iStock Charged Me After Free Trial Despite Canceling Auto-Renewal

On January 12, 2024, I subscribed to iStockphoto's free trial. Near the end of my trial, on February 7, I received an email reminding me to cancel before the trial ended, but it did not specify the exact expiration date. On February 12, the exact day my one-month trial ended, I logged into my account to cancel. However, there was no cancellation option available. The only action I could take was turning auto-renewal from "on" to "off".

Despite this, iStock charged me $14.90 on February 14. I immediately emailed customer support, explaining that I had disabled auto-renewal before the trial ended and requested a refund. Their response? If I wanted to cancel, I would need to pay half of an annual subscription, or else they would continue charging me monthly.

On February 15, I called iStock customer service, but they told me I was charged because I hadn’t canceled the trial in time. I explained that I attempted to cancel on time, but their system only allowed me to turn off auto-renewal, not cancel outright—something they could verify in their logs. The agent said there was nothing they could do because it was an international company.