Menu
Login
I have registered on Shutterstock for the 1-Year Subscription, Standard License with 750 Downloads per Month - with monthly payment. Due to this, I had a discount.
I realised that I don't use so many images and asked them for a solution to get a more affordable plan with less images.
Their answer was this:
"I checked your account and the charge you're seeing is the monthly payment for your annual plan, which includes a discounted monthly rate. When you activated your plan, you opted for the annual commitment with the option of paying on a monthly basis. For those reasons we can't cancel your subscription at this time."
I've read the terms of agreement and it doesn't say anywhere that I can't cancel this subscription. It is outrageous! Am I obliged to pay them for the rest of the year?!
What can I do to get out of this mess? Please, please, please help!
The same thing is happening to me. It's outrageous and unethical and I cannot believe this company is allowed to get away with this. All legitimate, decent companies allow you to cancel automatically if you no longer require their services.
I'm facing the same issue. I had no idea I was subscribed to an annual plan. What a scam!
I signed up for an annual plan in Dec. In Jan before the due date, I sent them a mail and they charged me the cancellation fine.And then again charged me for the next month!
When they have already charged me the fine, why arent they closing the account? Why are they charging me again?
I had planned to return to shutterstock in two months time but if this is the way they act, never ever!
Calls to their service center drop and I have to write mails to which they send ambiguous responses.
Stay away! I don't think they care much but make sure you read their terms before subscribing. There are much better options out there with the same content but priced reasonably and with better conditions!
Stuck in an annual subscription and the unused downloads don't even roll over. It's the least they can allow!
It seems the so-called "early cancellation fee" was $100 just 2 months ago, and now in my last call with this call center dude it is $180! In their subscription page they say "10/month", makes you think that you are paying monthly, and under that, with a small, small text they say "29 per month for a year. An early cancellation fee may apply". To me this is very close to fraud.
What's the most absurd part is that when I request to stop my auto-renewal, the gay said "there's no way to stop the auto-renewal, you can only stop it within 30 days before your plan ends, so you'd better keep this noted on your calendar".
Shutterstock, SHAME ON YOU.
WTF 2. Annuler l'abonnement de manière anticipée avec des frais de 20 EUR pour annulation anticipée (égaux au montant que vous avez économisé jusqu'à ce jour avec cet abonnement). Ces derniers seront facturés sur votre moyen de paiement enregistré. Si vous choisissez cette option, veuillez confirmer et je pourrai facturer les frais et annuler votre abonnement.
Totally agree with the above complaints. Scam system and will need to talk to my bank to enforce chargebacks otherwise they just keep billing. Cant turn off auto renewal and emails to them to turn it off are just ignored. Don't join.
Hey folks, wanted to show you all what worked for me.
DON'T use Shutterstock! they wont let me stop my plan and want a large fee, it is 2018 I can't believe this business model works, it cost them nothing for me to cancel and still come back in the future when I would need more images. Now I will never go back, and will just stop payment on my card so they won't get paid and won't ever get a customer back...
Hi, i've the same problem as you and now i feel like i was robbed by them. :(
it might be a stupid question but how do you stop your payment on your card ? are you deactivate your card ? thankyou
Not only do they charge you to cancel your account, if you don't use all the images within the time limit, you lose!
Their pricing is a scam, they recently updated their website to make it a little more clear what their '"contract" was but it was not/is not transparent. Avoid them, use one of the many better companies out there.
I agree, this is outrageous! I had no idea I signed up for an annual plan, that I couldn't unsubscribe from, I'm creating a website and won't need it after one month. All I wanted in the beginning was to try it out for ten days. I've now paid over $60 and haven't downloaded one picture since I was doing other things, just realized I'm not using it and I'm stuck for a whole year? Don't think so. Sign me up for the class action suit. This should have been made clear to anyone up front what they were getting into.
I just had the same problem. And I looked for the cancellation policy before signing up. Is there a class-action lawyer that can help?
I was about to subscribe for a monthly plan because Amex has a big discount but this cancellation fee is ridiculous. No longer signing up, thanks!
Well said. I just submitted a complaint here about canceling auto-renewal, but the lady I spoke to on the phone was extremely rude and informed me that the cancellation fee was $120 which is way to much. Charging a fee that high only proves that they have terrible customer service and that they're just for the money rather than service.