Pocket FM
reviews and complaints

This company is a huge ripoff. They try to get you hooked on one series and each one is very small. The prices are ridiculous and you’re supposed to get 2 free a day. If you continue to not pay they cut you back to 1 a day even when it clearly states 2. If you try to let them build up for 4-5 days you go in and they’ve further cut you back to 2 or 3. This company does nothing but cheating and bait and switch. FIND ANOTHER PODCAST THAT ISN'T A COMPLETE RIPOFF.

This app is ridiculous. When you first start a story you get several chapters per day then further along you are limited to one chapter per day so the longer stories can take two years to complete. I actually finished a shorter one and was awarded 100 coins and used it on my longest story but it didn’t go far and they wouldn’t allow me to read another chapter for about two weeks. Then I bought $50 worth of coins and used them on the same story to speed it up and now I have to wait until May 17th (today is March 25th) to read the next chapter. What a waste. I am so fed up with this. They are clearly only concerned about how much money they can make.

Everyone I turn around this app steals my coins. I'm over it! I will pay for an episode and it will give me a different one or an episode will be free in 3 hours so I wanna wait and it will automatically WITHOUT my consent take my coins for the next episode, even if I'm not ready to read it. These are just some of the tricks the pull to steal your money. Stay away from this app. It's cheaper to buy a book in hardback!

I got into a story that I liked and even purchased some episodes. But the episodes you buy are too short. I tried the monthly fee thinking I could hear more episodes daily. The monthly fee also limited the amount of episodes you could hear. Thinking I was nearing the end of the story I kept noticing more and more episodes apparently being written. In a hardcopy book you can see how much until the ending… Here you don’t. This app I feel is a real rip off. I’m deleting the app out of frustration.

Episodes are very short, and the coin system is ridiculously costly. For almost 1K episodes for 10 coins per 10-min episode on average for a decent story (5 coins average for shorter than 8 mins); you're looking to spend more than a dollar per episode x1000 episodes.

That's too much. Their board members must be very rich cashing in on this subtle swindling scam act from the unassuming ones.

Way too expensive to really enjoy you get teased into listening with like 20 episodes sounds great and you get interested only to run out of episodes and have the few free minute episodes daily. No general subscription for a story you can buy coins at high cost and end up easily paying hundreds and not get far in the tiny minute episodes its a shame really 😕 The free coins option 14 ads gains 2 few min episodes and i found it painful and sometimes add freeze part way through say 8/14 and find you have to start from scratch so 22 adds +.

you can get coins by seeing ads if your free episodes limit over. But problem is 5 sec Ad, 15 sec AD, 20 sec AD, 30 sec Ad same only one coin as reward which is maybe unfair. If you give any suggestion to them then simply they will tell to try other option which is not suitable to your problem what you are facing. Audio books are good here but not app developers (who is managing app).

Pocket fm app don't have any stable offer/plans because they changes offers like a changing story in their app.

Pocket fm do not response to customer care email account. And the cost of the plans to unlock story's and episode are so expensive.

Many people can't afford it.

In Pocket fm app we have another way to get coins by completing the tasks given in the app.but the tasks takes 1.5-2 hours to complete small one after completing we get only 1-3 found. it's not worth our time and internet cost.

To unlock 1 episode we should pay 6-11 coins. But we get only 20 free coins per day by watching add .

I think pocket fm survive only trying to attract high-end customers.

It got me furious! It is a scam!It got me hooked after listening to few episodes and played and watched videos to earn coins to listen episodes. After getting tired of playing, i decided to buy 4.99 worth of coins which i got an email that i purchased 45 coins. After i listened to 3 episodes (15coins). It is again asking me to purchase more coins to continue. What a scam! I sent multiple email which they replied to tell me that I only paid for the 3 episodes. 3 episodes is not 45 !

I listened to an audio ad on facebook and was interested in downloading the app. I opted to pay for a monthly subscription and this cost $24.99 NZD. I assumed that this would allow me access to all audio stories, but no this didn't. Instead, after purchasing coins through my subscription, I listened for about 10 minutes of audio and then the it stopped and I was prompted to buy more coins to continue listening to the audio story. Anyway, I cancelled my subscription, wrote a complaint to them, they emailed stating their services, then sent another email confirming this complaint was resolved! Omg pocketfm, stop ripping people off! You scammers!

I came to the app after starting a really good story that popped up on my Facebook feed. I purchased 390 coins. The app indicates that chapters will be released for free each day, but that’s not true.

The app dug into my wallet and helped itself to between 6-8 coins each hit, SEVERAL times a day, so that my wallet was depleted within 4 days.

I don’t know 🤷‍♀️ about you, but I’ve NEVER heard or read any story that was worth $4-5 dollars every other day. These stories have hundreds of chapters. What’s the total cost for each book? $200? $400? This is just one more example in a long line of scams, out there trying to steal my money.

The next really infuriating thing is that the app keeps jumping from the story that you’re listening to, and starts ANOTHER different story. Each time it jumps. So I have about 20 stories started, totally confusing, and instead of being relaxed and falling asleep, I’m so angry and frustrated that I want to throw my phone out the window!

It’s a really great concept, but the owners are a whole universe away from achieving any success.

I do love the stories. At first I was getting 5-6 free episodes a day. Then all of sudden, now I’m getting 1 free episode a day. I thought I did something wrong. But after reading all these reviews, everyone here is experiencing the same thing. I will have to spend quite a bit of money to finish off my story, about $150. Had I known this, I would have not got started with this book.

I started listening to a story on Facebook, to continue listening I needed to buy coins at £1.99, then more coins to finish the story so I spent another £4.99 then the message came up that I needed to buy more so I opted for a monthly subscription at £12.99 thinking I would be able to finish the story but no! they still wanted more money, so £20 spent and I have not even completed a full story, don’t buy into this nonsense it just sends you down a rabbit hole, I have cancelled the subscription and will never use this site again

When I first downloaded pocket fm, I really enjoyed the story I was listening to. I found a few other stories that I started listening to and through trial and error, I finally found 4 that I really liked. I eventually ended up spending money for coins so that I could continue listening to a couple. I got so far ahead on one of them that I won’t get free episodes until March of 2024. I accepted that and went on to listen to my other 3. I again purchased coins to listen a few episodes ahead on them. This did not interrupt my daily episodes. I was getting 5-7 episodes a day on the 3 books I was listening to. A few days ago, I noticed that I only had one episode released for me to listen to. I thought maybe I didn’t listen to all of them the day before so I listened and let it go. The same happened the next day and the day after that. When I emailed the company, they said that they only release one episode a day. Not until recently did they change that. They just want me to spend money to finish listening to the stories. I fell hook line and sinker for this but I don’t recommend this to anyone unless they have plenty of money to spend in order to get to the last episode. They wait until you are 500+ episodes into a story before they pull this. You only have another 500+ episodes to go and at 5-8 coins each episode, you will dish out some bucks. For me from now on, I will try other ways of finding books to listen too or read a printed book. I do not think this is right but what ever

First time I decided to listen to an audiobook was The Return. Longest, most horrible story ever. The addicting nature of it makes you want to keep going, and I did for a while, even though I realized I was losing brain cells during each episode. At the beginning I made the rookie mistake of paying $20 to listen to some episodes and realized that $20 does not go very far. The customer doesn’t get to choose how they spend their coins. If you accidentally let the episodes play, your coins are automatically spent and $20 only gets you a few episodes. I realized that if I wanted to listen to this whole audiobook I would end up spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Not sure if any book is really worth that much but I know this one definitely isn’t.

How can you have 400 coins only listen to 6 10 minutes stories and you are out of coins? I enjoy it but it's to costly and a rip off to me. Reaching out to customer service is a joke also. They really need to straight it out. There are days I'm buying coins over and over and I work 12 to 14 hour days and my phone be turned off so I really don't understand where the coins are going. Please explain it to me. Customer service is rude.

They use different platforms to make you buy each episode, and unethical website. Time to report them for review, I understand you’re operating a business but extremely unethical, especially in the entertainment industry. I recommend everyone that has been involved to further look into this matter in legal way, because this is entertainment industry not a pay as you go night club.

The story I was listening to started very well but was ridiculously long- 560+ chapters the family switched from being western culture to eastern culture within the story and the storyline changed so many times it became unrealistic. I was getting 8 free chapters a day until I watched the ads to get more coins to read the next chapter. Since then I now only get 1 free chapter a day unless I watch longer and longer ads, which is not worth the effort. Needless to say, i don’t think I’ll ever get to hear the predictable end of the story.

I purchased a subscription to pocket fm twice to show my support of the app. As well as purchased smaller coin packages here and there. However I did not realize two things because they were not disclosed. 1. That if you have coins, then the app will not release the episodes/chapers its supposed to the following day for free. I watched for three whole days as the book I was listening to stopped giving me chapters/episodes. Once I spent all the coins, it started to release free episodes/chapters daily again.

2. You don't really have a choice in what you spend your coins on. UNLESS you keep phone in hand and watch it like a hawk for free episodes/ chapters to end, cause If you're listening to a book and it comes to the end of the chapters that have already been unlocked, it will AUTOMATICALLY unlock the next episodes/chapters and keep going until the coins have been exhausted. So if you don't know where you are in the book you will lose your coins, The coins I purchased was intended for a book I wanted to show support for. I was cleaning when a recommended book started playing, and I went and bought coins to listen to the other book once I finished my cleaning. Well this was not a book of my own choosing mind you. The app decided to continue to play through the free episodes, and then exhausted

The remainder of my 153 coins on the recommended book. WHICH sounded like a knock off of the book I did like. When I reached out to support for my coins to be returned. The response to me was that they suggest I set a timer so I know when to stop the books from playing and taking my coins! And a statement that the app design isn't Suitable to everyone.

I have saved that emailed response I got today and I intend on having a attorney

look at pocket fm's lack of Disclosure issues. And it's auto pay and play features that takes currency that has been purchased and is being applied automatically without authorization.

I love the stories! Some of the readers speak too fast but overall they are good books. Now that being said, the cost to get through a book can cost you hundreds of dollars and to me this is outrageous! An audiobook should only be between $7-15 dollars and they would make so much money they would not have so many complaints! They have a great platform and could do great things with it, but at the cost of what they are doing by basically stealing from their customers it won’t last long! I know after these last few months of listening to my two stories, even though I find them absolutely delightful I have to bow out! I just can’t endorse this platform and I have told my granddaughter the same thing! We all work hard for our coin and to throw it away for only a couple of pages of a book just isn’t right! Yes your books are good but you need to fix your greed, or you will lose your future and past customers!

Good luck and if it changes I will come back, but books shouldn’t break someone’s bank!

Sincerely, Audiobook lover

Audiobook not completed many things was missing, also listener write many comments for that but your team not responding there..

As I listened some points mention below-

1- maut k devta se samna?

2- bhavishya dekhne wali ladki ka rahasy?

3- golden academy or banki 2 academy se samna?

4- new casel me kya nahi virasat milni hai?

5- compilation me kya task tha or kaise complete Kiya?

6- next level p kaise or kab pahuch, god of king k level tak kaise pahuchega or kab?

7- indumati ki virasat me kya hua uske Bhai k saath?

8- indumati ki virasat me uska pyar pura hoga uski shadi kab hogi?

9- wapas ja k wappen academy me kya hoga?

10- uska king of God banne k baad Naya Safar kya hoga?

Joined Pocket FM. Logged in and an offer appears 100% Money back on coin purchases today. Great I buy £17.99 of coins. No refund.

I email [protected]@PFM no response.

Tried posting problem on their FB page it was blocked but they did DM me. Which caused @care to answer. There reply was 100% refund only applicable for first time buyers. Could I supply a screenshot of the offer!

My response Why would I take a screenshot of an offer? Why would you suddenly send the offer after I had been listening for a while and I had regularly been purchasing coins? Certainly never got the offer when I joined. Sent on the 6th March 2024 resent 4 times to @care once to @legal. Absolutely ignored.

This is so fraudulent I cannot believe a company can treat a customer in this manner

I purchased $9.99 worth of coins. It said I would get 80 + 120 bonus. I went into unlock episode 1271 of Billionaire’a Accidental Bride. It took coins and opened episodes that were already unlocked episode 20, 21 etc. I then checked my bank and they took 13.99. That is not what I authorized. I’m going to try and dispute the charge through my bank. But this app is shady!

I was talking to an agent help center about the recent activities on my account being the fact that I only received one free episode today on my particular book I was listening to I was expressing how it's unfair for a Advent listener and a supporter AKA putting money into them to listen to even more to be restricted for any reason going from getting six free episodes to listen to a day to one and today I was talking to one of the agent about the issue and was upset because he said the new policy was only one free up some day so I told him okay fine but this will be the last time I put money into you guys being the fact I don't believe it's fair or right to be restricted for any reason he proceeds to delete my account never said I wanted my account deleted an is was after I just put money into them all I want is one of Two thing is my account back or from them to refund the money I put into them...

I saw pocket FM advertised on Facebook and I downloaded it and the audiobook First love never dies was not there I downloaded it because I wanted to listen to it it played on the one Facebook showed I would appreciate if you could find out why it's not there I am thinking about not keeping pocket FM if you are going to advertise a audiobook to get someone to get your Pocket FM you would have it on there

This is a scam to get money. They get you going on a story. They give you 4 per day in the beginning but then they cut it back to 1. Trying to make you buy coins.

You keep replying saying something is missing. Only thing missing is you are all a bunch of idiots.

I am pushing download on my episodes because everyone is complaining about losing there episodes but as I look in my phone they are not there. So what happens to our downloads. So we just don’t get our downloads we just lose what we paid for, this is not far. I have spent way over $200 now on this book. I would like to be able to keep what I pay for

I have spent a fair bit of money to watch all the episodes of a couple of stories. i now listen to daily episode release. I have started a new popular story and i am waiting for the next episode to get released. It has said "Free Tomorrow" for 5 days now and the episode does not release.

Is it a scam? or s stupid glitch. Either way it needs to be fixed or me and my friends will find a different app to listen to.

Spent $99.99 for over 1500 coins on Oct 7, 2023 and on Oct. 8, 2023 at around 1300 there were a system error. Before I realized the system error I spend another $19.98 for over 200 coins. When the error was corrected it showed I only had 507 coins and was back to episode 19 when I was at episode 1136. I would please like to get my coins back and back to the last episode I was in before the system error.

I am not receiving daily episodes again. I noticed this is happening after I purchased coins which is stupid because now I’m never going to buy coins because I’m getting blocked and not receiving a daily episodes after purchasing coins, which BTW $20 was only a few episodes,. I might even consider deleting the app.

Last weekend I finished listening to the very few episodes o purchased for $20. This is not the first time I purchase coins and after that I stop getting free episodes.

Does this mean I shouldn’t purchase so I can continue getting free episodes? Also before I stopped receiving daily episodes I was just getting 1 episodes per day instead of 5

So I bought $100 worth of coins and everything has been ok. I realized that this book is costing me way to much money but I am addicted to the characters and the story line. So I have listened to it for hours while working in my office and then today it tells me I am over my hourly limit is exhausted. What the hell does that mean. I have 751 coins and for some reason I can’t listen to my story. I’m about done with this app. Because for the past 2 weeks it keeps loading and will make me wait 5-10 for it to connect and I don’t get that either!

I have been a subscriber for all of this year and every week I get the option for a weekly pass for 200 coins with unlimited episodes and ad free. I couldn't afford to do it for a few weeks, come back, purchase 200 coins $22 USD, and now all of a sudden there's no option for the weekly pass anymore within my page on the app or in the store.

Honestly 200 coins is not really enough to listen to very many of the stories so if I can't purchase the weekly pass anymore I'll be discontinuing my use of the app. I'm a trucker so I listen to this for hours at a time. And if it were coin based only with no pass it would be hundreds of dollars per week and frankly that's untenable.

To ALL,

I sent you an email on the 27th August! Which state below.

I have signed up to pocket FM, having problems watching The Return - their is know character picture on the video, which have stop working ! WHY IS THIS?!.

Futhermore. I feel cheated, I purchase coins to continue to watch this story, and I am unable to. Watch it Can only listern on audio. I request a refund as it doesn't surpass my customer services excellence. I do believe its a scam.

How can you fix this problem.

Thanks in advance.

Regards

When I first started listening it would let you earn some times as much as 25 coins never 100 as advertised when I spent money $10 at a time until on at least six different occasions, realizing how much money this book or books would cost me to read I would have to earn coins except after I spent money, it limited me to three or four coins per hour i’m sure this antic makes people spend more and more money some stories are 15 coins you would have to sit there all day every hour listening to that [censored] only for your ads to freeze up not letting you click off of it only going online to buy the product never being able to return back to earn coins without exiting and deleting and don’t Jank on my grammar, if I read well I wouldn’t be listening to these stories almost like y’all are targeting specifically people with reading and comprehension disabilities🤔

I paid over $100 for the Insta Empire audio book and now it’s telling me my episodes are unavailable and that I need to pay more. This is unacceptable I need my book available immediately. This is unacceptable and if I need to get my lawyers involved I will! All I want are the episodes I paid for! You can even see clearly that I was listen to the episodes before they magically became unavailable. This is ridiculous!

I started listening to a story and then realized that the story is it really cost me over $200 and i I stopped and asked for my money back from apple which they gave me. Then asked pocket fm for a refund and they added the refunded counts to the account do I was negative 835 coins and it would cost me $99.99!USD to unlock the next episode. I emailed them again and I received email saying they reversed it and added the points but now it will cost me $99.99 USD to open any further episodes.

I don’t want anything to do with this pocket fm as it if fraud and robes people. It will cost way over $500 USD for one novel. They thieves And I have reported to to my bank. As well.

I started listening to this novel and so far it’s cost me over $150 USD. I contacted them to give me a refund and tell me they can not find my account. But they took my money. Now they want another $100 USD for the next few episodes. It said you get free episodes daily. THAT IS NOT TRUE. I want my money back. I am so upset as I feel like I was robbed The reviews say it is a safe sight. But by the time the novel is done it would cost more that $500 USD. Can you please help

I downloaded this app very interested..seeing a story on instagram! I found the story picked up where I left off, it gave a couple of episodes for free then told me to buy credits to unlock the up coming episodes. I’m like okay..so I brought more credits and was good to go! the story was getting good with all of the cartoon animation and all.. actually seeing every word play out. Episode 12 I thought I pressed something to make the visuals go away! Boy was I wrong..I skipped and skipped and skipped til I got to episode 16. Basically after episode 12 it’s no more visuals but just audio. What a shame because I felt tricked. You can have the rest of the credits I’m uninstalling! People do spend lots of money to just watch and listen!