Shutterstock

I signed up for the "free" trial but was then automatically enrolled in an annual plan even thought I turned off the renewal thinking that this stopped the plan at the end of the trial. I did contact them to cancel via message on the website but there must have been an error in their website so the free trial was not cancelled so they took money. I contacted them again, this time via the messaging service, and they had prepared wording telling people that it's their fault as the trial being not-really-a-trial was somewhere in the wording. They clearly a deliberate attempt to mislead people as the free trial is not a trial and the trial becomes paid even if you attempt to turn off the payment AND contact them to stop it. DO NOT SIGN UP.

Total scam. They set you up for a billing agreement without you realizing it. You think you're just buying credits. In actuality, if you ever use up those credits, they will auto-charge you again. If you contact them about it, they will ignore it. If you chargeback, they will not return the money and close your account.

Do not deal with this scam "company".

Scam.

Autorenew on by default - turn it off.

Shutterstock does not send a monthly renewal email or send a monthly invoice as is usual because they know they are scamming. It just keeps billing your card.

1 month pack turns into several month billing.

Autorenew must be clear and conspiciuous - can you find it?

Customer support does not respond. On second email they ask for details they already have (user id, credit card) and after 2 days someone from India replies that they cannot give a refund because... autorenew is on by default, and hope you understand.

Shutterstock then stops answering emails.

I have not used shutter stick for many years but noticed today that taken 34pounds out. God nows how many years they been taking it out. Probably only used it once. But I know I won't get a penny out of them as they got a auto repayment every year unless you opt out. They must be making a fortune robbing every to $#*! and Harry. $#*! Turpin has nothing on this lot. Instead of sending out a renewal reminder they count on people forgetting or not realising the money is coming out. Stay well clear of these people just out of principal. I won't get my money back but I can certainly start writing a review as and when I can.

They have been charging me $31 a month for nearly a year! I ordered something which I never received and the site said it would be that price for a year, but it's monthly! I finally noticed 6 mo ago that my credit card was being charged every month and tried to cancel my service. Their site said that I wasn't allowed to and that I had to call customer service to cancel my subscription! I called and the lady assured me that it would be canceled. Today I just got a notification that I am being charged yet again! Sure enough they have been charging me $31 every month after they were supposed to cancel it! They game me a number to give the billing department but didn't even transfer me

I signed up for the free trial with Shutterstock to get a few images for my website. I got busy and let the stop date so I expected to be charged for one month. I was and then called to cancel. I was told there would be a cancellation fee. I agreed to that. Then I was charged the next two months. This company SUCKS.
I wouldn't do business with them if they were the very LAST company that offered this service.

I wish to give no star. Bad customer service. I ordered a month-to-month plan. The customer service person told me, I "accidentally" brought an annual plan._WTH_I ask for cancel it, they said, I can switch to the monthly plan and then cancel. Which I cannot even find the switch button on the site. Then, the person told me, if I want to cancel it now. They need to charge me $40 for cancellation.
This is definitely a scam business! PLEASE DON'T USE IT.

One month price is so outrageous, you are convinced to purchase a 12month that you are reassured can be cancelled at anytime. But they don't tell you that if you cancel prior to 12 months, you'll be back charged for the original outrageous one month price. Also, Use em or lose em every month, so you've got to keep up with it on there schedule, not your schedule. Plus you can't cancel it on your own. They make it very hard to cancel. You can tell by all these bad reviews, its Profit Profit Profit, don't need repeat customers, there's alway another sucker ready to click on the Shutterstock Ad at the top of the page.

I should have taken the time to scroll down for other options, it's cost me an extra $2k. I was that Sucker...

I spent hours looking for footage for my upcoming project, I check how can I use the video that I was buying with the license that they offer and I was good to go. Just as a precaution I call them to double check that I was able to use the videos and to my surprise they told me I can't use it and they don't have an option to buy another license to use this footage so I wasted a lot of money because they don't give you any refund after you download the file. Don't waste your money!

They charged you a monthly subscription after your trial period ended without your permission and without your knowledge. No receipt sent to your email every month so if you don't log in to shutterstock you wont even realise you're being charged monthly fees. When you realised about it and want to cancel your subscription, you will be charged a penalty. In my case, I was charged a penalty of USD120 to cancel plan early. I was charged USD30.74 every month.

Needed one image - cost $49. They give you an additional 4 downloads which I'm never going to use so it really is just $49 for one image for me.
Then, they subscribe you to auto-renew (without your knowledge) - I saw auto-renew and I thought " you dodgy pricks" - and turned it off... BUT... my payment failed, so I re-entered the information BUT, on failure, they had re-selected auto-renew.
Just a dodgy, underhanded practice...
The prime reason I never use shuttershock and never will.
I decided to just use my extra 9 downloads to download the most popular images and upload them to imgur for free access

Shutterstock scams the customers.

Their policy is to charge the customers couple of days before the renewal every month. Right there it is not right to charge before renewal. But in my case they actually charge me almost 7 days before. Which is ok with me. But when I cancelled 3 days before renewal, they blocked my downloaded images from re-downloading. I am entitled for re-downloading anytime once downloan the images under the plan.

I am taking the case to my credit card company for refund.

I signed up for a one month free trial with intentions of maybe using one extra month for the end of my school year. Instead, they signed me up for a monthly fee of $30 plus tax and tried to say I am legally binded in a 1 year contract. Early termination of the contract would cost $80 USD, and as a student in Canada, I barely have enough money for groceries and my rent let alone a stupid photo subscription that I only needed for 1 month. I spoke with customer service in their live chat and he had to speak with 2 managers before saying he was able to cancel my subscription. Unless you have extra money to be paying $30 a month for the year, DON'T BOTHER.