That $99 unlimited stock photo subscription wrecked my budget

I signed up for a year of 'unlimited' downloads from a site called StockVault Pro for $99. Ended up finding out the hard way that their 'commercial license' didn't cover print work, so every single image I used for a brochure in Seattle had to be pulled. Had to reshoot everything myself with my phone at 2am. Anybody else get burned by a stock site's fine print?

3 comments

3 Comments

thomas.river8d ago

Those fine print traps got me too after I defended stock sites for years.

faithpatel8d ago

Oh man, I once signed up for a "free trial" and ended up paying for a stock photo of a raccoon eating garbage for six months.

owens.laura8d ago

Man, that's brutal. Reminds me of the time I thought I was being clever signing up for one of those 'deals' and ended up using a photo of a cat in a hat for a local vet clinic's flyer. Then I found out the license said 'editorial use only' which basically means you can't use it to sell anything. I had to call every single person who got that flyer and explain why their cat's appointment reminder now had a blurry photo of my actual cat, Mittens, sleeping on a pile of laundry. Nothing says 'professional clinic' like a lint-covered tabby on a pamphlet about spaying.