500px and Fotomoto send out “he said, she said” emails to users

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Tonight I recieved an email from 500px telling me that they will be removing their photo stores because their partner, Fotomoto ‘does not quite satisfy our high demands for quality of the user experience’. An hour later, Fotomoto sent an email of their own, countering that ‘500px didn’t meet their business and technical commitments’, and it was their call to terminate the contract with 500px.

I like the 500px service, but sizing up these two emails (published below) it does seem like they may not be trustworthy. Which is a shame, as it’s a service I decided to pay for.

Email from 500px: ‘Changes to 500px photo stores’

Dear friends,

First of all, let me say a huge thanks to all of you — without you none of this would have been possible. This year 500px has seen tremendous growth and development, and although the ride was bumpy at times, our dedicated team members always stood behind the platform, solved the most challenging problems and did their best to offer our users the best experience possible.

There are many exciting things planned, you will see them live on the site in the nearest future.

One of the most requested changes is coming very soon — we are completely redesigning and redeveloping the photo store experience on 500px. The current 500px photo stores, provided by our partner Fotomoto, are not ideal. Its platform, although powerful and feature rich, does not quite satisfy our high demands for quality of the user experience. So, we will not extend our contact with Fotomoto, and they will end supporting stores on 500px on September 27, 2011.

We are working hard to make the transition as seamless and transparent as possible. Most of the features you are used to will be preserved in the new 500px stores. And the look and feel will be completely new and improved.

As always — great user experience is our top priority, this will never change. If you would like further information on our roadmap and future development, follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/500px

Oleg Gutsol,
President and Technical Director, 500px

Email from Fotomoto: ‘Fotomoto / 500px news’

Dear Fotomoto / 500px members,

As you may already know, Fotomoto is going to stop providing service to 500px platform at the end of today. Unfortunately 500px didn’t meet their business and technical commitments. After several unsuccessful attempts and unanswered emails to solve their issues, we had to send them a notice last week informing them that we are terminating our contract with 500px (which is a slightly different from what they mentioned in their email).

If you have sold any photo(s) using Fotomoto, your Fotomoto balance is available to you at your Fotomoto dashboard. And of course, Fotomoto will still be available on your other websites and platforms.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. As always, we are committed to our members and to our product experience. In the next few weeks you will start seeing more print products and more features from Fotomoto, stay tuned.

Best regards

Ahmad Kiarostami
Co-founder and CEO

UPDATED 2011.09.27

500px just send out another email

Changes to 500px photo stores

On September 26, 2011, we issued a statement concerning our partnership with Fotomoto that may have been misinterpreted. The fact that we are not extending our partnership with them was a mutual decision and was not related to the quality of Fotomoto’s advanced and feature-rich offerings, which are excellent.

Oleg Gutsol,
President and Technical Director, 500px

Clearly Fotomoto’s offerings are so advanced and feature rich that 500px have chosen to replace them with… absolutely nothing.

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6 thoughts on “500px and Fotomoto send out “he said, she said” emails to users”

  2. Interesting…I received both emails yesterday as well and thought FotoMoto came out looking much worse than 500px here.

    FotoMoto’s email seems a bit immature…poiinting fingers at a ‘partner’ is always bad form. Saying things like “we sent emails and no response” seems too much someone whining that they didn’t get their way while the 500px email is straighforward and to the point – and professional.

    Regardless of who’s at fault, the 500px email seems more professional.

    • Well, I find it hard to believe that 500px would bring the stores to a sudden close when they don’t have an alternative ready, unless Fotomoto had forced their hand. To then send an email to everyone slighting their former partner strikes me as deeply unprofessional.

      I don’t give them credit for having a more professional sounding email at all – actions are far more important than words.

    • Have you tried to email 500px? They do not respond to emails in a timely fashion and when they do, it’s usually some obscure unrelated response.

  3. Either way, the 500px community suffers. One day notice, no replacement, not good. I just started at 500px and one of the main reasons (and how I found out about them) was FotoMoto’s selling options. I have since really liked getting into the 500px community so I like the site in that respect, however if this is the way they do business I dont have any interest in participating. I am currently looking for a new home…

  4. Pingback: 500px – living and breathing photography « Random Musings in Cyberspace

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