iStockPhotoReviews 196

I feel that istock has ripped me off for $200 by their lack of clear disclosure on what the subscription included. I then tried to contact them by telephone and could not reach anyone. After three attempts I wrote and emailed... still nothing. I finally reached them a week and many calls later only to be told the refund policy precluded anything after ten days... I was then told "I'm sorry you are confused". Who would say that to a customer? Istock does not deserve anyone's business. Find another vendor... we are!

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.

I have been an image contributor since 2008 and I have to say that over the past 5 years the site has been on a steady decline. Contributor services are the absolute worst. If a contributor has a problem forget it, there isn't a direct phone line to call. Contributors can only open a support ticket online and it may take several weeks to finally get a response. Bottom line, they do not take care of the content suppliers. They do not listen to contributor or buyer concerns. Inspectors are highly inconsistent. If you need a 2nd opinion from "Scout" GOOD LUCK! You will be waiting a very long time to get it. My wait time for one image recently was so long that when they finally responded to my ticket, I was told "I am sorry but the photo is no longer available for us to review". Unsatisfactory!

As an exclusive contributor unfortunately I cannot recommend this site to contributors or to buyers, that's just how bad that it's become. There are other sites that have far better prices and they actually take care of their exclusive contributors and listen to buyer and contributor concerns. If you are thinking of becoming an exclusive contributor, do yourself a huge favor and make sure that you do your research and then research some more. There isn't any incentive to being an exclusive contributor here now. The grass definitely isn't greener. Payouts are becoming less and less and we do not have the ability to get more images to their parent site in order to make more money from our work. It's become impossible to move up in pay level because the redeemed credit targets is broken. They've actually had to grandfather contributors to maintain their current pay level for at least 3 or 4 years consecutively. They'll tell you that they are doing contributors a favor by grandfathering but in reality that way of doing things isn't working and they will not change it. The majority of sales generated now are through subscriptions and partner programs, all of which do not generate credits toward contributor redeemed credit targets because the only way to increase your redeemed credit totals is if a buyer purchases images with credits!

I'm happy that I don't have to rely on the income to survive as it has become very very low... it's a joke actually. Even though I'm still an exclusive contributor who's invested a lot into this company, I'm to the point where I don't even care if this ship finally sinks completely. Call me sick, but I'd actually get some sort of enjoyment from it.

Additional info:

There are also rumors on the discussion boards that some of the Forum Moderators and file inspectors (who are also contributors) have access to individual contributor account pay balance info... I don't have words for this.

Finally finished with this place. My last 10 credits were "restructured" "in my advantage" to 2 credits but every photo I've looked at is 3 credits. As a web developer, I don't have any need for sizes other than the small which used to cost a credit... now thanks to their "improved pricing" a small costs the same as a large.
I have steered all my clients away from this place. Thankfully, there are much better business models out there that don't cheat their clients.

I should mention that if the pricing structure had been improved to support the contributing photographers, it might not have been so distasteful. Also, had they properly grandfathered existing credits instead of reducing them... I look forward to the class action suit.

As with many others I too am fed up with istock and their changes in pricing/credits.

Yet again they have devalued my investment and I can't see how it can be legal.

Example, invest £100 and get for ease of maths 100 credits. I used to get low res images for 1 credit but then they all went up to 2 credits. Over night the value of my investment halved.

Recently I had about 48 credits left so could buy 24 low res images. Then iStock changed the structure again so I could only buy a maximum of 10 photos. I am no maths expert but I think that works out that iStock reduced the value of my investment over night by 60%.

My advice do not touch iStock. Overpriced and it wont be long before they change their structure again and you get even less for your money.

I was a customer since the beginning of iStock, but as several here have posted, since getty bought them, they've gone to $#*!. In particular, their practice of expiring your money. Yes you read it right. You deposit money into your iStock account. If you don't use your money within an allotted time, they take your money and you get nothing. That is theft, plain and simple. But that's standard practice in the business world these days, isn't it.

To hell with iStock. Why throw away money when there are so many good stock photo sites to choose from?

Total Scam! Do not subscribe! I paid $499 for a 1 month subscription to download 250 images. After two weeks of downloading about half my photos, I get a call from their sales rep telling me that in the fine print of the agreement I am required to use all the images I download in a professional publication before the end of the month or I must delete them. He then tries to pressure me into spending $1999 for a 1 year subscription. I spoke with the manager and they would not refund me and they cancelled my subscription so that I can't download the rest of the images I paid for. It's a total rip off!

I was one of the first istockphoto users and I remember a time when I could get quality images for under a dollar. It was a great way to find excellent images and the community was vibrant and wonderful. Now the site is relatively useless. They way they price the photos you are paying upwards of $30 for a decent image and the filter forces you to go through all of the highest price ones first. Note, the highest prices ones are often not the best images. After searching forever, you might find what you are looking for at a decent price. I hope istockphoto does not continue down this road of bleeding their customers. I also don't like that when you buy their credits they EXPIRE! Is that even legal? I lost credits I purchased because I didn't use them in time. I know gift cards are not supposed to expire, so this makes very little sense except to rip off customers who have paid hundreds of dollars and then lose it all if they don't buy a photo before a year. It is ridiculous for them to do this. Maybe a new company will start up that can replace istock photo and charge prices that are more reasonable.

This site is not what is use to be and they care about one thing - Cheating People Out Of Money! Don't be fooled. This site is in the business of thievery and have no Respect or Value for their Customers! I have been using this site for nearly 2 years as a freelance designer for many clients. As a loyal customer, I had 3 photos to purchase recently and was forced into buying more credits than I needed so I called support to help me out and they they refuse to offer a refund on my remaining credits so that I can purchase the last photo a different way. The company changed their pricing/credit option recently with no notice to customers. They also impose a time limit to use the credits you pay for that you can't get a refund on. No big deal, Just More Money down the drain. I will not use this site again as they are NOT CUSTOMER Oriented and they need to stop taking advantage of people. One Customer Lost for Life Here! We do have a choice of who to do business with and there are plenty of other options in the marketplace for creative professionals who don't want to support Internet Crooks like iStock.