on the brink of bankruptcy while waiting for the extra $75 Chin up lads and lasses - I have no doubt that Alamy will put everything in clear language shortly....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 .......I wonder how many who treat this stock business seriously were on the brink of bankruptcy while waiting for the extra $75 None. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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