iStockPhoto

I've been using istockphoto on and off for about 5 years. In general, the site works well and the selection is great. I am not certain about this but it seems to me that their prices went up - alot - recently. They are much less affordable. That isn't a big deal since I can make my own decision not to shop a more expensive brand but it is their lack of customer service that led me to write this review. I bought an image for around $25 to use in print. When I downloaded the image, it became clear that it was slightly our of focus at full resolution. For a small banner, this would not be an issue but for print, it is. I contacted the customer service to ask for a refund since the photo was not usable for my purposes. I never heard back from them.

I initially signed up for a free 30-day trial but unfortunately didn't have the chance to use it as much as i planned before forgetting about it. My subscription began on April 27,2023, and was scheduled to end on May 27. According to the agreement, I had the option to cancel at any time during the trial period, which meant I could have canceled on May 27. However, to my surprise, they charged my card on May 27 instead. When I brought up the issue and explained that I should still be in the trial until midnight on the 27th, they canceled my subscription but refused to provide a refund. They didn't even offer me any credits for the 93.50 AUD they had withdrawn from my account, so essentially, they took the money without providing any service. Additionally, I was disappointed that they didn't send a reminder email notifying me that my trial was ending.

UPDATE:
IStock reached out to me and offered a genuine explanation of what happened and also made a refund. So I cannot fault their customer services.

It doesn't matter what you do, as all the other reviews said, once it is past day 1 after the trial you'll get charged in full. And it's $100 CAD (which is their second highest tier) of their plans. I attempted just to voice my dissatisfaction but it seemed like the customer support just wanted to add more fuel to the fire than actually being helpful. Instead of consoling, or at least apologizing that there was nothing she could do, she went on to specify that there were higher tiered plans than the one I paid. I have no issue with living with my mistakes and making the payment, but the treatment by the customer support today really put a bad taste to the company. Hope this review helps, and let people know there are a lot of other alternatives to finding premium stocks such as adobe stock, freepik etc.

Unauthorized charge. I've contacted their support 3 times to cancel the subscription to no avail, they're just ignoring me. I've been trialing the product, but have no intention of using it.
Of course, without any heads up, all of a sudden I was assigned an annual description, and they started charging me.
It's virtually impossible to hear from them, so don't fall into the same trap by picking this service, and don't dare to trial it. I'm going to file an official complaint with the consumer frauds dept.

I recently tried iStockPhoto with a supposed 1-month free trial, only to encounter a nightmare when attempting to cancel. Little did I know, I was roped into a 12-month plan that proved impossible to cancel, a fact conveniently missing from their initial offer. Not only that, but their failure to include VAT in the monthly plan violates Norwegian law. Transparency and compliance are evidently not priorities for them. Ordering online should also include a scheme according to local regulations, which iStockPhoto lacks. This experience has left me deeply dissatisfied, and I'll be taking this matter up with the authorities. Beware of their deceptive practices and disregard for legal obligations.

I am first time and last time customer. I will never purchase from them again. Their packages and wording are all miss leading. When I phoned their South African branch asking why I can't download anymore items they tell me it has expired even though I have only ever downloaded twice after paying 75$ and only getting two essential images. I asked if I could please download the remaining 20 images and they refused. Their response to me is that it is what it is and nothing they can do. They make their money by people not understanding how their package/credits/bundles/subscription works. Their is always some catch. A terrible way to try keep loyal customers or repeat customer.

Once they have your payment option in their system, they will not allow you to cancel. What's more, they will not talk with you. Their "cancelation team" is unavailable by phone and only sends automated emails. You cannot reach them. After having been a customer for some time, I am quite disgusted that they treat their customers like this.

Unprofessional business practices. As many other here, their main revenue is from scamming people into a years subscription. This needs to be looked into from legal perspective.

I was a contributing photographer from 2013 to 2016. I resigned in 2016 after iStockPhoto (bought by Getty images) changed the contract and lowered the minimum commission to 1.5 cent. (The lowest commission prior to that was 28 cent). They also gave away images - no commission was paid at all. My portfolio is supposedly no longer on iStockPhoto servers, but I still see my images on Google search with the iStock watermark advertising their free image program. Some of these images are being sold at other agencies.
I have demanded iStock stop advertising my images as "free" but thus far, they continue to ignore me.