Scribd
Reviews and Complaints

Dear sir/madam,

I wish to know why did scribd.com charged my visa credit card for the followings:

1. 26 February 2019 for usd 8.99
2. 26 March 2019 for usd 8.99
3. 26 April 2019 for usd 8.99
4. 26 May 2019 for usd 8.99
5. 26 June 2019 for usd 8.99

I declare that I did not purchase any products online from you. And if I have given you my confidential financial info for your advertised "free" trial, then there is no reason for you charge my Mastercard credit card by "hiding" such billing terms in a mass of words. This is preying, scam and unethical business practice.

Please contact me at [protected]@gmail.com

Failing which I will file a formal and legal complaint to the relevant authorities.

My Mastercredit card is [protected]

Regards,

MAMUNUR RAHMAN
Card holder name

Hi, my Scribd subscription expired way back in 2018. But my Citibank credit card ending with 7121 (India) is charged Rs. 648 INR on 6 May and June 2019.

Citibank customer service intimated me that the merchant has claimed the money under the category, "Standing Instruction". But my Scribd account clearly mentions that my subscription expired on 9/24/2018.

This is nothing but a case of fraudulent transaction amounting to cheating under the Indian Penal Code. Hope Scribd will resolve the issue and refund my money.

Hello,

Please provide me the refund, as you may see I have not used anything of my account.
The only one download was in the month of February from my free trail.

There was no intimation from Scribd whatsoever neither before or after any transaction.This is deceiving because there is no option to remove card details as well. Month on month transactions has been made without customers awareness.

My total deductions so far has been 2600/- INR.
Requesting you to please provide me the entire refund to the source at the earliest and remove the card details from the account for privacy concerns.

Kindly provide your co-operation,
Thanks in advance.

Regards
Aman

I have signed up for a free trial on Scribd in October 2018. I found that I couldn't find the things I was looking for and I canceled my trial the following day.

Now, in June 2019, after checking my bank statements I saw that they have been charging me $12.42 a month for a premium membership since October. I have not used the services after my cancellation, nor have I authorized them to charge me.

This is a complete scam and I requested a refund back. Their refund policy states that they can ONLY refund the payment made in the last 30 days, even if it is their fault.

I am waiting to hear from whoever is responsible for this unauthorized billings and I hope they refund my money which is around $100. Otherwise, I am taking this to court.

This company claims they allow you to read "unlimited" books with your monthly subscription. This is a huge lie, as when you get to about 5 books, the selection of books available to you is suddenly wiped out. They remove a HUGE percentage of the content that was previously available, and you need to wait till the next billing cycle to read anything decent. You have the bare bones of books to choose from, like the books you get for free when you download ANY book reading app.

"I have confirmed that there are audiobooks available to you, and while some are not, you still have unlimited access to all those titles found using our "Explore" feature."
-Jasmine A.
Scribd, Inc

Yes, I still have unlimited access... to the smallest selection of books possible. Please see the attached pictures to see the MASSIVE difference in what is available in my "unlimited" paid membership. As you can see, the books are there, and available, just not to ME. I have friends that also use the app, and they can see all the books that I cannot. This is account based discrimination.

The line they are feeding me now is that the 5 books I read had an "impact" on what's available to me. You can see the "impact" it had on the content available to me in the attached pictures. I'm not sure about you, but that doesn't seem "unlimited" to me at all. I was also told that these books would miraculously be available on June 13th. Why does that VERY RANDOM date sound familiar? Oh yes, IT'S MY BILLING DATE. How convenient.

I asked for my issue to be escalated, and given to the woman that was awesome enough to help me the last time this happened to my account (Rebecca). But they have refused, and instead sent me to Jasmine who is NOT a supervisor and is simply another help desk agent.

They're actually TRYING to get me to cancel my membership now, and getting snarky about it to boot:

"We understand that our subscription may not be for everyone, so if you would like me to cancel your membership go ahead and reply to this message and I'd be happy to do this for you. We're sorry to hear Scribd was not the best fit for you!
Best regards,
Jasmine A.
Scribd, Inc."

Here are some of the lines they feed you about their "rotating catalog" to try to mask the fact that they take away content after you've read 5 books:
-------------------------
Jasmine A. (Support Desk)
Jun 3, 12:23 PM PDT

Hello Evelyn,

Thank you for your patience - My name is Jasmine and I'm a Team Lead here at Scribd. Apologies for any confusion regarding our membership. I am more than happy to reiterate my team's previous messages to you.

In regards to your most recent message, I've reviewed your correspondence with Rebecca and can confirm that your earlier issues involving no available audiobooks was indeed a bug in our system that has since been resolved. I have confirmed that there are audiobooks available to you, and while some are not, you still have unlimited access to all those titles found using our "Explore" feature.

As explained earlier, you'll notice the Scribd catalog rotate as you read and access titles. Since your last renewal you've successfully redeemed the titles: "There Was an Old Woman: A Novel of Suspense", "You", "The Good House: A Novel", "The Oversight", and "The Babysitter's Code". These title redemptions have an impact on the catalog's rotation, and will still be available to you until completion, as well as any previously redeemed titles, or anything else found while "Exploring".

We understand that our subscription may not be for everyone, so if you would like me to cancel your membership go ahead and reply to this message and I'd be happy to do this for you. We're sorry to hear Scribd was not the best fit for you!

Best regards,
Jasmine A.
Scribd, Inc.
-----------------------
Martin D. (Support Desk)

Jun 2, 3:02 PM PDT

Hello Evelyn,

Thanks so much for reaching out!

I had a look at your account, and I see there are some titles on Scribd that aren't currently available, but will be on June 13. Our catalogs generally start to rotate as you read, based on a variety of factors involving our agreements with our publishing partners. We're working hard to maximize the availability of our library, as we aim to offer an ever-expanding selection of titles for our community of readers to enjoy.

I completely understand feeling frustrated if there's a specific book you'd like to read next. If you find your favorite selections are unavailable at the moment, the recommendations on your Scribd home page will always offer books that are available to enjoy right away. Our support article, "Exploring for Content, " also offers lots of helpful tips on navigating our library for immediately available titles.

We're positive there will always be something interesting waiting for you on Scribd, and I hope I've been able to help! You may also be interested in our recent blog post, "Scribd Vs. Those Other Subscriptions", as it includes more information about how we work directly with publishers, and a comparison of Scribd's reading subscription to similar services.

If you have any other questions or comments, please let me know - I'd welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with you. I truly appreciate you taking the time to write in, and thank you for reading with us!
Best regards,
Martin D.
Scribd, Inc.
-----------------------------
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Martin D. (Support Desk)

Jun 2, 3:54 PM PDT

Hello Evelyn,

Your monthly subscription entitles you to access an unlimited number of books and audiobooks during the subscription period. I can guarantee you that we will never say, "That's it, no more for you!" However, there are various factors that dictate content availability, such as conditions regarding the deals we have with our publishing partners, general consumption level, cost, popularity, etc. Based on all of this, you'll occasionally see that select titles within specific content libraries will not be immediately available, but the following months' membership renewal will reset your catalogs. In the meantime, we mark these titles with that "Available Soon" banner you are seeing.

What this means is that you will always have access to some selections of audiobooks. But certain items will not always be accessible. This often includes newer and more popular authors (such as Steven King). You will see these selections become accessible again as of June 13.

Again, we apologize for any confusion. Please let me know if you have any other questions, .
Best regards,
Martin D.
Scribd, Inc.
-----------------------------

I have read so many of these complaints that its surprises me no one has taken them to court. Class Action suit isn't hard to file. This is ridiculous. They are a scam company that limits the titles to their members after 2-3 month into the membership. After that titles are not available. Its the same 2 complains as I read through them. 1. taking payment that isn't authorized and 2. limiting titles

They are ripping us off and not giving us the service they claim they have available. Unlimited my A$$! There has to be someone out there with some legal expertise to get this going. Lets take them to court and call them out.

Scribd has been charging my account $8.99 every month since 9/2018. I only found out about this when my bank called me about fraudulent activity.

I cancelled a Free-Trial that I started at Scribd immediately after a few hours of sign up and I am pretty sure about that. My usage of the scribd is 0 during this time period because I did not I was subscribed to this service and was being charged for this.

I contacted Scribd customer care and after exchanging multiple frustrating emails, they refunded only $8.99x4 = $35.96 only and still have $44.95 pending refunds.

Given the above information, I expect the refund for the remaining funds that were deducted from my account only because Scribd used my card info that I shared when i started my free-trial. Like i said, I dont have access Scribd data but what I do know is that I had cancelled the FT and have no info from Scribd about these $ deductions.

I dont remember receiving ANY invoices/emails from scribd that you are charges my card every month. In the absence of such invoices there is no evidence available to me to know that such charges are being charged to my card.

I am struggling to find someone I can contact and get a resolution on this.

I am so upset that i have been trying to find a contact number all day to call about them billing me for the past 4 months. I have to find on a complaints website the number to customer service only to find out that they do not have an actual customer service phone line and will want a customer to do everything online. I cancelled my free trial before it was up because i did not find the website useful. I recently logged in after finding out that i have been charged for the past four months that on my account it says i am not even a member and i do not have a card on file! I truly believe this is a scam website because it has so many details about how you can get a refund and stresses that they can only give refunds within 30 days!

They say unlimited reading but are not. When I first signed up, I could save may times and download lots for several months. Just in the last 6 months, they started limiting my account. Now I can only download 1 book during my monthly billing cycle.
If I download anymore, the next day they become unavailable till after my next billing cycle.
They take $8.99 out of my account monthly for nothing now. I can't even save titles for future downloads and can only down load one at a time monthly. It's stealing and false advertising and its illegal to misrepresent it this way. I also have read thousands of bad reviews saying once they cancel their membership, scribd continues to deduct money from their accounts and its a big fight to resolve it because they don't have a phone number to call customer service, its all through the app. They need to be shut down or they need to uphold their unlimited statement and give us what we pay for.

Two years ago, I signed up for Scribd's free trial. I had to provide my credit card information to sign up for it. I did not use the service that much, so I canceled before the 30 day trial expired. They started billing me anyway. I didn't notice the charges at first because I wasn't checking my credit card statements (my wife was in charge of paying bills). After the third month, I saw the charges from Scribd. I called them to complain and they reimbursed the three months worth of bills. Now, two years later, they're billing me again. I haven't used their service since 2017. I'm calling them again to complain and request reimbursement.

Hi scribd,

I am writing this as complaint as to why your company is still charging me funds via credit card when I have cancelled my subscription over a month ago.

I would like to request an immediate action in the sure cancellation of my subscription to avoid further complaints.

Kindly contact me through email - [protected]@yahoo.com

Thank you,
Carol navarro

Due to my monthly subscription, I am charged €8.07 usually at the beginning (10-15th) of every month.

I applied on my scribd account to be suspended from April till November which was accepted, but still I got the charges for April and not only was €8.07 taken, my account was debited again on the 25 of April 2019. So I have paid twice in one month. That is more than the said amount. So please can I my money be refunded. Thanks.

I signed up with this service for a 30 day trial. I decided that I no longer wanted the service. I had a problem with logging in. I requested a password request at least 20 times. I received nothing... I checked my spam as well. I sent an email and received no reponse. This morning I got an email saying that my discover was charged. I am still unable to cancel this service that I am not interested in. I will dispute the charges on my credit card but this is ridiculous.

I have cancelled my membership.

Customer service at this company is a complete joke. The only way you can contact them for help is through their terribly made website, where you can "submit a ticket". Which apparently gets sent off into space somewhere never to be seen or looked at again.

The only number I found was on this complaint site. I called it, and was met with a recorded message informing me that I can contact them by...ready? SUBMITTING A TICKET. Sure.
It also tells me not to leave a voicemail, cause they don't listen to that. At the end of the recording, it says "Voice mailbox full" and hangs up on you. I'm certain it's full of people like me wondering what's going on with the complete lack of ANY service for a subscription they pay for.

I have been emailing them for the past 5 days now, asking for help. My paid membership seems to have lost it's paid status, and I can only see books that are free books and available everywhere on any platform. I cannot see my list of saved titles, I can't see authors I search (stephen king, dean koontz). And oddly enough, my daughter also has her own Scribd account and can see and read everything I cannot.

There's nothing wrong with my card, it pays for both subscriptions so if it works for hers, it should work for mine.

Customer service requests sent out into space:
2090372
2090365
2086151

Around Feb 26th I unsubscribed from the scribd service and was notified that my subscription was to expire on 23rd March. Apparently on 23rd March I got a notification of a renewal of my subscription, yet i don't need the service anymore. Thus I therefore requested a refund and complete cancellation from all the scribd services and subscriptions.Yet there has been no response or feedback from them. After re cancelling the subscription again yesterday, I found out it was still active today and had to re-unsubscribe. I cant be stuck to their subscription against my will, yet they still make cuts from my account.

I just found out today from my bank that you guys have been deducting FJD$20 for this month and last February as well. This is absurd as I never subscribed for any premium membership and it says on my account that I cancelled any further subscriptions on 10/11/2018. This is well before my free trial ended and you never even notified me beforehand that charges will be made to my account. All the reviews here are similar to mine so what kind of scheme are you guys running? Just give back my refund and cancel any further payments made to my account!

I am extremley frustrated as far as subscription of this service goes. Just found out from my bank today that I have been receiving a recurring charge of $8.99 as of last year, totaling to up to $125.86 by now. I was never aware I was even subscribed in the first place; I have changed cards at least twice since then, so how is it they got a hold of my new card info? I can't remember even creating an account with them.

In 16 June 2018 I tried a free trial with your company. In 17 July I have asked you by mail to your company to unsubscribe and opt out of the collection and use my information. In 20 September 2018 I repeated my demand and cancelled my membership once more. Although you have stopped my communication with the collection, you continue to charge me monthly 8, 99 USD until now.

Over a year ago I tried a free trial with this company, I ended the service before the free trial even ended and recently I noticed they have been charging my credit card $8.99 a month for this whole year, totaling in $116.87 of charges. I am not a member and I do not use these services. Throughout this year they have not sent me any receipts or any e-mails notify me that I am still a member. I feel completely ripped off. I would like a FULL refund and a cancellation of whatever this is.

Hi,

I just realized that I have been charging since last May even though I canceled the membership last April.
Besides what shown in the statement for last year, the $8.99 occurs again in my JAN 2019 statement!
Please stop charging me and refund, there are even no records in the payment history on the website! Thank you! The ticket# is 1992075.