Thumbnail of user jamilab26

Jamila B.

Contributor Level

Total Points
106

1 Review by Jamila

  • AgeFotoStock

5/27/23

The only person who now communicates (if you can call that communication) on behalf of this company is Alfonso Gutierrez - the "CEO" and probably the only employee left. As a photographer, if you want your royalties to be paid, you have to write directly to him and send him an invoice, but you won't get paid anyway even if you fulfilled all their invoice requirements. Instead, you will be either ignored, or, if you send several reminders after months of non-payment, you will be insulted, called mentally ill, and will have to deal with his arrogant and toxic behaviour, still without getting paid.
Mr. Gutierrez is really good at insulting people and bragging about his supposed 50-year-experience in the stock business, but that's about it.
If you send him a reminder after months of non-payment, he starts pretending that there are mistakes in your invoice, and if you clearly and unequivocally prove him that the mistake is on his side, he tries to ridicule you for "wasting a lot of time" and "time apparently not valuing much in your country". Then, if you send him another reminder almost 5 months after you've sent him the invoice that exactly corresponded to his proforma invoice and fulfilled all his invoice requirements (and re-sent it 4 times), he writes you "if you want to be paid, it is simple - send an summary of what you think we are owing you", and terminates the e-mail by phrases like "Get better, Mum!" or "enjoy the day, and please keep trying". You re-send him a correct invoice including all collection report numbers etc. for the n-th time... and he just laughs in your face without paying anything.
Reading people's comments here and in the internet, it becomes clear how many other people he already ripped off apart from me - no wonder that he turned off comments on both his instagram and facebook page - I can imagine the kind and quantity of comments he would get. But apart from switching off comments, he doesn't really care - he calls photographers he ripped off "barking dogs", and openly treats them like vermin.

He also pretends to have a long experience in IT, but he's apparently using an accounting system from prehistoric times without even basic controls like matching bank payments to invoices and collection reports, judging by the fact that he does not have correct information about which collection reports have already been paid and which ones haven't.

When you are fed up with this parody to stock agency and want to delete your portfolio, it turns out that deleting your images from within your account is impossible. He answers you that you have to terminate the contract first ("understand, or it is too complex for you?"), and when you write him that you want to terminate the contract and want him to remove your images from his site, he just ignores you again.
Unfortunately, the contract states that this company can retain your images for the "Term", which is initially 3 years, and at the end of this period the contract is automatically renewed for yet another year and then again and again, unless you give a 90-day written notice. Which means that not only my royalties earned in 2022 have not been paid by the end of 5/2023, but he will continue to use and sell my images without paying me for another almost year (at best) even if I give a written notice right now.

I sincerely hope that buyers and agents will learn about how this company treats photographers, so that they don't continue buying from someone who rips off the authors of images and steals their money, laughing in their face.

Service
Value

Jamila Has Earned 6 Votes

Jamila B.'s review of AgeFotoStock earned 6 Very Helpful votes

Jamila hasn’t received any thanks yous.

Jamila doesn’t have any fans yet.

Jamila isn’t following anybody yet.

Empty.

Similar Reviewers on Sitejabber

Thumbnail of user geotourisme
3/24/24

Cette banque d'images dirigé par Mr Gutierez Alonso est de mauvaise fois et ne m'a pas rémunéré...

Thumbnail of user colinm369
3/6/24

The incompetent and incredibly rude CEO Alfonso died in December 2023. He allegedly left an...