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.
My daughter has been trying to cancel her subscriptions since March. No phone number on the website and messages/chats were ignored.
Typical company that reels you in then makes it a hassle to cancel membership. No reminders of upcoming charges.
Hi Nax - I'm sorry to hear about this, we do send reminders to the email address on file, but sometimes they are sent to your spam folder. I'd be happy to issue a refund for any charges that you may have received. Please send us an email to help@scribd.com with ATTENTION JAMES in the subject line and I'll personally resolve this for you. Thank you!
Scribd.com is very helpful site. It's a document-sharing website that allows users to post their documents in various formats.
I have cancelled my subscription several times. They continue charging me! Very annoyed with this company.
Thank you for your comment here - I apologize for the trouble with these charges! It is actually impossible for us to charge you without an active subscription, so you likely have a failed cancelation or a duplicate account. However, do not worry! We can help you. Please submit a ticket through this link https://scr.bi/assist so your request is escalated straight to my inbox and I'll get back to you as soon as possible
Keep getting billed every month though I don't use the service. Hard to get it off once you subscribe.
Tip for consumers:
Don't subscribe.
Products used:
Subscription
Hi Ravi, thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. We're sorry for the trouble you've encountered. If you're still being charged, this could mean, but is not limited to, an unsuccessful cancellation or possibly a duplicate account was created with another email address of yours. We would be happy to locate this transaction and provide a refund in line with our Refund Policy (https://bit.ly/2Zs4bLh). Please create a support ticket with us through this link https://scr.bi/assist so we can get you a response within 48 hours. Thanks! -AR
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.
Quit ripping people off! My sister has been overcharged for more than two years by your service you con artists!
Very much thief people. Be careful for your money when you use this platform. Do not keep payment information with them after unsubscribe option.
Hi there, it sounds like your cancellation wasn't successful, as we can't charge cancelled accounts. Please email help@scribd.com & then reply here with your ticket number. We want to issue you a refund and remove your payment information from our system. Thanks!
This "free trial" is a SCAM to fleece you of your credit card details. Once they have those, oh, whoops, look at that, two seconds later your "free trial" has expired and you need to pay now to access the site! -- This is not a glitch; it's a feature. This is how the scam begins.
I have read most of the reviews here on the first page and already a pattern is emerging. This is a fraudulent company that hides behind things like technical difficulties and "duplicate accounts" (? Who is buying this garbage?) to explain why they are charging customers, and continue to charge customers, despite lying through their teeth and providing zero service.
When you try to contact them via the website, you submit your "question" but they don't even take your contact details, so there is no way for them to respond to you. Email them and they hide behind Covid as a reason they can't respond to your queries.
In the end I cancelled my card. Lesson learned, but there's no way I'm giving these scammers a cent so just do it -- cancel your card. Their "cancel any time!" is a big fat lie; know that upfront. They don't make it easy to cancel and purposefully obfuscate the process to make it difficult for you. Just a tip: Deleting your account will NOT stop them from charging you.
Scribd, I'm writing this review mostly because I wanted to inform you (as I've already done via email) that I will be compiling evidence, then submitting, detailed reports to all of the businesses who work with you. I have a lot of time on my hands! Yours is a fraudulent company, regularly scamming and deceiving customers. There is no way you should be allowed anywhere near PayPal, the Apple app store or Google Play. ALL services have severed ties with/refused to support apps and companies for much less.
Thank you for your review here, and I truly apologize for the frustration. Please know, we want to ensure we do everything in our power to make this right for you.
To confirm, you can cancel at any time and we have a guide on how to cancel here: https://bit.ly/33ONeg3
That said, we are always happy to help with cancelations and refunds when duplicate accounts or any unwanted charges occur.
As you mentioned already having a ticket open with us, feel free to update here with your ticket number and we'll be happy to help you as we can.
For now, thank you for your time, and I hope you are well - take care!
Never have been to this site or heard of it until I see its charging my card for no reason like wtf stop charging me for $#*! I never signed up for
Hi Harrison - Our support team is more than happy to investigate this and stop any future charges. Please reach out to us at help@scribd.com and update your review with your ticket number. Once this is done, we'll get you connected with a specialist who can assist ASAP. Thanks!
I heard about this service and thought it was a fun concept, so I signed up for a 14-day trial to give it a shot. After putting all my information in to the account, I immediately went to the cancel membership section, so I wouldn't be charged after the trial was up.
After the trial period, I noticed that my account was in fact charged for a month of service. I went back to see why this happened. It turns out that to cancel is a very annoying process. Once you hit cancel account, it takes you to a page that says "This doesn't have to be the end". I must have assumed hitting the cancel button was all you needed to do the first time, so I missed this. After I "confirmed" the cancellation, I was taken to another page pushing me to stay with the service. I again told it to cancel, to which it took me to a page that offered me a 30-day trial. I once again hit cancel and it took me to a page that asked me to give it feedback for leaving. (There were still a bunch of other headers and buttons that encouraged you not to leave). I filled out the feedback explaining that the cancellation process was obnoxious and that I wanted my money back. I assumed this would indeed be the last page to cancel the service. WRONG! I was then taken to another page that gave me four or five buttons to stay, and one small button to finalize the cancellation that was very hard to find.
I wanted to give them a 1-star review for this. But I decided to cut them a break and give them 2-stars for a couple of reasons. The first simply because it is a good service. I wanted to do the trial because they have a large comic book library, and I was able to read a lot of graphic novels that I would otherwise have to pay $30 each for at a store.
The other reason being that despite the obnoxious cancellation process, I was given a response to my feedback within an hour and my money refunded.
If you are willing to subscribe to the service, I think it is worth the money. But like many of the reviews on this page, there is something very untrustworthy about this company, and I don't think I will be giving them my business in the future.
I Did contact customer care and after 3 exchanges your rep Finally admitted that some may not see your practices as Limitted, "depends how you define Unlimitted" is how she put it. News Flash! Unlimited gas already been defined and it means Without Limit... apparently not to companies looking to bamboozle the public.
I also have a problem Paying for a service that Pads their library with FREE LibriVox books & other Public Domain books. And then to tell me I have a free month credited to my account is ludicrous considering I would have to resume my membership. That is Not "Free" if I have to auth ScribD to charge my card. And after the numerous complaints about ScribD continuing to charge after cancelation, I am Not likely to trust ScribD with my authorization. I'd have to be an idiot to do so, especially after being scammed on the NOT unlimited Bait n Switch, the Attempt to Redefine Unlimited,, and seeing the Horrible reviews. My only regret is that I didn't check reviews Before I bothered with ScribD. But I will Warn everyone I can to check reviews first
They advertise Unlimited but as soon as they see your interests, especially in series books, Suddenly the books become "unavailable" until whatever your next payment date. When I contacted them I was told it was coincidence, then in the second communication the CSR said that they rotate their books, in the 3rd round thr rep Finally came as close to Admitting it as they could by saying "Well, some may think its limited but it depends how you define Unlimitted". I canceled and said that Unlimited Means Without Limit! The next day I got a message that my Canceled account was given a free month. Nice try, but No Sale!
UPDATE: I Did contact customer care and after 3 exchanges your rep Finally admitted that some may not see your practices as Limitted, "depends how you define Unlimitted" is how she put it. News Flash! Unlimited gas already been defined and it means Without Limit... apparently not to companies looking to bamboozle the public.
I also have a problem Paying for a service that Pads their library with FREE LibriVox books & other Public Domain books. And then to tell me I have a free month credited to my account is ludicrous considering I would have to resume my membership. That is Not "Free" if I have to auth ScribD to charge my card. And after the numerous complaints about ScribD continuing to charge after cancelation, I am Not likely to trust ScribD with my authorization. I'd have to be an idiot to do so, especially after being scammed on the NOT unlimited Bait n Switch, the Attempt to Redefine Unlimited,, and seeing the Horrible reviews. My only regret is that I didn't check reviews Before I bothered with ScribD. But I will Warn everyone I can to check reviews first
Like many other customers who have shown their outrage of the unscrupulous practices of Scribd, I have been wrongfully charged monthly for 4 times throughout this year despite canceling my FREE TRIAL membership in April. When I emailed them, they only agreed to refund the latest one, and refuse to refund the previous three charges as they claim "their refund policy is they do not issue refunds beyond 30 days." When the error is on the company's side to settle and for the customers to claim because we are the victims in the transaction, they do not take responsibility to repay us back the money. I, as an unknowing consumer, has to suffer because of an error on the company's side that took away a large proportion of my bank account money that I dutifully save up. This is pure exploitation of unsuspecting consumers, disguised under the banner of "free trial" and it is honestly my first experience.
Ticket number: *******
In response to their claims of a " monthly subscription". I am well aware of the distinctions between paid monthly subscriptions; annual subscriptions; free trial, and CANCELLATIONs of subscriptions presented on the website to me( please see attached photo). I am not the one erroneously claiming that I did not cancel a paid membership- I have even received a proof that I cancelled my subscription. So why is it that the company still refuses to admit it has a duty to repay me for wrongly charging me when I CANCELLED my paid subscription, and using its "30 day policy" to cover up its error in transactions? It's hard to not perceive this as an exploitation of customers when they have clearly opted out of paid subscriptions. What's more frustrating is they have the audacity to charge NOT one, but 5 wrong payments throughout the entire year.
Thanks for your comment here and I apologize for the frustration here.
As stated in our Subscriber Agreement (https://bit.ly/2IvDOOp) "If You elect to purchase an annual or monthly subscription, You will be charged the annual or monthly subscription fee (“Subscription Fee”) at the beginning of the paying portion of Your Subscription and each year or month thereafter, respectively, at the then-current rate"
However, we can assess your account for additional refunds. Please be sure to update this comment with your ticket number, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible to help you with this.
I left the account and still have to pay and the page say that I dont have any cc on the site but stiil paying sorry my english is poor
Hi Cindy - we're more than happy to resolve this for you. Please send us an email to help@scribd.com and we'll absolutely help with a refund. Thank you!
Illegal uploading of my book Critical Social Research and failure to remove same when told about the violation of my copyright.
I just kept uploading original content, and i got to read the books i wanted, so I'm a happy camper - word of advice: read the T&C before signing up
I canceled my subscription long ago but they keep charging my credit card. I'm going to have to cancel my credit card!
Tip for consumers:
There is no customer service. Everything is with automatic response.
Products used:
Books download
Hi Mireya, I am happy to help you cancel your account. I was not able to locate a support ticket, if you have a open request please let me know your ticket number or submit a ticket through this link: bit.ly/social-support-help Your request will be escalated straight to my inbox.
Thanks! -LC
I canceled my membership right before the free trail ended and I'm still being charged for months after.
Hi there, 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!
I've tried to get a refund 4 times already but no response from support. They billed me for 2 months I didn't use!
My username is emilio_garza_6
Hi Emilio. Thank you for providing your username. Your support tickets has been replied to with more information regarding your account and refund. If you have further questions, please reply to that ticket or just reply here. Thanks! -Donni, Scribd Customer Support
Needing to click "confirm cancellation" more than once should be illegal. And couldn't download the doc I wanted.
Hi Andy! We are more than happy to help you with this. 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!
I posted on the BBB on August 18 and received a response (see below) on August 21. I was told that the last charge would be refunded (this has been going on for years). That very day, I was charged again.
Response I received on August 21:
The business indicated:
Hi Colleen, we apologize for any confusion here. Upon review, we were not able to find any support tickets from you in our system, which would be why you didn't receive anything from us. We were able to locate your account and can confirm that you created your subscription with us on February 10th, 2017 under the email address you've provided above. According to our system, your account was not canceled at all, which is why these charges came through as normal. To confirm, when you purchased the trial, you agreed to the terms and conditions under the Subscriber Agreement (https://support.scribd.com/hc/articles/*******) that stated this was not a one-time purchase, but instead a recurring month to month subscription. Scribd does not offer a standalone free trial. In accordance with our Refund Policy (https://support.scribd.com/hc/articles/*******), we've refunded your most recent charge and canceled your subscription. Your payment method should be credited within 3-5 business days. Your free Scribd account will remain active, so you'll still be able to share documents and use Scribd's free features. In some cases, full versions of documents available on Scribd may only be visible to Scribd subscribers. We hope this helps to clear things up for you. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us at *******@scribd.com in the future if you need additional assistance. Thanks for reaching out and have a wonderful day!
Hi Colleen, thanks for reaching out to us. We apologize for any confusion here. Upon review, the account mentioned in the excerpt from our company's response to your BBB review has not been charged further as it is canceled. To clarify, it is absolutely impossible for us to bill a canceled/deactivated account since you are no longer rendering services with us. We've also checked our payment processor and can confirm there are no recent charges either.
With all of this being said, any charge you're seeing is tied to a separate account under a different email address. We'll need to perform a deeper search in order to locate the source of the charge. We've been able to locate a recent support ticket you submitted with us (#2881661) and a specialist just responded with more information. Please continue to correspond with us there moving forward so we can best assist you. We look forward to getting this resolved -- thanks!
PLEASE NEVER EVER GIVE A GIFT OF SCRIBD TO A STUDENT OR THEY WILL HAVE A HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE! BEWARE OF predatory billing, also... lots of complaints about that, too.
Go ahead and pick out those books you want to read... SCRIBD will freeze them for a month, release one to you, then freeze the rest until next month. Especially true of audiobooks!
When you look for something else, SCRIBD will give you photos of a bunch of LIBIVOX (free) books. SCRIBD also makes "Best Seller" lists with ancient LIBROVOX books. It's just another jaw-ish gyp. Beware.
It was a gift to me for a year... hah; don't give it to a friend! It's a disgusting ripoff.
Any response to customer service takes weeks, and they've just cancelled people who have complained.
They also will cut off access to a book for 24 hours if they decide you've accessed your membership from "too many browsers recently", and then if you click the question mark to see why - you get a dead link!
You never OWN a book the way you do with Audible or Audiobook, and can't go back and reread a book without a membership; you're just paying to read... and they hide the real bestseller list, and generally are just so stingy, mean, and shifty that it's pretty unbelievable. A BIG NO.
Tip for consumers:
GIVE IT A PASS. It's such a scam. The only value is from the uploads that outsiders put up & they take those down at will.
This business is a disgrace to literature!
Products used:
reading what I could access
Thank you for your review here and we apologize for the frustration and for the delay from support! While we are excited that Scribd has been growing as a community, we have admittedly not been able to respond to our customers as quickly as we would like. We're working to improve this moving forward and, in the meantime, I'm more than happy to help in any way I can.
Scribd is a monthly subscription service that gains you access to our monthly rotating library. Books cannot be purchased individually and titles will rotate as you read. That said, however, there will always be an unlimited amount of readily available titles to enjoy on Scribd while you wait for other titles to become available again. You can read more on how our subscriptions work and what is included in them here: https://bit.ly/3pebekD. If you would like to read more about how our rotating library process works and why, please check out this support article here: https://bit.ly/3oK7abz
That said, we do have measures in place to help prevent abuse of the site. You'll be able to read any title from the Scribd collection using up to 3 different browsers or computers within a 24-hour period. If you're using the Scribd app, you can save content on up to 4 devices for offline reading and can open any given title on up to 6 devices, although this may change for specific titles depending on the agreements that we have in place with our publishing partners. You can read more on that here: https://bit.ly/38IIr1U
I hope this information has been helpful and, please know, we are here to help if you need it. If you have an open ticket with support that you are waiting for a reply on, please let me know your ticket number and we'll be happy to escalate your case to an agent who is available to help you as soon as possible. Otherwise, thank you for your time here and we hope you have a great rest of your day! - EC
First of all, calling the subscription "unlimited" is misleading and completely false. When I started my subscription, I saw that I had access to many audiobooks and I saved them to my account. After a few days, every audiobook that wasn't saved to my account said "not available until (DATE)" which just coincidentally is the date for the next payment. So basically, audiobooks are only available to you on the day of payment (and only if you hit save) and after that they say "unavailable." This angered me because I felt they misrepresented the nature of the subscription by calling it unlimited when it is quite literally extremely limited (Nowhere on the site does it explain that this is how the subscription works... it repeatedly calls it unlimited - lies). However, I just saved all the books I wanted and waited several weeks until my next payment so they would be available. Fine. Annoying, but I was fine with that as long as I got the books I wanted.
THEN, randomly... all these books I saved were again unavailable until the following payment. When I ask questions of customer service I get a BS response that titles become unavailable due to agreements with publishers. That is BS because it is clearly associated with the date of payment and the books are a variety of publishers. I think they do this to try to keep customers on for month after month.
This company needs to be forthright about the actual nature of the subscription. If the subscription ran as it actually is advertised and explained on their site and FAQs... it would be perfect. However, it is unfortunately too good to be true. For being a company that is promoting literature, reading, expanding your mind, etc, it is far too shady.
Hi Ashley - I want to apologize for the confusion and frustration you may be feeling. We have released an article that will hopefully shed some light on these recent changes, at bit.ly/2w8420d. As always, please don't hesitate to email us at support@scribd.com and we'll be happy to help further. Thank you!
Scribd, with it's promise of "unlimited" access to their library of ebooks, audiobooks, and articles etc. ACTUALLY tracks subscribers searches - even ones that do not lead to saving a title, let alone reading or listening to a title - and determines by SEARCHES how to limit the "unlimited" access. I listened to one recently bestselling title, two much older, moderately successful titles, and four "classic" titles (as in, written before 1900), and was then cut off from ANY further audiobook borrows, except for the most ridiculous, tawdry, awful, no-star titles in their cataloge. So, after seven audiobook listens, I was basically CUT OFF. All other titles were labelled as "available soon." Scibd kept careful track of all my searches. So, for example if I entered an author's name, rather than a specific title, ALL the titles by that auther would be added to my limiting list of searches. SO, they punish you for simply searching for titles, and "unlimited" means NOTHING. This service may have some good points, but their shameless LYING and underhandedness cancels it all out.
Hi there, we apologize for any confusion! Libraries rotate individually depending on your reading history. This support article offers more information: https://bit.ly/2PY9v6I or you check out Section 3 of our Subscriber Agreement here: https://bit.ly/2R4PKLa Thanks! -VG
Would you like to know the solution to all your dissatisfied 1 star customer reviews Jerry? I'll give you the answer for free and no need for your future appreciation.
Here are the Deceptive practices that leads to angry customers. They are used to prevent customers from canceling and they work very well. The proof is in the reviews.
1. It is difficult to find the cancellation page. I believe a customer has to search for a specific link rather than just navigating the Scribd home website. It is unusual that one cannot cancel from the Scribd homepage. When compared to subscribing cancelling is pretty difficult. Why is that Jerry Please answer.
2. I exclusively used this service on my iphone. But unlike every other application I could not cancel through my apple id? Why is that Jerry? Please answer
3. Where most people likely go wrong is the first cancellation page. I clicked the first "cancel subscription button" and thought I was done with this aggravating task. But I found out months later that there is a cancellation funnel that customers have to go through. You click cancel subscription. Then it takes you to a page that seems to confirm your cancellation. But this is not true. Its actually a second cancellation page. You have to scroll down to cancel again?! What awaits is another cancellation page(the last one). Why is this Jerry please explain and change. Keep in mind there is only one subscribe button. Why is there a discrepancy Jerry? Please explain.
So the solution Jerry is to get rid of the cancellation funnel. Why does a customer have to click cancel 3 times or more to cancel there subscription?. This is why you have so many unhappy customers. Get rid of the extra cancellation pages and I promises your bad reviews will reduce.
For doing your job all I ask is for a refund for the months that I assumed my subscription was canceled (I clicked unsubscribe once which should be enough).
Hello there John - We are more than happy to address each of your concerns, and answer any further questions you may have. If you can email us at help@scribd.com, then update your review with your support ticket number, a member of our team will reach out to you shortly. Thanks!
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 Tom - We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience, however, at this time we do not offer phone support. We are more than happy to help you via email though, and 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 we'll get your case escalated to an account specialist right away. Thanks!