kcoopman wrote:Interesting story about flickr is I joined the site some time last year and I enjoyed seeing the casual photos posted by just folks who choose to share on line. I even was able to find a Triathlon that was held in my city that someone took photos and posted them. Sadly, one morning, mind you, before I could do anything other than view a few different posting, my account was deleted and I was banned, I guess for life. I made a exhaustive attempt to learn and possibly explain that they have me mistaken for someone else as I have not done anything, posted anything or subscribed; I only had the account for less than a month and had not decided if I wanted to purchase a membership.....Im glad I waited.
I followed up on the ban with several emails and each time I was met with profoundly rude, non helpful and misleading customer service. They explained they cannot disclose the specific reason for the ban but that I would not, EVER be allowed to use their site. I explained, but I never had the opportunity to "use their site" yet. Apparently, that doesn't matter as my rebuttal was ignored and I have not heard anything since.
On a lighter note, I wasn't all that impressed with the site anyway but its just the idea that I was accused of doing something I must have done in my sleep because of the life of me I can't figure out what I did. I continue to, at every chance, to tell me story and stear folks away from the site and being a photographer I come in contact with a lot of individuals and most have either closed their account with them or chose a competitor. I did learn that Flickr and Smug Mug, are owned by the same company so being the criminal I am, by their deranged standards, Im banned from both.
Flickr not only stole my money (£111), but also killed my passion for photography
I have been a member of Flickr for over 19 years (since 2004). During that period I uploaded up to 48K safe images (i.e identified by Flickr as “acceptable to a global, public audience for what would be appropriate for public viewing in any setting”) into different categories (albums). Throughout this time I had so many followers. However, on 12 June 2023 the Flickr support people, (Jenny, and Olivia) took a decision to delete my entire account of images without giving me any specific reasons for their decision or prior warning. I sent emails to the help desk to find out what violations in my safe images had been discovered. Both wrote me that “They are not at liberty to discuss the specifics of accounts closed for violations”, which makes it impossible for me to understand the cause of this deletion and what warranted the closing down of my account.
To make matters worse, I had paid £111.84, on 18th May 2023, for a further 2 years subscription to Flickr. In the second email from the help desk, Olivia wrote to me that “Per our Terms of Use that you read and agreed to, Flickr does not provide refunds or partial refunds for unused subscription time should you close your account prematurely, or should your actions cause Flickr to terminate your account.”; but as far as I remember Flickr took £111.84 from my bank account automatically without any reminder about that clause agreement. Also I should mention I do not recall ever being provided with that term of non payment clause.
I tried to contact the Don MacAskill, the CEO of Flickr and SmugMug in order to ask him why Flickr help desk had deleted my entire 48K images. I wrote him via Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin. Unfortunately I did not receive any answers from him or anybody else. I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience with this website?