I got this in my e-mail today:
Pssst…hey there,
It looks like the iStock credits you purchased are going to expire in 30 days, and we don't want you to lose them.
No one wants to lose something great, right? And while you're very likely exceptional, you're probably not an exception here. So if you need creative content for an upcoming project, make sure you grab it soon.
What the hell? This makes about as much sense as getting a letter from the post office saying that the stamps I purchased were going to be expiring in 30 days.
But it doesn't end here! Oh no!
I login to find that I have 13 credits. So I figure I'll buy a photo to use for this blog post. I find a dandy photo of Death, however it's for 15 credits. So can I just buy 2 more credits to get this photo? Nope. I have to buy 10 credits.
This reminds me of going to the grocery store and finding that hot dogs come 10 to a pack but buns are 8 to a pack. So you buy one of each and you're stuck with two hot dogs that will actually expire.
iStock aren't the only morons doing this to me. I get an e-mail from Skype every 180 days telling me that unless I use my credits they will expire soon.
Same damn thing. Once I had to make a call from Skype and instead of just paying for what I was going to use I had to buy a bundle of credits. Now I have to send myself a text message every 180 days to keep my credits active.
Well, I did finally find images for 1 or 2 credits and used them up, but there is no reason I should have had to. In all of this dicking around it does appear that they allow me to buy photos with credits or cash. Next time I need an image I'll just pay the $3 a credit for the image instead of screwing around with bundles of credits.