SMUGMUG Alert !!!

So I found this out the hard way but just wanted to let everyone know about it on here. As you all know SM recently implemented a significant price hike to their plans. Some of us decided just to pay the extra some of us decided to downgrade our accounts. I just found out yesterday that if you downgraded to a plan where you no longer sell prints that there was a chance that SM was selling them anyway at cost and not informing the photographer. Apparently SM does not disable the shopping cart automatically when you downgrade and any sales after that lines their pockets without you even knowing about it. Am i the only one here that thinks that this is shoddy business practices??? I asked a SM rep how i could determine if prints were purchased off of my site without my know how and he said there was no way...wtf.... anyway...just wanted to give everyone the heads up. You have to disable printing after you downgrade otherwise you have a good chance of being screwed. Once my term is done with these guys...i'm out of there. If someone else brought this up already i apologize for repeating the topic.

So to summarize, Smugmug sells your photos for you without the photographer knowing?
What a shady practice. Is there anyway to confirm this? Did any clients receive a print without your knowledge?

I've never used Smugmug before, but interesting stuff.

Another photographer confirmed it. Apparently the person contacted them about the print and he had no idea what they were talking about. It's raising quite the stir...

Wait.... I never downgraded b/c I got a discount. But this makes me wonder if they are selling them still without our knowledge. Is this possible?

Can someone confirm this is actually allowed in their TOS?

Sounds shady but if that is what their TOS states...

juicedownload wrote in post #15636074
So to summarize, Smugmug sells your photos for you without the photographer knowing?

No, Smugmug sells photos that you enabled the shopping cart for.

OP had a "pro" account, with pricing structures set up, then presumably downgraded to an account that does not let you set your own pricing. The photos he had previously enabled continued to be enabled, but at SM's default pricing.

An unfortunate situation, perhaps, but not exactly shady.

Now I do remember seeing that, there is one downgrade where you are able to sell photos but not at a profit, so basically you are not making $. I originally said ot myself "why the heck would someone do that" but yah..... this is prob what happened.

the only thing is that i would have appreciated a warning from smugmug...honestly i have no idea if any of my prints were purchased...but why exactly smugmug can't tell me if anything was purchased is beyond me...

I think it is shady because Smugmug first of all doesn't warn you..and second of all can't tell you if anyone purchased your prints...wouldn't you think good business practices would automatically warn or downgrade you such that the shopping cart was no longer enabled....

rpaul wrote in post #15636344
No, Smugmug sells photos that you enabled the shopping cart for.

OP had a "pro" account, with pricing structures set up, then presumably downgraded to an account that does not let you set your own pricing. The photos he had previously enabled continued to be enabled, but at SM's default pricing.

An unfortunate situation, perhaps, but not exactly shady.

http://www.smugmug.com …s/photo-sharing-features/

This is a post from our own Michael Bonocore that I will paste here because I think he said it best.


"I sincerely apologize that this has upset you. This is not a "sleaze" move on SmugMug's part though. All SmugMug Galleries, at all SmugMug account levels are created with the Shopping Cart feature turned on. This can be changed by utilizing the Quick Settings.

http://help.smugmug.co​m …llery-settings-for-later-

For Basic and Pro accounts, this feature is meant to allow the photographer the ability to give the clients the option of ordering prints, even if there is no profit margin. This is a feature that most Basic and Power users love, as providing a way for their clients to purchase prints does enhance their business, even if they are not making a profit.
This feature is noted in the plan comparison.

http://www.smugmug.com …s/photo-sharing-features/

When you downgrade your account, we keep all settings intact. Of course, this includes having the shopping cart enabled, so your clients can still purchase prints if they wish. If you would like to disable this, it is easy to do on all of your galleries with just a couple simple clicks. You can read more about that at:

http://help.smugmug.co​m …llery-settings-for-later-

I do sincerely apologize this behavior is not what you expected. But this is not unusual or "sleaze". We simply kept your gallery settings intact during your plan change, and the shopping cart setting is available on all SmugMug plans.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Michael "


-Zac

chuckie365 wrote in post #15635789
Am i the only one here that thinks that this is shoddy business practices

I don't think it's a shoddy business practice. Having the shopping cart feature is simply a feature that you can turn off if you wish. I have had several Smugmug accounts at different levels through the years. They have all had the shopping cart enabled, but I have always been able to turn that off if I wanted.

A couple of things to note here.

1. Why do you not provide a warning when downgrading your account that items that you currently have for sale will continue to be for sale even though the photographer has no way of getting any profit from it.

2. Why would you not automatically disable the shopping cart in this situation. At least the photographer is protected.

3. How can you (SM) not know who purchased the prints??

4. Why can't SM implement a global stop selling option. If someone has 100 galleries that were originally available for sale...they have to go into every one of them and "just a couple simple clicks"...

ZacW wrote in post #15636454
This is a post from our own Michael Bonocore that I will paste here because I think he said it best.


"I sincerely apologize that this has upset you. This is not a "sleaze" move on SmugMug's part though. All SmugMug Galleries, at all SmugMug account levels are created with the Shopping Cart feature turned on. This can be changed by utilizing the Quick Settings.

http://news.smugmug.co​m/2011/03/30/s...r-quick-setup/

For Basic and Pro accounts, this feature is meant to allow the photographer the ability to give the clients the option of ordering prints, even if there is no profit margin. This is a feature that most Basic and Power users love, as providing a way for their clients to purchase prints does enhance their business, even if they are not making a profit.
This feature is noted in the plan comparison.

http://www.smugmug.com …s/photo-sharing-features/

When you downgrade your account, we keep all settings intact. Of course, this includes having the shopping cart enabled, so your clients can still purchase prints if they wish. If you would like to disable this, it is easy to do on all of your galleries with just a couple simple clicks. You can read more about that at:

http://help.smugmug.co​m/customer/por...lery-settings-

I do sincerely apologize this behavior is not what you expected. But this is not unusual or "sleaze". We simply kept your gallery settings intact during your plan change, and the shopping cart setting is available on all SmugMug plans.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Michael "


-Zac

You want a warning that when you downgrade, all your settings stay exactly the same as they were?

NO. I want a warning that when i downgrade to an account where i can no longer profit on sales of my own prints that SM can still sell my prints and collect profits for themselves...isn't that basically what's happening?

Thomas Campbell wrote in post #15636567
You want a warning that when you downgrade, all your settings stay exactly the same as they were?