Need to work faster

[Nature Seb]

Hi

 

You cannot blaim the corona virus for everything. All other stock photo agencies have replied and approved my images in a 10th of the time you take.

How long is the real time if I should upload another three images so you can refuse them as well?

 

No explanation, just refuse and a flimsy explanation is not good enough.

[Sultanpepa]

52 minutes ago, Nature Seb said:

Hi

 

You cannot blaim the corona virus for everything. All other stock photo agencies have replied and approved my images in a 10th of the time you take.

How long is the real time if I should upload another three images so you can refuse them as well?

 

No explanation, just refuse and a flimsy explanation is not good enough.

 

Perhaps if you post the "flimsy explanation" we can add meat to the bones?

[Nature Seb]

Well it is a question of TIME here, nothing else.

I first uploaded my three "trial" images about a month ago. The sites says 48 hours to check the images.

 

That is the major problem here. You simply get tired of waiting all the time, and Alamy is not responding at e-mails either.

So, when will the time to get a response be much faster and more like 48 hours that a month?

[Sultanpepa]

We'll these are extraordinary times I'm sure you'll agree and some patience and understanding may be required, however saying that I agree that waiting a month can be frustrating. You could drop customer services an e-mail with your concerns, i'm sure they'll be only too happy to help with your problems.

 

I note that you've already e-mailed. Try again. They're usually quite prompt.

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Sultanpepa

[Nature Seb]

Of course have I sent e-mails to customer service, about once every week. Never get a reply.
Seems like a very passive customer service. Sad to see.

[Steve F]

1 hour ago, Nature Seb said:

No explanation, just refuse and a flimsy explanation is not good enough.

 

Sorry it's been frustrating for you. So has your first submission been rejected or not? I agree that a month is a long time - however it did used to take this long for being able to subsequently submit on Alamy if you failed QC. Alamy relies on contributors to submit a professional product so they only spot check submissions normally, it's a relatively big thing if you fail QC.

 

[wiskerke]

Alamy said here it will take 3-4 weeks.

So how long have you been waiting?

And yes not every country is as intelligent in dealing with this crisis as Sweden is.

(I am not in the UK either, and here we have called it an intelligent lock-down, but our true numbers are much higher than the statistics.)

 

wim

[Alamy]

3 hours ago, Nature Seb said:

Of course have I sent e-mails to customer service, about once every week. Never get a reply.
Seems like a very passive customer service. Sad to see.

 

For clarity, we are working with a greatly reduced team and are seeing record levels of registrations and test submissions.

 

Your initial upload was 17th of April which is just under 3 weeks ago.

 

You've emailed us to enquire twice, and the autoreply to this email specifically mentions about long wait times for QC submissions on the top line.

 

Your test reached the front of the queue today and 2 of your test images failed quality control.

 

You are of course welcome to resubmit however the wait time for test submissions currently remains at 2-3 weeks and will likely be the case for the next month or so.

 

If you are having issues understanding the QC feedback we'd recommend posting here and asking your fellow photographers as many are very experienced in working with us and can offer you useful advice.

 

We're sorry we're unable to offer the usual level of speed and support at this time.

 

Alamy 

[geogphotos]

The Bank of England predicts that UK is heading for the most severe recession in its entire history with a potential 25% drop in GDP.

 

Why is Alamy accepting 'record levels of registrations' , especially if that is putting a burden on depleted staff resources? Is it really a priority to pile up even more than the 200 million images already in the catalogue? Won't more contributors mean more costs and more work for Alamy and less revenue for existing contributors? 

 

Is the Alamy team 'greatly reduced' because of temporary furlough? - isn't it possible for Alamy of all companies to work remotely from the office? - or is this more of a direct effect of the downturn in sales due to Covid -19? Have their been redundancies as in many other creative businesses?

 

It would be great to have a better understand of what is happening.

Edited May 7, 2020 by geogphotos

[zxzoomy]

OP. To paraphrase another contributor, advising on the initial submission:

-forget being creative; take a photo of a tin of soup or something simple that isn't moving

-set the iso low, like 100, to reduce noise

-put the camera (a dslr or any that meets Alamy's criteria) on something solid

-if the camera gives you a choice, choose the largest image size

If that doesn't work please come back and ask here in 3 weeks. 

[wiskerke]

Or put your rejected images somewhere online at 100%. Maybe with a watermark. Make sure it is the exact same file, not altered by the platform like on Flickr.

Then put a link here.

 

wim

[wiskerke]

2 hours ago, geogphotos said:

The Bank of England predicts that UK is heading for the most severe recession in its entire history with a potential 25% drop in GDP.

 

Why is Alamy accepting 'record levels of registrations' , especially if that is putting a burden on depleted staff resources? Is it really a priority to pile up even more than the 200 million images already in the catalogue? Won't more contributors mean more costs and more work for Alamy and less revenue for existing contributors? 

 

Is the Alamy team 'greatly reduced' because of temporary furlough? - isn't it possible for Alamy of all companies to work remotely from the office? - or is this more of a direct effect of the downturn in sales due to Covid -19? Have their been redundancies as in many other creative businesses?

 

It would be great to have a better understand of what is happening.

 

Let's hope it's one of these and that it's not because we've lost some of them to the virus.

 

My guess is that it's the recession combined with the quarantine/lock-down that drives people towards possible online sources of additional income.

Plus maybe the house and the yard have been cleaned by now and people reading this sort of thing are just trying their luck.

 

wim

[geogphotos]

1 hour ago, wiskerke said:

 

Let's hope it's one of these and that it's not because we've lost some of them to the virus.

 

My guess is that it's the recession combined with the quarantine/lock-down that drives people towards possible online sources of additional income.

Plus maybe the house and the yard have been cleaned by now and people reading this sort of thing are just trying their luck.

 

wim

 

 

But if accepting these new registrations is putting pressure on Alamy then why not suspend the process - just close down new applications until all this is over?

 

Put up a note on the door saying 'Sorry Closed due to Pandemic - check back later'.  

 

Does Alamy actually need a record number of new contributors right now - is there some strategy here?

[Chuck Nacke]

6 hours ago, Alamy said:

 

For clarity, we are working with a greatly reduced team and are seeing record levels of registrations and test submissions.

 

Your initial upload was 17th of April which is just under 3 weeks ago.

 

You've emailed us to enquire twice, and the autoreply to this email specifically mentions about long wait times for QC submissions on the top line.

 

Your test reached the front of the queue today and 2 of your test images failed quality control.

 

You are of course welcome to resubmit however the wait time for test submissions currently remains at 2-3 weeks and will likely be the case for the next month or so.

 

If you are having issues understanding the QC feedback we'd recommend posting here and asking your fellow photographers as many are very experienced in working with us and can offer you useful advice.

 

We're sorry we're unable to offer the usual level of speed and support at this time.

 

Alamy 

I have not been a fan of Alamy lately but their response on this is more than the OP deserves, in my opinion.

 

These are difficult times for all.

 

Chuck

[sooth]

4 hours ago, geogphotos said:

Does Alamy actually need a record number of new contributors right now - is there some strategy here?

 

always a business strategy to keep growing.

 

See the new two-page Alamy ad in Creative Light, pp. 68-69

 

https://issuu.com/julieoswin/docs/issue36

[geogphotos]

43 minutes ago, sooth said:

 

always a business strategy to keep growing.

 

See the new two-page Alamy ad in Creative Light, pp. 68-69

 

https://issuu.com/julieoswin/docs/issue36

 

Not much sense to keep growing costs while revenue tumbles.

 

6 months with no commission on sales up to £500 for new sign-ups. And then a 3-4 week delay to get processed because they are under-staffed? Maybe the advert was paid for before the crash came. Otherwise it doesn't seem to make much sense in terms of timing.

 

And meanwhile existing contributors get more and more squeezed. 

 

Alamy have always been active in advertising for more contributors, much less so ( it seems to me but I don't know for sure) advertising for new buyers. 

Edited May 8, 2020 by geogphotos

[M.Chapman]

Falling commissions for loyal contributors whilst offering 100% to new contributors in The Guild of Photographers for 6 months...

How much does it cost to be a member of the Guild and are there any special entry requirements?

 

However, with sales taking so long to occur, and then to report, most new contributors won't get 100% on many actual sales anyway.

 

Mark

Edited May 8, 2020 by M.Chapman

[geogphotos]

44 minutes ago, M.Chapman said:

Falling commissions for loyal contributors whilst offering 100% to new contributors in The Guild of Photographers for 6 months...

How much does it cost to be a member of the Guild and are there any special entry requirements?

 

However, with sales taking so long to occur, and then to report, most new contributors won't get 100% on any actual sales anyway.

 

Mark

 

 

It has always been the same with Alamy - always interested in the next contributors.

 

I'm really not sure of the overall purpose any more, getting ever more images which are sold for lower and lower fees. What is the actual strategy? Especially when you pay out for advertising space to attract more new contributors than can be processed leaving people such as the OP, and no doubt others, disgruntled that they have bothered.

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by geogphotos

[John Mitchell]

3 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

It has always been the same with Alamy - always interested in the next contributors.

 

I'm really not sure of the overall purpose any more, getting ever more images which are sold for lower and lower fees. What is the actual strategy? Especially when you pay out advertising space to attract more new contributors than can be processed leaving people such as the OP, and no doubt others, disgruntled that they have bothered.

 

 

 

Hopefully, Alamy isn't thinking that a lot of older types like me are going to pop off during the pandemic, so they need to start swelling the ranks ASAP. 😬

 

 

 

 

 

[geogphotos]

3 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

 

Hopefully, Alamy isn't thinking that a lot of older types like me are going to pop off during the pandemic, so they need to start swelling the ranks ASAP. 😬

 

 

 

 

 

 

😁

[Marianne]

10 hours ago, wiskerke said:

 

Let's hope it's one of these and that it's not because we've lost some of them to the virus.

 

My guess is that it's the recession combined with the quarantine/lock-down that drives people towards possible online sources of additional income.

Plus maybe the house and the yard have been cleaned by now and people reading this sort of thing are just trying their luck.

 

wim

 

Clearly written by someone at Modula who doesn't know much about stock photo agencies, but certainly has their own website setup covered LOL. 

 

25 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

It has always been the same with Alamy - always interested in the next contributors.

 

I'm really not sure of the overall purpose any more, getting ever more images which are sold for lower and lower fees. What is the actual strategy? Especially when you pay out for advertising space to attract more new contributors than can be processed leaving people such as the OP, and no doubt others, disgruntled that they have bothered.

 

 

 

Wondering if the ad was purchased before the lockdown - since print goes to bed at least 60 days before publication - and ads are usually sold even sooner so the magazine can decide on how many pages they can afford to run. But it is discouraging that rather than advertising to attract new customers, a source of revenue for all of us, they are out looking for yet more weekend shooters and spending for a two-page ad from which they will receive absolutely no revenue for six months.

 

The competition meantime is advertising for customers all the time. I don't get the strategy. It's the wee hours of the morning here - I just can't sleep these days - and I've already made more on the micros than I've grossed all year here. 

 

But kudos to Alamy for being so polite to the OP - they continue to have extremely nice staff. Just wish they were spending their time drumming up customers rather than contributors. 

 

[Martin L]

As a new contributor I would love to know why existing contributors think they have got all the bases covered and I have nothing to offer ?

[John Morrison]

20 minutes ago, Martin L said:

As a new contributor I would love to know why existing contributors think they have got all the bases covered and I have nothing to offer ?

 

 Not all "existing contributors". You may not have picked the most propitious time to make a start in stock photography (and I don't just mean the pandemic), but you're very welcome as a contributror and forum member...

Edited May 8, 2020 by John Morrison

[geogphotos]

16 minutes ago, Martin L said:

As a new contributor I would love to know why existing contributors think they have got all the bases covered and I have nothing to offer ?

 

 

Speaking for myself I had no idea of your existence so nothing I said was aimed at you personally. 

 

[Martin L]

28 minutes ago, John Morrison said:

 

 Not all "existing contributors". You may not have picked the most propitious time to make a start in stock photography (and I don't just mean the pandemic), but you're very welcome as a contributror and forum member...

 

Sorry John, might be new to Alamy but have you thought I might not be new to stock? Anyway thanks for the welcome, reading some of the comments from 'other' existing contributors just stank of arrogance. If they are worried about more competition maybe they should up their game.