Istockphoto Reviews 

I know for certain I cancelled my annual subscription before the trial period was over. Yet, they still charged me for the annual subscription. When I reached out to them the same day they charged my credit card, they told me too bad the charge already went through. This company is fraudulent. I see now so many other reviews with the same issue. NEVER GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER.

iStockphoto is terrible and seems solely focused on taking your money without delivering any value in return. Customer service clearly isn’t a priority for them; they treat their customers as if they don’t matter. Do yourself a favor and save your money by choosing a company that truly deserves your business.

They canceled my account and took my payment, yet I never received access to the downloads I had paid for, which I never even used. Now, I can no longer access my account. I tried resetting my password, and the website accepted the new password. However, when I attempted to log in with it, I received a message stating, “Those details don't match our records. Double-check and try again.” I went through this resetting password process several times but then it dawned on me after several attempts, are they being deceptive, yet again?! Did they lock me out of my account?

Wow, iStock, you should be ashamed of your business practices. I have never encountered such a dreadful online company. I feel utterly disappointed that I received no value for the money I spent. At the very least, let people access their account and download what they have paid for! All the reviews here reflect the same sentiment.

Very poor customer service, and no escalation process. Be aware that if you purchase, they do not work with their clients.

If it were possible to give a zero rating I would do so. This company took an annual subscription from me, despite my pointing out to them I was certain I had turned off the auto renewal. I told them this on the day it renewed (they do not, of course, send out any forewarning, unlike other photo companies such as Adobe). I had not even used the previous year's subscription as I pointed out to them, as it was very clear (I had over 300 images not used). They didn't listen, said they don't offer refunds on annual subscriptions and that was that. They could have cancelled on the day it renewed and no one would have been worse off, as I had not used their services for the previous year and of course not downloaded any images for the new subscription. This company deliberately misleads and is the worst online photo company that there is online.

I just had the worst experience! I signed on for the free trial and saw in my account that $74.90 was pending since my month was up. So I canceled ASAP so I'd get a refund. I chatted with them and even escalated to a supervisor and they still will not refund me or give me access again so I can at least use it. So.. I just lost $74.90 - ridiculous!

REPORT THEM to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission --> Report a consumer issue

gettyimages and istock use misleading, deceptive policies to lock you into a one year contract claiming we cannot get a refund - the only resolution is to cancel our product and not even have the service or credits anymore after cancellation.

understand that under Australian consumer law, it is ILLEGAL for them to say they cannot provide you a refund under any circumstance. They MUST provide a refund if their product or service does not meet your expectations or is faulty.

They have been under ACCC scrutiny before in 2023-4 for their scam-like behaviour. Please report your situation to the ACCC complaints and put them under scrutiny again! And get your banks to do a chargeback!
( Article name: Getty Images to refund customers for allegedly misleading iStock subscription cancellation charge )

They are a terrible, terrible Canadian company using grey loopholes to take their customer's money without notifying beforehand or providing basic remedies for refunds.

i will never want to have anything to do with their companies again - istock and getty images. the photos are terrible and all AI generated garbage. most importantly, they don't value the people who give them money . THEIR CUSTOMERS.

This is the absolutely worst company I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Signed on for the free trial and saw in my bank that $75 was pending since my month was up and they invoiced me. So I canceled asap so that they'd refund once the payment went through. Not only are they not going to reimburse me- but since I canceled they are not going to reinstate my subscription for a month. So I literally lost $75 for nothing. They are such horrible people.

I never signed up for a trial nor for an annual subscription. I could not find any istock photos on any of my computers, laptops, or phones. I have a secondary "spam email address" to take in all of the spam and filter it before forwarding to my read email address. Somehow they got me signed up under my spam address which is nearly impossible. I lost $280 before discovering the fraudulent charge and I could not do anything about it.

I signed up for a free month trial and got charged $70 the day after the trial ended because I was out to town and wasn't able to cancel in time. I contacted them for a full or partial refund, but they refused. Then they gave me no access, so I paid $70 for one day.

Contact Your Credit Card company and open a dispute to get your refund.

Horrible experience. Got the free trial that ended March 17. I had an unexpected death in my family and was out of town without access to my computer and couldn't login to cancel my subscription. I canceled it the next day (the day I was charged, but they have since refused to give me a refund for this next month. They canceled my membership and I don't even have access to my account but I am still charged for a month of service that I am not using. Their only reasoning was that it is a "company policy" to not give refunds. Do not get a free trial or membership because they will find a way to scam you...also $72 a month for the service is ridiculous. From my experience, iStock only cares about profit and not customer service.

What a rip off - do not purchase the AI tool - it simply isn't working. Not one single prompt out of 6 worked (to change the color of an object).

But what's even worse: Customer support refuses to refund the money even though the tool is completely useless.

The Subscription is a scam. It locks you into a 1 year subscription charged monthly. So after your free trial. Your locked in...

Billed my CC despite canceling. Refused to refund my money. Customer Service says "nothing we can do". Please don't get scammed by this company like we did.

IStock operates a deceptive subscription model that traps customers into recurring payments without clear consent. I purchased what I believed to be a one-time credit pack, only to find out I was enrolled in an auto-renewing subscription without my knowledge.

A month later, I was charged $93.50 for another 10 credits I never agreed to purchase. When I reached out to customer service, they gave me a robotic, dismissive response, refusing to refund me despite my clear explanation that I never knowingly signed up for a subscription. To make matters worse, they canceled my subscription but stole the credits I had already paid for!

This is a predatory, unethical business practice that preys on customers who don’t notice the fine print. Their so-called “policies” are just an excuse to take your money and run. No refunds, no transparency, no care for customers.

Avoid iStock at all costs unless you enjoy being scammed and ignored by arrogant customer service reps. If you’ve already been tricked by them, dispute the charge with your bank immediately—it’s the only way to get your money back.

They are thiefs. I bought 6 credits 3 years ago. The payment receipt is still available on my profile. I used one credit, leaving 5 credits to use (also documented in my profile). They now claim that the credits have expired because I didn't login for a year. Why is that? My profile still exists. I paid for the 6 credits. Why do I have to login to keep the credits valid? Because they want to scam their customers. They know exactly that a large percentage of their customers will not use all their credits at once and that these customers might not return every year. 100% profit is called scamming!

I too fell victim to this scheme. Whilst the istock photo site (by Getty Images) is a legit business in Canada, they trap you in an ongoing subscriptions and are not shy to throw their policies at you. I have been trying to cancel my subscription for over 2 months now and they have also informed me that I may still be billed for next month too! Terrible customer service! Stay clear of them.

Terrible customer service, after free trial. This was the first time in forever I couldn’t get a refund for a subscription.

Apparently, a lot of us have been scammed. How do we organize ourselves to prevent others from being scammed? The stole my money too. If you listen to their voicemail, you can tell a lot of customers have issue with the free trial scam they set up.

Scammers, they take your money without even sending any notification email. I was supossed to be charged 70 euros for the year plan I was charged 84 instead, which I'm now disputing with my bank. Ste and Valentina should have more decency, in working in such a downgraded company, jesus crist, terrible customer support too. Don't fall for these scammers, they even blocked me from the chat section, so be aware of these people.

They do not write the exact date of free trial ending date. Theirs business strategy is setting traps leading potential clients into paid subscriptions and then just grabbing money from them. Filed dispute to Paypal. Please read reviews and don't ever get into theirs free trial traps.