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Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

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gemmf
 
Posts: 903

Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Wed Mar 04, 2015 9:29 am


I made a payment for renewal subscription on 11 February (3 weeks before the expiry date), but it hasn't show up on my payment history. I sent an email to PBase about this on 17 Feb and receive a reply 1 week later telling that they are looking into this. Another week has passed now without any update and my account is now expired. Could you please look into this as soon as possible? I'm really appalled by the speed of your service. I've stuck with PBase for many years now when there are other competitors available, but if this isn't solved by the end of today, I'll be seriously thinking about leaving. Thank you.

jpeg_shooter
 
Posts: 18

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Wed Mar 04, 2015 1:21 pm


Hi gemmf,

I will be watching this post with great interest. My account is about to expire and I have been considering leaving Pbase for other reasons, so the response you get may influence that decision further.

Did you send in a check or pay online? I usually send in a check and it has always taken a long time for them to get around to posting the payment and updating my account time. Poor service, I agree. Pbase used to be the best. The only really good thing about it any more is the price. Kinda can't beat it for clean, no-ad photo hosting.

gemmf
 
Posts: 903

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:12 pm


I paid via PayPal as I've always done in the past 9 years through my account. It usually gets updated immediately but it didn't this time.

jrandyh
 
Posts: 30

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Wed Mar 04, 2015 7:36 pm


I believe they are going under. It concerns me as I have hundreds of professional photographs and have been a member over 15 years. No response yo emails. Most returned.
JR

gemmf
 
Posts: 903

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Wed Mar 04, 2015 10:12 pm


So do you think they are keeping the money that I just paid and not giving me the service?? If this is true, then it's outrageous.

parpho
 
Posts: 235

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Wed Mar 04, 2015 11:13 pm


gemmf wrote:So do you think they are keeping the money that I just paid and not giving me the service?? If this is true, then it's outrageous.


Just because one person says this does not make it so. Also. pursuing this in the forum is only going to get you moral support. You really need to to be emailing H.O. directly.

Best of luck,
Michael

gemmf
 
Posts: 903

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Thu Mar 05, 2015 7:42 am


parpho wrote:
gemmf wrote:So do you think they are keeping the money that I just paid and not giving me the service?? If this is true, then it's outrageous.


Just because one person says this does not make it so. Also. pursuing this in the forum is only going to get you moral support. You really need to to be emailing H.O. directly.

Best of luck,
Michael


I have emailed them and waited for 1 week for their initial response. They have apparently referred this to the administrator to look into but it was well over a week ago, so I had to post it here to get their attention (which it doesn't seem to have, unfortunately). In the meantime, if my customers are unable to view my images, this causes a lot of inconvenience and potential loss of business.

richo
 
Posts: 247

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Thu Mar 05, 2015 7:08 pm


gemmf wrote:I made a payment for renewal subscription on 11 February (3 weeks before the expiry date), but it hasn't show up on my payment history. I sent an email to PBase about this on 17 Feb and receive a reply 1 week later telling that they are looking into this. Another week has passed now without any update and my account is now expired. Could you please look into this as soon as possible? I'm really appalled by the speed of your service. I've stuck with PBase for many years now when there are other competitors available, but if this isn't solved by the end of today, I'll be seriously thinking about leaving. Thank you.


I just renewed and my payment showed up immediately. I would suggest emailing support@pbase.com and accounts@pbase.com. In another thread here, apparently the admin was not aware there was a problem with their email accounts.

gemmf
 
Posts: 903

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Thu Mar 05, 2015 7:26 pm


richo wrote:
I just renewed and my payment showed up immediately. I would suggest emailing support@pbase.com and accounts@pbase.com. In another thread here, apparently the admin was not aware there was a problem with their email accounts.


I've been using the 'support' email address but not the 'account' one, so I'll try this one as well. I sent another message yesterday and one more today, as well as a PM to the admin here (who also happens to be the person who initially replied to my email) but there has been no reply. This is very frustrating.

gemmf
 
Posts: 903

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Sat Mar 07, 2015 8:34 am


This is ridiculous. I still haven't heard from anyone and my account is still expired.

Ok, I will ask here as there must be other people in a similar situation. Do you know any alternative image hosting site that you recommend? I just need to use it like a catalogue for my customers to look at the image. I don't need to showcase, just simple image hosting will do. Thanks in advance. BTW, I hate flickr.

mikelong
 
Posts: 670

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Sat Mar 07, 2015 10:11 am


I use three sites (including this one). Flickr (free), which I don't like but gets lots of visits and "exposure." And Photobiz.com (expensive), which is where the bulk of my sales come from.

If you're serious about presenting and marketing your work, it simply doesn't make sense to spend thousands on camera gear but only pennies per day on a website that works sporadically,
run by a business that ignores customer inquiries and may soon go under (you always want a second site anyway, for just this reason). Photobiz (http://www.photobiz.com) actually
calls me here in France from North Carolina if I submit an inquiry or "support ticket," on their nickle. Then they call back again a few days later to make sure I'm satisfied.

The most reliable, professional approach is to build your own website, or have someone do it for you ($2500-$4000), using your own domain name. As mentioned, I also do not like Flickr, but
won't turn my nose up at one free TB. I use a plugin called Flickriver, that looks better than their standard layout: http://flickriver.com/photos/mikelongphotos

Good luck!

http://mikelongphotos.com

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikelongphotos
Last edited by mikelong on Sat Mar 07, 2015 10:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

jpeg_shooter
 
Posts: 18

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Sat Mar 07, 2015 10:16 am


Have you looked at SmugMug? That's the one I'm considering.

amoxtli
 
Posts: 3296
Location: San Diego, California

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Sat Mar 07, 2015 2:58 pm


For me a web site has to have traffic. You can have the fanciest site with all the bells and whistles, but if no one looks at it then what is the use? I have always liked PBase for this reason. My site regularly gets traffic. A gallery I am loading currently is getting a lot of views and is ranked highly on google: http://www.pbase.com/amoxtli/naval_air_ ... pring_2015

Another feature I like about PBase is the high degree of customization with CSS, adding video, gif, etc. that is possible and the way that galleries can be managed and moved.

Both traffic and customization are completely absent from sites like flickr. During the great PBase outage of 2009 I was on smugmug and hated it. The only viewers seemed to be other PBase refugees. Already the name of the site is a turn-off. I haven't had much luck on other sites such as zenfolio, etc. I do have a site on 500px, but it does not generate regular traffic either, but clients have said they like it: http://www.amoxtli.net/

So traffic and customization are excellent on PBase, as is the community of photographers. Unfortunately management and customer service are absent and development is non-existent. I have never understood why, but that's been the case since I joined in February 2006. Features such as geotagging have been broken since 2013 and there is no contact whatsoever with management. Disconcerting when you consider how much time and effort has been put into the sites we have here. You would think that when you have a good product and a captive audience you would take care of things, but inexplicably that is not the case. Hope things change, but I am not optimistic.

Best,

Walter
Walter Otto Koenig Architectural Photography: http://www.wokoenig.net

General Photography: http://www.wokoenig.com

Pacific Photographic Society: http://www.pacificphoto.net

gemmf
 
Posts: 903

Re: Payment not showing & enquiry ignored

Post Sat Mar 07, 2015 4:42 pm


Thanks for your suggestions, guys. I'll check them out. 'Smugmug' is such a crap name and a real turn-off for me too. I'm glad someone else thinks so too. :D

For my specific use, I don't use PBase for getting traffic. It's purely a catalogue for my customers to find the images they like, so it doesn't need to generate traffic. It doesn't even need to look pretty, to be honest. I just need somewhere to store my images that are available.


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