Comments on: A Look at DepositPhotos.com

By: drew

drew — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 03:42:15 +0000

Terrible site! Scam! I spent 50$ to download a stock video and when you would click download file it would do nothing! Asked tech support (probably india) what the issue was and they just put me in a loop and said its a technical issue.

This site is a nicely designed scam. Say away!

By: Roly Imhoff

Roly Imhoff — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 01:38:55 +0000

I have also had a bad experience with their Payment system.

I bought some Pay-As-You-Go credits and then was billed twice for it. When I queried this they say they auto renew, yet there was nothing on their site that indicated this. They have a no refund policy and would not refund the amount I was billed extra.

It seems as though they deliberately make the subscription info hidden.

What a scam!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:53:48 +0000

I have found that they are deliberately trying to hide the subscription information. They’ll show you the link if you live chat with them, but the link to cancel is actually a small link in a buy subscription page that directs you to paypal, where you must find the recurring payment and cancel it. It seems quite purposeful that there is no “Account” area where you can manage your profile and subscription. When trying to figure out how to reverse the charges, I found the customer service agent to be inflexible. I find that the site has too many photos – user submitted sure does have its ups and downs – and there is a lot of time vetting out duplicates, and lower quality images. They either do not empower their managers to make decisions, or are simply using this membership to get a lump sum at once out of people’s bank accounts without considering the effect on the customer. I am very disappointed with depositphotos.com and would never recommend them to other designers.

By: hates deposit photo

hates deposit photo — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:31:22 +0000

I am currently in the crisis mentioned above. I intended to submit my photos and accidentally subscribed as a user. First off: I immediately realized my mistake, found I could not cancel my account in the directions they have posted, so I sent them an email asking them to cancel my free trial. this did not happen and now I have a #59.00 for a service I will never use. I will try the above methods to resolve this, however I feel I may have to cancel my paypal account all together. Secondly: I got accepted a photographer, by sending them 5 photos. Once they said these photos are of their standard I needed to submit them into the system, BUT they came back saying each photo has something wrong with them “poor lighting” “over filtering” The exact same photos they used to accept me into the system! I am beyond frustrated and now loosing time (photo editing) and money. DO Not Use This Web Site! All the phone numbers are bogus (the ringing is a recording take a look at your phone when calling the 800 number) and the Live Chat never connects you to someone live. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE SCAM.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:07:16 +0000

Thanks Elisabeth for your further information and comments. You’re right, I do want to be impartial and allow anyone to post their experiences here, good and bad. I never want to be dishonest in my reviews. As I’ve mentioned, I wasn’t aware of these issues when posting the review, and hope that people can make up their own minds after reading the comments here.

By: Elisabeth Williams

Elisabeth Williams — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:43:18 +0000

Hey Tom,

Thanks for your review and thanks for letting all the comments even if there are negative reviews. It shows you are impartial! I had a similar incident. Depositphotos looked interesting and I decided to give it a try and I subscribed to their free trial. When you register, they ask you for your credit card.

But you have to be very careful because they MIGHT charge you the full monthly fee subscription (59.00$) even if you’re still on your 6th day! And then, when you talk to their customer service they can’t completely refund you! You have to choose between 50% refund or convert the 59$ to credits… I was really disappointed.

So for all your readers, if they want to try the “free trial”, they should use a PayPal account and cancel it on the 5th day directly from PayPal. I agree with you that the site can be good… they have good photos, cheap price, etc. but you just have to be careful not to get charged without your knowledge…

Hope it helps!

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:01:05 +0000

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the comment. I honestly wasn’t aware of this when I posted the review. I don’t feel comfortable removing this review, but I’m going to include a link in the post to refer people to the comments. I have heard good things about DepositPhotos (hence my positive review), but I think people definitely need to hear all sides.

By: Ken Greer

Ken Greer — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:50:38 +0000

Stay away from this company! They looked good, bit I deposited $100 into my account, added 200 photos to my lightbox only to discover their web site won’t let you buy a lightbox like all other photo sites. One has to download each file one at a time. Tech support said that functionality, even through there are buttons on their site to do that, has never worked. Since I don’t want to waste 3 hours manually downloading I asked for a refund. They declined saying credits are not refundable even those none were used. I submitted a dispute with my bank. Stay away from these scam artists.

By the way, search for “DepositPhotos.com Scam” and you’ll find lots of complaints. Wish I did that first.

By: Kat

Kat — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:32:48 +0000

After turning off the recurring payment with PayPal, I ended up having to withdraw the use of that particular credit card in my PayPal account to make it all stop. I made the mistake of giving DepositPhotos one more chance with their more modest monthly subscription as the former one was just too many images and their selection is not that good. This time I used a different credit card but the problem is the same. My next step is to contact the fraud unit at my bank to stop the recurring payment. No company should ever do this to their customers! Recurring payment should be an option, not a mandatory requirement. I don’t see how DepositPhotos can even stay in business long-term using CUSTOMER RIP-OFF as their business model.

And regarding the image selection, I can only speak for the vector images, and I will have to say there isn’t a single image that I could not find elsewhere. I decided not to renew because some days I have no access to downloads. One time I could forgive, but it happens on a regular basis every few days. And if they do give you a one or two day credit compensation, they don’t ever notify you so by the time you look up at your invoice count and find it has increased, you find those credits already expired. This company is 100 times more trouble than it is worth. I’d rather pay more for a reliable subscription with good customer service and ethical business practices.

By: Elle

Elle — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 09:14:23 +0000

I had a similar problem with DepositPhotos. I subscribed (didn’t do the free trial) for 3 days and didn’t realise it was a continued payment. I trawled through their site to find out how to cancel and was directed to go to the buyer menu, subscription and then subscription history. They advised to follow prompts from here to cancel. Surprise surprise there was nothing on this page to cancel subscription. I subsequently went to paypal and deleted the payment from there – I hope this works. I guess I’ll find out in a few days time. I sent numerous emails to them over the days and never got a reply. Shoddy. They have lost any future business they would have had with me due to this. I’m really annoyed – and that’s putting it mildly…