Shutterstock

WARNING: Anyone interested in purchasing any number of images from Shutterstock. Shutterstock intentionally sets up every purchase as an AUTO-RENEWAL. I turned off my auto-renewel and was subsequently charged $199 for 4 consecutive months for a total of $796 unauthorized charges. Upon contacting Shutterstock to inform them that I shut off the auto renewal, I was told that the auto renewal was not shut off and that the charges would stand. I was also told that the auto renewal was setup as a convenience for customers so they do not experience interrupted service!! Are you kidding me Shutterstock? How is that for my or any customer's convenience? I can renew my account manually with two clicks.
Rather it is convenient for Shutterstock because they will auto bill and not even send a RECEIPT!! How does that not sound like a complete scam?! Mine like all other business' require a receipt for charges. DO NOT WORK WITH THIS COMPANY!

charged me for a yearly renewal service which I want to dispute cause I did not sign up for.automatic renewal.
I called and asked for proof that I agree to yearly renewal service and they claim they don't have any proof but that I did agree to it upon my initial purchase last year. One customer service claimed that they sent on email notification prior to charging me $49 on December *, 2017, which is not true, I never received any email or any other notification. This company's policy of renewing yearly subscription without first notifying client is unacceptable and their unwillingness to refund the charges. If you want to charge for a subscription , even an automatic renewal, one should sent a notification and give couple of days to respond instead of charging credit card company and hoping the consumer doesn't notice the charge.

I purchased a 5 image package for $44 on the Nov 2016. However, I have NOT chosen automatic renewal on this account. They automatically debited my account one year later for $49 on the of Nov 2017. They said it was because on my last order a year ago I did not OPT OUT of auto renewal on the account. I told the EXTREMELY RUDE woman that I had NOT opted IN and I did not subscribe to any annual plans. Shutterstock did this on its own and I believe it to be a deceptive practice.

My username on shutterstock is

I bought one plan($669) from website (Nov *** 2017)(Shutterstock, Inc.) and this plan I allow me to download 10 clips but I find they charged me two times. When I call them, the customer service tell me the reason is I need to turn off the automatically auto renewal button on website so they can not refund it.

My argument:
1, When I pay the money online, I did not get any reminder.
2, The auto renewal button is difficult to be found. It is in your account and hind in plan page on the corner.
I checked the online reviews and also found lots of people got same problems. I hope you can help us to solve this.
Thanks

I purchased some photos from Shutterstock in February. I paid what I thought would be a one-time fee for the use of the photos. I did not see that they have a hidden auto-renew button on their website. I had no intention of signing up for a monthly $29 payment, but Shutterstock has been charging me $29 every month since then. Yes, of course I should have noticed the charge, but this year has been exceptionally busy & distracting for me, so I didn't see it until today. When I called Shutterstock to ask about this, they offered to cancel the account and refund $29 - one month's payment only. When I pressed for more (and this took quite some time) she agreed to refund $89. She said that was the best she could do. Then I called my bank's customer service & they did their best to be helpful. They will attempt to get a refund, but they can only ask for the last 60 days of payments.
I run a small local business and have a lot of respect for people who offer good service with integrity. The people at Shutterstock seem to have no integrity, they are actively scamming their customers by engineering their website and policies to steal their customer's money.

Not sure how this business has an A+ rating when there are sites with dozens and dozens of negative reviews relating to their unethical and sleazy practice of "auto-renewing" and charging customers double if they don't turn the "auto renew" button off. This auto renewal feature is not made clear when you sign up for a plan. Once you use the images you paid for, they automatically charge you again! When you call to complain they say you should have turned the button off and they won't refund.

I signed up to purchase a few photos. Both myself and my graphic designer scoured the website to see if there was any problems with cancellation once we didn't need to buy photos and we found a description that said we could cancel at any time. There was no information about a cancellation fee, which we purposely looked for. After 3 months, I tried cancelling and was told there was a fee of $20 per month up until my contract ended. When I told the customer service rep that where was this stated, as two of us had looked for that previously, I was directed to a page on their website. Their website also had a popup when I signed in that their terms and agreements had changed and asked me to click to approve. I never clicked it. So I asked the representative to send me proof that I had agreed to this cancellation fee when I signed up, and she said she had no proof, that it was on their website. At this point, she was very rude to me. I asked to speak to a manager and all she could do is take my number. As a result, I had to call my credit card company and dispute the charges.

In looking at other complaints, I see I'm not the only one that has had an issue with them.

I was opted into an annual account renewal without my authorization. Shutterstock is a stock photo company. I purchased a 5-pack of images over a year ago, and 100% did not select an annual account. This was a single, one-time-only purchase. But I was charged a $49.00 fee on 10//2017. I called to resolve the issue, and was told by their customer service that the charge cannot be refunded and my account couldn't be closed. Even though the charge was unauthorized. I am disputing this charge, I did not make a purchase or authorize payment of any type for any product or service in the year 2017.

I have been making purchases from this company for years and two years ago they started putting Auto Renewals automatically on the purchase unless you turn them off in your profile. After I was immediately charged a renewal fee two years ago I called customer service and they refunded me without issue and talked me through how to turn the Auto Renewal off on my profile. Today I made a purchase and it Auto Renewed my account even though years ago I had turned it off and hadn't had an issue in two years. Within an hour I noticed and called them immediately to address the issue. I spoke to a very rude and dismissive "Tyler" who took my phone number and told me someone would call me then hung up on me. I then called back and I spoke to a woman who was very helpful and said she was transferring me to someone who would process my refund. When that guy got on the phone he was speaking very poor English and he told me he wouldn't process the refund and there was no manager available to speak to me so there was nothing he could do. He repeated himself several times and kept mispronouncing words confusing the process. He told me someone would call me before the end of the day. He then before hanging up said told me again they might not call me back until tomorrow and I said that was not what I was told and that's not acceptable and he was unwilling to help me any further.

I signed up for Shutterstock knowing it was an auto renewal service. Before you sign up, there is clear wording that you can cancel at any time. Nowhere does it say there is a fee to do so. After 3 months, I tried to cancel but to do so, they require you to call their support team directly. This is my first issue as it is clearly stated in the agreement before signing up you can cancel in account settings online. Second issue is that I ended up calling them to cancel and they require a $40 fee to do so. Here is the wording on their website :
"Auto Renewal
We will bill you $29.00 monthly for 1 year. After that, your plan will be renewed for another 1 year commitment. Cancel any time in your Account Settings or by contacting our Support Team."

No where does it say a fee would be charged to stop the auto-renewal or I would need to call them

I have been with Shutterstock a few months, have 700+ accepted photos and $30.00 in sales. I will receive a check from Shutterstock when my sales reach $500.00. At the rate I am going this should take 10-15 years. Shutterstock now has 700+ of my photos that they can sell for many years and not pay me. This business model seems skewed to Shutterstock's advantage. I would think many contributors are in a similar situation to mine. I would think most people in this situation will quickly lose interest and actually never be paid. This is a situation that seems to me designed by Shutterstock to not have to pay contributors. My photo submissions will cease until such time that I can be assured that I will be paid.