Shutterstock Reviews

They changed their user policies and charged me for a picture that I clicked on for $99 and when I called right away to tell them I didn't want that feature they said there was nothing they could do about it on top of the fact that I paid my annual fee for my usage. I had them shut my account down affective immediately. The customer service was really bad and they're new Way the system works is not user-friendly I accidentally touched the button and got charged for it or some thing that I would never ever use. So basically I lost a few hundred dollars on the deal. Too many other companies out there that want my business

I canceled my account but they kept charging me. By the time I caught it 3 months had passed and they said the only way to cancel (again) was to pay more money (the $20 monthly difference between their yearly subscription and monthly subscription). I felt like I got caught up in a scam. Very disappointed in customer support at Shutterstock. They are not in the business of helping customers but for finding sneaky ways to take your money. Buyers beware.

They charged me $80 to cancel my subscription. Terms of service like theirs ought to be illegal. Stay away!

I signed up for their service on a subscription discounted by 30% in return for a a whole year. I found some images useful but not enough to justify paying the monthly standing order. When I wrote to cancel they hit me with a demand for the repayment of the discount. I complained so they reduced this charge from £60 to £50 plus tax, which I agreed to pay. I still think they'd had quite enough money from me already for the number of images I used.

This unethical mother $#*!ing auto renew and charges me annual subscription without notice. I try to cancel my transaction on credit card but they no allow. Shutterstock is a Fraud website & Immoral behavior service. I hope they refund my money back.

Unprofessional & delinquenent conduct website. I did turn OFF the renewal plan after one month I check my credit card acc, I saw Shutterstock already deduct my credit and no give any notice. I try to cancel my credit card but they no allow us to simply cancel and must need to contact. Shutterstock is a Fraud website & Immoral behavior service. I hope they refund my money back.

Stay clear of this company. I ordered several pictures, and then I find out that I'm on a one year plan that I didn't sign up for. I tried to cancel the plan, and there is a high cancellation fee. And, when you call them to cancel, they are very difficult to reach. I would never use their services again, and neither should you!

This website is definitely not professional. If you want quality images or videos this is not the site for you. Also, when you cancel a subscription the cancellation fees are astronomical. I cancelled a subscription today and they charged me $880 cancellation fee! Utterly ridiculous and not as professional as I had hoped. As CEO of a music company we were hoping for something better. Spread the word!

Stock content I purchased was stolen from elsewhere and resold to me! My client had requested a unique piece, and after purchasing, it was clear that this was a stolen image. Google Reverse image search found many copies. Nearly embarrassed myself or got myself into legal trouble. It looks like the age old adage is true "you get what you pay for." I can't trust this service. I'll looking elsewhere for original stock content for my clients.

I paid a subscription cancellation fee... wtf?
Just as I thought it was over and done with they have continued to charge my credit card 3 months later.
You can't contact them as it just returns errors, chat is closed down.
Looks like a charge back from my bank is the next step and will send them a cease and desist as they are billing me illegally

Shutterstock charged me US$1750 for a Premiere License on a clip that was subsequently withdrawn form their website (after they had accepted my payment in full). After five weeks, and at least four written emails cancelling the order (by this time my client had dropped me as a service provider based on false advertising - of the aforementioned clip being removed form Shutterstock site AFTER payment), they sent me the clip via Wetransfer - which I no longer required, had cancelled four weeks prior with multiple emails. And they refused a refund or even credit. I never downloaded the Wetransfer. In other words Shutterstock took US$1750 for a service they never delivered. As far as I'm concerned that's fraud. Trying to get a reply from the License Manager was an exercise in Khafkaesque ridiculousness. No answering the phone, no replying to emails - and then when I do finally receive an email - citing health issues, travel issues (what!?!?!?) but nothing you could call actual service, or help. DO NOT deal with this company, they will steal your hard earned money, and in my case, lose you clients. Just unbelievable!

I intentionally purchased one time 5 images. Shutterstock set me up for auto billing and immediately charged me again. Stay away from this company

Their offer of 10 images -month- annual plan 29$ is actually a trick in the wording! It's annual commitment for 29$ every month! To cancel they charged me what they call savings I have saved so far and charged me 40$ to cancel! What a joke of a company!

Shutterstock stole some of my images and refused to do anything about it, demanding that I spend hours sending in some bureaucratic form.

Actually, This is a fraud company, They cheat to the customer to attract free subscription then, they steal your money through your credit card of your hard-earned. They wrote everything in their favor in terms and conditions. don't subscribe in free or purchase any stock. think twice before click Shutterstock.

The business model they stablished is absolutely against customer right and it's illegal. They take advantage of buzz words and like a scam they convert one month free to annual and after that they charge it if you want cancel the plan. I and few users coordinating a campaign against Shutterstock to protect the user rights. This campaign will accelerate for other brands too that violating users right and misleading customers by context and false promises and manipulation strategies.
will send the update

I signed up for the free trial then quickly found out that there's no way to manually cancel your subscription. You have to email customer support who is largely unresponsive. I ended up getting charged the monthly fee then got told that I would need to pay another $20 to cancel. I told them I would not pay that amount so they told me that "tier 2 customer support would be contacting me shortly, but they never did. A month later I got charged another monthly fee. I asked them to please remove my card information from their records and they told me they'd get back to me shortly, just like they said a month ago.

Unacceptable business practice , I never agreed to you using my card now you say I have an annual subscription - I cannot get to customer contact - nothing works not you email or chat option - DELETE my non agreed option immediately and remove all my card details ( that is also not possible)

I contacted customer service today to look into cancelling my plan early (I'm 9 months into a year subscription - paying $29/month for 10 images). With 3 payments remaining, and not using the service - I thought I'd save a little, and pay a small fee. NOPE. Since their plan was "discounted" at the time of purchase, and normal price being $49/month - I'd have to pay the difference in the price for the amount of time I've had the subscription. Meaning - to cancel early, I'd owe $180 (9 months of saving that $20). In that theory - it's best to take the "Yearly" discounted rate for 1 month, and cancel - since the termination fee is only the discounted savings for time used. Pathetic customer service, pathetic policy, average content. (their vector content is mostly unusable)

While it made 400.000 USD from my work, it drastically lowered the commission to 10c/photo&video sale. No more worth working with them. Stock in general is a waste of time.

fraud and deceit for contributors.
It will be no good/fresh content for customers soon.
extremely not recommended.

There should be a 0 star rating exclusively for this company. After being loyal to Shutterstock for more than 10 years and contributing increasingly higher quality content for them, they announced a 75% cut to artist royalties with only a 6-day notice of the change, effectively reducing the bulk of royalties to an unbelievable $0.10. Why would any artist pour money into expensive photography gear and spend countless hours producing high quality photos for a 10 cent commission? Even Chinese factory workers get paid better. Buyer beware, this company profits from slave labor.

Does not respect people they work with.
Their crated a new kind of dependance/slavery, in the name of God money.

As ALL other contributors we got royalties severely cut.
Now earn average 0.12 $ per images (taxes included), which is about 75% less of what I used to earn until yesterday.
When I started, in 2011, I was earning 0.25$ per image

As of June 1 2020 Shutterstock is offering contributor royalties that makes working in a sweatshop look good in comparison. "But they had to cut costs due to Covid-19!" you say? Well, people were buying images just fine in March-April-May... my sales actually went *up*, and none of SS's competitors (Adobe Stock, Dreamstime, Alamy and many others) have felt the need to introduce such mercenary, unethical payment systems. This is sheer greed, pure and simple.

The result? Photographers, videographers, and graphic artists are deactivating their accounts in droves. There is *no* reason why anyone with any talent or self-respect would contribute there when the pay is so laughable and the management is so bad. If you love supporting sleazy companies with rapacious CEOs... well, you'd better get in fast, because the pickings are going to be awfully slim in the next couple of months. Go elsewhere.