PIPiktochart★★★★★
Issue still not resolved--all documents deleted??
Update in reply to their reply: this is false. They provided One extension during which time I asked for two downloads and while I waited for a response the extension was over. I asked for another one so that I could copy and paste my work rather than paying a huge fee to become a member just to download my documents and leave--and they refused. So this reply below is false. I wish it were true!
Update #2: I gave in and upgraded--only to find that after all this useless back-and-forth and waiting for resolution, my visuals seem to have been deleted. Even days ago they were saying I needed to upgrade to access them; convenient that they didn't mention they had deleted them until after I had paid for a year's membership! This is horrifying as it was years of work, deleted, after hours and hours of wasted time with their customer service.
Previous review:
Still haven't had my issue resolved. The company has very few accessibility features, e.g. no alt-text, poor compatibility with screen-readers, which makes them not compliant with new department of justice requirements for education resources (I can no longer use them for syllabi).
They also removed their free version and thus locked me and my students out of all the documents I've ever created, and will not allow an exception to the no-download rule so that I can leave this program and start over, even though it is already costing me massive amounts of wasted time and stress.
2025-11-22
PIPiktochart★★★★★
Hours wasted in useless customer service
I had weeks of back and forth with Piktochart by email after they removed the free access I'd signed up with, used for years, and created dozens of documents with--meaning all of my documents were gone. They kept saying "we completely understand your frustration" but explained I was welcome to pay a bunch of money to get my documents back.
When I posted a review here they finally responded and extended the free access another week. I wrote that I needed to download my documents since I could no longer use Piktochart--partly because they don't comply with the new Department of Justice accessibility requirements so we aren't allowed to use them for syllabi.
While waiting for the problem to be resolved, my extra 7 days expired--and I'm back to square one. No way to get my documents, but more hours of back and forth down the drain.
2025-11-04
PIPiktochart★★★★★
Glitchy, few working features, disappeared all docs and requires ransom money
Glitchy from the start; things not working that they said should work, but apologized as they were working them out. E.g. you can't copy and paste within a table, can't do links within tables--my entire syllabus, which is what I was using it for, and there was a maximum number of outside links.
No alt-text options, no way to hyperlink. This means that Piktochart cannot meet the new DOJ accessibility mandates and I have to transfer ALL of my syllabi to another program. But guess what? I can't download them! I was going to copy and paste everything into Word, but logged in this week to find EVERYTHING GONE. Yes, I had gotten an email last week about my free trial ending. I had no idea what that meant because I had NEVER SIGNED UP FOR A FREE TRIAL. I had been using the basic version (free) for years. So I wrote back and asked what it meant. NO REPLY. Just, "Surprise! We deleted all of your years of documents! We never let you download them, and now we've removed all of them--but here's the catch, you can pay us a bunch of money to get them back, even though this program is crap and you can't use it anymore!"
Basically they're holding my students' syllabi ransom until I pay up--something I never signed up or agreed to--and meanwhile my students can't access their syllabi. My mistake in thinking it made sense to give them live documents instead of downloads--it actually worked great for years--but not if the program can revoke them all without consent.
I wrote to ask for them temporarily back and was told I could pay at least $40 for that temporary access to a program that no longer works. I've never had an experience like this with any other software or platform.
2025-10-20
