I know that old habits die hard and that people are relying on SS for income. But just know that over the past year or so, SS has been literally scamming customers.

Scam #1: Customers are misled into thinking that if they sign up for a one month trial, they'll be billed monthly afterward. Instead, they are billed for the entire year. When they try to cancel, they're hit with a massive cancellation fee.

Scam #2: Customers are misled into thinking that cancellation is hassle free. Instead, customers continue to get billed the annual fee.

You can read complaints here: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.shutterstock.com

I know that user review sites don't tend to be reliable, but customers were angry enough to file complaints with the BBB: https://www.bbb.org/us/ny/new-york/profile/digital-media/shutterstock-inc-0121-81420/customer-reviews

"FLEX 10 Annual Subscription, Monthly. By signing up for a free trial of an annual subscription plan, you agree that Shutterstock will automatically charge the monthly subscription fee �29 to your payment method every month for 12 months until your subscription has expired, unless you cancel before the end of your free trial.By purchasing you agree to the Shutterstock License Agreement, or a separate written agreement in effect with Shutterstock."

Quote from: Evaristo tenscadisto on August 16, 2023, 17:40

"FLEX 10 Annual Subscription, Monthly. By signing up for a free trial of an annual subscription plan, you agree that Shutterstock will automatically charge the monthly subscription fee �29 to your payment method every month for 12 months until your subscription has expired, unless you cancel before the end of your free trial.By purchasing you agree to the Shutterstock License Agreement, or a separate written agreement in effect with Shutterstock."

The scam is in the wording. It's deliberately ambiguous. The bolded part makes it sound as if someone will be charged monthly, not the full annual price up front.

Quote from: rcnyc on August 16, 2023, 16:31

When they try to cancel, they're hit with a massive cancellation fee.

This is not a scam, but customers and people who want free images not reading the terms correctly or at all.

There really is not much text on the registration page to read, but it does mention the cancellation fee.

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Quote from: rcnyc on August 16, 2023, 20:31

Quote from: Evaristo tenscadisto on August 16, 2023, 17:40

"FLEX 10 Annual Subscription, Monthly. By signing up for a free trial of an annual subscription plan, you agree that Shutterstock will automatically charge the monthly subscription fee �29 to your payment method every month for 12 months until your subscription has expired, unless you cancel before the end of your free trial.By purchasing you agree to the Shutterstock License Agreement, or a separate written agreement in effect with Shutterstock."

The scam is in the wording. It's deliberately ambiguous. The bolded part makes it sound as if someone will be charged monthly, not the full annual price up front.

OK thanks I understand now. I also got the idea that it would be billed monthly and not a one off annual payment.

So if I understood correctly in this case it is a matter of purchasing a subscription service valid for 12 months and not a 1 month subscription service with automatic revalidation for 12 months although they present the idea that it is the second through so-called "dirty" marketing.

...

I don't have pity with all the angry reviewers on Trustedpilot. It is very clear that most of these people just wanted the free images and didn't read any of the conditions, so thought they'd just get 10 free images because Shutterstock was such a generous agency that just likes to give away free images without any personal gain and didn't even read the part where they had to cancel the subscription at all. And once they found out the trial was automatically turned into a yearly sbscription as they had not canceled in time, they wanted out of the deal - and that's where the cancellation fee comes in place, because they agreed to a yearly comitment.

I thought those negative 1 star reviews came from angry contributors after they announced royalty structure change.  If those are really from buyers, Shutterstock has a problem with their business practice.

Scary. Was SS always like this? And will this happen to pond5?

I was curious how microstock was doing because it seems as if Big Tech during the pandemic started losing its collective mind and implementing all of these brazen anti-consumer business practices. I knew what was happening everywhere else, but I didn't expect to see this happening in microstock.

Quote from: rcnyc on August 17, 2023, 06:12

So, what SS is doing is misleading customers into thinking that if they sign up for a free trial on the annual subscription, they'll just be billed monthly. Instead, they're being forced to pay the entire year up front when the free trial ends.

Adobe use a similar tactic with the free trials of their editing software. Back in the old days, you could download a free Adobe trial for 30 days with no strings attached. Nice and simple. But then later on, they changed things and became very ruthless. Earlier this year, I downloaded a trial for Lightroom and Photoshop and the trial period was super short - about 15 days or less. Not only that but I would be billed after the trial ended (if I didn't cancel.) And I got the impression from their wording that I would be billed monthly which didn't sound too bad. Though some people advised me on another forum that that wasn't really the case. I would be billed for a whole year's worth after the end of the trial. I would not be happy about that at all.

I definitely cancelled when the trial ended but gosh, I was cutting it fine. I was editing images right until the very end. I cancelled just a few minutes before the cut off point. Frantically trying to go through the cancellation process as the clock was ticking. I may have avoided that massive bill by about a minute or so. I was so desperate to get that image editing done. Gosh, I'm glad that the internet didn't drop out or go super slow during this critical period.