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TL DR: Shutterstock charged me $29 for a free trial, and after I attempted to get a refund, suspended my account.Royalty-free (or stock-free) media is an affordable way to get high-quality, professional photos or videos without a big budget for a shoot. Shutterstock refused to reinstate my account or give me any sort of refund, instead telling me to contact my bank. I provided multiple screenshots proving that the dispute was closed, but still Shutterstock refused to acknowledge that fact. I was told that since there was an open PayPal dispute that my account was suspended. Some of Shutterstock's replies took 3 or more days to come in. I was given neither after a week+ long email chain.
I then contacted Shutterstock to demand either reinstatement of my account or a full refund. When I then needed a photo from Shutterstock, I attempted to access my account and was greeted with an error message telling me that my account had been suspended.
I resigned myself to just having a year subscription, and a few days went by. PayPal rejected my dispute and closed the case. After attempting to cancel and finding no way to do so beyond contacting Shutterstock, I filed a dispute with PayPal.
After the trial was over, I was charged $29 for a year subscription. I went into my account settings and specifically turned off auto renewal. I signed up for a 30 day free trial with Shutterstock. Account suspended after trying to refund a falsely auto-renewed free trial