iStockPhoto

Evil business, they seduce you in with a free trial period, but they will not send you notification before your free trial end and ask you to confirm your subscription. And even the subscription is monthly charged but it's a yearly plan, you cannot cancel the subscription from their dashboard unless you reached out customer support and ask them to do so. When you try to ask a refund, the agent will tell you you agreed the terms when you enter the free trial bala bala etc. The company intendedly did this in the term so they rob the customers with this trick.

They don't take cancellations over the phone. If you cancel, they will cancel immediately rather than at the end of what you've already paid and they will lock you out of your paid service.

They take your money, but give you nothing. They then rely on 'fine print' to justify their actions. Don't waste your money.

Awful company, awful people, awful business model. Do NOT sign up for ANYTHING and do NOT give them your credit card info. You will live to regret it. They are untrustworthy and unreasonable and exist only because they take advantage of the small businesses stupid enough to use them.

They make it sound like a fair trial offer. But it is clearly a baited trap.

They say you can cancel anytime. But they do absolutely nothing to remind you when the offer is about to expire. And they don't send you you ANY emails after the free offer expires that might remind you that you are paying a $75.00 a month subscription. When was the last time you had a company you had a subscription not send you marketing emails, encouraging you to upgrade or refer a friend.

They clearly want to get as many payments out of you before you realize you are being charged.

Then if you do try to cancel, THEY WILL NOT TALK TO YOU ON THE PHONE OR CHAT.

They force you to submit a request through a form then wait 36 hours for their response.

One low-res photo I could have gotten for $15 to $20 somewhere else ended up costing me $150.

Terrible company.

PS - you can find a much better selection of image on other sites.

Echoing other recent reviews: been a member and contributor since'02. Not a huge contributor or user, but Always made enough in credits to support(convert) my modest image needs. Today I login to start another light box and only see a $3 balance. WTF?. Dig around and see ALL my credits and purchases have expired! Even though they display a "credits never expire" statement on the pricing page. They've been receiving income from MY work and continue too without compensating me! Hello state attorney general & FTC, have I got something for you! Maybe John Stossel too.

And the pricing is increased too. Dang Getty corporate crap.It used to be a community of artists, now its the Suits running the loony bin. Somebody needs to start another Stock site modeled after the original iStockphoto.com. Artists helping artists.

Don't buy from iStockPhoto!
I didn't purchase anything from their site after 2015, but recently they started charging me every month. Charged me 3 times $40.4x3= $121.2 USD during last 3 month. They doing it silently, without any invoice or any email.
I contacted them in 3 ways, contact form, phone, email.
I talked with a person named Deepak Tyagi, who told me (at 20 Aug 2017) that they will take care of it within 2 business day and the money will be refunded. But till now they didn't done it. And yesterday they charged my card again.
Also, looks like they don't have any customer support person.

#ScamAlert DO NOT USE. They are a subscription trap! After the "free trial" you are supposedly locked into a 12 month contract at $80 a month. This is not clear and concise in their T&Cs and after reaching out they refuse to cancel.

I paid over $1100 for credits and received nothing because when your subscription expires they will not let you use your credits. I did not plan on spending a monthly subscription and they got my credit card info with a free trial and charged it over $1100 when I canceled my unapproved subscription they canceled all my credit with no refund of the $1100, I Stock said you lost your credits when canceled your subscription however I was welcome to spend additional money and buy the credits again.

Dear All,

I took 1 month free trial that i used it only on the first day and was not happy with it.
After a month i didnt receive any notification the free trial will end. They charged be for extra month and removed me all access. When i asked to give me access for the next month i was charged so i try to use, i was refused. I sent them several emails but as a fraud company they kept saying the same thing. I was shocked by they fraudulent actions.

I cancelled my subscription a month ago and now they are charging me for a full year subscription. They are giving me such a hard time to cancel it. Its over $700 a year! Insane! Don't subcribe to this company!

I purchased a photo which istock said would be in my account the next day by noon. Eight days later and here I am with no photo in my account. I call customer service and the barely English speaking customer service says I have to go in my browser and find the photo I purchased eight days ago and click on it. What? I looked at hundreds of photos for a book cover. I canceled the order. 4 to 5 days for the refund to appear on my card (yet the charge when I purchased was instantaneous!). Terrible customer service. I have read negative reviews on this company post-purchase. Shame on me, but never again will I waste time and money on these hacks.

If I had the foresight to read some of these reviews before using this service I wouldn't be in this situation. I opted for the free trial, and was planning to use the service for a couple of months while developing some materials for my company. When I asked to discontinue the service I was told I am required to pay the exorbitant ($70!) fee each month for the next 12 months.

This is called an annual subscription, but you're limited to only a very small number of images on a MONTHLY BASIS!

They claim it is "not fair" for them to let me cancel a service that I've paid for up to this point, and no longer require.

Someone needs to address this site, as it appears I'm only one of the many people they've scammed.

I canceled my free trial within the timeframe required. Actually, within two days of starting it. A month later I received a charge for $75. I immediately contacted customer service who told me they recanceled all of access to their services and would not charge me again. They stated they will not refund my money per their billing policy. I told them I followed their requirements and they fraudulently billed me anyway. They continue to tell me they will not refund my money. I have filed a fraud claim with my bank.

I spent over an hour pinning images to an image board, and went to Join and get the 30
Day Free Trial. The site would not allow me to go to a free trial, it directed me to plans and pricing. I did a chat with a customer service rep named Rebecca, and she first tried to keep asking questions about what I was asking. I asked point-blank is there a 30-day free trial or not. Rebecca stated No! The Company Does Not Offer Any Free Trials, but that is how iStock, advertises there brand in the online search.

I'm in Australia, and by Australian law pricing must not be misleading or deceptive, it must show all included taxes and charges.

IStock advertised that a particular subscription would cost $230 AUD. I spent 3 weeks choosing images. When I went to buy the subscription they charged an additional $23 in tax, and then I also found on my credit card over $5 in foreign exchange conversion fees. Unfortunately I needed to continue with the purchase as I had already committed time to finding the images I needed.

I have written to iStock twice to get them to refund the additional money, I have also spoken to them several times and they are not interested.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission agree that iStock is in breach of Australian law and I am currently taking up the matter with the Office of Fair Trading.

I suggest you don't deal with iStock as there are plenty of honest businesses out there you can work with.

IStockPhoto has been nothing but trouble for us. Their site never works, they are constantly changing their rules, the customer support team is NASTY, and they don't have as many unique images as they seem to think they do. Do yourself a favor and RESEARCH your options before just going with a known name like iStock. I can't rate them poorly enough.