Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  01/20/2025

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Website & marketing materials trick customers into ****** up for subscription accounts. Then charging $70 "admin fee" to cancel those accounts. It's theft and needs to be reported to the BBB.

  Business response

  01/30/2025

  Our offer is transparent and straightforward; there's nothing hidden or misleading about it. At iStock, we make it clear that new customers can enjoy 10 free downloadable ********************** as part of a trial connected to an annual subscription.These 10 free trial images can be chosen during the first month (the trial month) exclusively. Our terms clearly state it's the customer's responsibility to cancel the paid subscription before the free trial period ends.  Its important to note that customers can cancel their free trial subscription using the self-service feature or by contacting **************** prior to the conversion to a paid subscription without additional feeds being charged.  In this case we were unable to locate a specific subscription for Mr. *** with the information provided.  We would be glad to help Mr. *** with his specific case but would need to be provided the name or email address associated with his subscription.    

• Initial Complaint

  01/17/2025

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Dear BBB,In 2011, I was in a car accident and suffered a brain injury. From this I have been fired eight times in the last 11 years and cannot hold a job in my field of expertise. I decided to start a home quilting company and hired ******* to develop a website for me. To facilitate this, I need to send them instructions on how to develop my website. The quilting work I do is very specific and requires great detail. To help me give instructions, I need photos, so I went on the web and found a company, iStock, who had photos I could use. Please note that I am working on creating all of my own products that I will take photos of and upload those personal photos in the future, but for now, to get my website up and running, I needed other photos. iStock offered me 20 free photos, so I created a profile and downloaded the six (6) photos I needed for my ********** website is: ***************** 30 day later on January 13, iStock billed my credit card through ****** $89.25 for one month of subscription and then sent me a email advising that they would continue to charge me $850 ($85 plus tax) for the next 10 months of my subscription.I never signed up for a subscription. They went behind my back and used my ****** information to make charges to my credit card.I called ****** and gave them this information and they refunded me the $89.25 they charged to my card and they cancelled any future charges.I am reaching out to you to act on behalf of citizens like me to help make these unscruplus practices ILLEGAL. If iStock is offering free products, they should be free. I should not have to give any financial information to get the free products. Further, if they want to offer me a subscription, that should come after the free offerings. They should have to contact me separately and ask for the subscription.This is trickery and I am hoping that you have a method of acting on my behalf to stop companies like iStock from using these tricks in the future

  Business response

  01/29/2025

  Ms. ***** actively opted for a Free Trial subscription on December 13th, 2024. The Free Trial subscription is an annual subscription that offers the first month free.  She downloaded 6 images during the trial period.   After the free trial period concluded on January 13th, we billed her credit card for the first month of the annual subscription.    Its important to note that customers can cancel their free trial subscription using the self-service feature or by contacting **************** prior to the conversion to a paid subscription.     A reminder email was also sent to Ms. ***** two days prior to their free trial ending.  Ms. ***** contacted our **************** team on January 17th after being billed and her subscription was cancelled as requested.   

  Customer response

  01/29/2025

   
  Complaint: 22826142
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** ****

• Initial Complaint

  01/14/2025

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I signed up for a free trial with ************************** (Getty Images). During the trial I was unable to find the type of images I was looking for through their services and canceled the trial. I was still charged $70.00. When I reached out about the charge they said they had no record of cancelation and there would be no refunds. Then they cut off access to my account and said I would have no access to any unused downloads that I paid for. I'm willing to give a company the benefit of the doubt when it comes to subscription cancellations (although if they aren't easily clear and achievable I think that's bad business practices also), but if you are not going to refund it should be criminal to not allow me to access the subscription I paid for already.

  Business response

  01/27/2025

  *** ******* actively opted for a Free Trial subscription on December 12th, 2024. After the free trial period concluded, we billed her credit card for the first month of the annual subscription. Its important to note that customers can cancel their free trial subscription using the self-service feature or by contacting **************** prior to the conversion to a paid subscription. As a courtesy to *** *******,and because of her limited use, we have refunded the one month she was charged.  

  Customer response

  01/27/2025

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***** D'*** *******

• Initial Complaint

  01/08/2025

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I purchased what I thought was one month of stock photography and didn't see that it was automatically set to a yearly fee.When I noticed that I was charged again the following month (Jan 2025) I contacted iStock (now owned by Getty Images) and let them know that I made a mistake but needed to end the contract. They did not offer to charge me extra for the monthly fee and told me that I would have to continue to be charged each month $30.74 each moth. They gave me no alternative way to resolve this.I believe the *** states clearly that this is an illegal practice to charge for services that are not rendered. I just simply want out of this contract.I have paid for two months and have not used the second month.

  Business response

  01/21/2025

  Ms. ***** enrolled in an annual subscription on December 3rd, 2024.  However, there seems to be confusion regarding the terms of her subscription and what she initially signed up for. To address this misunderstanding and as a courtesy, we have canceled her subscription to ensure no further charges will occur.

  Customer response

  01/21/2025

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  The only reason this company "as a courtesy, we have canceled her subscription" was because i threatened to report them the The ************************ and BBB. Before threatening this, they said the only thing they could do is continue to charge my credit card every month for the next year.
  
  I accept the way they resolved this situation but do not endorse in any way their illegal and unethical policies. 

  According to the ************************ (***), a company is legally required to allow customers to cancel recurring payments or subscriptions for products they no longer want, meaning they cannot continue to charge a customer for a product they have actively opted to stop receiving; this is often referred to as the "Click-to-Cancel" rule, which is part of the FTC's broader Negative Option Rule to combat unfair practices related to automatic renewals and subscriptions. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *** *****

• Initial Complaint

  01/03/2025

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I signed up for a free trial with Getty Images on 12/2/24. I downloaded a photo I wanted and then exited the website. Usually business you send you a confirmation email or some form of communication when you subscribe. This business did not send any form of email or communication. I periodically remembered that I needed to cancel the free trial throughout the month but would search my email for information regarding my account and found nothing. When I tried to login, I did not know my sign in username so I opted to recover my username. I put in my email to recover and still did not receive any email from them. I had no way to log in to my account. Once I was charged on 1/2/25 the $70 monthly subscription fee, I called them the next day on 1/3/25 to try to resolve the issue. They cancelled my membership but would not refund me for the month they had just charged me for but they would not charge me for the cancellation fee. But since I had cancelled my subscription, I would not be able to download any images for the month, so I paid 70$ for the month with nothing in return. I don't understand why they wouldn't describe this as allowing me to cancel my subscription for a fee of $70 as opposed to charging me for the month and not allowing me to use the service I paid but "waiving the $70 cancellation fee since I hadn't downloaded any photos." In the end, they charged me $70 for the month but are not allowing me to use what I paid for. Something seems very wrong with this. Getty Images also stated that they sent out a reminder to cancel the free trial two days prior to being charged. I searched my inbox and my spam folder for any communication from them and received ZERO communication in either folders. However, I did receive 2 emails from them on the day of cancellation. One from "iStock" confirming my cancellation, and one from "Getty Images" requesting a survey on their service.

  Business response

  01/14/2025

  Ms. ******** actively opted for a Free Trial subscription on December 2nd, 2024. After the free trial period concluded, we billed her credit card for the first month of the annual subscription. Its important to note that customers can cancel their free trial subscription using the self-service feature or by contacting **************** prior to the conversion to a paid subscription. As a courtesy to Ms. ********* and because of her limited use, we have refunded the one month she was charged.  

• Initial Complaint

  12/29/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I am very upset that the website is very unclear about whether I had cancelled my subscription. I was on a free trial, saw that iStock did not meet my needs and went to cancel. It appeared to go through. I went to double-check later, and it looked like I was indeed unsubscribed, and the website even suggested that I *should* subscribe.Then I got a bill for $70, which not only was unwelcome and unexpected, but also put my small business onto overdraft. I lost $100 because their website is misleading.I had to cancel by phone. The agent said the fee was unrefundable, even though I incurred it because the website is bad. I also emailed customer service and got the same response, but was obviously a form letter that didn't match what I was saying. Their inflexibility really indicates to me that they are aware this is a problem and have zero intent of fixing it My "order number" when billed: ********** Reference number for my refund query: ******** Amount billed: $ 70

  Business response

  01/08/2025

  Ms. ******** opted into a Free Trial subscription on November 20th, 2024, and downloaded four images during the trial period. After the trial ended on December 20th, her credit card was charged for the first month of the annual subscription.  Its important to note that customers can cancel their free trial subscription using the self-service feature or by contacting **************** prior to the conversion to a paid subscription.  Ms. ******** was also sent a reminder email two days prior to her free trial converting to a paid subscription.    On December 24th Ms. ******** contacted **************** and her ********************** subscription was cancelled as requested.  Because Ms. ******** actively downloaded images during the trial period, she does not qualify for a refund according to our cancellation policy, which can be found at ********************************************************************************.

• Initial Complaint

  12/27/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I signed up for a trial subscription form **************************. I called to have the trial cancelled because it didn't fit my needs. The website is cumbersome to navigate and specifically hides the option to cancel the subscription online. They did not cancel the subscription and charged me for a product that I did not use. I contacted their customer support through the phone after escalating this issue through an online ticket. The customer *** that I spoke with was "******", she was very rude and dismissive and told me that under no circumstances would I be refunded any amount because it was my problem, not theirs, that the account remained active. I asked to speak with a manager/supervisor and she ended the conversation by hanging up on me.

  Business response

  01/07/2025

  Mr. ******** opted into a Free Trial subscription on November 27th, 2024, and downloaded two images during the trial period. After the trial ended, his credit card was charged for the first month of the annual subscription. Its important to note that customers can cancel their free trial subscription using the self-service feature or by contacting **************** prior to the conversion to a paid subscription. On December 27th, *********** contacted **************** and his ********************** subscription was cancelled as requested.  Because Mr. ******** actively downloaded images during the trial period, he does not qualify for a refund according to our cancellation policy, which can be found at ********************************************************************************.

• Initial Complaint

  12/26/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On three occasions this year, I have received an email from this company stating I 'autorenewed' my account with them, causing them to then charge me a full subscription fee for the entire year. Their auto renewal is not very visible but, after the first incident of this, I admitted to somehow autorenewing without intending to, and ate the fee. However, this has happened twice since. I would receive an email from them that I had an auto renewal subscription and was now being charged. When I email and complain, they express that under no circumstances, and because of company policy, can they cancel my 'autorenewed subscription' or return any of the money... that I must pay. I was very clear to ensure that when I bought a product, I did not auto renewal. In fact, after the second incident of this, I emailed their support desk to ensure the auto renewal feature was OFF. However, this morning, out of the blue, I got another email saying that my subscription with them has been renewed, and that they have charged me for three months of 2025, and will continue to charge my credit card. I believe this is sneaky business practices, and bordering on a scam. I want this company investigated, as well as receiving back my money. I have actually cancelled my credit card so they can't charge me anymore. These guys are very sneaky.

  Business response

  01/07/2025

  Ms. ****** enrolled in an annual subscription on October 26, 2024, with a renewal date of October *******. The auto-renew feature is disabled, meaning her subscription will automatically expire on October 27, 2025.
  However, there seems to be confusion regarding the terms of her subscription and what she initially signed up for. To address this misunderstanding and as a courtesy, we have canceled her subscription to ensure no further charges will occur.
  

• Initial Complaint

  12/23/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I joined iStock Photos in November of this year and downloaded some images that did not meet my needs. I thought I had canceled it after the first couple of days when it wasn't working for me, and I haven't touched it since. I was billed $70 this month, and when I contacted customer service for a refund, they told me that I didn't cancel during my free trial period and would not get a refund because it was "against policy." They can look at this and see I only downloaded maybe five or so images on the first day and haven't used it again, but they didn't care. I believe they make the bulk of their money on people who don't want to do business with them. If I had been using the product this month and then asked for a refund, I might understand...but that is not the case. These people are full of dirty business practices and should be held accountable.

  Business response

  01/02/2025

  Ms. ******** opted into a Free Trial subscription on November 18th, 2024, and downloaded eight images during the trial period. After the trial ended, her credit card was charged for the first month of the annual subscription. Its important to note that customers can cancel their free trial subscription using the self-service feature or by contacting **************** prior to the conversion to a paid subscription. Ms. ******** was also sent an email reminder two days prior to her free trial converting to a paid subscription. On December 23rd,Ms. ******** contacted **************** and her ********************** subscription was cancelled as requested.  Because Ms. ******** actively downloaded images during the trial period, she does not qualify for a refund according to our cancellation policy, which can be found at ********************************************************************************.

• Initial Complaint

  12/16/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I was charged $29 by iStock after a free trial for a subscription I did not intend to continue. I canceled the subscription immediately upon noticing the charge and reached out to iStock's customer support to request a refund. However, iStock has refused to issue a refund, citing their policy.The email reminder they sent about the trial period ending did not clearly communicate that charges would be non-refundable. Furthermore, I have not used any of the services since the trial ended. I believe this is an unfair and unethical practice, as it takes advantage of customers who may not fully understand the implications of the auto-renewal policy.Despite several attempts to resolve the issue directly with iStock, including explaining my situation and highlighting the lack of transparency in their communication, they have not refunded my money. I am seeking a full refund for the $29 charge.

  Business response

  12/26/2024

  Ms. ******* opted into a Free Trial subscription on November 10th, 2024, and downloaded three images during the trial period. After the trial ended on December 10th, her credit card was charged for the first month of the annual subscription.  Its important to note that customers can cancel their free trial subscription using the self-service feature or by contacting **************** prior to the conversion to a paid subscription.     On December 12th Ms. ******* contacted **************** and her ********************** subscription was cancelled as requested.  Because Ms. ******* actively downloaded images during the trial period, she does not qualify for a refund according to our cancellation policy, which can be found at ********************************************************************************.

  Customer response

  01/09/2025

  Dear ******* P,
  
  Thank you for the update and for facilitating communication regarding my complaint.
  
  I have reviewed the message from the business and would like to clarify several key points:
  
  Incorrect Addressing: Firstly, I am Mr. ******** not Ms. ******** I respectfully request that the business pay attention to such details in future correspondence to maintain professionalism and avoid unnecessary errors.
  
  Absurdity of Image Downloads Argument: The claim that downloading three images during the trial period disqualifies me from a refund is entirely unreasonable. The very purpose of a free trial is to evaluate the service, including downloading and testing its offerings. Suggesting that such minimal usage justifies withholding a refund is, frankly, an unacceptable and exploitative interpretation of policy.
  
  Fairness and Good Faith: I acted in good faith by canceling the subscription promptly upon realizing the charge, and I have not used the service beyond the trial period. Policies that penalize customers for utilizing a free trial as intended reflect poorly on the business and undermine consumer trust.
  
  I expect the business to reconsider its stance and issue a full refund for the unintended charge. This would not only resolve the matter amicably but also demonstrate iStocks commitment to ethical practices and customer satisfaction.
  
  Lastly, I kindly urge iStock to review its tone and approach when addressing customer complaints. It is imperative to uphold respect and professionalism at all times.
  
  I look forward to a revised response within the stipulated time frame.
  
  Sincerely,
  Mirjeyhun Aghayev

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩