Word of warning about GalaStock

After joining I saw reasonable sales numbers for a new site so I added about 500 images.

Suddenly after they are busted for an employee stealing photos out of the approval que and attempting to sell them as his own at Fotolia all activity on the site stops and 2 months later there is still nothing happening at all.

So a month ago I requested that my account there be closed. Their TOS is very open ended with no provisions for a mandatory time commitment for images uploaded.

2 weeks go by with no response.

A second email request is sent and again no response is received

So after waiting another 3 weeks I go in and disable all my images so that they can not be sold. Deletion is a major time consumer as they can only be done one at a time.

I send yet a third request for account closure. This one not so friendly and sternly warning against any further distribution of my images.

A week later I finally get a curt email from them telling me I have to delete all the images myself that they won't do it for me.

My personal opinion is that there is something very much not right in the business practices of this agency and that you all run huge risks by having images there. So if you have images there please be aware of what my experience with them has been and what their proven history has been to date.

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Bobby Deal
Real Deal Photography

Thanks for the warning!

I turned down their e-mail invitation to join right at the beginning...I'm very glad I did, but I'm awfully sorry you got stung Bobby.

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Photography of Grace
Feature Pics
Photography Blography

I deleted mine after the employee theft (which included some of mine.) Fortunately, I only had a dozen or so. That's the last startup I've joined. One thing I've learned in my short time doing this (remember Totally Photos?) until you reach payout and you have the money in your pocket, you haven't made a nickel.

Wow. Your experience is definitely a good lesson for all of us about the risks we take when supporting start-ups.

The only one I'm working with is Lucky Oliver, because they are local and I've had the opportunity to meet them and talk shop. My support isn't about the money I'll earn from their site, but rather about the faith I have in the company itself and their wonderful innovative ideas.

I've only removed images from Gimmestock, because I hadn't had a single sale in nine months. They were courteous and promptly removed my images and account.

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

Thanks. I just deleted all mine and filled up my personal info with blanks.
http://tinyurl.com/ygeljh

I also removed mine after the employee debacle, with that and them using the Canstock agreement and not changing all the wording, not reviewing my images, made me too wary of them, especially just following TP.

I cannot remember if I did anything about my profile but just checked and I cannot log in there as I am not recognised

Thanks for the warning though Bobby, if I had not already done so I would be removing them now

Christine

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FT|SS|DT|Fotolia |Kerioak

Bobby, thanks for the advice! For months now I was wondering why its taking six weeks for images to be reviewed etc. I have to email 2-3 times before I get a response and an apology that my images have not been reviewed. I joined Galastock in July, against my better judgement. At first sales seem to be happening every day, then suddenly about two months ago everything just ceased. No sales, no approvals. Tonight I deleted all my images off Galastock. I just hope thats enough to end my dealings with them. I decided to do a search on google about galastock, and this is how I found talkmicro. I agree Bobby, something is definitely not right with the practises of Galastock.