ShutterstockReviews 532

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.

Be aware of signing up for a free trial or subscription without fully understanding what you are getting in to. After the free trial you will automatically be entered into an annual subscription which is quite deceiving. The way it was present was an annual fee including 10 downloads a month but the price is actually monthly. Canadian it was almost $40 a month for 10 download and when you realize you are paying this monthly and contact them you are reminded of the spot you can find this information on their website even though when you see it before hand it is presented as a one time fee. I continued my subscription as it stated it was annual and $40 for the year was okay. On my account it also states annual. But then you realize it's $40 a month and when you try to cancel you have to pay even more! My only regret is not reading reviews first. My advice is don't use them at all. I did not pay the extra fee to cancel I instead offered to file a credit report if they had an issue with cancelling and they agreed. Do not pay their outrageous hidden fees.

The photo I included shows the only information they give you on your account, stating an annual subscription. Also showing how their site makes it appear that you get to download 10 pictures a month for an annual plan of $29. It's easy to be convinced once more that it is a one time fee. The definition of annual is once a year, I don't know how they continue to operate. Be aware.

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 thought I was ordering one picture and then found out later I was being charged a monthly subscription charge. When I brought this to customer service they said I could cancel for forty dollars. I have never been scammed like this in my whole life. They should not be allowed to be on the internet.

Extremely expensive, basically lock you up for a year with stupid fees. The longer you stay with them the more you will have to pay to get out.

I wanted to be legit in placing images on my website and pay for them as I need them. I have/had 2 subscriptions on Shutterstock. The monthly plan is so misled when you sign-up that you believe that if you do not use your downloads in one month, they would be carried over to the following month. In fact, they are not carried over! A total rip-off if you ask me, do not use this company for your images, in the end, it would be cheaper to hire a photographer!

I created an account that gave me a free trial to download 10 free images. I downloaded three images. The next day I tried to log in and got this message: "This account has been suspended for security reasons." I contacted support. They replied: "Your account has been flagged by our system for suspicious activity, which has been reviewed and confirmed by our security analysts. As a result, your Shutterstock account has been terminated and will not be reinstated. Please consider this matter closed, as for security reasons no additional information can be provided." This is absolutely REDICULOUS! I did NOTHING wrong! I sent them a picture of my driver's license, passport, birth certificate, just to show them that I am a good human being and have no idea why my account was flagged. They responded that their decision is final and they won't give me more information. I feel humiliated, and wish there were laws about this.

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

Shutterstock is fine, until you need help. I purchased a 4K video clip, which was a corrupted file when I downloaded it. I was on a tight deadline and needed the clip, so I used the HD version instead. I wrote to customer service asking to be charged instead for just the 1080p version, since I did not use the 4K version I had paid extra for. Over the course of several emails, several agents attempted to gaslight and deny that the clip was faulty, and teach me about "codecs". I've been a video editor for 12 years, I know know how to troubleshoot codecs and determine that a file is corrupted. Finally they sent me a new version of the file, without admitting the first one was faulty. My deadline had long passed, so the file was useless to me. It would be one thing to state plainly that they would not be reimbursing me, but treating me like an idiot? I now use Adobe stock exclusively, since you can find exactly the same clips there.

Do not subscribe. Its difficult to even cancel your subscription early and they charge you a huge fee to cancel your subscription. This is the only company to do this that I have come across.

As the title suggests I created a Shutterstock account this past week. Shortly after creating it I attempted to login and was prompted with a message that the account was disabled. I proceeded to contact customer service and after 16 emails back and forth no one has been able to give me a clear reason about why this happened or why I am essentially banned from the platform without ever having used it.

I wish I could give a review without leaving any stars. I've never felt so mislead by a company in my entire professional career. The "free trial" is nearly impossible to cancel and then there is a previously undisclosed fee for ending the subscription. The most deceptive advertising I have ever dealt with.

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...

Two of the videos they sold me are bad and they are not giving me my money back. I paid $171 per video. This is a crime. Shutterstock has stolen $342

Easy sign-up and using of products should be followed with an easy canceling with at least low fees. This is so opposite, free one month expired 4 days before and now they want my 30$ every month. That is not going to happen.
Update: So I was locked in the annual plan. The same day they charged me, I took these steps.
Since the support on the phone numbers I called were "busy", I mailed telling them I want to cancel my annual plan and to get refund for these 30$ if it is possible. I was upset all day long reading all the reviews of people being stuck a lot more than I was. So now after lets say 20hrs after mailing them, I got mailed back from support guy saying that he canceled the plan and send a refund request for the last charge they made. I shall be mailed in the next 3-5days for the refund informations. I respect this, but honestly, there are many other services that emphasize terms of service and do not charge you 4 days before the end of the trail period for no reason. I just got myself into problems...

Avoid a free trial at all costs. If you go over it at all - you will be signed up for a year long package and charged a huge cancellation fee. I lost over 60 Euro in fees even though the monthly subscription is only advertised as 49euro, because they advertise it without tax. I hadn't even used the service but they didn't even tale that into account. While they're within their rights to do that, I can't in good faith recommend a company that manipulates its customers like that.

Yet another business putting itself before customers. Free month, but cancel or pay for 1 year. SCAM

They won't remove my billing information. I'm always being charged on the service I'm not using -__-