TeeCee Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 I’ve taken a look round the forums, and the subject of “personal use” photos has already had plenty of debate. One I sold last month on that basis was almost undoubtedly not for personal use … it’s of the pre-amp unit of a guitar (see AFK256).To add insult to injury, the sale was refunded a few days into this month, creating an issue where someone downloaded one of my pictures, presumably used it and stored it for future commercial use, and finally got his/her fee refunded too… So, a couple of issues: Is there not a case for no refunds being given on “personal use” photos? Do the infringements team look at all refunds as the most likely source of potential misuse? I could, of course, just opt out of personal use sales, but before I do so, I’d like to know a lot more, so I’d be interested to know what anyone else thinks on these points, and any other measures that could be put in place to limit misuse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 As mentioned elsewhere by Alamy it is possible the person who downloaded your image probably thought they were buying the article itself hence the refund. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeCee Posted October 8, 2016 Author Share Posted October 8, 2016 Thanks for that Allan, not a scenario that I'd ever have considered. Are there really people who'll mistake Alamy for Amazon? Suppose they both have two "A"'s and an "M", but beyond that .... Anyway, if this ever gets refunded (CECR4J) on the same excuse, I'll be deeply suspicious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 I am also very much in doubt about the personal use sales and have restricted a few of my most obvious images to misuse. However, I experienced three personal use sales about a month ago. A short while later the same three images were sold at a fair price for use in books - and another day or two later the three cheap personal use sales were refunded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 Maybe refunds should not be available for personal use licences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Richmond Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 Maybe refunds should not be available for personal use licences. In the UK and EU the distance selling regulations would apply. Refunds can't not be offered as Personal use implies sales to individuals who are covered by these regulations. (They may not be personal sales - but that's another story.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeCee Posted October 8, 2016 Author Share Posted October 8, 2016 Maybe refunds should not be available for personal use licences. In the UK and EU the distance selling regulations would apply. Refunds can't not be offered as Personal use implies sales to individuals who are covered by these regulations. (They may not be personal sales - but that's another story.) Hi John, this was my original point - one of the "personal use" photos sold last month was refunded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 Maybe refunds should not be available for personal use licences. In the UK and EU the distance selling regulations would apply. Refunds can't not be offered as Personal use implies sales to individuals who are covered by these regulations. (They may not be personal sales - but that's another story.) No. Alamy is being generous. The DSRs have been replaced by the CCRs, but in any case for a digital service the right to cancel ends when you start the download. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CM photo Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 However, I experienced three personal use sales about a month ago. A short while later the same three images were sold at a fair price for use in books - and another day or two later the three cheap personal use sales were refunded. I had a similar experience, but with just two uses (which haven't been refunded - yet). At the time I assumed that the Personal Use sale was a slip-up (by Alamy or by the purchaser) which was later adjusted. Perhaps I'm too gullible. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynne Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 I too have had a personal sale which was refunded a few days later! I can't think the person or company thought they were actually buying the article in the image! And unless technology has advanced so much that I missed something important - the item in mine would have had to be posted and not downloaded!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 As mentioned elsewhere by Alamy it is possible the person who downloaded your image probably thought they were buying the article itself hence the refund. Allan This is the reason Alamy gave me for a PU sale that was refunded. I struggle a lot to believe that anyone could mistake purchasing an image license for buying the actual product. They'd have to search some images, not products, and they'd see all sorts of images that aren't what they searched for. Then they'd have to specify the license type, then pay for it without giving their address (or do you need to when you don't have an account?). I wonder at which point it would become clear that you aren't actually buying the product? Surely even if you somehow managed to go through the system and pay the money, you would then realise you hadn't actually purchased the item and would contact Alamy straight away? Geoff Quite. If people are really that dim then one might suggest that they should be paying for the education about real life that Alamy is providing! Or are they not really that dim ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Heaton Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 I have occasionally had a sale refunded and then replaced by the same image selling under a slightly different licence or price. The only ones which have been refunded and not resold have been personal use and all images of drugs. On April 1st a photo of Lansoprazole was sold for personal use and refunded on April 28th. On 1st July I sold three pics of Tramadol for personal use and all were refunded on the 5th. These are the only personal use pics I have ever sold! I don't believe for a minute that these pics were for personal use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Scammell Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 I have just asked Alamy to restrict all of my images from Personal Use. They replied and said they were happy to do it. Sorted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 I have occasionally had a sale refunded and then replaced by the same image selling under a slightly different licence or price. The only ones which have been refunded and not resold have been personal use and all images of drugs. On April 1st a photo of Lansoprazole was sold for personal use and refunded on April 28th. On 1st July I sold three pics of Tramadol for personal use and all were refunded on the 5th. These are the only personal use pics I have ever sold! I don't believe for a minute that these pics were for personal use. Ref. to earlier posts, perhaps they thought they had bought the drugs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoff s Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 I had a sudden spike of zooms recently ie 15 in a day, all of a popular holiday location. The initial response was pleasure but then I reflected that it may well have been a personal use shopper browsing. Has this been taken into account by Alamy ? After all, presumably anybody can now browse and zoom including your mum, your aunt and the dog and thereby help no end with your CTR ? Not that I have tried it or would suggest that anyone would do such a thing. I would have thought that this type of useage would be dismissed from the CTR calculations and forgive me if I have missed something along these lines but I hadn't paid a great deal of attention to PU till I had one recently. Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearl Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 I had a sudden spike of zooms recently ie 15 in a day, all of a popular holiday location. The initial response was pleasure but then I reflected that it may well have been a personal use shopper browsing. Has this been taken into account by Alamy ? After all, presumably anybody can now browse and zoom including your mum, your aunt and the dog and thereby help no end with your CTR ? Not that I have tried it or would suggest that anyone would do such a thing. I would have thought that this type of useage would be dismissed from the CTR calculations and forgive me if I have missed something along these lines but I hadn't paid a great deal of attention to PU till I had one recently. Geoff You can only see zooms made by trusted clients with an account at Alamy. You do seem to get other views though, so someone could still make lots of views of a particular portfolio to negatively affect their CTR. I don't know if Alamy have something in place to limit that or not? It's something I've always wondered about. Geoff. I thought views (not just zooms) were only recorded from certain clients, not just anyone. Geoff, what makes you think that "you do seem to get other views"? Pearl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearl Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 You can only see zooms made by trusted clients with an account at Alamy. You do seem to get other views though, so someone could still make lots of views of a particular portfolio to negatively affect their CTR. I don't know if Alamy have something in place to limit that or not? It's something I've always wondered about. Geoff. I thought views (not just zooms) were only recorded from certain clients, not just anyone. Geoff, what makes you think that "you do seem to get other views"? Pearl Hi Pearl. I've never read that it counts for views too, plus most my sales are not a result of a zoom that I can see, but quite often the images in question have appeared in my views that day or day before (particularly in the case of newspaper licenses where they tend to publish the image the same day as searching for it). Of course it could be coincidence but I've seen that many times, so that is unlikely. Another point is that usually something like half of the searches where I have views have not got any zooms recorded for anyone, which would be odd considering that sometimes many hundreds or thousands of results are looked through. Geoff. But my understanding is that buyers can download or add to lightbox and buy without zooming first. I am sure Alamy has stated that only registered clients views are recorded in measures. That may have been when measures first started but also this is stated on the Measures page:- "How is this data collected? This data is collected from the search activity of our paying customers. It records searches, visits, views, sales and zooms.." Pearl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alamy Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 I struggle a lot to believe that anyone could mistake purchasing an image license for buying the actual product. It's actually very common. Our sales team take calls every day from people assuming they are buying the product. Quite often these users are searching for the product on google and then end up going direct to the image of the product with "personal use" as an option next to it. That's where the confusion arises. See this blog for some of the crazy things people think they are buying from us: http://www.alamy.com/blog/alamy-or-amazon-11-times-people-got-a-bit-confused Alamy P.S - and this one, from 2014: http://www.alamy.com/blog/10-weirdest-things-ever-bought-alamy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeCee Posted October 10, 2016 Author Share Posted October 10, 2016 I struggle a lot to believe that anyone could mistake purchasing an image license for buying the actual product. It's actually very common. Our sales team take calls every day from people assuming they are buying the product. Quite often these users are searching for the product on google and then end up going direct to the image of the product with "personal use" as an option next to it. That's where the confusion arises. See this blog for some of the crazy things people think they are buying from us: http://www.alamy.com/blog/alamy-or-amazon-11-times-people-got-a-bit-confused Alamy P.S - and this one, from 2014: http://www.alamy.com/blog/10-weirdest-things-ever-bought-alamy As Geoff says - fair enough then, though am deeply worried about the chap who thought he'd got a mail order bride for £9.99 ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 I see a thread coming- what could someone think they'd bought from you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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