Sales - not cleared for many months

[Animus]

Hi,

just wondering, admittedly without huge experience in Alamy sales, but...  some sales have been showing now for 5 months as not yet cleared. 

My understanding from the Alamy help pages is that essentially customer was billed but hasn't yet paid for the image.

The big question is whether it ever clears, as this depends on customer ever paying up... but mainly, in the meantime is customer already using the image?

I have to say I find it bizarre that Alamy can leave something unpaid and photographers waiting almost half a year watching uncleared sales on their dashboard, with zero updates or progress whatsoever. 

Is this normal or just having bad luck AND Alamy not chasing at all the buyers?

 

[spacecadet]

This isn't a retail business. Some clients are slow payers. I'm waiting 5 months for an FT use to report, never mind clear.

[Sultanpepa]

Waiting on a report for a textbook image which has been advertised for a some months but only went into print at the end of April according to google. I hope it's worth the wait. 

[Joseph Clemson]

In my experience the vast majority of sales clear within the expected six weeks. The minority which take longer usually clear eventually, the longest for me being nine months. In some cases the customer goes bust, disappears or goodness knows what and the debt never gets paid - in which case Alamy will eventually write it off and the sale will disappear. 

What happens at Alamy is utterly in line with the experience of all nearly all business-to-business transactions in all kinds of industries; mostly you get paid, eventually. The system does seem strange to newcomers, especially those who have come to stock photography through microstock where the customer is required to pay on the spot and the contributor's cut follows quickly afterwards. However, Alamy's roots and modus operandi are those of a traditional photo agency and so we live (mostly happily, occasionally grumpily) with the way things are.

[Sultanpepa]

1 hour ago, arterra said:

Waiting 5 months?

Would be great if my April 2016 images would finally clear 

Still waiting to be paid for those:

• 05 April 2016 BHKD4D $ 150.00
• 05 April 2016 CC05HR $ 150.00
• 06 April 2016 BHKCKY $ 60.00
• 06 April 2016 BHKEG5 $ 150.00
• 06 April 2016 CEHDB3 $ 100.00
• 15 April 2016 BHKEHK $ 50.00
• 15 April 2016 CXNG57 $ 100.00
• 15 April 2016 BGKB50 $ 150.00
• 15 April 2016 BEK40D $ 150.00
• 18 April 2016 CX1J82 $ 100.00

Total: $ 1160 

 

Cheers,
Philippe

I don't think you're going to get paid for those Philippe, and I'd go further and say whoever bought them had no intention of doing so. Were they all from the same buyer which seems likely given the dates?

 

[Animus]

thanks all, it does look like the annoying situation is not so rare nor special... phew... still annoying of course...

As in Philippe's case, I wonder whether sometimes payment happens at all in the end... in this lifetime