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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.
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.
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.
Back in 2018, I had to read one book at college, so I used the website / App SCRIBD! When I finished the book I deleted the App and went into iPhone Settings / Apps / Purchases to be sure it was canceled! — Fast forward to 2021 — I noticed that an odd 8.99 a month fee was on my bank card dating way back to 2018! I was furious to learn that SCRIBD was still charging my card. YES INDEED. I logged onto their website — logged into account — and attempted to UNSCRIB! It was impossible! Both the website and the App guided me on a wild goose chase trying to cancel. It was a rigmarole nightmare! Took me an hour — lots of googling — and finally a YouTube video to show me how to cancel this shady membership! Be very cautious. I used other book Apps for college and never had an issue — the last book app I would ever recommend is SCRIBD! Their name alone speaks for itself because once you are SCRIBD — you can't get Unscribed! So be very careful! Don't do it — if you see this app turn around and run — run away fast
Tip for consumers:
DON’T SUBSCRIBE TO SCRIBD — Don’t do it !
Impossible to cancel membership and company keeps charging credit card. Find another App! Don’t use SCRIBD
Products used:
Read one book in 2018 using their App — company continue charging my credit every month thru 2021. I canceled the App in 2018, but the website and app trick members into believing their membership is canceled, when it isn’t! It’s next to impossible to cancel a membership and good luck at finding a phone number to call. A phone number also doesn’t appear on bank statements! SHADY SHADY SHADY!
Same 'charge you for nothing' crap like the other comments. It's sites like this that ruin the internet for everyone else
Hi Jeffrey, We recently messaged you here to request some more information in order to assist you. Please reply and we can proceed. Thanks! - Zoë, Scribd Customer Support
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 they 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.
Hi there! We're so sorry for the trouble and would like to escalate your case to a support specialist. Please email us at help@scribd.com, then update your review with your new ticket number and we will reach out to you shortly. Thanks!
The thing is u pay for membership and u dont own anything, after your membership ends, u cannot read your books, that you paid for. SCAM
They said they will get back in a day... not true. They say unlimited... not true either. They cut you off till the next billing cycle.
Hi Shiva- I'm sorry that specific books are temporarily unavailable to you right now. While we cannot guarantee the immediate availability of every title, all titles found using our Explore page should be available for unlimited reading right away: https://www.scribd.com/explore Still have questions? Email help@scribd.com - Thanks!
I tried cancelling my account and their website would not allow me and it charged me today. I WANT MY MONEY BACK! I will not recommend this website to anyone!
Hi Josh - I'm so sorry to hear that. We're happy to cancel your account and issue a refund. Please send us an email to help@scribd.com. Thank you!
Same they have taken payment can't even get into app and not easy to complain and get payment back do not use
Hi Michelle, it sounds like you have an active subscription with us as we're unable to bill otherwise. We're happy to help with a cancellation and refund, so please use this link to connect with our support team directly for further assistance: https://scr.bi/assist
Thanks! -VG
After I terminated my free trial, they brought my trial back and forcibly charged 9.99 dollars against my will.
Hi Theodore - Just to clarify, Scribd does not "sign up" or "start subscriptions" for our users without their consent. In order for someone to have an active subscription with us, the only way to do so would be for them to sign up when creating an account or restart/renew their membership from their Account Settings page. Please send us an email at help@scribd.com and update your review with your ticket number. Once this is done, we'll escalate your case and get this resolved ASAP. Thanks!
Limited Titles, Limited Authors. I received a 6 mo. Subscription as a gift. I will not be renewing it.
We’re so sorry about any confusion here with our library. While you may find some titles not immediately available, there will always be something to read! Our article here, https://bit.ly/2yPhpTq can help you with this, or feel free to email us at help@scribd.com.
Scribd support already replied to my email after I posted a review here. Customer support assigned to my ticket responded well to my queries.
Hi Joyce, we're so glad to hear that we were able to get this resolved for you. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us again in the future if you need additional assistance. Thanks so much and have a wonderful day!
Does not respond to email! Subscribed to a free trial but immediately cancelled. Now i can't remove my card info from them! With all the bad reviews, i'm worried that my card will still get charged. Ticket # *******!
Jerry G. The Scribd Representative on Site Jabber, responded to my complaint that my copyrighted material on Scribd has been massively violated (by a so-called hacker with complete access to my Scribd files) in an apparently criminal manner while Scribd profited on that content, prevaricated by assuring me my issue would be accelerated for response by Scribd, so I should communicate with Scribd by email. Weeks have passed without the promised acknowledgment, therefore I shall have published an exhaustive, detailed exposition of the matter in hopes that other Scribd providers will take steps to protect their rights.
CORRESPONDENCE
Hey David,
Jerry G. From Scribd wanted to reach out to you personally about your review:
"Hi David,
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
We do not provide customer support over SiteJabber, but have located your existing report to our Copyright team. We've escalated your case and you will receive an update shortly from one of our specialists. Please continue to correspond with us via email should you have any further questions or concerns.
Thanks again, and have a wonderful day! -VG
David W. Wrote: -------------------------
UPDATE: Most of the complaints about Scribd here are about its subscription policies. My own concern is that of an author who discovered a massive and apparently criminal copying and distribution of my work with a false certification of copyright to copies. Scribd has not responded recently. I sent this request today.
14 January 2022
Jason Bentley
Copyright, Abuse, and Privacy Manager
Scribd, Inc.
Hi, Jason, Scribd may have been aware of the massive copying and unlawful distribution of its providers' content for several years. The platform certifies it owns the copyrights. That is probably a violation of Title 18 Criminal Code. Please advise whom I may verify what SCRIBD knows about this and what it did, if anything, to help its providers except to deny, as your department does, any relationship with the apparently criminal operation.
Here is a link to the Lumen's record of the 2017 Court Order:
https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/*******
Thanks!
David Arthur Walters
UPDATE: Most of the complaints about Scribd here are about its subscription policies. My own concern is that of an author who discovered a massive and apparently criminal copying and distribution of my work with a false certification of copyright to copies. Scribd has not responded recently. I sent this request today.
14 January 2022
Jason Bentley
Copyright, Abuse, and Privacy Manager
Scribd, Inc.
Hi, Jason, Scribd may have been aware of the massive copying and unlawful distribution of its providers' content for several years. The platform certifies it owns the copyrights. That is probably a violation of Title 18 Criminal Code. Please advise whom I may verify what SCRIBD knows about this and what it did, if anything, to help its providers except to deny, as your department does, any relationship with the apparently criminal operation.
Here is a link to the Lumen's record of the 2017 Court Order:
https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/*******
Thanks!
David Arthur Walters
Dumb me. I posted work on SCRIBD just for the traffic for several years, and did not realize they were sharing it with other platforms, e.g. an outfit called docsharetips which seems impossible to identify, does not respond to its messages, and claims it owns the copyright to its massive copies of SCRIBD posts. In any event, I DID NOT GIVE permission to SCRIBD to mirror my work on other platforms. I notice that docsharetips is showing traffic numbers different that what is shown on SCRIBD, and I have some information in my file from SCRIBD that it was inflating its numbers some time ago to induce more writers to post. I complained to SCRIBD this week and then it denied me access to my posts, holding my work hostage--otherwise it allows work to be removed or kept private. To make matters worse, it appears that subscribers pay a fee to view, and I get no share of it. SCRIBD has not responded to this latest communication I sent after its representative mentioned LinkedIn and MSF as previous owners and referred to slideshare instead of docsharetip :( "After posting for several years on SCRIBD, I discovered my work was without my permission being mirrored on a platform called docsharetips, so I tried to notice that platform on several occasions to remove my work, which they wrongly claim to own the copyright for, and they did not respond. The owners of that platform cannot be identified through their webpages. I contacted SCRIBD to complain, and they denied me access to my SCRIBD pages and gave me some blah blah not about docusharetips but as follows: "Scribd acquired SlideShare from LinkedIn and Microsoft on 24 September 2020. This erasure applies only to information held by the current SlideShare, and will not erase information held by LinkedIn and Microsoft". What they erased is not what I complained about, exact copies of my work but with different traffic numbers (docsharetips) but my Scribd pages, although I clearly identified the link to the violative displays: https://docshare.tips/authors/David+Arthur+Walters/5 I could care less about the public documents, but I did not intend my work to be displayed by anyone but by SCRIBD.)
11 January 2022 My Latest Communication - My experience thus far with SCRIBD employees is they have reading comprehension issues, and may be robots:
I have extensive correspondence with SCRIBD. The latest communication to them being this one:
"Jason and Delaney,
At no time did I complain about SlideShare, yet Scribd notified me that account was being deleted.
After receiving that notice, I discovered that I could no longer access my Scribd.Com files to either delete or privatize them.
My work, however, is still accessible via Google at such links as this one:
https://www.scribd.com/document/*******/Reforming-The-FLorida-Bar-by-David-Arthur-Walters
The DocshareTips files are apparently copies of Scribd files, and such copying appears to be in violation of federal law. The pages are identical but the files have different traffic numbers then the Scribd traffic numbers.
That particular Tips operation claims it holds the copyright to my work. That is a lie. No one at that platform responds, and the identity of the operators is unknown at this time.
I have discovered a predecessor operation to that Tips platform duplicating my work, and it identifies itself with your Scribd company. For example, see this link:
https://docu.tips/documents/span-classvisuallyhiddenscribd-span-5c117c2a31a44
I have not researched my files, but I recall some years ago some irate Scribd content providers complained that Scribd was taking advantage of providers by charging subscription fees to subscribers who were accessing their files, yet were not paying the providers.
The content providers who were not charging for the sale of content, considered traffic benefit enough, for at least it's advertising value, and said they were surprised they were being taken advantage of since subscribers were paying Scribd to access their work. It was at about that time that Scribd said that it's traffic numbers were grossly inflated, reduced those numbers accordingly, and stopped providing data analysis graphs.
I received an email from Scribd that I had a small amount of money due to me, but I do not believe anything was paid. I was not very concerned at the time with the allegations being made, yet in retrospect I suppose that, if they were true, millions of dollars might be of concern overall.
My personal concern at present is the fact that a company has duplicated my files from your platform. You say you have no relationship with that company, so I would expect that your executives would definitely want to cooperate in an FBI investigation of what might be a massive criminal operation.
Also disturbing is the fact that I can no longer access my Scribd files, yet, as mentioned above, they are still displayed on the internet with Scribd links.
Please advise,
David Arthur Walters
Stay away!
Don't use you card on this piece of s*** site!
Don't use you card on this piece of s*** site!
Hi George - we're happy to help you with a refund and to help you cancel any subscriptions you may have; simply send us an email to help@scribd.com!
Never subscribe to it! Website of fraud, never leave your personal card date on this site!
Never subscribe to it!
Thanks for reaching out - we cannot charge someone without a subscription, so something must be wrong here. That said, please do not worry! We have a team of experts who can assist you. To get in touch, please submit a ticket via this link https://scr.bi/assist
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. They 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.
Hi Courtney - I'm so sorry to hear about your experience and I'd like to help! Could you please reply to this with your ticket number from when you emailed us? That way, I can personally help resolve the issue. Thank you!
Don't subscribe they are scammer. They don't deliver what they promised. They don't keep their words. Don't put card details
Tip for consumers:
Don't subscribe
Products used:
Monthly free subscription ended with charges without renewal reminder
We're sorry for the experience, Kuldeep. If there's anything we can do to help, we have a dedicated support team who can assist you further. Feel free to get in touch with us here: https://scr.bi/assist We'll get back to you within 48 hours. Thanks! -AR
They continued to charge me well after I cancelled my free trial period. They refused to refund me. Do not subscribe. TOTAL SCAM!
Hi Laura, it sounds like you have an active subscription with us as we're unable to bill otherwise. To clarify, we cannot charge a canceled account as it's no longer rendering services with us. We're happy to help with a cancellation and refund, so please use this link to connect with our support team directly for further assistance: https://scr.bi/assist
Thanks! -VG
Put a tiny button, hope this company goes bankrupt in near future. Was charged monthly for the service i dont use
Hi Brian,
Thank you for leaving your review here. It sounds like you may have had trouble canceling, and our support team is always available to help with cancelations and refunds when necessary. If you would like help, please reach out to us by sending us a ticket via this link: https://scr.bi/assist. When you do, your ticket will be escalated to the top of my queue so I can get back to you as soon as possible.
Reference #******* Several months after cancelling my account and I've been charged multiple times over the last year. Please fix now.
Hi Sean, we're sorry to hear about the charges you are encountering. The reference number you provided is not one we can use to look up any previous email support tickets or accounts you may have with us. So we can best assist you, can you please reach out to help@scribd.com to connect with a support specialist? Then feel free to update this review with your ticket number so we can escalate your ticket. Thanks!
I have already cancelled my membership back in December 2016, but still being charged for two months after!
Hi Damon! I'm glad we were able to resolve this issue via email on March 2,2016. If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us again at support@scribd.com. Thanks! - Zoë Scribd Customer Support
This is a scam! I have had to go through the cancellation process twice. I'm still not sure that it stuck!
If it's any comfort, many credit card companies are on to this and will reverse the charge with a minimum of effort. Mine did...
Scribd deducted amount without informing me even when i didn't used there free subscription they are big frauds.
Tip for consumers:
don't take free subscription of scribd never ever
Products used:
There free subscription in which they committed fraud with me
Hi Gaurav, we're sorry for the trouble you've had with your subscription. We currently do not offer a standalone free trial. Our new members receive a free trial included as part of their subscription, which is why we ask for billing details. This way, there's no interruption for those who want to keep reading. If you need any assistance, please write to us here https://scr.bi/assist so your request can be escalated. Thanks!
I was just charged $8.99 USD for a Scribd membership when I've never given them my credit card information. This is complete BS.
Hi Mathieu - Most likely you signed up for a subscription with us in order to access a PDF document or book. Please email us at help@scribd.com so we can locate your subscription and issue a refund. Thank you!
Scribd has double charged me last few months. My support ticket #*******, deeply disappointed in their service.
Thank you for letting us know - I am so sorry for the trouble with these charges! It is impossible for us to double charge a single account, so you likely have a duplicate account. However, please do not worry! One of our agents will reply to you today and assist you. Please watch for their email and let them know if you have more questions.
Was charged for months after deleting my account, lost at least $100 because i could not figure out exactly how to cancel. Very frustrated.
Hi Heylea - I'm so sorry to hear this! We can absolutely help you with a refund. Please send us an email to help@scribd.com and we'll be happy to help!
Gain trust and grow your business with customer reviews.
Explore over 170 million documents and counting from a global community of users. Find and upload text on every topic and niche, including research papers, official government documents, user manuals, and more!
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
Hi Tori, thanks for reaching out. We sincerely apologize for any confusion with your Scribd membership and the cancellation process. To clarify, it is absolutely impossible for us to bill a canceled account as it is no longer rendering services with us. We actually have a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to cancel your subscription in our Help Center here: https://bit.ly/2UpEyYF
If you still need assistance, we're more than happy to help with a cancellation and refund for you, so please use this link to connect with our support team directly and a specialist will follow up ASAP to get this resolved: https://scr.bi/assist
Thanks so much for reaching out! -VG