I love this site. Forget the old-fashioned way of making vision boards out of magazine cut outs, glue, and poster board. Just download the pics you like from the internet, load 'em up into animoto (the basic version is free... the more advanced version is still only $30 per year), create your own video and set it to music. Walla! You have your own "vision board" video and you can make as many of them as you like. I think it is great fun and I watch my animoto vids every night before I go to sleep so I can float away into the world of my dreams with visions of my future floating in front of me. Jack Canfield and The Secret people would be proud. ;)
I signed up for a month free trial with animoto. I cancelled before the month was up. I was never notified that my account automatically renewed, and I just discovered fees on my credit card dating back three years! Customer service is horrible, they are only going to refund three months of the fees. I was completely unaware that I was being charged these fees, I didn't receive an email from them the entire time! Customer service is horrible, you cannot speak to anyone by phone, they only accept emails. And they take days to respond. Just stay away, no video is worth dealing with them.
Do NOT use this company! I can't believe anyone has had a good experience with this company. Every negative comment that I have read is basically what happened to me.
After using it one time, I started getting billed automatically on my credit card monthly. After turning off auto renewal, they continued to bil my cc. Still trying to get a refund. They are refusing and want to give me a credit to use the mediocre service. Awful customer service! STAY AWAY! Find a free service and save yourself the aggravation.
Similar to others reviews, their pricing practices is slightly dishonest and deceptive at best. Absolutely do not sign up for even one month with this company. Customer service practices are appalling, they must not plan to have return customers. I don't leave many reviews, but this was such a horrible experience its warranter.
There is really not enough possibility to edit the film, the model is locked, we can only fill the holes with the photos without really being able to customize it. Pity...
My order is in process, lets see what they come up with.
They signed me up for a year subscription which i immediately called to cancel. Took several tries before i got a response but finally got a refund. I swore never to use the site again but then months later I come to find out they then signed me up for a monthly subscription (the highest one) and billed my credit card.
After many attempts, they said i signed up myself and refuse to refund me the money for providing NO services whatsoever.
Their "manager" refused to give me his name. Coward!
Buyer beware!
Legitimate software developers don't have refund schemes. They do. I bought the hype about how great the product allegedly is and jumped in, creating one video then realizing it's true worth. Within 24 hours I requested a refund and Ravenna ('billing advisor') informed me that they would keep $42 because "you created a video". Yes. Yes. Yes. There's cya in the refund policy - an immoral excuse for conducting business this way.
Got to love them! Very easy and easier to produce a nice presentation or intro video to market your business. One thing I need to mention is, the free is good. To unlock better futures, I highly recommend upgrading.
Really expensive for what is provided. Paid for a one month subscription to make a video for my sons baseball team, then realized that I was taken to the cleaners because I guess I didn't read the fine print. They will automatically take money from your bank account every month if you don't cancel your account. I only signed in once to make the video then never used their services again, only to find out I had been charged $278 for 7 months worth of non use. I just assumed that a reputable company would only charge me for one month when that's all I signed up for. Never again will I be suckered by these scumbags again.
Like others on here I did cancel the autorenew, but it seems they took the liberty to reset it. Combined with Paypal not sending me the correct notification emails for several months, I didn't realise Animoto were billing me. I don't hold out much hope of getting a refund, though I have made perfunctory attempts through PayPal.
Overpriced and the company sends political messages to their customers pushing their political views, completely inappropriate. We will take our business elsewhere.
We paid by CC for a year subscription, never selected the auto renewal button tab, but sure enough. A year later - with no renewal notice or upcoming auto debit notice - they charged the CC again. Then you read their refund policy. "Sorry but we cannot refund fees unless you turned off auto renewal at least 2 days before due date. Key: they do not send you out any type of upcoming renewal notice, so that you can make that choice to renew or not renew! Then you get to try to work it out with a customer service that is not available by phone, but by a long process of submitting a 'ticket'? Not a very professional - customer service oriented company! 'F' rating
DON'T SIGN UP! I canceled my account after one month and turned off auto renewal. They continued to charge me $250 each year but sent me emails saying my account had expired. They have no phone number that you can call and they don't respond to emails. Beware!
I just tried this out and now that they partnered with istock I expect more people will be using their features. The cost is now more than what I would expect. $250 for a pro account with access to songs? At that price you can buy a subscription to adobe CC and have every single adobe product for a year and create videos much more sophisticated than on animoto. For that matter almost any iphone program can create videos as easily as on animoto and for much less money.
Just saw this site on SJ and made a video of my vacation to disneyland. Sooo very cool. I know you can do this on a mac or even with cheap software but this site does a really good job of putting it all together. Best part is I was able to do it from my netbook while sitting in an airport.
So disappointed in their lack of telephone support. I signed up for a business acount so I could get telephone support. When I ask for it, they said it's quicker to use email. Since it takes them hours to respond to a request for help, I think it's only better for them. The people on the help desk seem to want to help, but whoever runs Animoto and makes the operating decisions is sleazy.
Never received a notification of "auto-renewal." The cost was almost twice what I paid for the subscription last year. I canceled and asked for a refund; Animoto claims they do not refund. I filed a PAYPAL claim; an email from Animoto claimed they will refund if I close the PAYPAL claim. If I did that, I could not file again. Is it "proper" to do that? It seems like bad business, and with their lack of integrity regarding their subscriptions, it would be difficult to trust them.
Here is the text of the email: "Amanda (Animoto)
May 29,2023, 11:36 AM EDT
Hello,
Animoto does not promise a customer a refund and then refuse to honor the refund.
If you close the case, as soon as Animoto has confirmation from PayPal, we will issue a full refund.
I apologize that your trust in us has been so shattered, and I truly wish there were another way for this to be resolved other than going through the dispute process you have started. If you do decide to close the PayPal case, I will be happy to issue that refund. I will also keep an eye on our open cases to see if your case is closed.
Regards,
Amanda
Some way this company got my charge card and charged me $30 for a service I've never heard of. Calling their number on my bank statement lead me to a recorded message and reference to their webpage. Going to their webpage there is NO WAY to contact them and dispute the charge. Furthermore their website says there are no refunds. Go to your card company and dispute the charge. Contact the better business bureau in the town the are in and report them.
Overview
Animoto has a rating of 1.4 stars from 57 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with Animoto most frequently mention credit card, customer service and auto renewal. Animoto ranks 294th among Videos sites.
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Hi Bob,
While we don't offer general phone support, you can send us an e-mail anytime at help@animoto.com. We'll make sure that it's more visible to our users.
As for the $30 charge, we can definitely look into it for you. If you were charged, then it's likely there is an account open with your card on file. I'll send you a private message so we can locate the account and process a refund for you.