Is shutterstock.com Legit?

By way of a brief introduction, I am the Co-Founder and Director of Addicted Art Gallery, Singapore.Historically, we have used images from Shutterstock for our social media campaigns. We were up against a tight deadline for a new campaign and opted to use an image from Shutterstock. A fatal error in judgement.Upon checking our account, we realised that our subscription had not been renewed due to inactivity. Given that we only needed 1 image, we decided to subscribe for 1 month. Or so we thought.It transpired that we had been locked into a 12 month commitment. There was no transparency (not that we could find) from Shutterstock regarding the terms of their subscription plan.Upon realising what had happened, we immediately reached out to Shutterstock to cancel. We were subsequently advised that a cancellation fee ($153.41) had to be paid in order to early terminate our subscription.Needless to say, we were floored. Not only had we been billed $29 of the first month but now had to pay an additional fee. To add insult to injury, the image we downloaded was not fit for purpose as specified by Shutterstock.Upon pleading our case to Shutterstock, they agreed “as a courtesy” to reduce the cancellation fee by 50%. In short, we have paid $105 for an image that was useless.Needless to say, we have terminated our subscription.There are other media platforms offering the same service with transparent and flexible subscription plans.Our advice, explore other options beside Shutterstock.

The support of this website is extremely poor and disappointing. As an artist who has been active on this platform for five years, I find it frustrating that works that have taken days of effort to create are sold at very low prices, and the artist receives only a very small share of the sales. I have had hundreds of my works sold on this site, yet no money has ever been transferred to my bank account. Absolutely nothing. The support team is unresponsive. This is the worst website in the world, especially in terms of customer service.

I had the same terrible experience as everyone else. So I’ll just focus on why their service is useless.First off, you get only 10 images a month, and if you don’t use them, they’re gone. Second, with midjourney and other AI image & video generators, it is absolutely pointless to pay for their services.

They use Adobe's scammy and misleading business model of offering a free trial and then trying to force you to pay for a year of service. Scamming clowns that foster absolutely no trust.

So glad to discover (sadly) that others find Shutterstock's tactics devious and predatory. Rather than give my full story, similar to many others, here are the top points:1. Auto-renew on a package purchase without consent, meaning you're charged twice twice unless you check.2. Previously disabling auto-renew overridden when logging on again.3. Having to dig deep into the site even to find where you disable auto-renew.4. No complaints process, or link to register a complaint - only a generic email address with a limit of 400 characters of text.5. ...and when I did use that to complain, the response a) didn't acknowledge I'd made a complaint or attempted to respond to it, b) told me my case would close in 24 hours, and c) was addressed to Hi Omitted Omitted. I mean...

I am writing to express my deep dissatisfaction with Shutterstock's practice of automatically enabling the refill of fees for photo purchases without clearly notifying or obtaining explicit consent from users. This month, I was surprised that this setting was active, resulting in unexpected charges.The feature's placement and activation appear to be intentionally hidden, which makes it feel deceitful. Upon discovering this, I immediately disabled the automatic refill option and withdrew my credit card information to ensure no future unauthorized charges.I urge the Shutterstock team to consider more transparent and ethical practices around payment settings to maintain trust with the user base.

Horrendous experience, horrendous customer service. Shutterstock billed me on two different cards and refuses to refund me the full amount. Anybody signing up with this company does so at their own risk, Literally a bunch of thieves with no concern for custiomer experience blows my mind that they are still in existence.

Vague misleading offer quickly ensures that you are wrongly given a heavy traffic fine every month. Cancellation is not possible because then they do not respond. Do not think that they have a counter to arrange. They are big scammers.

Absolute thieves. They use predatory tactics to trap you into a contract and then refuse to let you go. Pictures are okay but so are loads of other sites that don't use these kinds of tactics. Scumbag company - avoid like the plague

Shutterstock's policies are the definition of inflexibility and poor customer service. They offer no refunds, no option to change from yearly to monthly subscriptions, and a steep 50% early termination fee for those trying to cancel. After subscribing, I was stunned to learn there’s zero leeway—even if you’ve only been a customer for a few days or weeks. Their customer service is unhelpful and unsympathetic, offering no solutions or flexibility. It’s clear that Shutterstock values revenue over customer satisfaction, trapping users with deceptive and predatory practices. If you’re considering a subscription, think twice—once you’re in, there’s no easy way out."

What has happened to Shutterstock?! They went from free to ripping you off by not stipulating their terms and conditions in a clear and open manner.This should be forbidden.I thought I had purchased one single picture and ended up with a full yearly plan - never knowing.I had to cancel straight away (literally a few minutes later), but they still charged me a half year of membership for more than a £100!!! Definitely NOT was I was planning to do since it said the picture was only about £20. HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN??I cancelled my plan straight away (that I didn't know I had in the first place), and I am ending up with more than a £100 quids less in my account for one picture. A robbery!

here to write another awful review for this service. I cancel my subscription, they also send me email with promotion to reactive my subscription, and the activate it again without any notice, and they they are obviously asking me 150 something euros because I want to cancel it. this is SCAM. the service is terrible. Is this really the way you keep your business sustainable in 2024? In the menatime I'm in touch with your customer service to have my money back but reading the reviews here, I think I already know how this is going to end. Looking forward to see your company fail.

No customer service what so ever, even when you do receive an email all it contains is generic quotes and nothing specific to your concerns.

The review process : almost the same photos ! ( of Panda ) but the a more sellable picture, in chat said said that the reason of rejection " more sellable picture"!!! SO that is the only reason of rejection !!!IT IS NOT FAIR !! IT is weird!!!!

Scam company and will deduct fund from your account without you realising. This scam company has been debuting my account $29.95 a month for 3 years. When approached them a few months back, they apparently cancelled twice, however, this morning i find out they are still debuting my account. I’ve never subscribed and simply purchased 1 image from their site. Please stay away from this company unless you want your accounts drained

Tricked me into a long-term contract that I need to pay $160 to cancel? Also refuse to delete my card details / lied about not being authorised to do so.

This is the worst thing I ever signed up for they tricked me into choosing a one-year subscription I only used 7 photos and wasn't able to cancel my autopay and now I am stuck paying a half of years worth of $30.00 a month x's 6 =$180.00 to get out of it. They won't bend. DON'T SIGN UP WITH THESE CROOKS. The photos aren't even that great anyway. I TAKE WAY BETTER PHOTOS. Owner at Kaua'i By Stephanie, Stephanie Michel

So angry. They took money without authorisation. It’s a legal requirement to advise of subscription rebills. Just check first. Avoid all the hassle.

Operating illegally (at least in the UK) by not notifying me before taking payment that I was auto-enrolled into a subscription (I thought I had made a one-off purchase) total scam be warned.

Worst Stock site ever. I am a highly paying customer and also a contributor. My contributor account got blocked for suspicious activity. But they don't give any reason whatsoever. They finish their reply with case closed. That's just terrible customer service. I don't get any replies after that. But im sure the one that reviewed my account looked at it wrong. So now I have spend lots of time on my account but don't get anything for it. This is just the way to scare people. Don't ever use Shutterstock! The just want money and don't want to pay the people making the pictures.