Shutterstock
reviews and complaints

I am a registered user on Shutterstock official website (https://www.shutterstock.com/) with Username: seunlovingme30
and User ID: [protected]

Based on the company or organization (Shutterstock) regular persuasion before and after registering on their website I gave in and signup for a month free trial subscription at zero charge. The free trial subscribed to was never explored in whatever way as I became ill shortly after I registered for the 'A Month Free Trial' on the 30th April, 2021 as I did not make any download throughout the period.

On the 1st August 2021, I woke up to a deduction or debit alert of $29 (US Dollars) by Shutterstock on the 31st July 2021, Inc. from my bank account through my debit card submitted on Shutterstock website. This deduction was carried out by Shutterstock two (2) months after 'a month free trial subscription' I signed up expired on the 29th of May, 2021. This unauthorized deduction was carried out by Shutterstock without any prior agreement, notice nor email sent to me before and after the deduction.

I thereafter contacted the Shutterstock customer service through both email and phone calls on their website requesting for the reversal of the amount illegally deducted from my bank account through my debit card. Shutterstock however admitted the withdrawal with the excuse that their system runs subscription auto renewal after a month free trial but with their refusal to reverse the transaction as I was told the deduction was irreversible.

It is important I state that the company or organization (Shutterstock) never stated before, during and after the sign up for a month free trial subscription that their system runs auto-renewal neither was any message or email sent to that effect to me aforetime or prior the unauthorized deduction. Also, I never at any point in time explore any download. I mean I never downloaded any image on the Shutterstock website since I registered on the platform. All the above explanation to Shutterstock requesting for a reversal proved abortive.

Kindly note the following:
Date of the Incident: 31/07/2021

I had agreed to the trial but have since then cancelled but im having major trouble! I have cancelled my account last month and have been charged again for for subscription! I want my account stopped and my refund for the last two months! I can see on other reviews about this company that they have done the same thing! Foe two months now they have taken money out when I have cancelled the reoccurring details on my account. Everyone is struggling and this company just keeps taking.

This account is using my pictures without my consent. I want my pictures to be removed. The girl in yellow indian dress is me. It is causing me mental harassment even after telling them so many times to remove it they didn't remove them. Pictures of me taken were ugly and also they didn't send me those pictures or even asked me before uploading it on shutterstock.

I subscribed to a 365-day Subscription, Standard License with 10 Downloads per Month free service in June.

However I have been charged US$ 34.22 without any downloads in July...?

The website says that 10 downloads / month are free. So far I have downloaded only 1 image, why this charge?

Shutterstock are crooks. They would not allow me to speak to a manager and the customer service rep Rick was unhelpful and rude. When I requested a manager he said no! What in the actual [censored]. Do yourself a favor and do not get involved with this company. I used the service one time on one day and haven't used it since and they keep charging me every month and refuse to cancel the service and are trying to charge a high cancellation fee.

For the past month I have been trying to cancel my anual subscribtion plan with shutterstock but ive been unsucessful, shutterstock wont let me cancel my plan, im outraged and then ive been told that I will be chaarged for unsubscribing! everytime I try to cancel my plan im taken around in circles where im told to "contact us" I have tried numerous times to engage in a live chat but haven't been able to contact anyone, time is running out and im desperate to cancel my 365 plan because money from my account is getting less and less everyday. I've tried calling and emailing but no answer, I cant beleive im going through all of this just to cancel a subscribtion. I would like to request a refund of my last charge due to the stress and restless nights caused from this whole situation as well as my annual subscribtion being cancelled once and for all. my contact email is [protected]@gmail.com. please get in touch. This is urgent.

I signed up for a free trial on Shutterstock for 1 month. And immediately unchecked all the boxes that want you to proceed in a paid subscription after one month. I know how these platforms work and really take care. A few months later I found out there had been a direct debit from my account each month. Without any notice. [censored]! I blocked my bank account for Shutterstock and notified them that I wanted my money back. Instead they asked me extra money. In the end it was solved, only costing me 35 euro's. But still, for something I did not sign up for and never used. Here's the correspondence. Maybe it will help someone.

SHUTTERSTOCK
Hello Ralph,
Thanks for reaching out and for giving Shutterstock a try.

We're sorry that the offer did not meet your needs at this time. I checked your account and I see that the free trial period has already expired and you are now on an annual commitment plan which is billed monthly.

One of the benefits that comes with that annual plan is the discounted monthly rate you receive in exchange for a one year commitment to our service.

If you need to cancel your annual commitment early, we'll need to charge a plan price adjustment by collecting the difference between the regular monthly rate and the discounted rate you have received so far. Of course, this calculation excludes the first month, which was and remains completely free.

Your discounted monthly rate with annual commitment: €29

Monthly rate without annual commitment: €49

Monthly price difference: €20

Months subscribed so far: 3

Total discount you received so far: €60

Once we process this charge, your plan will be canceled and you will no longer be charged for service, however any remaining downloads will be available for you to use until your plan expires.

In order to proceed with the plan cancellation, I'll need to receive your written consent to charge the €60, plus any applicable tax, to the primary payment method listed on your account Billing page. If I do not hear from you, the plan will remain active and the total amount of savings listed above will increase with each additional month of service.

Alternatively, if you would like to continue your annual subscription until the year commitment ends, simply turn off auto renewal on the Plans page to prevent your plan from renewing an additional year term. In this case, there is no need for you to reply to this email.

If you have any other questions, I am always glad to help.

ME
I never signed up for an annual plan. After signing up for the free trial I cancelled the subscription to make sure I did not end up in a yearly subscription. I have no idea why that did not come through and only found out about the yearly subscription when I saw the direct debits on my bank account. I never downloaded an image since the trial period as you can see in your data. It does not feel fair being charged for something I did not sign up for and have not made use of.

For now I request to stop the subscription. I understand that you will not be willing to pay back the first month (35, 09). And want to charge even more, up to 60 euro's. This doesn't seem right. But I also want to fix this together. I do intend to make use of the platform in the future on ad hoc basis. My proposal is that you keep the 35, 09 (first month) and stop the subscription that I never used. And we'll start over. Otherwise I will pay the additional 25 euro's and then close my account and will never use it again. But that's not an ideal situation for either of us I guess.

Hope you can also relate to my situation and meet in the middle with me.

Kind regards,
Ralph

SHUTTERSTOCK

Hello Ralph,

Thanks for reaching out to Shutterstock.

Thanks for waiting. I see you signed up for a free trial on September 16th that allowed you to download 10 images during your first month for free. The promotion indicated on the sign up page, that it had to be canceled before the end of the first month to avoid being charged. I see that you did in fact turn off the Annual Auto-renewal on Sept 16, but as mentioned on the website this does not stop the monthly billing, it only prevents the subscription from renewing for another 12 month commitment next year. During first 28 or 29 days there was a "Cancel Plan Early" directly underneath the Autorenewal button which should have been selected. But not to worry. you're all set now .

As a one time courtesy, we have waived the early annual plan cancellation adjustment fee and ended your subscription. There will be no more payments. Unfortunately we will not be able to provide you with any refunds since the annual plan and cancellation charges were provided on the promotion signup page and you have contacted us outside of the refundable timeframe. Your plan and any of the 10 downloads remaining from the last month's set will expire/be removed from your account after Jan 16th. Please check plan details section for exact hour and minute. As there are no more payments for this plan, you may now remove your credit card from the billing section if you wish.

If you change your mind or have additional content needs in the future, please don't hesitate to come back! We also have music tracks and video clips.

If Shutterstock had an ounce decency, or even listened to the reams of customers calling for it - they would deactivate their auto-renewal.

Thousands of loyal customers are being scammed and tricked out of money, and this company does not care, in fact I am pretty sure its is part of their business model.

There is no need to have auto-renewal activated by default, other than to line their pockets while customers are unaware of their bank accounts being emptied. No matter how many times you disable auto-renewal, it defaults to "on" every time you buy another image package.

The only thing worse than their underhanded tactics is their complete arrogance. It takes a lot of balls to be so blatantly dishonest and then still be arrogant about it.

This company needs to be brought under legal review.

I was charged $49 twice on 4/7/2020. I have transacted no business with this company within the past 12 months, so I was very surprised to see these charges. I have notified my credit card company and the charges are being disputed. I also had to close that credit card, and now have to wait 7 - 10 days for the new card to arrive all because of Shutterstock.

Dear SS, I just can't belive what has happend to me.My account has been deleted for similars. I work with your site for 8 years now and we had a very good partnership. 400.000 works deleted
I am devastated. Income from Shutterstock is my main source of income
so I will be left with no source of living. I understand the reasons why you want to low down the number of similar photos, but you never gave me a chance or any warning. I could have deleted all of my textures and continued to work with photographs.My textures were selling very well too. All should get warning first and a chance to improve. I thought what was accapted, is ok. I apologies but I think we can get some better solution then deleting my 8 years work.I have never copping anyone elses work. I have worked hard by myself. Many accounts have similars and they were not terminated.Give me please a chance.Its a bad time for all of us. Corona virus and all...Above all I am now with no source of living. Can I at least get a written authorization to open another account. Nobody is answering me for 10 days now. I have an open discussion on forum.I wrote to administrators, and nothing at all.
*This is terms of service *

*If your account is terminated for any reason, you must obtain written
authorization from Shutterstock prior to establishing another account. You
may not have more than one active contributor account at any time without
the written consent of Shutterstock in each instance. *

Can I at least get any response. Its not fair after all this years.My account is
Alted Studio. id 997631
With respect, Sasa

Literally the worst experience with this company. They have some auto renewal feature I can completely unaware of and charged my credit card 11 times without my consent. When I inquired the call center was cagey and difficult to deal with (also clearly not based domestically) and refused me any help. When I asked for more information on the escalation process nothing was provided. Protect your personal information this company has no accountability and incredibly deceptive business practices.

I received an email from shutterstock saying that I was charged for some stock. First the email belongs to me and in the email the information used is not mine at all for this account and not even in the country I am in. Someone is using my email address and i have no business with shutterstock at all. The email came from [protected]@e.shutterstock.com

Hello, Shutter stock use very tricky means to sign you up for a subscriptions making you believe it is a monthly plan that will expire in 30days and then you realize its monthly plan for an annual subscription.
If you try to cancel they will rip you off the deserved photos and also charge you.

Their subscription policy is tailored in a way to make you believe its short-term

I've not used my shutterstock account for months already. Of course when the annual mark came in (April 2019), they charge my card without any notice. So when I see this in my card records, I request for cancellation as the account is of no use to me. They are quick to get back to their customers with a cancellation fee, quite unheard of in this day and age as online accounts/plans can be deleted at the user's discretion.

From previous sources, this cancellation fee was 100usd, howeverthey've doubled this amount already. Anyway, I'm not willing to pay this charge for simple cancellation of an account which has been dormant for months.

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.

We have the same problem. Shutterstock's has the auto renewal button checked, and this year Shutterstock just took US$49 from my credit card without noticing me. So, be cautious, even if you make a one-time purchase. I did not see / notice the default button last year. I called the credit card centre and they said because it is a pre-authorized purchase, they would not send a message to my cell phone.
I am now requesting a refund.

My experience is like everyone, no need to say. Was tricked to purchase the $29 plan and now it's a recurrant charge and YOU CANNOT CANCEL IT unless you pay $180 fee or do that "within 30 days of your annual period", said some random guy at some random call center.

Screw you Shutterstock, I am not going to pay the ridiculous fee, and as one of the trend leaders in design, I will let my 6, 000+ followers know about how Shutterstock steals money from people and tell every one of my designer friends not to use Shutterstock.

Dear Sir/ Madam,

First I wanna tell You that I am using Shutterstock for years. I was always choosing it when I was working for other publishing houses. I always get the right support from Your staff and I was really satisfied. But I had to tell You that Your customer service did a very poor job in my case recently.

Last year I started my own company, so in the beginning, it's normal that I couldn't choose some more expensive options. So, I choose most popular option, but obviously, I didn't understand all terms. Never mind. My mistake.

I contact Your customer service on August 2nd and ask them if they can turn off auto-renewal, and they explained to me that they can't because of the terms. Since I don't have so much need for such a large number of photos at this moment, we were discussing some other options, and we found it finally - I decided to pay a cancellation fee and choose a cheaper plan with only 10 photos a month.

But the last answer of Your customer service was (quote) - "Your plan is now canceled and you will still have 30 more days to download 50 images on the account and after the next month, you can change to a different plan. The new month will start in 13 hours. "

I have to say that I was disappointed cause Your staff knew that my first goal was to cancel the old option, and still they expanded the discussion on 2 days - instead of telling me that the time of auto-renewal is coming and I should quickly choose other option. This way, my credit card is charged twice: for auto-renewal of the old plan (which I don't need) and for cancelation. If I knew that I am already charged by the old plan, least I could do is to make cancellation in 20 days, so my credit card is not charged at the same month twice. And when I asked on which mail I can send complain, they didn't even answer.

I was really sad cause You customer service didn't act like they care for the customer, and the person who was handling me wasn't eager to help me and maximally protect my interest. With expanded discussion they let me enter in new period (for auto-renewal by the old plan) and they could of warn me so I just pay for cancellation fee and immediately start with the new plan.

My ID is [protected]

Best regards,
Ninna Lara Vidaković
STYLENT MEDIA
Zagreb, Croatia
ninna.lara.[protected]@stylentmedia.com
[protected]@gmail.com

I'm a graphic designer for a non-profit. Last June, I needed to download one photo from Shutterstock, so I purchased the minimum two photo credits needed for the download. This option is called "365-day Images On Demand" and does not indicate that this is an annual subscription. In fact, I would argue that "on demand" insinuates the opposite of a subscription. However, unbeknownst to me, we were automatically opted into a subscription that is auto-renewed annually.

A few weeks ago, we were charged another $30 from Shutterstock. I would have had no idea that we were charged—I did not receive an email from Shutterstock confirming the charge—but our accounting department noticed it on our credit card statement as asked what it was.

I called customer support and was credited this amount as a "one-time courtesy." I was treated as though I did something wrong and this was a favor, when in fact it's a dishonest business practice to automatically opt someone into an auto-renew cycle after the purchase of one image. If they were providing this service in the best interest of the customer, they would highlight the service and allow people to opt in if interested.