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Fotolia, one of the main microstock photography agencies launched their revamped site with overhauls on their entire technical system and are facing some problems as a result. Members have reported facing multiple problems, from being unable to withdraw their payments to facing blank pages when accessing the forum and uploading images.

With some negative buzz in several microstock forumson Fotolia, Chad Bridwell, Director of US Operations has come out to clarify the situation and reassure members that these are teething problems associated with a major system revamp which will be rectified as soon as possible. He made this post to members of a microstock forum:

Hello everyone,

Christine suggested that I post a message here. For the last year our engineers have been working on V2. The website was completely rewritten with new code and then moved over to brand new hardware. We tested it for close to a month and it was perfect but then we went live. The one thing I have learned from my time on the internet is that the live server and your test servers never seem to react the same. While this is not an excuse it has been the reality of my experience with many companies.

Is there room for improvement, yes. But I believe our team did and is doing everything possible to provide and outstanding website.

So it was never intended for these things to happen but they do happen and we are moving forward.

For example I was not comfortable with how the payment system was operating on the live server. Our engineers reviewed the issues and made adjustments and now payments to photographers are back online.

This has been a very difficult release but things are getting better everyday and sales are still very strong for the company. I believe we are going to see a real change in Fotolia this week.

Sincerely,

Chad Bridwell
Director of US Operations
Fotolia.com

Why I Am Sticking With Fotolia

Having used Fotolia since I first started with microstock photography, I have to say I’m all for putting up with some temporary inconveniences with V2. Fotolia V1 was extremely buggy and very frustrating to use with error messages and blank pages popping up regularly. Often, logging in resulted in “Member Profile Not Found”, and even their help page ironically, was not accessible.

Since Fotolia V2, many of these problems have disappeared although obviously other problems have cropped up as highlighted by members. Still, I do believe Fotolia V2 is a change for the better, with an improved system and an increase in payouts.

Fotolia V2 Can Only Get Better

I have not tried requesting payment yet although I have reached the minimum USD100.00 payout limit because of payment processing procedures being ironed out as warned by Fotolia V2. However, I don’t feel unduly worried that I won’t get my money since Fotolia is one of the major microstock agencies in the business, certainly one of the biggest in Europe and one of my best performers much to my own surprise.