Istockphoto Reviews 

I strongly advise against using iStock. The image quality is shockingly poor, with many assets clearly generated by AI, lacking authenticity and professionalism. What’s worse is their dishonest subscription policy: if you cancel your subscription, not only do they refuse to issue a refund, but they also steal the credits you already paid for that month. It's blatant theft. Avoid this platform at all costs – there are far better and more transparent alternatives out there.

Don't recommend! They trap you into their annual subscription and make you pay USD$70 (CAD 85 +tax) to cancel.

They emailed me a reminder about the free trial ending. The message wouldn't open. Then they billed me $70. Calling them got me a long list of recorded messages. The email still won't open. I can't cancel!

iStockPhoto used to be a great company. It offered flexibility, reasonable prices for images, had good customer service. Over the past couple of years it feels like their price increases are practically raping customers. If you cancel you lose unused pictures. Their customer service is absolute crap. Done with them.

Total scam. Sign you up for a year with unclear messaging. Make you pay extra to cancel even if you don't use their service. AVOID.

Absolute S**T show of a company. Used 1 image during a trial period, called to cancel, was told it would be cancelled and was then charged $70 for a subscription because they didn't have me marked down as a cancellation. Was told that they are very clear on their cancellation policy and I'm basically SOL.

I've never had a company this hard to deal with before. So $70 down the drain for a piece of clip art.....nice!

Looks cheaper than the other stock photo sites, however, the credit price for each picture is not listed. I bought a credit package, which supposed to be enough for my project. When I downloaded the 1st pic, turned out that the next picture costs 3 times more than the 1st one...kind of unexpected. Also, other sites includes the editing tool to the price, here you have to pay extra just to remove items, or background, or just for a simple move. Don`t get fooled by the lower price. It actually costs much more than any other pro site.

This is by far the worst company! Terrible customer service and they have no problem taking your money and keeping even when you can use the service.

They claim to send a reminder email two days before charging your monthly bill, but I never received one -not even in my spam folder. Despite this, they insisted I had received it. If I had actually gotten the reminder, I could’ve canceled the membership and avoided the $70 charge. Instead, I was charged $70 and hit with an additional $70 cancellation fee.

To make matters worse, their customer service responses were rude and dismissive. They love to point out that you made the “ULTIMATE decision” by signing up, but they conveniently never send a notice when your free trial is about to end. Once you’re on their annual plan, there’s no way to cancel without paying a hefty fee.

Total scammy behavior. Not worth the hassle. Wouldn’t recommend.

0/10. Terrible. Misleading. And when you email to cancel, the reply is confrontational and defensive. Avoid.

Unethical and Unintelligent

Customer service really sucks. I signed for their free trial and didn't cancel and got charged for the whole year, 89 CAD. I asked for a refund as I was not going to use the service for the year, they instead cancelled my subscription and now they have the 89 CAD with no perks on my end to avail.

I signed up for a free trial of iStock (a subsidiary of Getty Images Holdings, Inc.) and was charged $70 before I realized the free trial was up.

I contacted iStock to cancel and request a refund, but they repeatedly refused and said that this fee is "nonrefundable" and that it is not their fault that I didn't read the fine print of their terms. Ask yourself, do you always read the terms and conditions when you sign up for a service?

After communicating back and forth with customer service representatives to no avail, I will be contacting my credit card company to report this as a fraudulent charge.

Clearly there is a reason why Getty Images' stock has been in steady decline since shortly after the company went public in 2022. Their policies, customer service, and Trustpilot rating ranks among scams.

Horrible customer service. So sad... istockphoto offered a FREE trial. I cancelled the service immediately once I saw that I did not need their images. I was offered a FREE trial. My credit card was still charged $70. I spoke to gals in customer service whom yelled at me and hung up the phone. They are based out of Canada. They should not offer a FREE trial because it's not FREE. SCAM Avoid this company I promise...

£120 for a 20 second video clip, when they said I would be able to get 3 videos for that price. These people are criminals.

TOTAL SCAM, do not subscribe!

Terrible subscription deal. No way to end subscription before the year is finished. Okeish stock images. Pay extra for functions. Not good.

Tried to cancel and they charged me.
I did a trial period, downloaded 4 photos for a whopping $90AUD which were supposed to be free.
I never signed up for a 12 month subscription. They refused to reimburse me $90 AUD then had audacity to charge me again even though I finally cancelled 14 days earlier and before trial ended.

Worst customer service, they dont care.
They should be ashamed to work for this scam business
I now have my bank reversing the charges. But a waste of my time and dealing with my bank.

Please don't use them. You will just loose money. Look at all the reviews. 1 star.
All of them.
Be aware if Istock photo

**my bank successfully did a charge back, I got my $$$ back.

The customer service of this company is atrocious! They make it impossible to cancel subscriptions without calling in (no way to do so online), and refuse to let you speak to any managers about refunding charges that are made in error. I am certain they make quite a lot of money off of scamming people. Terrible business. iStock Getty Images, do better! You don't need to make money by screwing people over!

Took a free period, and tried to download a photo. Now they deduct money from my account every month. But I haven't signed anything that I wanted to be with them for 1 year. so it feels like a scam

Cancelled my useless subscription and am still being charged despite numerous protestations