iStockPhoto

Title says it all. Signed up for a free trial (which actually counts as the first month of your annual subscription (you have to cancel during the first 14-days of the trial or you will automatically sign up for a full year subscription) and I was subsequently signed up for a $700 annual subscription.

AVOID this company!
I accidentally forgot to cancel my free trial - they've charged me $85 and will not budge on a refund although I contacted them about the mistake immediately. I will not be using this service, so what am I paying for? Their greed.

You see the quality of a service when the only way to make money is by almost secretly charging people after a free trial. They mention in the contract in tiny letters no one will see about their cancellation policy. Horrible!

Worst stock site ever. Terrible credit system and customer support is even worse. Photographers get only 15% of the price we pay. Customer support and usability has to be royal for these 85% of price. I'll never use this agency again.

They make it sound like a fair trial offer. But it is clearly a baited trap.

They say you can cancel anytime. But they do absolutely nothing to remind you when the offer is about to expire. And they don't send you you ANY emails after the free offer expires that might remind you that you are paying a $75.00 a month subscription. When was the last time you had a company you had a subscription not send you marketing emails, encouraging you to upgrade or refer a friend.

They clearly want to get as many payments out of you before you realize you are being charged.

Then if you do try to cancel, THEY WILL NOT TALK TO YOU ON THE PHONE OR CHAT.

They force you to submit a request through a form then wait 36 hours for their response.

One low-res photo I could have gotten for $15 to $20 somewhere else ended up costing me $150.

Terrible company.

PS - you can find a much better selection of image on other sites.

Anarque, like the previous comments.
I find myself debiting 70 € per month while I activate "disable automatic renewal". But it doesn't work with the trial period.
After contact with the service, impossible to cancel the subscription, even we are told to go to hell. Do not join such thieves. It is scandalous.

Worst service ever. Been trying to unsubscribe for 2 months and I keep getting charged monthly. As a South African, these payments have been detrimental to my financial situation. I'm going to have to cancel my credit card as that seems to be the only way out of this evil scheme

They have horrible customer service, who literally disconnects in the middle of a conversation because they think the conversation is over. And they don't give the refund they promised.

I asked for a refund via email. They ignored my email. I used the chat system on their website, and I talked to two people to make sure the refund is processed. And yet they still charged me a month later. Be careful when you use this website. It's almost a scam. I'd never use their services again

I had trouble signing up. I finished my sign-up on chat, and I was put on a yearly plan without my knowledge or consent. Now I stock is expecting that I pay them every month for something I did not agree. I think it's a scam because they're going out of business because of AI and they're trying to cheat people on the way out.

I signed up for a one month free trial and then missed the deadline to cancel the subscription. This was 100% my fault but what istock does is uses this as an excuse to then bill you $85/month for a year. What a joke. I needed 4 pics for a one time use, now it's going to cost me over $1000 for 4 stupid pictures. When I told them I wanted to cancel they said sure, we'll bill you for another $400 then we'll cancel it.
I'm sorry but a one month penalty fine but 6 months! This is a scam and this is how they make money.

I would give a zero if I could. As a reviewer below stated, this site preys on forgetfulness. Not to mention it's extremely expensive so basically they stole $75 from me.

Bought 12 credits and because I only needed a few didn't log in for a year so they just took my money and and can't use any more credits. When I complained they said oh it's mentioned in FAQ's and everyone else uses them immediately. Sounds like a con to me!
Why not tell customers that that is the deal that they need to log in, why not send a reminder email that it's due to expire, oh yes that's right because it'll make them more money!

Perfect resource for art directors/designers - This is an excellent site for finding virtually any type of photographic image. I've used the site extensively for the past few years and have racked up a large number of images.
I'm excited to know that I can submit some of my own work to the site and generate some additional income.

I subscribed for a free trial - 30 days, to use a few images, and I had set a reminder on my calendar to cancel before being charged. I though the last day was still valid, turns out I was charged the day of. So I reached out to chat, explain and ask for a refund, if it were a mistake from my end. They would not accept, saying they need to be consistent with their policy. A little common sense, would be appreciated in understanding the context, but they wouldn't budge. They know all the facts and downloads, which was 5 in total, meaning I wouldn't use it because of the nature of my work. I think it's a scam to acknowledge the situation and still decide to take my money. Other companies would gladly wave it off. I feel robbed! I am beyond disappointed, & disgusted, I would never recommend them to anyone. Shame on you!

Awful company, awful people, awful business model. Do NOT sign up for ANYTHING and do NOT give them your credit card info. You will live to regret it. They are untrustworthy and unreasonable and exist only because they take advantage of the small businesses stupid enough to use them.

We requested quotes on a series of short videos we were including in a Book Trailer. We placed a call. The customer service guy said "A sales person will follow-up with you." A day later, after no one followed up with us, we made an email inquiry and included the image numbers for the respective videos for which we sought licensing quotes. We received an email that said: "A sales person will follow-up with you." A day after that...crickets. So, now four days after our original request, we followed-up one last time and pointed out the history of no follow-ups. Nothing. Why would any professional want to do business with these people? We moved on.

Not only nothing but stolen images so far in my search for ONE thing. But also things no one would want as stock. One account seems to also collect dead and bloody animal photos, for instance. No accountability for the site, no reporting page. Prices are high anyway.

They make you buy credits at full price to purchase your image, then tell you that they expire a year from the date of purchase... They do not refund your credits, they just are gone. Even though you paid good money for them. When i complained about it they basically said tough luck. They are stealing your money by making these credits have an expiration date. There is no need for them to expire if i paid for them. Very annoying!

The Free Trial is a trap.

I thought cancelling auto-renew would disable it but it doesn't. There's no warning given to you of trial expiration date, and if you pass that deadline, according to the tiny letters you are not entitled to stop for a year.

Of course in the busy adult life such things are very easy to forget, and the vast majority of companies allow you to withdraw nonetheless, even after giving you warning.

These ones want to trick you out of your money.

Stay. Away.

Will change this review if I get prompt help on cancelling. Otherwise I'm blocking them from everything and will cancel any bank account that ends up being charged by their scammy policy.

They prey on human mistakes, charging ridiculous amounts of money to people who forgot they signed up for a "free trial" and probably can't afford it. That is literally their business model; counting on the human condition of forgetfulness. That, to me, is being a crook. You're basically just making money on peoples' mistakes and misery. For that, you should be put out of business. You're nothing but a drain on ethical business and on society as a whole. For those who spend all their efforts to run their businesses in a professional, respectful manner, you are a slap in the face.

Finally finished with this place. My last 10 credits were "restructured" "in my advantage" to 2 credits but every photo I've looked at is 3 credits. As a web developer, I don't have any need for sizes other than the small which used to cost a credit... now thanks to their "improved pricing" a small costs the same as a large.
I have steered all my clients away from this place. Thankfully, there are much better business models out there that don't cheat their clients.

I should mention that if the pricing structure had been improved to support the contributing photographers, it might not have been so distasteful. Also, had they properly grandfathered existing credits instead of reducing them... I look forward to the class action suit.

Like the title sais, the overall service offered is poor, images are meh, website is oldfasioned and search is, well, bad.
Had the luxury to have to deal with their 'Customer Service', which resulted in multiple emails contradicting everything they mentioned in previous mails.
My advise, skip this and never look back for them

I feel that istock has ripped me off for $200 by their lack of clear disclosure on what the subscription included. I then tried to contact them by telephone and could not reach anyone. After three attempts I wrote and emailed... still nothing. I finally reached them a week and many calls later only to be told the refund policy precluded anything after ten days... I was then told "I'm sorry you are confused". Who would say that to a customer? Istock does not deserve anyone's business. Find another vendor... we are!