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An open letter to Crestock administrators |  | Nikas Kudirkos Naumiestis, Lithuania | Normal 0 19 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Dear chiefs of Crestock, It‘s been some time when people
in the forum talk that you do not look through the photos that we send to you,
that you reject them because of their poor quality, as you motivate. I do not
think that we send you photos or illustrations which are of poorer quality than
those we seell in such worldwide recognised photobanks as Shutterstock,
Istockphoto and other. Their requirements are definitely high, therefore, to my
opinion, your motivation about our photos being inadequate to your requirements
is absolutely unsubstantiated. For the time being you are not the leaders in
the photo-market. It is also strange that you do not answer any of our
questions and inquiries at all. Why is that so? You explain that you have some
problems with your e-mail. But can‘t you see a rising wave in Crestock forum
and in various themes where photographers ask to delete their portfolios and pay
their money. Ok, you say that there are problems with Moneybooker, but
personally I asked to transfer the money I earned through PayPal. Strangely, I
got no answer. Neither about my request being accepted, nor about money being
transferred. I have already raised thsi question in the forum. But maybe I
didn‘t write understandably enough. Therefore I repeatedly address you, the
chiefs of Crestock: Severin, JoshDK and others who are responsible for all this
matter. I ask you to consider everything and work honestly with us. It‘s not
only my personal opinion. This is how most of photographers working here talk.
I do not think you would like to be announced villains who earn money stealing
from others. We will be waiting for the answer and we hope we will get it. And now dear photographers, I address you. Are there any more
poeple who confronted with the disrespect of the administrators of Crestock? Just think, we earn them money and
we ourselves get ONLY 0,25 USD for the photos we sell. Let it be so, but let
them also give us the poor money we earn. Otherwise I think we‘ll have to
organise a photographers campain which would announce that photos and
illustrations sold at Crestock are sold illegally. If there are more such
people we will unite and start solving this problem together. I hope then
things will get better or I will be right saying that Crestock is going
BANKRUPT. I am waiting for all
photographers‘ opinion. Don‘t keep silent!
[Last Modified:
1/12/2009 7:10:37 PM]
| | | Well, I'd like to say that I'm doing well with Crestock. Sorry to contradict what you are saying here, but there are many photographers here that do well at Crestock. Obviously in the forums the vast majority of entries will be from the frustrated people and not from content contributors - so it seems everyone is unhappy. I don't think it's fair to say "This is how most of photographers working here talk", because you don't speak for everyone. I don't just get $.25 for images, I also receive $ 1.50, $ 4.50, etc. Anyway, I'm happy with my account and my earnings here at Crestock and I will be here for a looong time.
| | | Nikas, Unfortunately, your views are not accurate in reflecting the views 1000s of contributors who are actively contributing and earning an income on Crestock. I will address this, I mean to express this with all humbleness, yet also with an understanding that comes from working together with true, successful individuals in this field. Rejections and low sales - Its true, Crestock inspectors are some tough critics. And, images that come through the inspection process, will face tougher criticism by the paying client. Please understand, we are delivering a product to a client that demands a high standard, now and increasingly more in the future. Also, be aware, everybody now can own a Digital SLR and begin to shoot images of whatever, nature, people, etc., but as a photographer, collectively, your assignment is to deliver images that other people cannot take. Unless that can be delivered to an agency, any agency, your images will suffer with approval and sales, because clients don't need to pay for that, they can take these images themselves. Nikas, I have not seen your images, approval or rejections, so please do not take this as a personal reflection on your own work. Now, there have been some other issues that have affected both you personally and other contributors with difficulties in getting touch with Crestock, we apologise for this and I understand this is being fixed. I believe that Crestock can improve in many different areas, this is a dynamic and rapidly expanding market. http://www.crestock.com/news/temporary-problems-with-crestock-helpdesk-178.aspx I urge you to behave more professionally, speaking as one photographer to another, and to not amount all blame onto Crestock (or any other agency) for your images not selling. This forum is read by buyers, and with so many negative comments being submitted, you can only be hurting your own and your fellow photographers' sales.. Crestock is not going bankrupt. Sales are up overall about 400% from the start of 2008. Yet, none of us are rich, and we are constantly assessing the issue of low subscription commissions. Though we make no apologies for this, as several other microstock agencies starting around the same time as Crestock were not able to make numbers fit together, through such a competitive period. | | | Further counter-productive forum postings will be removed, sorry. Polite enquiries as to Crestock's image standards and sustainable future are encouraged, we are business partners of a sense. Its not necessary to punctuate every sentence with a 'I love Crestock'.. We're rational people too, but please understand the dynamics of our cooperative relationship, and do not scare customers away with angry complaints. | | | I have to say Crestock is doing very well for me. Sales are definitely rising month by month. I also notice I have more and more credit earnings instead of subscription ones. I really like Crestock. The site has a pleasant interface and uploading doesn't take lots of time, especially when you use IPTC. Never had any problems with requesting payments via Paypal. My idea is people waste their precious time posting all these extended messages in the forums, not only on this site but also on other discussion forums. We'd better use that time for photographing, post-processing and uploading  I'm very curious where Crestock will be in the near future, I have a lot of faith. I'm sure I will continue uploading here! | | |
[Last Modified:
1/16/2009 3:41:01 AM]
| | | hmm, well I would expect a statement like that from someone who has actually had their images stolen - not from someone who has images waiting in the queue to be reviewed. Sorry, but I really think your forum post is unwarranted and even slips towards slander.
Well back to uploading... | | | Well as far as I was informed the files were stolen, since I sent them to you guys without receiving any kind of payment etc. The agreement beween me and Crestock was that either Crestock start selling them within 5 days - or you reject them - and send me a notification in either case. Which you failed completely to do - so yes, it was theft as far as I am concerned. Especially from a point of view of the mutual agreement where I clearly had my files held by someone who did not intend to fulfill it's part of the agreement. | | | I have been trying to terminate my account for more then 2 months now and I am getting no reply whatsoever from Crestock. I'm not going to elaborate why I want to terminate my account - simply, I am very unhappy. And I don't care if I'm right or wrong here. I have the right to ask for my account to be terminated and my photos erased from their database. Nebojsa P.S. Take a look if my posts are going to be erased after a while. I never "raised my voice" or was "unproductive". I am taking my last resort before calling in the lawyers. | | | I've been writing several critical posts in the forums, but haven't got any reaction from Crestock so far. Here's a summary of my thoughts: Regarding the image rejections, the
Crestock team insists that they know very well what their buyers want.
But first of all, with other pictures, they would have OTHER, new
buyers as well. Secondly and most importantly, what about the happiness
of the contributers? We invest all the time and effort and this is
what we get in return then I don't know how this system is going to
last. If all the sites would follow a policy like Crestock's, then
microstock wouldn't work at all, for who would be willing to spend
hundreds and perhaps thousands of hours just to get a small bunch of
surviving images accepted? We are doing it because other agencies are
accepting our pictures. If all of them were this picky then very few
people would contribute. The standard of the photos would then be high,
sure, but the diversity would suffer, and who knows how the buyers
would react to that. I have high respect for the photographers who are doing well here, and like their works. But I like many of the rejected photos too, and being a designer myself my opinion might be a little relevant.
Not everyone agrees with
the Crestock team about the standard of their chosen images. Personally
I know for sure that some of my rejected images are much better (and selling better) than
the accepted ones. Crestock, of course, believes that they are more expert
at judging this than we are, but I'd like to say that the only real judges
are the customers. Give THEM the chance to decide! My other problem with Crestock is this superiority attitude - some may also call it arrogance, or insult. I understand you are trying to give the impression that you have the highest quality portfolio in all microstock. For God's sake, reject a lot if you must, but at least give honest reasons. "We don't really like this image" wouldn't be as hurtful as "it doesn't meet our creative standard" or "over/ underexposed" for perfectly exposed images or "we can take only those of highest quality" or "clean background" (whatever that means, written under a clean isolation) or, or. I contribute to many sites and NOWHERE else a rejection feels as bad as it does here. So, if I shouldn't take any of those statements personally, it's the same thing for you. Do you feel bad reading this? Then I'm sorry. I wish you would be more respectful and nobody would feel like criticising you here. Josh, you usually sound friendly and humble when you write here, but then that's a contrast to the feeling I normally get when I see the rejections, or look at those comments under the "today's worst images". Regards - Smileus
[Last Modified:
1/18/2009 10:24:10 PM]
| | | I just posted my thoughts here: http://www.illustrasjon.net/blog/crestockcom-has-stolen-my-vector-files.html Maybe others should give Geir Are Jensen a call? As I commented on your blog: Hi, I’m the Content Director at Crestock.com and I’ve not heard of this case until today, reading here. 1. We had an extremely large influx of images. Recruiting and
training inspectors takes a long time, something we did months ago and
have now controlled the waiting times, they are now below 24 hours for
photos and a bit longer for vectors, which have a separate queue. 2. Some emails have been lost in a mail server switch, several
months ago. We’ve done our best to recover and reply every email, but
thats not possible on every one of them. 3. I don’t know why your images were rejected for this reason. You are welcome to contact me about this. EDIT: http://www.crestock.com/forum/improving-crestock/Crestock-stole-my-vector-files-4999.aspx, The images were deleted as per request. Read the Crestock’s Terms&Conditions, they are the same as any other stock
agency. No theft has been committed, this is misinformation and I
really suggest it be removed. We apologize the long waiting time, but
respect your images and do not use them in any way, while they are
pending.
[Last Modified:
1/19/2009 6:17:35 PM]
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