• Scribd

Scribd

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Overview

Scribd has a rating of 1.4 stars from 877 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Scribd most frequently mention credit card, free trial, and customer service problems. Scribd ranks 199th among Ebook sites.

  • Service
    145
  • Value
    137
  • Shipping
    82
  • Returns
    109
  • Quality
    128
Positive reviews (last 12 months): 0%
Positive
0
Neutral
0
Negative
5
130
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How would you rate Scribd?
Top Positive Review

“Surprisingly good”

Dominik K.
7/10/23

Been a user for about 3 years now and I'm continually surprised by what I can find here, from mags, through books to audiobooks. All at a bargain price, half of ehat audible charges for 1 book a month.

Top Critical Review

“Not even worthy of one star!”

J. R.
3/18/24

Joined Scribd/Everand a month ago. Their "free trial" is not free. They charged my account twice within that 30-day free trial period...once after two weeks of the trial and then at the end of it. I canceled my subscription and notified my bank of the fraud. Not only am I disputing the charges but a Have had the bank remove the card from my account so they can't continue to steal from me. I had hoped this subscription would be good...it seemed so at first. Then, I found out that not only are they fraudulent in their charges but there's a limit on how many books you can read in a billing cycle. Initially, when you search online for a good ebook subscription, Everand seems like a good choice until you actually have to deal with them. The complaints about them outweigh the good reviews and all seem to have a common thread - deceptive business practices.

Reviews (877)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

credit card (172) customer service (117) trial period (29) bank account (28)
Thumbnail of user dylans218
Colombia
1 review
0 helpful votes
  • Send Message
September 9th, 2021

Scribd is a scam. It says unlimited but once I finished my first couple of books every other title I searched for (even old ones like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) were unavailable in my country (and I live in a Spanish speaking country but read only English books!). Apparently they say "Because of our agreements with our publishers we have to adjust availability when necessary" (so basically you only get availability to the entire collection once a month, then they reduce the amount of available titles A LOT!). So, it is clear that Scribd is not truly unlimited.

I have read many other posts saying the same now and I will start to spread the word across all social media outlets: Scribd is a scam.

-----------

Updated! Reply from SCRIBD (as can be seen below) "Although some titles may not immediately be available, there will always be something available to read!" - So they list titles and books as available, but when you try to download them they say they are "not available in your country", thus it is not unlimited and hence it is false advertising in my opinion. What do you guys think? Please post your comments below.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Dylan, we're sorry for any confusion caused by the way our library works. Although some titles may not immediately be available, there will always be something available to read! Our article here, https://bit.ly/2YNuefx can help answer some questions you may have. Unfortunately with titles that are unavailable in your specific country, there are publisher and author agreements that prohibit availability worldwide. We wish that could be different! If you would like us to look at your account and clarify your current availability further, please reach back out for more info and we can get you set up with an agent to discuss further. Thanks! -AR

Thumbnail of user guillermof35
GB
1 review
0 helpful votes
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May 21st, 2021

I signed up for a free trial and canceled it before it ended. And I just noticed that I am being charged every month and I do not know how to stop it, because my scribd account clearly states that my memebership is not active. After seeing many similar comments in this site it looks to me like scribd is clearly a SCAM!

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hello Guillermo,

We sincerely apologize for any frustration, but since we can't charge canceled accounts, it's more than likely there is a duplicate account with another email or perhaps a Facebook profile. As such, please send us a message here: https://scr.bi/assist, and update your comment with your ticket number, and we will help with a refund. Thank you! -LH

Thumbnail of user denisej21
Alabama
1 review
8 helpful votes
  • Send Message
March 11th, 2016

You can't keep your books if you cancel your membership. Sorry for the caps, but I want people to know that THIS IS A SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. Once you cancel, you can longer read the books. The monthly limit on books is awful. Their "new platform" is set up to fail. I wouldn't be surprised if you paid for their service and end up seeing the sight disappear, along with your money, within a few months. I signed up for unlimited books and audio in 2015. Now they have changed the platform. If you just have to use their service, use a prepaid card or PayPal. Do not give them your credit care and do not pay for a year.

Thumbnail of user monicag80
California
1 review
2 helpful votes
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June 13th, 2018

I really liked the free trial but didn't think it was worth the money they charged when canceled the subscription[which they make dfficult to begin with] it still didnt work because they continuously charged me and i literally have no money in my card so i keep getting interest on top of it every single f*** month and they("customer support") make you go through a bunch of hurdles to try to cancel it and then they never get back to you. I have been getting charged for about a year now if you are a busy person you will not even notice what is happening until it is too late. I still do not know what to do to get the help i need and get my money back! My only hope is to eventually pay by debt to be able to cancel the card i had.

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Monica - I'm so sorry to hear about these unexpected charges and we will absolutely cancel them and issue a refund. To do so, could you please reply to this with a ticket number from when you emailed us? I'll personally take over the ticket and resolve this for you. Thank you!

Thumbnail of user danic82
Florida
1 review
1 helpful vote
  • Send Message
April 9th, 2021
Verified purchase

I am beginning to feel like Scribd is a scam. I only signed up to see a template of a work document. I want to cancel my free subscription before I am charged, but Scribd is saying my password is incorrect (which I know it isn't because I used Google Autofill to remember my login), and Scribd is also saying that an account with my email address does not exist, even though that is the only email I used to sign up with and Scribd originally sent my receipt confirming my membership to that email. After trying to recover my password and contact support, I have received no reply, and after reading the comments on this thread, I am worried I will not receive a reply at all and will be charged anyway.

Tip for consumers:
DON'T USE THIS SITE

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Danielle, we're sorry for the trouble here and are more than happy to investigate this and get it resolved for you. If you haven't already, please use this link to connect with our support team directly: https://scr.bi/assist
Once this is done, feel free to update your review with your ticket number so we can locate and escalate your case. We look forward to getting this resolved for you. Thanks so much! -VG

Thumbnail of user ranaa35
GB
1 review
0 helpful votes
  • Send Message
December 22nd, 2020

I joined on 18th nov 20 and couldn't find useful after 2 days so until 17th dec i tried to cancel but no option available anywhere, no customer service in uk, i delete my account and still they took money from my paypal(£9.99). I have to call paypal and requested them to block this company from taking future payments. They are making fortune by trapping people on trail basis eg 1mil people joined and couldn't cancel trail and gave them 10mil for nothing!.
These people are purely fraud.

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Thanks for your comment here and I am so sorry for the trouble with canceling your account! We have this article on how to cancel that may help you in the future: bit.ly/3gxxTVT

That said, our customer care team is available to help all of our customers around the world. Please use this link to get in touch if you need additional assistance: https://scr.bi/assist

Thumbnail of user earlync
TT
1 review
7 helpful votes
  • Send Message
September 14th, 2015

I was of the opinion that it was 8.99$ per month. Billed 87$... trying for days to get a response... i live way in the Caribbean... value of 86USD IS 650$ in my currrncy. Not a response from these ppl. Tried contacting since 10th... today is 14th... avoid this site at any cost

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Earlyn, I'm so glad we were able to resolve this issue and process that refund for you! If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us at help@scribd.com. Thanks! - Zoë, Scribd Customer Support

Thumbnail of user sagec12
Nevada
1 review
0 helpful votes
  • Send Message
July 17th, 2021

Like many of you here, I was charged several months after canceling my "free trial". I even was fairly certain I deleted my credit card info. STOP CHARGING US! You know what you're doing is shady if so many people are having the same problem.

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Sage, we apologize for any confusion here! To clarify, we can't charge a canceled account that's no longer rendering services with us, so the charges you're seeing would have to stem from a duplicate account or unsuccessful cancellation.
If you haven't already, please visit this link to connect with our support team directly for further assistance: scr.bi/assist
Once this is done, please update your review with your ticket number so we can make sure your case is escalated and resolved right away. Thanks! -VG

Thumbnail of user michaelv1678
Maryland
1 review
0 helpful votes
  • Send Message
November 15th, 2022

This will be short as I dislike reviewing companies. I needed to locate certain articles for projects that I am working on and saw that Scribd was the only place I could locate the needed information. I signed up for the "Trial" which requires you to add a CC. I reviewed the couple articles and determined that I didn't need the service and canceled my account. Only during a recent review on my CC transactions, did I notice that Scribd had charged me for the last two months; for a service I cancelled. There is no way to contact them, and I submitted a Support for assistance and still have not heard from them. I looked up the BBB and saw that this company is known for taking your CC info and charge you a recurring fee, even if you do not have an account. I filed a fraud claim with my CC company and cancelled my card. Please beware of dealing with this company!

Tip for consumers:
Beware of Fraudulent CC charges

Products used:
Article Service

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Michael, We are sorry for the difficulty you have experienced. As we are unable to bill for a subscription that is canceled, we would definitely want to look into this for you. During the cancelation process, there is a final cancelation confirmation step that may have been missed which is why you were most likely still billed upon the renewal. That said, we are always happy to help and process a cancelation for you as well as a refund, as long as it is still within our Refund Policy. If you still need assistance, please update your review to include your ticket number and we will escalate your request to a specialist. Thank you! - MR

Thumbnail of user ebiyee
Nigeria
1 review
0 helpful votes
  • Send Message
July 30th, 2021

So I cancelled my subscription to scrib on the 14th of July 2021 after being debited for a renewal I never used, but still got debited on the 31st of July 2021 for a yet to be understood payment.
I've submitted for a refund but I regret ever doing anything with scrib. With all I'm seeing online and my experience with scrib, my message is; keep off from scrib.

Thumbnail of user bettiel8
Canada
1 review
0 helpful votes
  • Send Message
February 5th, 2022
• Updated review

I have sent my service request number to you several times without my account being reinstated as promised. Still nothing! What more can I do? #*******

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Bettie,

We are sorry for any difficulty you have experienced. After further review of the ticket number you provided, it looks like one of our billing specialists followed up with you on January 26,2022. Unfortunately, you will not be able to create any other account or reactivate your subscription with Scribd moving forward due to the previously filed PayPal dispute for your subscription.

That said, should you have any further questions regarding the dispute filed, please direct these to PayPal.

Thanks again. - MR

Customer Service useless
January 31st, 2022
• Previous review

I accidentally subscribed to Scribd twice. When I contacted the company to ask for a refund on the one subscription they did refund me but also closed my account. Now I can't get in at all! I've sent numerous emails and they've given me my account information but the account does not recognize my email so I can't get any further. Originally I was enjoying the service but after trying to deal with them for this long and getting no where I can't give a positive review. I've lost my $70 and have all this frustration instead.

Tip for consumers:
Customer service so poor.

Service
Returns
Thumbnail of user jeannethp
Philippines
1 review
6 helpful votes
  • Send Message
May 4th, 2015

I want to ask, why i deducted too much eventhough i subscribed for an hour and decided to unsubcribe member after i read information regarding of my research. I checked my statement of account yesterday and i found out that you deducted more than of what i expected.

Thumbnail of user emilyb370
California
1 review
10 helpful votes
  • Send Message
June 14th, 2019

I canceled my subscription and was billed even after canceling. Then... 7 months later I randomly received another billing. If I didn't get emails on my phone from my bank I would have never noticed. This company doesn't give a phone number for their costumer service so you have to track them down via email. Any company that bills you months after leaving and doesn't allow me to call immediately to request reimbursements... dude... sketchy service if you ask me.

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi there Emily! A member of our support team can definitely look into this for you. Please email us at help@scribd.com, then update your review with your ticket number and a member of our team will reach out to you shortly. Thanks!

Thumbnail of user adamb318
North Carolina
1 review
6 helpful votes
  • Send Message
July 5th, 2018

I tried the site for a couple weeks, but didn't find what I was looking for (Technical manuals for old Automation equipment) and when I thought I cancelled, I had not. You click Cancel, but you have to keep scrolling through a few more "Yes I am sure I want to Cancel" type screens before I was able to finalize. Thus my 'Free' trial which did not get me what I was searching for cost me $9. I'm just lucky I caught this on my list of Credit Card Charges before another month was charged.

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Adam - I'm so sorry to hear about your unexpected charge. Please send us an email to help@scribd.com and we will absolutely issue a refund. Thank you!

Thumbnail of user heatherl474
Costa Rica
1 review
0 helpful votes
  • Send Message
February 18th, 2021

I do not have an account with SCRIBD, so I cannot log in to an account to update payment information. I did have an account over a year ago. I bought an audio book, listened and then canceled the subscription. Around 8 months after canceling, SCRIBD began to charge my credit card $8.99 a month, and they won't quit, so every month I have to dispute the charge. What a waste of time!

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Heather, we're sorry for any confusion or frustration! To clarify, it's absolutely impossible for us to bill a canceled account as it's no longer rendering services with us. Any charges you're seeing are either due to a duplicate account or unsuccessful cancellation.

With that being said, we're happy to help with a cancellation and refund here! We'll need to connect you directly with our support team for further assistance with this, so please use this link to create a ticket: https://scr.bi/assist
Once this is done, a specialist will follow up and make sure this gets resolved for you right away!

Thumbnail of user jirayuh
Thailand
1 review
2 helpful votes
  • Send Message
December 24th, 2022
Verified purchase

I subscribe Scribd for a trial and I cancel my subscription and think that it's all done. However my subscriltion is not cancel and I did not realize that untill I saw my credit card statement. It was the worst experince.

Scribd is the well known application, you should not use trick like this.

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Jirayu, we apologize for any confusion or frustration with our cancelation process. It's actually quite simple to cancel your Scribd subscription and can be done at any time within your account settings: https://www.scribd.com/your-account
Additionally, our Help Center contains a step-by-step guide on how to properly cancel. You can follow the link here to access the public support article: https://support.scribd.com/hc/articles/210134046-How-to-cancel-your-subscription

If you still require assistance, our support team is in fact available and we are more than happy to help. You can use the link here to connect with them directly and a specialist will follow up right away: https://scr.bi/assist
We hope this helps to clarify your experience. Thanks! -VG

Thumbnail of user qiuhaig
Ohio
1 review
5 helpful votes
  • Send Message
July 5th, 2016

I did cancle membership several month ago, but today I found out I've been charged every month for membership. If I don't recieve my credit card notification, I never know SCRIBD website charging my money without any notice. There are no phone call customer service, and I send message from SCRIBD online, but not response. I'm thinking about to file this case to court to get fair decision, My money should be refunded.
My account: *******@gmail.com

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi there! We've just located your support ticket and are replying now with information on how your subscription was started. Thanks! - Zoë, Scribd Customer Support

Thumbnail of user liamh24
Netherlands
3 reviews
0 helpful votes
  • Send Message
January 18th, 2021

Have been using the site for a long time to get the books. Lately the quality of service has dropped a bit, I sometimes get the books non-openable, or on links that aren`t working. I still love the service, just get well guys!

Thumbnail of user sandeepg19
India
1 review
5 helpful votes
  • Send Message
July 4th, 2018

Hi There,

I dont remembering registering in to your scribd. If i have done also, there is no record / confirmation mail sent to my mail IDs. I have checked all my Mail ID's and could not find any kind of subscription/ confirmation mail.

Please refund my money ( INR 645.62) that was looted by you on Wed, Jul 4,2018 at 7:18 PM (I. S. T.) from my bankc account ending 1352 - ICICIBank, with out my consent.

Thanks
Sandeep

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Sandeep - I'm sorry to hear about your unexpected charges. Please send us an email to help@scribd.com and we'll absolutely help with a refund. Thank you!

Thumbnail of user janicew28
Canada
1 review
9 helpful votes
  • Send Message
January 21st, 2016

I signed up for the Scribd "Free Trial" in order to download a single item... a bicycle repair manual that I could not find anywhere else on the web. It was a one-time scenario, a one-month trial. I discovered that they have continued to bill me for the past 8 MONTHS. I sent numerous messages to their "say hello" contact email and did not receive a response.
I repeatedly went through their cancellation process (endless deceptive click-throughs on endless pages) only to find out that the account had not been properly terminated. Finally received an email from a rep who said, according to their company policy they would refund the most recent bill (this after I sent several emails to say I did not want another payment going through). Still waiting to see if they refund the single month. WHAT I'D REALLY LIKE IS AN 8-MONTH REFUND! This is the WORST company I've ever dealt with online. Terrible Customer service. And, I've never seen anything like their cancellation procedure. AWFUL!

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Janice, I'm sorry to hear of the trouble you've had with getting in touch with us. Please send us an email to help@scribd.com, rather than hello@scribd.com, with your account information and our Support team will be in touch shortly. Thanks! - Zoë, Scribd Customer Support

Thumbnail of user bonnym7
Bonny M.
France
1 review
4 helpful votes
  • Send Message
September 21st, 2018

I was curious but I did not subscribe to their service and they took my money every month for one year without my consentement !!! It was impossible to detect it, they use your Card information stored in Your Iphone. Then the subscription does not appear within your Apple subscriptions, there are no invoices no welcome mail, it is undetectable. They refuse to give my money back even if they KNOW that I have a never used their service, as soon as I wasn't even aware that I was I boarded against my will !!

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Bonny - I'm very sorry to hear about your unexpected charges. It's not possible for us to start a subscription on your behalf using information stored on your phone; it is possible you may have started a subscription with us via the Apple iTunes store, which is why you're receiving those charges. Please send us an email to help@scribd.com and we'll be happy to investigate!

Thumbnail of user venanziov
Italy
1 review
3 helpful votes
  • Send Message
May 27th, 2018

Scribd https://www.scribd.com/ is a website which states to provide "an unlimited number of books, audiobooks, magazines". Although I have subscribed to Scribd, whenever I tried to log into https://www.scribd.com/ the system iteratively still asked me to initiate a free trial which did not make any sense as I was already a subscriber. Furthermore, when I logged in and I tried to access any book, the system did not allow me to access it.

I sent several emails to the support email address they have in their website and they never bothered to reply, in the meantime they started their monthly charge and I sent emails to cancel the subscription and they did not reply. I finally accessed paypal and cancelled the automatic payment and I sent a last email to Scribd to ask for a refund and as usual they did not bother to reply.

If I had known that they were so unreliable, I would have never accepted to subscribe.

Venanzio Vella

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Venanzio - I'm so sorry to hear that you did not receive a reply from us. To confirm, did you send an email to help@scribd.com? If you did, please reply here with your ticket number and we will absolutely make sure to issue a refund!

Thumbnail of user mohammadh75
Malaysia
1 review
3 helpful votes
  • Send Message
November 30th, 2019

Tried cancelling but couldn't. As soon as they charged me, I was able to cancel the subscription. I am convinced that scribd intentionally did this so that they are able to charge me before i could cancel. Scribd is a scame!

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Mohammad - We're sorry to hear about the trouble you had canceling your subscription! We'd be more than happy to provide you with a refund for your recent charge. Please email us at help@scribd.com, and a member of our team will reply shortly. Thank you!

Thumbnail of user nimishg
India
1 review
2 helpful votes
  • Send Message
September 5th, 2017

I opted for a 30-day free trial on scribd and later on realised by reading here that I made a big mistake by providing them my card information. I subscribed on 4-sep-2017 and at around 4:11 AM they drawed and credited $1 from my account. Later on I read reviews here and realized that its a big scam. I canceled my subscription but it still says that "Your membership was cancelled on 9/5/17 and will end on 10/4/17." I tried deleting my account but it says that I have an active subscription and I cannot delete until it expires. I have sent them a mail requesting them to delete my account and they reverted back with a mail stating a ticket number *******. I request scribd to deactivate my account and delete my card details ASAP.

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Nimish. Thanks for providing your ticket number and I've responded to your account concerns. If you have additional questions, please reply to the email. Thank you. -Donni, Scribd Customer Support

Thumbnail of user ederr1
Brazil
1 review
1 helpful vote
  • Send Message
May 30th, 2018

I discovered today that Scribd charged me, I thought I had cancelled, I don't even used the site. The process of unsubscribing is not transparent and you need to read it carefully otherwise you will gonna end up with a surprise in your bills.

Edit:
Scribd rapidly made a refund, but I recomend you to make more transparent the process of canceling. And although the service is very useful, charge in US Dollars make it very expensive for me that lives in Brazil.

Thumbnail of user jerryg31
Scribd S. – Scribd Rep

Hi Eder - I'm sorry to hear about your unexpected charge and we're happy to help with a refund. Please send us an email to help@scribd.com. Thank you!

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Our monthly subscription starts at just $11.99 USD and automatically renews unless the subscription is canceled at least 24 hours prior to the next billing date.
A Scribd monthly subscription also includes access to Everand (ebooks, audiobooks, and more) and SlideShare (presentations and professional content).

Please visit our Help Center for answers to frequently asked questions and the option to connect with our support team for further assistance: https://support.scribd.com/hc/categories/360005188511

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