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Alamy getting bad reviews on Trustpilot


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It's concerning to see the bad reviews about Alamy appearing on Trustpilot.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/alamy.com?sort=recency

It seems that confusion over image sizing affects consumers as well as new contributors. Someone also complains that they thought they were buying medicine and not a photo of medicine (another recurring theme). Alamy ought to be posting responses to some of these reviews to defend their reputation...

 

Mark 

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If Alamy had only business customers the negative reviews on Trustpilot probably wouldn't matter, but with fees from PU sales remaining quite attractive whilst others have reduced, it won't be helping.

 

Mark 

Edited by M.Chapman
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I wouldn't be too worried if I were Alamy. Anyone who thinks they're buying a real product from a photo library only makes themselves look stupid, not Alamy. And anyone who thinks the grievance is real is not someone Alamy would want as a customer.

 

Alan

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Had a look at the reviews and everything seems to change over a few months towards the end of 2018.  Before that mostly five stars or fours and Alamy replying to any problems, after nearly all one star and nothing from Alamy.  Did something happen late 2018?

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In all seriousness, one thing about those reviews that made me wonder is the complaints about low res images. Several people mentioning that the image they got was very bad quality and low res. Are they somehow doing something wrong and downloading the thumbnail or do the masses now consider, say, 6 MP images bad quality and low res?

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30 minutes ago, Cal said:

In all seriousness, one thing about those reviews that made me wonder is the complaints about low res images. Several people mentioning that the image they got was very bad quality and low res. Are they somehow doing something wrong and downloading the thumbnail or do the masses now consider, say, 6 MP images bad quality and low res?

 

The comments I read were complaining that Alamy was hosting the same quality images as available on Wikipedia. This is true because they can be uploaded in the Archive scheme.

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3 hours ago, geogphotos said:

 

The comments I read were complaining that Alamy was hosting the same quality images as available on Wikipedia. This is true because they can be uploaded in the Archive scheme.

 

But Alamy provides the dimensions and file size, along with the notice that the archival images may have imperfections, so buyers know what they are getting for the most part.

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4 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

But Alamy provides the dimensions and file size, along with the notice that the archival images may have imperfections, so buyers know what they are getting for the most part.

Maybe something like a loupe/magnifier showing a true 100% part of the image would remedy that. Didn't FAA use to have that?

Probably impossible with 353,855,408 images on the servers already.

 

Has anyone checked out the competition on Trustpilot?

 

wim

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It has been suggested in the past that Alamy could make it clearer that the customer is buying an image and not a product, with some prominent text in the checkout process. It would surely require less effort than was put in to coding the ridiculous "More" button, but it probably wouldn't prevent every mistaken purchase and Alamy don't seem to care anyway.

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18 hours ago, wiskerke said:

Maybe something like a loupe/magnifier showing a true 100% part of the image would remedy that. Didn't FAA use to have that?

Probably impossible with 353,855,408 images on the servers already.

 

Has anyone checked out the competition on Trustpilot?

 

wim

 

The loupe might be a good idea, although it could also result in some lost sales. I've checked out a couple of other big stock agencies on T-pilot, and they too have no shortage of negative reviews. I guess this says something about the current state of the industry and about human nature as well -- i.e. we love to complain. 😩

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First review I read appears to be from a UK contributor bemoaning low prices and Alamy's lack of follow up to collect fees for unreported ues, so shooting themselves in the foot by posting in a forum aimed at photo buyers. Human nature at its finest. (Though I can't disagree with the points raised it's not the forum in which to share contributor grievances). 

 

On the buyer side, I've always wondered about those who think they're buying medicine from a photo library - or licensing it....as said above, no remedy for stupid. 

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7 hours ago, Robert M Estall said:

do you really think this forum is aimed at buyers? I'm happy that it is an open forum, but I do think it's mostly aimed at contributors

I think Marianne is referring to Trustpilot as "a forum aimed at buyers", not this forum.

 

Mark

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8 hours ago, Robert M Estall said:

do you really think this forum is aimed at buyers? I'm happy that it is an open forum, but I do think it's mostly aimed at contributors

 

21 minutes ago, M.Chapman said:

I think Marianne is referring to Trustpilot as "a forum aimed at buyers", not this forum.

 

Mark

 

Mark is correct. I was referring to Trustpilot .

 

I assume this forum is aimed at contributors. I've never seen a buyer comment here that I can recall & I've been on the forum since 2008.

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Maybe the forum is not aimed at buyers, but try something like Alamy lowest price in Google and see that comments on the forum appear high up in the list of results.

For a couple of hours of interesting results try Alamy reviews. 😁

 

wim

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