I requested a payout from LO and this is the response. Pretty poor (no pun intended). I did have a couple of sells after I requested the payout but it was totally minimal (c. $2).

After this email (below) I feel slightly angry - I don't mind not being paid the $2 as it is such a small amount and I don't care too much (haha). However, all those contributors (I don't know how many hundreds/thousands) will lose out. Or was I silly in not waiting until the very end to request a payout? I just imagine that LO have collected a very tidy amount ...

As soon as I saw that LO had stopped business I immediately asked for a payout.

Gabrielle

Email:

The payout you requested for $58.60 will be paid this Friday, May 30th.


Any earnings received after the payout was requested will not be paid.


Christina
support@luckyoliver.com

At least you got a response. I never did.

I waited until right before midnight on the 14th, because I wasn't sure if the site would go down at 12:01 a.m. on the 15th or 11:59 p.m. Only lost out on 30 cents that way. I don't understand why other folks didn't just wait...bad business decision on their parts, IMO.

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Photography by Karin Lau | SmugMug Pro Account | Shutterstock | Mostphotos | StockXPert | Dreamstime | iStock | 123RF | BigStock

Maybe because many of us also asked for our images to be removed at the same time as asking for a payout and thus did not expect to get any more of those exceedingly rare sales?

I am still waiting for responses to the three emails I sent them between the time they announced the closure on the site and the 15th May but I imagine I will be waiting forever as they have not had the common courtesy to reply so far.

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FT|SS|DT|Fotolia |Kerioak

I asked for payout on the 14th and had 1 sale on the 15th... U$1.00

I just don't understand why they couldn't automatically process all payouts at closing time, instead of putting everybody on their toes to get their well earned money.

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Microstock Tips and News Blog

They did not inform anyone they were closing - putting a note on the site was not good enough, not everyone visits all their sites on a regular basis.

Not removing images and not paying out on images sold is, as far as I can see, theft. For many of us the sums concerned may be minimal but it is not the amount that is important.

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FT|SS|DT|Fotolia |Kerioak

Quite.

Karimala
I know I should have waited until the 14th May, however, since I knew there would only be silly money and I was travelling back to the UK after a year in Korea (lots of sorting out to do and not much time for the internet) I couldn't wait.

I wonder if anyone has a copy of the terms and conditions? - if it would be worth looking into?

LO MUST have known that lots of people were not going to bother about/collect a $ here and a $ there. In my most pessimistic moments I thought this was what this site was all about - slowly but surely people would become disheartened with so few sales and just abandon it without closing their accounts while LO would be making a small fortune on the back of people's shrapnel.

Why didn't they ever do the marketing properly? Had they given up long before we did?

Gabrielle

Totally understandable, Gabrielle.

I just wish I had some answers for everyone, but I'm in the dark like everyone else. Gotta admit I'm truly embarrassed about having worked for LO and believing so strongly in the company. I feel like such an idiot, and feel horribly guilty about touting them so highly and drawing in so many contributors. I really believed in that company, and poured my heart and soul into it...and to have it end like this with so many people not getting their hard earned money makes me sick.

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Photography by Karin Lau | SmugMug Pro Account | Shutterstock | Mostphotos | StockXPert | Dreamstime | iStock | 123RF | BigStock

I asked for a payout the day before the notice went on the site. I am really hacked off, I was saving my money toward a new lens. I guess thats gone out of the window now. I had $157 sitting with them. I got the usual email saying that it would be paided on so-and-so date, that date came and went. guess my money has too.

I've learn't a lesson, that is to take the money out as soon as it can be collected.

Pam

Karimala - I know that you put so much into it - from your heartfelt pleas for LO I left my stuff in there! Hoping ... a miracle would happen.

Perhaps you could tout SS on ComputerArts magazine - I was very dismayed to see an article (not an ad) in last month's issue about microstock sites without even a squeak of a mention of SS. Hmmmm!

Leafy - That's TERRIBLE. You MUST somehow get your money back. I'd only imagined lots of people with under $3 in there but that has really made me think about how many have a significant amount (for LO) in the LO vault.

The email from LO says it will pay on Friday 30th May. Let's see what happens to everyone then. Good luck!