Shutterstock

I am forced to put 1 rating there because the review will not be accepted. But it should be 0 rating for this one. Why?

I was very surprised to see on my billing that they have been collecting 11 months that long without me noticing any. I am not sure if they would even return the money. As far as i remember i have deleted my subscription with them a long time ago and I never thought they would keep on charging me like that. What a scam! Now i tried to delete my payment info, it would require their approval. This is so stupid!

I had mistakenly inputted wrong details at the moment of the purchase,
However, the customer support via email was reluctant to help by sending me justifications that they cannot cancel the invoice so I can enter my correct company details.
By the way, Shutterstock does not issue real invoices for companies residing outside US.
They just send you a receipt, and they tell you that this is acceptable (which is not) by you tax services.

I downloaded a set of vectors from shutter stock of the 50 states for use in my digital wood carving machine. Was really excited about making these customized for people. When i opened the file the vectors were garbage. No way to get credit even though the file they were selling is garbage. I told them this was my first and last purchase to many others that do what you do and my business does not have time for rip offs. A $100.00 lesson for me.

I signed up for their service on a subscription discounted by 30% in return for a a whole year. I found some images useful but not enough to justify paying the monthly standing order. When I wrote to cancel they hit me with a demand for the repayment of the discount. I complained so they reduced this charge from £60 to £50 plus tax, which I agreed to pay. I still think they'd had quite enough money from me already for the number of images I used.

Signed up for a free trial. Later found out that I automatically had been signed up for an annual plan without any notification. To cancel they attempt to change me 60$. Do not even think about entering their website. You have been warned

I signed up for the free trial to test out the service and was then automatically enrolled in an annual plan. There is no way to cancel either, you just have to call during a work day and beg them to stop stealing your money. This is called theft by deception, plain and simple.

The cancel message is not even grammatically correct:
"Cancellation of an annual plan early may incur an plan price adjustment."

Do not use this company.

I signed up for free trial and the next thing I knew I was receiving monthly charges. I did not worry about it, thinking I'd cancel after a month or so. When cancelling, they charge a fee equal to $49 each month. Outrageous fees for 10 photos. My cost for 3 months was $150!

I searched on a competitor site for 45 minutes for a person of color and/or female electrician. I did not find any. I switched to Shutterstock and found one in the first 4 images. I love how I can filter by race, gender, and age. It's so important to make sure everyone is represented!

Dont touch! Free trial ended up costing me $45 every month for a year. That is $540 because i didn't cancel my 14 day free trial in time.

Of course this is a devious strategy to fool their customers. Close to scam.

Cannot recommend Shutterstock, they use the highly iffy and potentially fraudulent method of guessing the date of an expired credit card's new expiry in order to continue taking subscription payments.
Use someone else, theres plenty of competition.

If you let your free trial lapse you have to pay for 12 months and there are no cancellations allowed, unless you pay a fee which is just as much as the remaining payments. Then even if you cancel they can still take out money. I approached them multiple times about cancelling and they still took money out of my account after they had confirmed my subscription had ended. They also then refused to refund as they don't have a refund policy. It cost me over $400 because I accidentally let my trial lapse and had to pay for 12 months. Unless you're using it all the time it's absolute daylight robbery and I would not recommend.

I've used a number of stock image websites and by far the worst one was Shutterstock. The one month trial plan states that you are allowed to cancel the $29 per month plan within the first month. What they don't tell you is that you are automatically set up to auto renew. This occurs even if you shut auto renew off, as I had done before the end of August. They then direct you to contact them... without easily giving you their contact information. Sad and pathetic that a site would need to dupe their members into memberships. I'll be returning to 123rf.com.

I got lock into auto renewal and a yearly plan after just a trial. I didn't notice until my card was charged. These people are evil crooks. I didn't signed up for an annual plan they did it automatically with my trial. Stay Away from them!

It is that time of year when I usually renew my yearly subscription with Shutterstock. However, today was the last time after 20 years of having an account with them. Shutterstock decided to raise their rate for the 350 images per month plan I typically purchase. I found a coupon online, entered it during check-out, and paid for my subscription with my card. The next minute, I received a "refund request" as if I had requested one, followed by an email from a "Client Partner" stating that I'm not allowed to use coupons on my profile, with no further explanation. Upon enquiring that I should not have been allowed to enter a discount coupon during checkout if it was not an option for my profile, the representative acknowledged it was an error on Shutterstock's part but still refused to honour the rate I paid. Instead, they insisted on refunding me and requiring a bank transfer if I wanted to reactivate my subscription. Shutterstock seems oblivious that AI will severely impact them, as their basic plan, excluding any innovation, is even more expensive than previous years. They employ incompetent individuals who lack foresight and dismiss loyal customers as if they mean nothing. I hope forward-thinking competitors who appreciate their clients and offer fair rates hit them hard.

Shutterstock is a professional scammer. I subscribed to a plan indicating "Risk-free: Cancel with just a few clicks anytime within the first month and pay nothing.
Keep images: Even if you cancel, you can keep your licensed images.
Save more: Get your first month free, then enjoy an annual subscription for just $29/mo."

I downloaded four images and a couple of days after, I required the cancellation of the plan and refund of the credit card's charge. They cancelled the plan, but they refused to refund. This is against plan's indication "Risk-free: Cancel with just a few clicks anytime within the first month and pay nothing."

Be very careful when subscribing to Shutterstock.

There is no way to cancel your subscription on their website. I checked my billing record on my credit card and realised there is a transaction named "SALES: FREE TRIAL ENDED Dublin 2 IE". You can't trace back what the transaction is simply from the name.

Then I figure out it is the subscription of shutterstock from my memory. You can't remove your card information, unsubscribe the current plan or even delete your account as it said "a plan is running". If you try to get help, there is always error occurring in the page that telling you how to unsubscribe. If you email them choosing you want to cancel your subscription, "something must go wrong".

It feels like they are deceiving my money intentionally. Most horrible shopping experience ever.

Ps I cancelled my subscription eventually and it took extra charge for that.

The pricing plans are ridiculous and poorly structured. They don't care about small businesses and only out to price gouge consumers. About 50% of their content can be found on less expensive sites. When you ask for help or complain. They simply say "oh well" thanks for your feedback. Occasionally they may have the 1-2 photos or footage I need. Everytime I try to do business with them its a painful experience.

Go to Evanto Elements-$30 unlimited everything

If you've ever heard stories of people being forced into contracts by not reading the TOS well enough - this is one good example why you should always read it. Be careful when you sign up for subscription trials that require you to give them your card information. Businesses like Shutterstock trap you in their annual contract 2 days even before the trial has expired, and their monthly download limits are not brought over to the next month. They also charge you a cancellation fee even if you haven't utilised their services beyond the trial period and technically haven't used any of the months they've billed you for, taking back their "discount" on your 0 images downloaded. There are much, much better sites out there, try checking reddit for some and seeking out the threads that explain this kind of shadow UX and direct you to better stock image sites.