Sale refunded - 4 months later?

[Peter Cripps]

I’ve just noticed a refunded sale last week from an original sale in October 2022- 4 months seems a long time to potentially loose a sale! It was a substantial sale of 570 dollars so I’m a bit annoyed that I now have massively negative sales this month. I stopped uploading some time ago due to the shrinking value of stock making it non-cost effective in time to even caption existing images, but this sale made me think again and I had planned on adding a load of other images. Now, I think I was right to stop!

does anyone know the maximum time that refund can happen? 6 months? A year?

[Marianne]

I've had one 7 months later - also substantial $$$ - though not as high as yours. At least at the time, the contract gave clients 30 days for returns, so it seems egregious, IMHO, that Alamy, if they want to give clients more time, take back our portion of the earnings as it goes against the terms of their own contract with clients, on which we should have a right to rely since they are licensing our images on those terms.  

 

Sadly, you are not alone. 

 

EDIT:

 

Section 11 of the contract with clients now states:

 

11. License cancellation and termination

11.1 If you have not downloaded an item of Content, you may cancel the License and get a full refund within fourteen (14) days of the Invoice date. You will need to send an email to sales@alamy.com, with the Invoice number (e.g. IY11110000) and the Content file number (e.g. AT4WHG). If you cancel, you will not be able to use the Content.

11.2 Once you download a purchased item of Content, you agree that you have no right to a refund, unless expressly stated otherwise in this Agreement.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by Marianne
More info

[Colin Woods]

I just had one from last May refunded. A fair price too, though nowhere near what the OP is saying. I too do not understand why this occurs.

[M.Chapman]

Did the original payment clear? If not then it indicates the customer never paid the invoice and, in the end Alamy, decided that they never will (maybe the customer has gone bust for example) and so it appears as a "Refund" in the sales account. In reality no money ever changed hands.

 

Mark

[StanRohrer]

I recently had a sizable sale refunded. Fortunately, in a couple days later, it reappeared and for the same price. I'd guess some buyers project got delayed and a big group of images were renegotiated with newer dates of use. It could also be the buyers project was for a large group of images but now some of those were no longer needed - so the whole group got renegotiated. Who knows! Hopefully you see a new purchase to offset the canceled transaction.