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Shutterstock Reviews Summary
Shutterstock's reputation is marred by significant customer dissatisfaction primarily due to its subscription model and billing practices. Many users report feeling misled by the terms of their plans, often facing unexpected charges and high cancellation fees, which has led to accusations of deceptive practices. Despite these concerns, some customers appreciate the platform's diverse image selection and filtering capabilities, which enhance user experience. Overall, the feedback highlights a troubling disconnect between customer expectations and the company's service approach, suggesting a need for improved transparency and customer support to regain trust.
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They offer better rates with high quality images and the licensed rights to use the images forever. Once you have full knowledge about the plans you would love this site. And it also provides a support center to answer almost all of your questions online along with a live chat support.
They are totally Scammer. They put in trap and keep charging you monthly basis even you not using a single image. Rather use free images which are much better to use compare to this SCAM company.
Last month of a 12 month subscription (horrible service and waste of $) and even in the last month I am unable to remove my credit card info or unselect Autopay without calling a rep. M-F 9-4:30 EST
Quality of services was terrible. Was never able to actually download or use any images. Was put into an auto renewal plan, charged automatically every month without notification in advance about any cancelation fees, when I was finally able to cancel over the phone I was told I'd have to pay a "conversion fee" since my previous monthly bills didn't actually cover the monthly cost, $60 to cancel after $90 in monthly memberships. Literally robbed by a company for a product that was never used. But don't worry, I have 17 days to use my remaining downloads... Terrible customer service. Worst experience ever. Literally feel robbed
Shutterstock has no information on the actual quality of their videos. They refuse to quote resolution sizes, instead they say web quality is "pretty small" and HD quality are "larger files". The prices are inflated, the web support had 0 answers for me. They sent me to phone support, which they didn't even give me a number for. I've heard rumors of a sneaky subscription being snuck in to your transaction. I refuse to buy from them and despise their business model - cheaper for me find a location, hire actors, and shoot my own 5 clips in 4k than pay $600 or more. *Doesn't get any worse than this. Stay away!*
This company is awful and would get 0 stars if it was an option. They had me on a year plan when I signed up for a month-to-month plan and it costed me $80.00 to cancel because of it. The person I spoke needs to learn a thing or two about customer service, they were extremely unhelpful and did not care when I said I didn't sign up for a year subscription. I will NEVER recommend Shutterstock to anyone. I would LOVE TO speak with someone higher up about this, this is incredibly wrong.
What kind of a business model is this? Sneaking in an auto-renewal set up when I'm making my purchase. No notification, nothing. Next year I get charged a massive bill, again no email notification to say my account has been renewed. I saw the transaction on my bank account and called customer service who say 'Shutterstock are not required to notify customers through email for renewals;! Had to throw a massive fit to get my refund back. I'm not using their service again. This is STEALING!
What these guys are doing should be illegal:
Auto-renewal of plans without your permission.
Unused imaged don't roll over and when you try to cancel the auto-renewal they charge you $50 for every month
WOW! Worst stock photo business online.
1) images DO NOT roll over, so if you don't use all 10 every month you are absolutely screwed
2) MASSIVE cancellation fee - they tempt you into buying the year plan (because otherwise you pay $50 per month for downloads that don't roll over- PIRACY)
THEN if you want to cancel they will charge you $20 for every month you've been a member...
Absolute garbage company do not even consider it, all they will do is rob you.
I have never had more problems with a company, They force you to sign up for an annual subscription, and then if you try to cancel it, they bill back date all of your billing for 3 times the amount~! Horrible customer service, Horrible Product.
I subscribe for month and i realize they keep charging me without my authorization they renew my account when i called them to get refund, they come up with million bull$#*!.
Never use them again.
Oh how I wish I had read reviews before I signed up. Purchased 2 licenses, only used one. Account expired without warning - no email notification, nothing. Credits do not roll over... what you do not use, you lose your money. The only option they will offer you is to renew. Give them more money to steal from me? I think not. Shame on you.
Even after so many email to cancel my account. These frauds are charging illegally from my credit card on regular basis. Please Stay away from these scammers.
I am switching to another site because Shutterstock cannot seem to charge my card correctly and numerous calls to their inept customer service team has left my issues unresolved. I wish I had read the reviews on here before signing up for this service. Lesson learned.
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
I bought some photo's from this company recently. It cost $29 for 2 pics and I was happy to pay it. They are a bit tricky, they put a auto renewal clause in and so they legally, not ethically, charge you twice. Nothing you can do about it. They just scammed you. It is sad when a legit company start pulling tricks like this and they need to be exposed
I wanted to buy 5 images for $29. Shutterstock conveniently pre checked a subscription plan for me for $42 and won't refund my money.
I can't even believe this company is in business. Stay away! Too bad, because their photography is nice.
This company does not care about its customers experiences and focuses on taking as much money from you as possible, even with out use. Complete scam!.
1. Their auto renewal process will kick in even if you did not download any images for the month.
2. images do not roll over at all
There are no emails or notification that tells you to download images before month ends, its a buyers beware model. Absolutely horrible business setup for this day an age. GO SOME WHERE ELSE. I am astonished how this company is still around.
Yes, it happened to me as well. I got their 30-day plan, and made sure to turn off the auto-renewal since I read the bad reviews. I took a screenshot of the auto-renewal off.
About 25 days into my plan, they auto-renew and charged my card. They also turned the auto-renewal back on. I emailed and chat same day, and was promised to get a refund. And that early auto-renewal was for my convenience, so I don't experience "loss of service". That is exactly what I wanted: for them to get lost.
One word: chargeback. Please call your credit card company and fight the charge. After many chargebacks, VISA will drop their merchant account or teach them to be honest.
Signed up for what I thought was a monthly plan (10 images per month). Apparently, the images don't roll over so after 5 months, I expected to find 50 images, instead, there were 10 (this is after paying for 5 months - $150). When I called to cancel, they told me they'd have to charge me a $100 cancellation fee. Beware! Stay far away from this company!
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- Sitejabber’s sole mission is to increase online transparency for buyers and businesses
- Sitejabber has helped over 200M buyers make better purchasing decisions online
- Suspicious reviews are flagged by our algorithms, moderators, and community members