Shutterstock

I wish I had read these reviews before signing up for what I thought was a "free" trial with Shutterstock. I clicked the button on their page to sign up for a "free" trial and ended up with an annual commitment. It was clearly a bait and switch operation that is meant to fool you into purchasing an annual commitment. Unlike most companies that offer 30-day free trials, they go out of their way to make it difficult but utilizing promotion codes to establish the trial. Than, when you want to cancel the trial, you find out you've signed up for an annual commitment and they tell you it's going to cost $20 to cancel.

The entire process is setup to be confusing and difficult and charge you. It's very scammy.

Free Trial is a joke. They offer a free trial, but if you read the fine print you're actually signing up for a 12-month commitment once you go into month 2. When you cancel your subscription, they come back with the full $49/month e.g. You sign up in May, rollover to June and cancel in July - they will come back and ask you for the $20+ Tax difference. They Charge you eventually for Free Trial.

I really should have read the reviews before I decided to have anything to do with this so called company. Seems like everyone that signed up for the "risk-free" one month trial ended up being charged the $29 even after cancelling the subscription. Their customer support is a joke. I was supposedly refunded the $29 but I've never received it. I emailed them a bunch of times and got th same BS replies. Speaking of the quality of their images, some are good but there are definitely a lot of low quality "vector" files out there that you wouldn't know unless you downloaded it. Bottomline here is DO NOT, and I repeat DO NOT use this website EVER. They are scammers!

I emailed them twice to cancel my subscription. I wanted to cancel because I could not download the pictures I was paying for each month. I mentioned the problem. They did not try to fix it. And they refused to cancel my subscription. They mentioned a vague cancelation fee, when I wanted to cancel due to poor service and a faulty product, (not being able to download pictures). If you want to be screwed around with and ignored. Not to mention throwing away your money, then this is the company for you.

I was led to believe that I can cancel a plan anytime. They charged me monthly so I thought I was paying monthly but I guess I was under contract. I was charged $80 for cancelling. They make the rules complicated to read and I was just fooled because I did not pay attention.

I didn't want the annual plan, didn't agree to it. Wasn't notified of payment being taken. Wasn't notified after being taken. Only found out when saw it coming out of the bank. Horrible salesperson style customer service "pay us £20 to cancel". No I want a full refund. "Pay us £10 to cancel". No I want a full refund. "Pay £10 and we'll refund the last month". No I want a full refund.

Horrible experience, customer service stuck in the past.

The reviews are quite unfair. These are mostly written by people who do not follow through the correct procedure of unsubscribing. My experience is, I asked the support team to terminate my subscription one week before they start charging, and they did it WITHOUT CHARGING ANY FEE. It's the matter of how you be human and understand that they also are, so you can't expect things to happen right away. If you've followed through the correct process yet still experience failure, my sympathy. But if you rant here without proper reasoning, you're a bad, bad human being.

I signed up for a year and found that I was not using the service enough to make it worth my while, so decided to cancel my subscriptions, so they charged me a $40 cancelation fee. Also you cannot cancel easily tou have to email them about it.

I canceled their free trial because I wasn't using it enough to actually purchase, then discovered they charged me 30$ anyway. Called, explained that I didn't use the service, and they told me they would charge me another 40$ to cancel. When I told her that was ridiculous, she put me on hold to supposedly ask if there was something she could do. She told me she would give me a one-time refund and hung up. But she lied, as I confirmed 3 days later with a different rep, who also shoved me away and said he would email me. This company is just a scam.

As of June 1 2020 Shutterstock is offering contributor royalties that makes working in a sweatshop look good in comparison. "But they had to cut costs due to Covid-19!" you say? Well, people were buying images just fine in March-April-May... my sales actually went *up*, and none of SS's competitors (Adobe Stock, Dreamstime, Alamy and many others) have felt the need to introduce such mercenary, unethical payment systems. This is sheer greed, pure and simple.

The result? Photographers, videographers, and graphic artists are deactivating their accounts in droves. There is *no* reason why anyone with any talent or self-respect would contribute there when the pay is so laughable and the management is so bad. If you love supporting sleazy companies with rapacious CEOs... well, you'd better get in fast, because the pickings are going to be awfully slim in the next couple of months. Go elsewhere.

I made a subscription 3months ago using their free month trial. I gave them my card information. When I tried to stop the subscription plan turning the auto renew to off they continued to take money from my account. I tried to remove my billing information but I was send to talk with technical support. They didn't responded. All in all when they responded they wanted 60$ to stop the subscription! This is absolutely CRAZY. DO NOT trust the company!

As with many other reviewers on here I signed up for their 30days/ 10 free images trial. A few days after I registered I realized this isn't a service I would use and canceled 8 days later. The first month was over and I was charged (I went on and turned off auto pay as they stated). The next month, I was again charged and I called the company. However, when I called Shutterstock and spoke with a representative he hung up on me. Obviously, I called back and requested a manager. Awaiting my "call back".

I signed up for a free trial and decided to keep the subscription. In May they charged me multiple times for the subscription fee. When I contacted them they tried to charge me a cancellation fee. I shouldn't have to pay a cancellation fee when they are the one breaking their own terms and conditions by charging multiple times. NOT COOL