Scribd

First of all, calling the subscription "unlimited" is misleading and completely false. When I started my subscription, I saw that I had access to many audiobooks and I saved them to my account. After a few days, every audiobook that wasn't saved to my account said "not available until (DATE)" which just coincidentally is the date for the next payment. So basically, audiobooks are only available to you on the day of payment (and only if you hit save) and after that Scribd say "unavailable." This angered me because I felt they misrepresented the nature of the subscription by calling it unlimited when it is quite literally extremely limited (Nowhere on the site does it explain that this is how the subscription works... it repeatedly calls it unlimited - lies). However, I just saved all the books I wanted and waited several weeks until my next payment so they would be available. Fine. Annoying, but I was fine with that as long as I got the books I wanted.

THEN, randomly... all these books I saved were again unavailable until the following payment. When I ask questions of customer service I get a BS response that titles become unavailable due to agreements with publishers. That is BS because it is clearly associated with the date of payment and the books are a variety of publishers. I think they do this to try to keep customers on for month after month.

This company needs to be forthright about the actual nature of the subscription. If the subscription ran as it actually is advertised and explained on their site and FAQs... it would be perfect. However, it is unfortunately too good to be true. For being a company that is promoting literature, reading, expanding your mind, etc, it is far too shady.

Edited to respond to Scribd representative reply.

Jerry,

With all due respect, I am not interested in any of your "immediately available" titles. Please stop patronizing your subscribers and insulting their intelligence! Certainly, you can't believe that it is acceptable to dictate to your paying customers what audiobooks should be available to them! And certainly it is not unreasonable for a paying customer to expect that at least 2-3 titles out of 150+ Scribd have showed interest in would actually be available to them during any given billing cycle. Honestly, it is better not to respond at all than to aggravate subscribers even further with unreasonable suggestions. There is a reason why 90 percent of your customers are furious! Enough is enough!

I was one of the original scribd subscribers when it first came out. For a while it was fantastic and it did what it claimed to do - provide access to unlimited books and audiobooks for a fixed monthly fee. I recommended it to everyone, all the time. So much so, that people started thinking I was paid to do it. Then at one point the service became unsustainable and the developers changed it to a credit system that allowed for one audiobook and three ebooks per month. At that point, I canceled my subscription because it was not worth it to me anymore. I have received multiple invitations to rejoin over the years and when, in February, they sent an email stating they were going back to unlimited, I decided to give them a second chance. I read the small print and online reviews on the new platform and understood that they would limit certain books during a billing cycle for heavy usage.

Now, I am already a heavy user of my library system via Overdrive and use Scribd primarily to supplement and get audiobooks with long waitlists at the library. I have always tried to be careful in how often I listen to audios from Scribd and never go through more than 2-3 audiobooks, if that. I'd hardly call that heavy usage! For the first few months, they limited some books until the next billing cycle, but it was not an issue as they still left me enough options in my saved (not downloaded) books to choose from. Not the case with the September billing cycle. As soon as I was billed for the new month, on September 2nd, ALL of my saved audiobooks (150+) became unavailable! All the books not saved that I search for are also unavailable. That's right off the bat before I'd had a chance to listen to even one book.

Multiple emails with customer service result in general, patronizing responses about their obligation to their publishers, and fixing bugs that allowed downloads to remain on subscribers' devices after having been removed from their accounts. As others have already mentioned, not one person has given me a straight answer to my very specific question, " why am I not able to listen to even one audiobook of my choice for the entire month of September? What am I paying a fee for this month if I am unable to access any titles I am interested in?". Last person to get in touch with me was named Zeke (his handle, anyway), and his responses were absolutely infuriating and so very condescending that I finally gave up.

The fact that they diligently and meticulously reply to every unhappy customer's comment here, on iTunes, and everywhere else complaints are posted with, "I am sorry to hear about your frustration. Please email us with your ticket number and we'll be happy to fix your problem" means absolutely nothing. They never fix anything, just feed you more general BS. Never a straight answer, either. So disappointing and appalling! Not only is their service not unlimited, the limitations make no sense whatsoever and feel punitive without any cause.

I guess they'll just continue to laugh at their dumb subscribers and keep lying about their service until someone finally shuts them down and or sues the hell out of them. Zero stars!

I have been charged the monthly subscription for almost a year, even though I do not have any accounts. I have deleted my account many months ago, following step by step detailed in the directions. When I try to login, the login screen displays that the account was deleted. Yet I am still being charged monthly?

Additionally, there are no phone numbers or emails regarding customer service present on the Scribd website, making it difficult to reach out. The company recognizes these complaints (of being charged), yet completely disregards them by not having any form of direct customer service.

Reading the previous reviews, it concerns me how many people have not received the proper help to get their money back. This "ticket" system that verifies profiles does not work, as many people have proclaimed Scribd do not have an account anymore (similar to my scenario). Through my bank app, I found a number related to the company; four-one-five, two-three-three, six-two-three-zero (this website censors phone numbers, thus why I typed it out). I will call them ASAP and see if it can help.

Scribd is a complete scam. Do not sign up for this app whatsoever. Reading through the previous reviews, I know I am not the only being fraudulently charged. I have filed a refund through my bank and will file a chargeback. To the many that are in the same situation, FILE A CHARGEBACK. Unlike a refund, a chargeback can negatively affect a company/business. The amount of reviews I've read of people being charged and not getting their money back is ridiculous! Give me and other people their money back!

So, a year ago (11/15/2018), I subscribed to the Scribd free membership trial. Then I signed the one-year membership and I used it during the year. Although I was not planning to renew the subscription, then today (11/15/2019) the site renewed it without any notification, I was not asked if I wanted to continue or informed just before this happened, that it was about to happen. There was no warning. I would have canceled my membership immediately before the amount could have been deducted from my account. The money has been deducted from my account without my explicit and express permission. Since I don't want to use Scribd services, that begins today (11/15/2019), I have spent a few hours trying to get a refund by contacting Scribd support, but every time I press the link on the page, I get a notification telling me that I must verify my account by activating the link Scribd has sent to my registered email account, which I will receive at most within ten minutes. I have pressed the resend button multiple times and gotten no link. I have not used Scribd's services in the past months and I don't want to use it anymore. So, please, I want my money back.

Last year I signed up for the trial. I forgot that I'd signed up and was charged $8.99, but it was no big deal. I had forgot to cancel it so it was my fault. I cancelled my subscription, or so I had thought, and assumed that was the end of it.

Recently I was checking my bank account and noticed that I was still getting charged for scribd despite trying to cancel months ago. I have been charged 4 times after my first initial erroneous charge in November. I have tried my best to cancel, but the website employs multiple deceptive tactics in order to stop customers from being able to cancel their subscription. These include:

1. Disguising buttons that you don't want to people to press.
2. Requiring an nontrivial amount of clicks to perform what should be a simple action.
3. Hiding successive cancellation buttons far down the screen on the mobile site, presumably so that some people trying to cancel assume Scribd have already cancelled if they don't bother to scroll down far enough.

Altogether there are 4 different pages you need to get through.

After contacting me, they refunded $8.99. I am still owed $26.97.
Given that they are willing to scam users out of their money, I would advise anyone to NOT use Scribd.

[Update Added Below]

I gave Scribd a try by subscribing to their one-month membership trial. That wasn't bad but since I use my Kindle most of the time, so I decided to cancel the trial. Scribd took me through a couple of steps, left me thinking that I was done. And guess what! I was charged in the next month. So I calmed me down, go to Account Setting to find that my membership is still activated. I tried to go through the cancellation again. And just like the last time, after a couple of steps, I thought it was done. But no mail, nor any notification! I started to freak out, I did it again, this time I just noticed that the cancellation just didn't end there (like most pages, you click Cancel, then you click Confirm, and you're done). Although the third page said something like they had acknowledged (We want to change or whatsoever), and below there was a tiny text, yeah, TEXT - NOT EVEN a BUTTON saying "Continue to cancel". What the hell? Okay then, take my $8.99 and you will never have me or any of my friends ever coming to your site ever ever again!

- Update - 2018/7/6
Looks like my voice was heard, and they offered me a refund after all. I can barely say that I changed my mind about their system, though. At least they tried to solve the problems that it created. And I appreciate their effort. Hope that they will make the cancellation process more transparent and user-friendly. Maybe I will be back.

Would you like to know the solution to all your dissatisfied 1 star customer reviews Jerry? I'll give you the answer for free and no need for your future appreciation.

Here are the Deceptive practices that leads to angry customers. Scribd are used to prevent customers from canceling and they work very well. The proof is in the reviews.

1. It is difficult to find the cancellation page. I believe a customer has to search for a specific link rather than just navigating the Scribd home website. It is unusual that one cannot cancel from the Scribd homepage. When compared to subscribing cancelling is pretty difficult. Why is that Jerry Please answer.

2. I exclusively used this service on my iphone. But unlike every other application I could not cancel through my apple id? Why is that Jerry? Please answer

3. Where most people likely go wrong is the first cancellation page. I clicked the first "cancel subscription button" and thought I was done with this aggravating task. But I found out months later that there is a cancellation funnel that customers have to go through. You click cancel subscription. Then it takes you to a page that seems to confirm your cancellation. But this is not true. Its actually a second cancellation page. You have to scroll down to cancel again?! What awaits is another cancellation page(the last one). Why is this Jerry please explain and change. Keep in mind there is only one subscribe button. Why is there a discrepancy Jerry? Please explain.

So the solution Jerry is to get rid of the cancellation funnel. Why does a customer have to click cancel 3 times or more to cancel there subscription?. This is why you have so many unhappy customers. Get rid of the extra cancellation pages and I promises your bad reviews will reduce.

For doing your job all I ask is for a refund for the months that I assumed my subscription was canceled (I clicked unsubscribe once which should be enough).

I got a free three month trial membership and had paid for a month membership fee, only to realize I didn't actually own any of the books I had purchased. I need to keep paying monthly to access my paid books and other contents on Scribd. Not to mention some books on Scribd Scribd don't actually own because they allow others to upload and through membership they let you "purchase" others's materials with your monthly credits. I didn't know until the third month I couldn't access to one paid book and contact Customer Services. Absolutely discussing!
Also the App was designed such a way that it's difficult to manage. There's no confirmation language once you click or accidental click it would go immediately to your monthly credits. Examples like it prompts to one click "purchased" then you can't find it on your App, instead called something like "Manage your offsite content" or "Stored content"... and you could "purchase" the same book more than once...
I always wonder why I can't find "Purchased" tab neither my App and account.

Streaming not always easy. The UI and layout contents are all over the place.
You need to pay monthly in order to access your materials and you don't actually own them even you have paid every month... Big trap.
The site also is misleading. Never mentions those terms. When I signed up it was like 3 reading book and 1 audio book each month, credit can roll over. I wish I took a screenshot or something. It doesn't help, those terms are revealed when you go to FAQs or trouble shooting and they're slightly mentioned.

Like other angry people on here have mentioned, these people are thieves. I never started a "membership", only signed in with my facebook for a one time use type of situation because it was quick and easy. And this is exactly how Scribd get people! I don't even use their website, have never uploaded my credit card info, yet somehow they have my credit card number on file and have been charging me for MONTHS. There was never any email about starting a membership or the charges, and when I try to remove my credit card info, there is no option to do so! What in the absolute $#*! is wrong with this company? Have you no morals? AND WHAT'S WORSE? THE SAME THING HAS BEEN HAPPENING TO MY BOYFRIEND WITHOUT HIS KNOWLEDGE FOR 5 YEARS! 5 YEARS! We are students living paycheck to paycheck THAT IS A LOT OF $#*!ING MONEY YOU ARE ROBBING FROM US FOR SOMETHING WE NEVER WERE NOTIFIED WE WERE BEING CHARGED FOR AND WE ARE NOT USING! CONGRATULATIONS ON MAKING MILLIONS OFF OF UNSUSPECTING PEOPLE. Absolute monsters. I would very much like to be refunded, as would my boyfriend. My email is *******@gmail.com though I am thinking no one will actually follow up on this issue...

Request #1912747

I joined on the basis of a book Scribd claimed to have which was quite rare.
They didn't actually have so I tried many times to cancel membership. I then tried to delete membership and was told I could not on the basis of having an active membership. I though having it cancelled would be enough.

However, months later I was charged $71 on my paypal for yearly membership. I initiated an unauthorised complaint with paypal. I went to scribd tried to cancel subscription yet again and delete membership. Same result as before.

I then complained to scribd on their customer service page only to then find it case closed with no communication with me whatsoever. I went back to paypal to find they tried to charge me again. Fortunately this time paypal blocked it.

I have initiated more complaints on their customer service page requesting a refund. I am waiting for paypal to resolve an unauthorised payment/fraud complaint to see if I can get my money back there.

This is a scam operation with dishonest business practices, traps to prevent one leaving and, essentially practices fraud, charging more than once for the same subscription I did not want anyway and advertising books it does not actually have. (I think it has a system on google where it directs you there for book searches regardless of whether they actually have it.)

Stay away at all costs!

Update: Paypal found in my favour and I have now been refunded.

Like many other customers who have shown their outrage of the unscrupulous practices of Scribd, I have been wrongfully charged monthly for 4 times throughout this year despite canceling my FREE TRIAL membership in April. When I emailed them, Scribd only agreed to refund the latest one, and refuse to refund the previous three charges as they claim "their refund policy is they do not issue refunds beyond 30 days." When the error is on the company's side to settle and for the customers to claim because we are the victims in the transaction, they do not take responsibility to repay us back the money. I, as an unknowing consumer, has to suffer because of an error on the company's side that took away a large proportion of my bank account money that I dutifully save up. This is pure exploitation of unsuspecting consumers, disguised under the banner of "free trial" and it is honestly my first experience.

Ticket number: 2956923
In response to their claims of a " monthly subscription". I am well aware of the distinctions between paid monthly subscriptions; annual subscriptions; free trial, and CANCELLATIONs of subscriptions presented on the website to me( please see attached photo). I am not the one erroneously claiming that I did not cancel a paid membership- I have even received a proof that I cancelled my subscription. So why is it that the company still refuses to admit it has a duty to repay me for wrongly charging me when I CANCELLED my paid subscription, and using its "30 day policy" to cover up its error in transactions? It's hard to not perceive this as an exploitation of customers when they have clearly opted out of paid subscriptions. What's more frustrating is they have the audacity to charge NOT one, but 5 wrong payments throughout the entire year.

I signed up for a free trial for scribd, with the understanding that i would need to cancel before the 21st of july. So imagine my suprise and fury when i go onto my bank account on the 18th to find that I have been charged several days early. Thinking that this was a preemptive charge, i decided to try and cancel my account. When i tried logging on to the site, it says that my payment method is invalid. When I tried to cancel through my apple subscriptions, Scribd simply was not there. I have looked everywhere and there is no way for me to cancel my subscription. I have tried emailing the company (there is no phone number to contact them from) I recieved an automated response asking for my card information. After what has happened these past few days, it will be a cold day in hell before I give them any more of my bank account info. I have already filed a complaint with my bank, and if i do not recieve a response and/or a refund within the next 48 hours I will be filing a fraud complaint with the Better Business Bureau and the FTC. Lucky for me, I have screenshots of any and all transactions with this company so Scribd cannot try to claim that I dont have any proof. I am beyond furious right now.

I heard about this service and thought it was a fun concept, so I signed up for a 14-day trial to give it a shot. After putting all my information in to the account, I immediately went to the cancel membership section, so I wouldn't be charged after the trial was up.

After the trial period, I noticed that my account was in fact charged for a month of service. I went back to see why this happened. It turns out that to cancel is a very annoying process. Once you hit cancel account, it takes you to a page that says "This doesn't have to be the end". I must have assumed hitting the cancel button was all you needed to do the first time, so I missed this. After I "confirmed" the cancellation, I was taken to another page pushing me to stay with the service. I again told it to cancel, to which it took me to a page that offered me a 30-day trial. I once again hit cancel and it took me to a page that asked me to give it feedback for leaving. (There were still a bunch of other headers and buttons that encouraged you not to leave). I filled out the feedback explaining that the cancellation process was obnoxious and that I wanted my money back. I assumed this would indeed be the last page to cancel the service. WRONG! I was then taken to another page that gave me four or five buttons to stay, and one small button to finalize the cancellation that was very hard to find.

I wanted to give them a 1-star review for this. But I decided to cut them a break and give them 2-stars for a couple of reasons. The first simply because it is a good service. I wanted to do the trial because Scribd have a large comic book library, and I was able to read a lot of graphic novels that I would otherwise have to pay $30 each for at a store.

The other reason being that despite the obnoxious cancellation process, I was given a response to my feedback within an hour and my money refunded.

If you are willing to subscribe to the service, I think it is worth the money. But like many of the reviews on this page, there is something very untrustworthy about this company, and I don't think I will be giving them my business in the future.

I was an annual subscriber to Scribd over the past 6 years. The annual subscription cost was $47.99. I lost my wallet over the past year and got a new credit card number for the card I used to renew my subscription.

I received a warning that my subscription was expiring and my payment details must be updated. I attempted to do so using my valid credit cards but the site would not permit updating although my cards had been verified on the website.

Every time I contacted customer support I received the generic instructions on how to update payment details, but Scribd never addressed that the website would not update after the card was verified.

My account expired and now I received this from Diane R:
"I'm so sorry for this, but we do not currently offer a purchasable annual subscription plan. The annual was still available for anyone that had a recurring annual subscription. However because your card was flagged as fraud and your account expired, we cannot actually offer a purchasable annual plan to you directly at this time, though we hope to be able to do so again in the future."

My response is STAY AWAY FROM SCRIBD AND THEIR PREDATORY SALES PRACTICES.

Ticket nr. #2474868.

In August 2018 Scribd advertised with the "free trial"-offer. Again. I was stupid enough to click on it, and what happened? I was charged. Mailing back and forth with the costumer service, they admitted that the fault was theirs, that "it should have displayed a message letting you know that the account did not qualify for the free trial offer since it's an account that has been in the system for a little close to 3 years now", yet I got no refund. But this is not all. Of course I cancelled the whole subscription - but now I just found out that they have actually been charging me monthly since August 2018 (on one of my less overviewed accounts)! If this is not a fraud I do not know what is. Absolutely unspeakable. You wonder what the costumer service education actually looks like. I have just e-mailed them and demanded a refund, but I doubt that they have shame enough to give me me money back. Theft is the word. I wish, wish, wish I had read the reviews before having anything to do with them as a scholar. I am devastated. Will warn everyone I know.

--- UPDATE:
Scribd refuse to meet my request, and claim I made the subscription. They blame their costumers for not remembering that free trials are for "new members only". Ever heard of Netflix charging the costumers who forget that and happen to click on their offer? I will now call my card issuer for a chargeback.

Like many others, I signed onto this service on a whim. In all likelihood, I used the service for a few weeks, and forgot completely about it. Whether I began the subscription by internet, or android, I honestly don't recall. Eventually, after I'd reviewed my bank statements sometime later, I made efforts to cancel the service. It wasn't exactly an easy process with the time constraints I had. The only recourse I felt I had left was to obtain a new card from my bank. However, the charges kept coming! I've lost over $100 thus far. I've found nearly 50 other complaints alleging the same issues, collectively amounting to consumer losses in the thousands. I've filed a complaint with the BBB, and have only now begun to learn about many other unsatisfied customers. Scribd may argue otherwise, but if you search their website, the policy concerning refunds is itself condemming that there are no preventative controls in place. The business model lends itself to the consumer being careless, and exploiting a weakness, it's that simple. If you're lax about your banking account, laws are in place that don't exactly favor the consumer as you might expect in this instance. It's purely an ethical matter, that Scribd appears to be more than willing to exploit.

I opened a free trial on their website (not through itunes.) It said I had until March 12,2017 to cancel. On March 11,2017 at 7pm I checked my bank account and saw that I had already been charged! I went to cancel and found out I could not cancel until April 12. I still went through the process of canceling (yes you have to click through about 10 pages and find teeny tiny little font that says I STILL WANT TO CANCEL) it said my account would end on April 12, rather than the next day, March 12, when my free trial was over or that same day, March 11 when I wanted to cancel.

I contacted Scribd support on March 11 when all of this was happening and have yet to hear a single thing back from them. Now I am worried my card will get charged again since people say Scribd are mysteriously being charged over and over again. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS SITE. THERE IS NOTHING ON THERE THAT IS WORTH A PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP THAT YOU CANNOT GET ELSEWHERE!

And since they apparently have customer service people that respond to THESE message boards (rather than their own customer service emails) I am writing this review... and adding my support ticket number.

Support ticket #1309976
Email *******@gmail.com

GET AHOLD OF ME SCRIBD

I received an email from Scribd, [ who I had never heard of], telling me that: Ref Order number 476668148, my card would be charged £8.99 on 12.01am UTC October 09 2019.
Since I never placed any such order and I don't ever read E books, this is a scam, BUT, the links Scribd offer within the email allow me to either 'Read', or to contact them to cancel... However we all know that clicking on links to an unknown, un-asked for email making a suspicious request is likely to invite a virus... so no way am I clicking on any such links! I am aware that the management of this company read messages on this site... Hence I have included the so-called 'Order number etc, ' to allow the management to make sure they DO NOT try to deduct any sum from any of my cards. I am slightly reassurred in that my cards, address info and the three digit number are unknown to this company, and I have instructed my card issuer to not make any payment request of this sum or similar at or around the time of 09 October from either Scribd or any other company. The card fraud office have been informed. If any effort is made to deduct money from my card[s] then UK as well as USA online fraud will be involved. I trust the mangement will pay due heed to this warning, and to not send unrequested emails to others in the hope that some may indeed click on your links...

PLEASE NEVER EVER GIVE A GIFT OF SCRIBD TO A STUDENT OR Scribd WILL HAVE A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE! BEWARE OF predatory billing, also... lots of complaints about that, too.

Go ahead and pick out those books you want to read... SCRIBD will freeze them for a month, release one to you, then freeze the rest until next month. Especially true of audiobooks!
When you look for something else, SCRIBD will give you photos of a bunch of LIBIVOX (free) books. SCRIBD also makes "Best Seller" lists with ancient LIBROVOX books. It's just another jaw-ish gyp. Beware.
It was a gift to me for a year... hah; don't give it to a friend! It's a disgusting ripoff.
Any response to customer service takes weeks, and they've just cancelled people who have complained.
They also will cut off access to a book for 24 hours if they decide you've accessed your membership from "too many browsers recently", and then if you click the question mark to see why - you get a dead link!
You never OWN a book the way you do with Audible or Audiobook, and can't go back and reread a book without a membership; you're just paying to read... and they hide the real bestseller list, and generally are just so stingy, mean, and shifty that it's pretty unbelievable. A BIG NO.

I signed up for a 30-day free trial in August after seeing how many books on my reading list were available on Scribd. I read the *unlimited statement, understanding that if you are a voracious reader, Scribd may have to occasionally and temporarily reduce the amount of available books for that particular user.

I listened to 2 audiobooks in the month of August, and apparently that made the "voracious reader" list, because 99% of the books that were originally available, are now showing unavailable until after I'm billed for my first month.

So, what is the point of offering *unlimited reading each month, when you consider a customer who reads 2 books a month as "voracious"

To make matters worse, my customer service representative is TERRIBLE. It has been over a week since I first reached out, and 6 messages later, and I have yet to receive a response regarding my ACTUAL issue. Scribd canceled my account without my permission, and without even addressing the issue at hand. Of course, I was not happy, so I further explained the issue. Then, I received another message saying the book title I'm trying to view has not been released yet by the author (yet, there are 200+ reviews on Scribd for that book). And, to top it off, I never even mentioned a book title in any of my messages.

I have sent multiple screenshots to my representative showing how Scribd shows them available on their website, but once you sign-up, they're no longer available until after your billing date - and to no surprise, I have yet to receive a response from my representative.

I understand limiting reading for people reading 50 books each month, but to do this to a reader who only listened to TWO books in the month before being added to the "voracious reader list", you may as well go back to the credit system.

I think Scribd were better off with the credit system. With this "so called" *unlimited model, after consuming just a couple of audiobooks you are left with a very paltry selection of content of either librovox style recordings or other types of uninteresting titles until the renewal of your next billing cycle. I can understand the need for a business to turn a profit, but you need to be clear on how many books from certain publishers you can access before you are cut off from the good content. Now choosing an audiobook from Scribd is kind of like walking on eggshells because I have to be careful which books may or may not set off the algorithm that will limit your selections. It's my understanding that they refuse to be clear on this. They pretty much just come back with canned responses to anybody who contacts them to complain.
I have come to find that my local library has a great wealth of content that is ready available which can tide me over until I can access the best selling titles on the wait list. If on a rare occasion there is something that I have an absolute urge to read now, I can always just purchase it on Google play. I think that may be more cost effective than paying $9 a month for a service that doesn't really deliver what it claims to.
I would come back to Scribd if they would either
A) Make the service TRULY unlimited (even if I had to pay a little more) or
B) Clarify which content and the quantity of that content that can be consumed in a month, so that one can plan accordingly.
I don't get how this works, it's too confusing and seemingly arbitrary.

I posted on the BBB on August 18 and received a response (see below) on August 21. I was told that the last charge would be refunded (this has been going on for years). That very day, I was charged again.

Response I received on August 21:
The business indicated:

Hi Colleen, we apologize for any confusion here. Upon review, we were not able to find any support tickets from you in our system, which would be why you didn't receive anything from us. We were able to locate your account and can confirm that you created your subscription with us on February 10th, 2017 under the email address you've provided above. According to our system, your account was not canceled at all, which is why these charges came through as normal. To confirm, when you purchased the trial, you agreed to the terms and conditions under the Subscriber Agreement (https://support.scribd.com/hc/articles/210129486) that stated this was not a one-time purchase, but instead a recurring month to month subscription. Scribd does not offer a standalone free trial. In accordance with our Refund Policy (https://support.scribd.com/hc/articles/210133986), we've refunded your most recent charge and canceled your subscription. Your payment method should be credited within 3-5 business days. Your free Scribd account will remain active, so you'll still be able to share documents and use Scribd's free features. In some cases, full versions of documents available on Scribd may only be visible to Scribd subscribers. We hope this helps to clear things up for you. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us at *******@scribd.com in the future if you need additional assistance. Thanks for reaching out and have a wonderful day!

Based on the reviews I've read on this website, please cancel my free trial/membership. My username is ram-438923.

On April 25,2017, I signed up for a free trial, downloaded the PDF I was looking for, and cancelled less than 5 minutes later. I went through the five or so pages where you click "Cancel Membership" in small font, submitted feedback, etc. I tried to remove the credit card I have on file, but the site only allows you to UPDATE your payment information, not remove it. During the 5 minutes that I had a free trial, my membership status stated that I would get billed $8.99 on 5/25/17. After canceling, my membership status says, "Your membership was cancelled on 4/25/17 and will end on 5/25/17." This makes no sense, since canceling my free trial means that my membership should end the same day. Browsing through the site, my account still has the ability to download PDFs and read books, which you can't do as a non-subscribed user. I don't know whether it means I'll get billed on the 25th or not, but I would like my trial permanently canceled before any charges are made to my card. Therefore, my review is tentatively 3 stars, based on whether or not I receive unwanted charges in the future.

I had been with this site a pretty long time. In fact, this month would have been my one year anniversary with them. I thought Scribd were fantastic. Not only did I get unlimited great books, but they had most of my college books under their document sections. At a $9 a month fee, I had saved over a thousand dollars on those college books alone! Not to mention the app worked great with no issues, no ad interruptions, and no shut downs. I have never even had a bad experience with their customer service.

My issue with Scribd is their recent change. I am so distraught over it, my 5 star review has dropped to 2. What happened is, they went from unlimited reading to a credit system. You get 3 credits a month+1 audiobook (most books are 1 credit each). For that price I would rather go back to library visits. This would be okay for some, but I read anywhere from 10-15 books a month. What really angered me about it though, is members like me got no warning of this change. To top it all off, since I decided to opt out of my membership rather than continue it, they decided that I no longer get to read the books that I had already used my credits for (credits that I had already paid for and rightfully deserved to use). I am beyond disappointed in their choice to make such a sudden change and not warn their members before doing so. At the very least, they could have offered a package that still allows the unlimited reading. If it was about cost, I would have gladly paid more to continue the membership I had.

I used my debit card on the site for nearly a year without incident. The site doesn't save many books that I tried to save so I had to bookmark them, Scribd are no unlimited and the audio on audiobooks frequently goes out. They have a nice selection of books so I dealt with technical glitches.
I tried to make my 1st attempt to do auto payments on my credit card and had to freeze my credit card. I have to contact Experian because they made it look like I was trying to max out my card. The first charge of $100 went through and they refunded but then kept trying to charge.
They don't have a phone number so I have to wait and hope someone helps me. When I tried to log into my account it was gone and they thanked me for signing up yet they were still making several attempts to charge my card! Don't bother with this company or if you do use a visa gift card or something. They offer a bunch of crappy perks that don't even work most of the time but can't work out bugs on their website and have no phone number?! It's the largest internet library and no phone #? It's shady and seems to be a scam. Hope Audible crushes them.

This company is operating FRAUDULENTLY. Scribd offer the ubiquitous "free monthly membership" and then... you enter Fraudland where there is NO way out. They have ZERO customer service, no way to contact by phone OR email. They offer a question box which you get to after navigating their murky waters for 15 minutes which of course is of NO HELP whatsoever. I tried TWICE in a year to cancel my subscription and just realized they are still charging me 10$ a month. Turns out there are DOZENS OF COMPLAINTS like mine on the web. I have contacted my bank and am in the process of recouping my funds; however I am dubious. I REALLY DESPISE these corrupt business practices that prey on people who are simply interested in checking out a new service. STEER CLEAR for sure. I am also looking into a class action suit against the company as I have spent HOURS of my precious time and energy under duress trying to prevent this company from STEALING from me. This is criminal. I hope I've been clear. And i truly hope whoever is reading this will heed this warning. Take care good homo sapiens and STAND UP and fight what is UNLAWFUL in our sacred land!

SO I have been charged continually for the PAST 17 MONTHS and have only just realized that I'm still being charged, today, despite having CANCELLED the membership before my free trial ended. That amounts to 234 dollars in total... WHAT A FRAUD MAN. I just went to their refund policy and saw "Transactions more than 30 days old cannot be refunded". Ever so conveniently Scribd allow refunds for "unused premium subscription", but disallows refunds for more than 30 days old. HOW ABOUT THE USERS who cancelled but were still charged, isn't that FRAUD already since the user had cancelled but somewhere somehow your system did not capture it? Then isn't it your problem, not the user's? So why is the user being penalized for your system's issue? I thought I was the only one facing this issue, not boy was I wrong; seems like I'm not the only one having this problem.

To anyone thinking of subscribing to SCRIBD, even for a free trial... don't. Unless you want to go through the same frustration as many users here, trying to cancel a subscription (or in the process, getting charged for a subscription you've cancelled more than a year ago).

Genuinely disappointed that such companies exist. Absolutely disgusted.

#3053017

Scribd advertises "unlimited" access to materials. What Scribd don't tll you is that once you pass some unpublished limit, for instance, two bestsellers per month, your access to many of the most popular titles is greatly diminished-- a process known as "throttling". Once throttling kicks in, you can still read and listen to materials, but many of the books you've saved will become unavailable til your next billing date. I didn't know this going in and when I found out I was annoyed, but also kind of get it. The advertising is deceptive, but for me, $10 for for 2 audiobooks is still a good deal. A couple months ago, I started getting throttled not just between books, but while I was in the middle of reading a book. I'd be halfway done, and the next time I opened the app the book was gone and I could not find it by searching. The first time it happened I thought it was some weird glitch or maybe I'd missed the notice that the book was leaving the site. The second time it happened I was more suspicious, did a little digging and realized that if I checked on the site for the book when I wasn't logged in, the book showed up just fine. That's a sure sign of throttling and that was the end for me. If I can't count on finishing a book I started due to throttling, I'm out.

First, Scribd misrepresent their plan. It's extremely limited. Note: I DO NOT CONSIDER blocking any title from access as unlimited. It's misleading. They do have a section that is indeed unlimited. You can find most of them on the net for free. Other titles both audio and ebook are INDEED limited. For example, I'm now blocked from listening to any more Rebus series titles for the rest of the month after listening to two. I can listen again IF I renewed in November on the 18th [not happening.] This is NOT unlimited. Frankly since 95% of the unlimited section can be found free, the question is why would I bother paying for what costs nothing?

For over $100 a year you get 24 audiobooks and pretty much close to the same number of books. For the entire year. That's the limit (we won't count assorted docs uploaded about various crap including samples with "buy the full" ads. So it isn't unlimited. Appears someone in their office needs to buy a dictionary. Around 2.25 an item.

Second, for 50 bucks, I can join the Brooklyn public library (any where in the USA. Open to US only) for a year. I can access their overdrive and several other digital collections from anywhere in the United States. I can check out 15 items every seven days if I choose just from their overdrive collection. 780 books a year. 15 from their bibliotheca collection; another 780 books a year. 1560 books just from two collections offered. Cost?. 032 cents a book. PS. If you live in NY? It is free. Their overdrive counts over 100,000 books alone not counting the rest.
Edited to add: I forgot to add that they also have videos, music and offer free access to things such as Mango language app.

Will update if they pull the charge after cancellation in November. So far it says free trial ends November 18th.

Scribd is overpriced and way overrated. And a very poor model.

My username is van-322808.

I assume it was late last month (March 2017), but I started a subscription to go through a book I was using for research. I didn't like what the membership offered me for the price, so I canceled the same day. Or so I thought.

On April 29, I saw through my bank that I was charged $8.99 for a service I hadn't used in over a month, on April 24. And I received no notification from Scribd that I was going to be charged for the service.

According to the service, I SHOULD end my membership with them on May 22. I'm noting the date here because if I'm charged on May 22, I have proof that Scribd is hustling me for money.

I'm going to try to work with Scribd and hope I can get my account canceled for good and a refund without going through the horror stories posted here in regards to getting charged repeatedly, even with a debit/credit card number changed. I've sent in a ticket, but if I don't hear anything from Scribd within a couple of business days, I'll annoy them every day until I get a response.

If I don't hear anything from Scribd at all, you can bet I'm going to work with my bank and my state's attorney general to get my money back. Even if it's only around nine dollars (or plus, if Scribd charge me more).

If the Scribd representative for ReviewFeeder is around, my ticket number is #1346819, and I've replied to my response via email, since it has my card name and number on it. And please cancel my card with your service after I'm refunded.