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Big Stock Photo has a rating of 1.6 stars from 64 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Big Stock Photo most frequently mention free trial, credit card, and customer service problems. Big Stock Photo ranks 63rd among Stock Photos sites.
Despite some negative claims on here, I am pleased to offer a second review to let you know 3-5 business days I will be refunded. Thank you BigStockPhoto and I hope others can proceed with confidence that you are fair! Shane
Signed up to free trial charged £70.80 to credit card! Auto billed then 70.80 for 4 months without so much as an invoice or anything, was on a credit card I don't use so only checked statement by chance or could have been much worse off, customer service awful... avoid at all costs
Signed up to free trial charged £70.80 to credit card! Auto billed then 70.80 for 4 months without so much as an invoice or anything, was on a credit card I don't use so only checked statement by chance or could have been much worse off, customer service awful... avoid at all costs
They charged my credit card again 3 days prior my subscription has expired. They have this written with really small letters so you can't see it. I had to call them so I can get a refund.
I hate businesses who engage in such misleading practices.
This is our company's fault for not realizing that after entering a free trial to download three images we were charged monthly from then on for $69/mo. For 17 months. When it was caught, we tried to settle something with them and all they could do was credit our account for three months and give us 40% for resigning on the first month. Absolutely horrible company. And when we emailed them (because nobody is answering the phone), the auto reply has not been updated since January 2014. Frightening that they are taking money this way.
I signed up thinking this we be a great idea for a free trial to check out the website and get some free images. The images are not downloading properly. They will not let me use the size I want AND when attempting to cancel by following where it says to go on my account there is no option the actually cancel. They are "unavailable" via live chat. Do not respond to emails and seem to not ever actually answer the phone. I am hugely unimpressed and urge everything to thinks wife before considering this website. A big scam it seems.
Gretchen, we checked with our Customer Service team and they let us know that they were able to assist you with your questions and end your trial. Since your call this morning we did identify that we are having some technical issues that are being resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of further assistance.
They lure people in with their so called free trial and then charge them for a whole month of services regardless if they consume any content or not. When you try to reach customer services the refuse to refund you and treat you like a criminal... I'll never do business with this site again and I will never recommend them to anyone.
Andres,
Thank you for your feedback.
We offer a free trial subject to eligibility described in our Terms of Service and as long as it is cancelled before it ends you are not charged.
The subscription gives you access to our service, which is access to license Royalty Free content.
Please send us the email address for your Bigstock account and we will be happy to assist you further.
Zero stars if I could.
I signed up for the free trial and made a point to cancel my subscription before it was over. I took a thorough look at my credit card statement today and noticed they charged me for two months.
DO NOT use BigStock! This business is horribly unethical!
Olivia, Thank you for trying a Bigstock trial subscription. There are a few prompts to be answered when cancelling and a cancellation confirmation is displayed on the screen when it is completed. We apologize if your trial wasn't successfully cancelled and you were charged. Please contact us at support@bigstock.com and our Customer Service team will be happy to help you resolve this.
If none of their monthly plans makes economic sense for you, you can buy credits. They don't tell you that banked credits "expire" some time later. Out of the blue you will get an e-mail informing you. In other words, Bigstock just steals your money. Don't be a victim, there are plenty of alternatives.
Hi Jim, sorry for the late reply!
We do not obscure the fact that our image credits expire. In fact, we offer a 30 day grace period to extend the credits!
Please see our FAQ for all the details on our credit packs - https://goo.gl/mDouyR - and please don't hesitate to reach out to our team at support@bigstockphoto.com with any questions!
Despite some negative claims on here, I am pleased to offer a second review to let you know 3-5 business days I will be refunded. Thank you BigStockPhoto and I hope others can proceed with confidence that you are fair!
Shane
Thank you for sharing your experience, Shane. We're happy to hear we were able to fairly resolve your issue. Have a great day!
When you purchase a license photo and pay for it they then
Automatically put you on a subscription of $79 per month
And charge your credit card without your permission. Hidden
In small type Terms and Conditions. Not consumer informed.
Then when you dispute the $79 charge they say it is non-refundable.
Buy from one of the many other photo sources online. Do not buy
From Big Stock Photo.
Hi Ms. O.
We're sorry you feel that you were charged unexpectedly. When signing up for a paid plan, the following information is displayed prominently directly below the box in which you enter your payment details:
"$79 today. After that, your plan will renew on December 6,2019 and continue to renew each month. Cancel in your Account settings or by contacting our support team."
Below the "Start Downloading" button is this information:
"Please Note: Your credit card will always be charged three days prior to your renewal date. We do this to prevent any disruptions in service due to bank processing times. You can cancel Auto Renewal at any time, on the site or by contacting our support team."
Let us know if we can clarify anything further by reaching out to our support team at support@bigstock.com or via phone at1-855-272-5125, or by chatting with us on our site. We'll surely be able to explain and rectify any lingering concerns that you have. Thanks!
I was their costumer for few years. But now it is over for good. They have charged me even when I have cancelled subscription. And there is no way to remove / delete credit card info under my account settings to be sure they would not try to rob me again.
I have an account with this company. I have a lot of pictures on my computer. When I want to send pictures, they only accept 10 pictures for review.
The review process lasts 3 days
At this rate, they will review 100 photos per month
Honestly, a despicable company, I would not recommend it to anyone
I signed up to bigstock and bought some one off image but unknowingly they decided to put on a subscription plan which I have only accidently discovered while perusing my account that they have been charging me for the past 10 months a total cost of £468 while I have not used their images. I have just been on the telephone to them and they said they would refund for 3 months only. Can anyone signpost me on any lawyers or company that can assist me to get all my money back
We provide all of the pertinent information to our customers when we present them an offer. We want the information to be clear as we want our customers to understand exactly what they are signing up for, how much they will be charged and when they will be charged. It is important to us that we respect our customers and we ethically run Bigstock with that in mind. At the time of a free trial sign up the customer chooses a monthly plan that will continue after the trial ends unless they cancel before the trial ends. The trial sign up also explains that there is no charge at the beginning of the trial, when the subscription will renew and how much you will be charged. If you cancel the trial before it ends there is no charge and the subscription does not renew. This is also explained in detail in the Terms of Service which must be agreed to before starting the trial. Please contact us at support@bigstock.com if you have any additional questions.
HELP! Big Stock Photo continuously charges me with a subscription plan that I do not even know that I had. Please help me how to cancel subscription. They have been charging me since February and just noticed it in my billing now. I feel that I have been scammed because my account has 0 download records, and does not have a receipt for said $79 monthly subscription plan either. I regret registering for their free trial.
At the time of a free trial sign up the customer chooses a monthly plan that will continue after the trial ends unless they cancel before the trial ends. The trial sign up also explains that there is no charge at the beginning of the trial, when the subscription will renew and how much you will be charged. If you cancel the trial before it ends there is no charge and the subscription does not renew. This is also explained in detail in the Terms of Service which must be agreed to before starting the trial. Please contact us at support@bigstock.com and we will be happy to assist you further.
I just turned them into PCI compliance as I don't think they are meeting the standards. Do NOT sign up for their "Free" trial. I would not feel safe with them storing my credit card, and now I have to watch my account like a hawk.
My company had asked that I do a free trial to see whether they or their competitors were better. The free trial was so short so I had to cancel before I had a chance to use them. I signed up for another free trial and instead was billed $91 immediately. I immediately contacted them, having not used a single image, and told them of my mistake assuming they would refund me so I could continue the trial. Instead, they threw a bunch of legal jargon, told me I had to pay it and didn't want anything more to do with me. They just want your money and we are moving forward with the other company instead who are much nicer.
After the free trial and your agreement to $79 a month the honeymoon is over. They wouldn't give me a credit so I called Amex and charged back. I told them that I would do that if they couldn't find a resolution. They froze my account before this could be done. Terrible customer service. Do not fall into the trap we did. $158 for a total of about 15 pictures over two months and a complete waste of our time.
The halfway positive: I had made a mix up with 2 accounts and customer service made a partial refund in due time. That was ok.
But: there is no free trial if you are billed 3 days before renewal.
There is no e-mail confirmation of your subscription.
There is no e-mail information about neither upcoming or processed charges on your credit card.
Backoffice is not intuitive and made in my optionion in a misleading way so that you don't realize what you are subscribing to or if your cancelling passed through.
I had a 5 images/day subscription and missed a few days - these images are lost, they are neither refunded nor accumulated. What a SCAM!
Images are not well translated into German, search options are very limited and it takes a long time to find the required image.
Tip for consumers:
It's positive that Bigstock replies to this critique, that shows they take customer service serious.
Although responding only to 2 of my several points.
Sure you state everything in the backoffice. But we are used - and it's open procedure by a serious company - to get for everything an e-mail so that one can schedule ore remember things or pass them on to the bookkeeper without having to go to the trouble to search in a backoffice for debit or credit notes.
Bigstock advertises the 5 i
Susie, we apologize if there was any confusion regarding the trial subscription. The trial entitles you to download 5 images per day and that does reset every day. When signing up for the trial it is explained when you will be charged and this information is also displayed in the My Account section. We'd like to clarify that we do not bill trial subscriptions until they have expired. You do get a full 7 days for free. Only paid subscriptions are billed three days in advance to avoid any interruption in service. Please contact us at support@bigstock.com if you have any additional questions.
I buy stock images on a few different sites and none of them expire your paid credits like Bigstock Photo does. It's infuriating! I don't have time to watch the calendar and make sure I use my credits before they expire. If I buy something, I should get something. I feel like they just took my money. I'll never buy on Bigstock again. Go to iStockphoto instead.
Upon signing up for a free trial my credit card was immediately charged £70. Six days in to the seven day free trial period, with my membership cancelled, I still have not received a reply from customer service about the billing error, or a refund to my credit card. BigStock is quite deceptive with its free trial process and I caution anyone considering the service.
Like so many others, I signed up for a free trial and was automatically enrolled in a subscription plan that cost $79/month for a year, without my knowledge or consent. Unfortunately, I did not notice this on my credit card statements until a year later (this month), so I have now been charged $948 for a few downloads in February 2017. BigStockPhoto did not have most of the quality photos I needed for my book project anyway, so I purchased the majority of them from two other stock photo services, without any problem. Stay away from BigStockPhoto!
Hi Janice,
We're very sorry that you feel that you were automatically enrolled in a subscription plan without your knowledge or consent. We do our best to notify users that they need to cancel the trial subscription prior to the end of the trial. We do this in the following ways:
Between the credit card entry field and the button where a user confirms the free subscription is the following information:
"Your Free Trial includes 35 free images. We will bill you $79 on March 13,2018 (the applicable date based on date of sign up) unless you cancel before then. After that, your plan will renew monthly. Cancel in your Account settings or by contacting our support team."
Here is the link to that page. Note - it is not visible if currently logged into a Bigstock account.
https://www.bigstockphoto.com/subscribe/payment/5aday30day_bonus2_7day_trial/
Please don't hesitate to reach out to our team at support@bigstockphoto.com with any questions!
I signed up for images hence name "big stock photos". I email to cancel after on the last day of my 5 day trial. You get 5 images a day over the days days and I downloaded only 5 out the 25 as the images are not sufficient to what i need. Then i see they ignored my cancellation email charged mw twice for the subscription and now say i also signed up for videos when i didn't. They are now refusing to offer me a refund even though i have not used any more images and no video images which i didn't even know I had. My advice dont use this company they are poor.
Would have an image but they didnt send a email to confirm purchase (again another reason dont use.)
I uploaded 2000 designs for sale on Big Stock Photo which took me over one year worth of work... I only made $100 in commissions but never withdrew the funds... One day my account was possibly hacked or Big Stock Photo stole the money... Someone switched my paypal payout email address then immediately withdraw all the funds without even a password confirmation... I received an email saying email was changed and funds were withdrawn... I quicky changed my password and I contacted Big Stock Photo within 5 minutes of this happening... They sent me some auto generated reply and immediately suspended my account... I emailed them over 100 times over the course of 2 months and never received a single reply after the account was suspended... Big Stock Photo basically stole my money and ignored me... Horrible what they did to me... Never use them!
A trial membership with Bigstock requires you to submit credit card information and later you will find out why. After one week, you are automatically charged $79 with the starting date as the first day of your trial membership! This is, at best, a devious company, and at worst, a scam. They send you notices of all the "FREE" things to encourage you to believe you are still in the trial period, while all the time, charging you a whopping $79 a month even when you do not look at the web site! It is time to put this company off the internet!
Hi EJ,
We're sorry that you feel that you were automatically enrolled in a subscription plan without your knowledge. We notify all users that they need to cancel the trial subscription prior to the end of the trial in the following way:
Between the credit card entry field and the button where a user confirms the free subscription is the following information:
"Your Free Trial includes 35 free images. We will bill you $79 on xxx date (the applicable date based on date of sign up) unless you cancel before then. After that, your plan will renew monthly. Cancel in your Account settings or by contacting our support team."
Here is the link to that page. Note - it is not visible if currently logged into a Bigstock account.
https://www.bigstockphoto.com/subscribe/payment/5aday30day_bonus2_7day_trial/
Please don't hesitate to reach out to our team at support@bigstockphoto.com with any questions!
This site is okay, and many of the photos are top notch. The main thing I've noticed is that a huge numbers of them are from Europe. Not a bad thing but, in my case, I'm looking for photos of automobile service. You can tell by the layouts of the service bays and the way the techs are dressed that they're European. So I had to keep searching for photos that wouldn't cause my students and users to look at the photo with a cocked head wondering, WTF?
Joseph T (customer care "advocate") was snarky beyond belief. Cancellation online is challenged 3 times - yes, I am sure i want to cancel. Do not assume clicking to cancel the autobill at the first or second menu is sufficient - it is not. Also, if you call them, it is not adequate to explain the situation... you must use the magic word "refund". I will never do business or refer business to any company that plays these semantic games.
We're sorry to hear about your frustrating experience. Please send us the email associated with your Bigstock account in a private message and we will review the situation.
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Tsvetan, The information is displayed in your account and in the Terms of Service. We apologize if you didn't see it. We did make an exception and provide you a refund, so we hope that satisfactorily resolved the situation. Please contact us at support@bigstock.com if you need further assistance.