scop.io screws early adopters with bait and switch

It’s recently been uncovered that image website scop.io has pulled a bait and switch on lifetime members. A bait and switch is a deceptive marketing tactic where a seller advertises a product or service at a low price or with attractive features to attract customers, but then tries to persuade them to purchase a different product or service at a higher price or with less desirable features.

It involves luring customers with an enticing offer and then switching it for something less desirable or more expensive once they are already committed or interested. This practice is generally considered unethical and misleading.

What has happened with the Scopio? They’ve changed the deal terms from 1000 images a month to…10. Want more? You have to pay.

I asked AI to write me an intro about the site and this is what it produced based on the content available online:

Scopio is a high-quality and authentic stock photography service that offers an extensive collection of beautiful and artistic images for commercial use.

Founded by Christina Hawatmeh, Scopio is an AI-driven platform that uses artificial intelligence to curate a diverse and creative selection of photos that cater to different styles and preferences.

The company values authenticity and strives to provide customers with affordable stock photography subscriptions.

With Scopio, users can enjoy unlimited access to amazing royalty-free images for their email marketing, blogs, or any other creative projects.

Scopio stands out as a genuine and inclusive company in the stock photography industry, offering an alternative to generic stock photos and showcasing the work of photographers from diverse backgrounds.

Sounds great right?  Let’s take a look at what’s gone wrong and if it still offers any value.

Scop.io Lifetime Deal

For many years access to Scopio images has been possible via a lifetime offer.  If you’re unfamiliar with lifetime offers, founders create a special deal where you pay once and retain lifetime access to the product.

You can grab some amazing deals from sites such as AppSumo or StackSocial, and both these sites have listed a lifetime deal to Scopio.

StackSocial Lifetime Deal to Scop.io

Scopio has been in a perpetual offer state on StackSocial, with multiple deals listed over the years.

When you check out the lifetime deal offered it lists the following important details:

Important Details

• This plan is for a standard extended license
• Length of access: lifetime (note: this is a one-time purchase that includes lifetime access!)
• Unlimited access to photos
• This plan includes up to 1000 downloaded images per month to prevent abuse
• Royalty-free content
• Maximum of 1 user per license
• This is an individual, single-user plan only & only available for new users. If you are a team, company, or small businesses please enquire with us at info@scop.io.

 “This plan includes up to 1000 downloaded images per month” <- This is the element the founder has decided to change for lifetime accounts.

AppSumo Lifetime Deal to Scopio

The deal on AppSumo was the same, but allowed the stacking of codes to gain more users and ultimately truly unlimited downloads per month.

Scopio Bait and Switch

Now we’ve established what deal was offered (bait) let’s take a look at the deal users now have (switch).

Logging into my account I’ve been placed on this new plan.

The lifetime starter plan:

• New trending photos daily
• Download 10 images per month

10 images per month is rather less than the 1000 offered at the point of sale.

I hadn’t even noticed this change until another member of a Facebook group I’m in had flagged it. A number of unhappy users opened a support request regarding this change and all received the same response:

Thank you so much for sending me this note and for your patience while we add more info for our users. The community has been constantly asking for more improvement on the platform and we really want to make it better for our customers and artists after COVID and the economic crisis we have gotten a lot of requests we had to answer for in order to improve and asking the community to support. With a loyal base it is important we grow together so Scopio can stick around!

This is how it is going to work: when you download your free 10 images, and hit that limit per month, you will have an alert with a promo code that you can apply that is to buy $99 for the year or $199 for team plans which is 95% off but cover the bottom line costs. Otherwise, we have smaller plans if this is still too expensive but we can’t give discounts on those. Let me know if this works. I am here to work with you until we find something that works for you and we really appreciate your loyalty and are excited to really make this the platform we all know it can be instead of ending this platform for our users and artists who rely on it.

Let me know how I can support.

Christina Hawatmeh – Stock email to unhappy lifetime customers

Being completely at odds with the deal purchased users responded to this email and were sent a second stock reply:

Between shutting down the business due to high costs of lifetime users, platform fees and glitches for our user base or requesting from our users to continue at 95% off new plans ($99/year) with improved experience for you and fair payment for artists, we had the community support to move forward after COVID and economic collapse. We are a small business. Thank you for understanding. You will remain to have 10 free images a month which is worth more than the initial plan offered and can upgrade. We appreciate that our users love Scopio and we are excited to continue.

Christina Hawatmeh – Stock email to unhappy lifetime customers

So there you have it, the founder, Christina Hawatmeh, failed to make the business a success. With limited deals there is a point where the company needs to stop the offer and transition into making a steady monthly income.

As shown above, rather than do this Scopio has run deal after deal after deal and is now blaming the high cost of lifetime users as the reason for the switch.

If the founder had spent more time working out how to make a sustainable business and less time arrange for paid guest articles in the likes of Huffpost promoting the lifetime deal perhaps the business wouldn’t be failing.

Are There Any Similarities in the Business Practices of Scop.io and Gousto.co.uk?

When comparing business practices, it’s worth noting that both Scop.io and Gousto.co.uk meal kit reviews prioritize customer satisfaction and quality. They both focus on providing excellent services and products to their customers. While each company has its unique approach, their commitment to delivering value remains the same.

Is Scop.io any good?

I’ve had access to the platform for many years and in truth I wouldn’t have noticed this bait and switch if it weren’t for someone else spotting it. Why? Because I rarely log into my account.

Look online at reviews for the site and I bet they’ll all sound similar to this:

Scopio is a transformative stock photography company that is revolutionizing the industry through the power of artificial intelligence. Founded by Christina Hawatmeh, an expert in computational photography, Scopio offers an extensive collection of high-quality, authentic images for commercial purposes.

With a focus on customer satisfaction, Scopio provides unlimited access to a diverse range of photos, accompanied by prompt and reliable customer service.

As a female-founded company, Scopio also champions inclusivity and diversity, supporting artists and providing a platform for their creative work to be showcased. With its commitment to quality and authenticity, Scopio has become a trusted destination for individuals and businesses seeking stunning, professional stock photography.

While there are some decent quality photos, there’s a lot of random stuff presented when you conduct a search.

For example, when I searched “plumber” the top results included a random woman in a bath. There are no tools around, she didn’t appear to be doing any plumbing, if anything it looks a bit like she’d been kidnapped and is being forced to have her photo taken!

In fact, it was taking so long to sift through the rubbish and find suitable images that I gave up on the site.

I’ve moved away from stand-alone stock image sites and now prefer to use the image libraries built into tools such as Vista Create or Canva.

Worth mentioning I’ve a lifetime licence to Vista Create thanks to purchasing a deal for Crello. When Crello was acquired by the Vista company one of the first things they did was to communicate out that they were honouring the lifetime deal.

It’s a very different approach from the Christina Hawatmeh bait and switch and as such I’d strongly recommend giving your money to a reputable service rather than Scopio.