Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Scribd's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  Scribd

  460 Bryant Street, #100 San Francisco, CA 94107

• 

  Scribd

  539 Bryant St Ste 200 San Francisco, CA 94107-1269

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  Scribd

  333 Bush St Ste 2400 San Francisco, CA 94104-2806

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/17/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I cancelled my Scribd subscription and you guys charged me anyways. When I did not receive a confirmation email, I went back to your website and checked 4 times over the course of 4 months, but the cancel button was not visible. As in, something is off with the code on your webpage and the cancel button did not appear where your own instructions say it should be. I explained I just wanted to resolve this, and ************** with your support is choosing to try and punish me by telling me I cannot have a refund because I disputed it. This should not matter. If a refund was issued, then the dispute would end. I cancelled this service. The email associated with my account is ***********************

  Business Response

  Date: 12/18/2023

  Hi ****,
  

  Happy to help explain what is going on and I am sorry for any confusion.

  I looked into your PayPal dispute and can confirm a chargeback was received on December 16 2023. I am sorry for any inconvenience but we do not have the option to refund the transaction because of this filing. 

  Unless the chargeback is returned any refund due will be handled through the resolution system at PayPal. If youd like an update on the status of the refund requested, please contact them directly.

  Please let me know if you have any additional questions or if there is anything else I can do to help. Thanks again, and enjoy your day!
  

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/26/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On October 24th I decided to get a free trial on the platform Sribd, the email I got states that starting November 24th I would get the first charge of $9.99 however, on November the 23rd I got charged for the first month of the subscription, I tried to cancel and the answer I got from the website was that I would lose access to the paid features, I agreed to lose access but I never received the option to get a refund. I sent 2 requests to customer support and never heard back from them.I used my boyfriend's PayPal account in order to register, that is why the email on the payment method is different.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/27/2023

  Hi *****, Thank you for reaching out about this. I am sorry for the experience you had canceling your account and requesting the refund. I located your support ticket #******* and can confirm a refund was issued. Please allow 3-5 business day for the funds to show in the account.

  I also can confirm that we send a reminder email before the free trial ends and the subscription is billed for. For reference, the reminder email is sent with the subject line: We hope youre enjoying Scribd! We recommend checking your spam/junk folder, as email providers can sometimes sort messages incorrectly. If you have email forwarding set up or if the email address on file for your account needs to be corrected (for example, if it contains a typo), the reminder may have been sent to a different address or not received.

  Our records show your account was charged on November 24, 2023 01:03 UTC. This time may different in your local area depending on your time zone, I am sorry for any confusion this caused. 

  I hope I was able to answer all your questions  if you have others or need help with something else feel free to reply to your support ticket. Thank you for reading with us and have a great day! 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/27/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Jinne Main

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/22/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I signed up for a trial membership with Scribd.com and then attempted to cancel. I could never log in to the account, and the only way to cancel, according to their website, is via logging in. I repeatedly attempted to contact them and have emailed them multiple times via their very difficult to access customer service system. I have been charged first $9.99 and now $11.99 for the past 18 months. I can not figure out what I can do. I never used the service after the one time I had to look at some slides. They will never respond. I want to 1) Cancel and 2) be refunded the $209 I have been charged for a service I never used. As the screenshot from my communication with them in July 2023 shows, they themselves said I never activated my account, and yet the other screenshots show they kept charging me, leaving me in a loop where I cannot CANCEL but am still PAYING even though I don't even have an account. It appears from your complaints this is a common problem with them.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/23/2023

  We have located the ticket that the customer filed about this issue, Ticket #*******, and we have escalated it to our billing team for further investigation. After reviewing this ticket in the meantime, we can confirm that while our team was correct in that there is not a subscription connected to the account under the email address they provided, it appears that there was a misunderstanding as this instead indicates that there is another account in our system that is generating these charges. It is important to note that we will need to locate this account before we can proceed with their request. 
  Because we weren't able to locate this account with the information they provided so far, we have reached back out to the customer for further information so that we can locate this account through their ticket. They will need to follow up with us through this ticket for further assistance with their refund and cancellation request.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/20/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Nov 20 $***** Oct 28 $1271 Sept 28 ***** Aug 23 $***** I thought they were more but Im looking over them I subscribed to a free trial to check plagiarism in a document then I canceled the service I just found out Friday they were still billing me I emailed them asking them to cancel my subscription and refund my money I sent the email and they charged me again They bill when they want to ************ is a rip off They don't have a phone number all they have is an automated service that sends u to their email Id say they been scamming alot of people with the free trial and no refunds after 30 days What made me so mad they billed me again after I told them to stop

  Business Response

  Date: 11/21/2023

  Hello ****,

  We apologize for any trouble. Upon review of the email address provided, we show that your recent support ticket, under ticket number #*******, has already been responded to by our support team. Please continue to respond to ticket #*******, and we will continue to assist in any way we can. Thanks and have a great rest of your day! -FC

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/15/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I signed up for a trial subscription for Scribd in order to download a specific title. While making the purchase, I used Apple's feature of "Hide my Email" for privacy. After signing up, I found the title I was looking for was not available through them. I was unable to cancel using the email since Apple had encrypted the email to something different. I reached out using their chat function. Note - Scribd does not provide a customer service phone number in order to speak with a live person. The chat agent could not find the email address and asked for my name and partial credit card information. She said she had found it and canceled the purchase. I was charged for a full year subscription a month later. I disputed the charge with my bank and it was initially refunded, but then overturned. I called the phone number the bank provided and it routed me to an email address again. I reached out and explained the situation and received a ticket number: *******. I received a response a few days later from a representative named Busisiwe Modisane from Scribd Support who also could not find the email, and requested partial credit card information. I provided this back immediately over a week ago and have not heard back. I have followed up twice.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/15/2023

  While we were not able to locate an account connected to either the email address the customer provided in their complaint or with the email address connected to their ticket, we were able to locate the customer's ticket with us. This ticket has been escalated to our billing team, and a response has been sent to them requesting further information. The customer will need to follow up with us through this ticket so that we can locate the account and assist them further with this issue.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/16/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/01/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I was billed for a service, I didn't use.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/02/2023

  The customer started a subscription with us on September 29, 2023 for the account that is connected to the email address they provided. Since this subscription was not canceled, they were charged for next month's subscription as outlined in our Subscriber Agreement, which can be viewed here: ***********************************
  As we stated in the ticket they filed with us, ticket #*******, we are not able to offer a refund for their charge as they have already filed a chargeback for it through their bank. They will need to follow up with their bank for any further questions or concerns about this refund. However, we have confirmed that this subscription has been canceled, so they should see no further charges from us going forward. -KM

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/02/2023

   
  Complaint: 20813429
  
  I am rejecting this response because I never signed up for the service.   I don't even know how they recieved my credit card information, except the stole.   I NEVER subscribed to the service.   I ended and cut my card, and then asked my bank to send me a new card.   SCRIB stole my card information and charged their account.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *****************

  Business Response

  Date: 11/03/2023

  We apologize for any frustration this has caused! Reviewing support ticket #*******, we did confirm that ***** started a free trial on September 29, 2023, at 02:58 UTC with their current email address (jodieli************************) to access a document titled "When a **** Flees ****: Fatima ***** Other Prophecies" on October 24, 2023. As previously stated, since the free trial was not canceled before their renewal date (October 29, 2023), they were charged for the annual subscription.

   However, after further review of the account, we do see that a refund may be available if **** closes their open PayPal dispute. A member of our account specialist team has responded to ticket #******* with more information, requesting confirmation that the PayPal dispute be closed as well. Once **** responds to that ticket confirming the dispute was closed, we can determine the next step to take to get this resolved as quickly as possible. Thank you again!

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/01/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  -I have tried multiple times to cancel my subscription to Scribd. The first time I did, it said my cancellation was a success, so I forgot about it. While checking my bank account on September 23rd, I saw that is has still been charging me illegally for the last 7 months. Each month is a $12.65 transaction. -in September, I attempted to log in and cancel my subscription again, despite it already telling me I had successfully cancelled it. Upon doing so, I found out that the website is set up so that is impossible to sign in. This means users do not have access to the materials they subscribed to and they are unable to cancel their accounts as well. -I reached out to their customer support, but I have not received a response. -I also attempted to reset my password and it says an email has been sent to my account each time, but no email ever shows up.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/01/2023

  We are so sorry for any trouble this might have caused, *******! We did locate a previous support ticket where a member of our team requested additional information to locate the charges in our system on September 25, 2023, but we did not receive any follow-up response from ***************

  It is possible that response went to a spam/junk folder, so a member of our team has created a new follow-up ticket (#*******), requesting additional information to help us locate the account that would be responsible for these charges. This new response would go to the email address linz****************. Once ******* responds to ticket #******* with that information, our team of specialists will gladly work to get this resolved and ensure there are no further charges. They can provide any available refunds at that time as well!

  Of course, if ******* has any other questions in the meantime, they can ask in that new ticket and we'll gladly address those as well. Thank you! -MW

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/29/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I requested the original cancellation in August to be cancelled for September; however, I was still charged for September. I then attempted to cancel again not to be charged for October; however, I noticed today that my account is pending another charge for the subscription. I would like for the subscription to be cancelled, ASAP. Thank you for your assistance.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/30/2023

  Hi *******,
  
  Thank you for your email, and Im sorry for the experience youve had. Our system shows that the account was renewed after the subscription was canceled to read The Courage of Success, which is why you were billed.
  
  Since the premium subscription was not used I've refunded your last payment per our refund policy ***************************; and your September payment and made sure the subscription is canceled. If the purchase was still in a "Pending" state on your card, it will simply disappear; otherwise please allow up to a week for the refund to clear.
  
  Your free Scribd account will remain active, so youll still be able to share documents and use Scribds free features. In some cases, full versions of documents available on Scribd may only be visible to Scribd subscribers.
  
  Should you decide to purchase a subscription in the future, you can cancel it at any time through this link **********************. When you cancel your subscription we'll ensure it remains active until the end of the current time that you've paid for, but will not bill you again. 
  
  We have more detailed instructions in our help topic, **********************. If theres anything else I can help with, please let me know. Thanks again, and enjoy your day! -LC

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/28/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  A change in the amount i need to be refunded for. There was actually tax added to the $119.88. I actually got charged $127.07

  Business Response

  Date: 10/29/2023

  Hi *******, I located your support ticket #******* and sent you a reply I just wanted to share my response with you here as well!
  
  I do apologize for any inconvenience this has caused!
  
  I can confirm that we do send a reminder email before the free trial ends and the subscription is billed for. For reference, the reminder email is sent with the subject line: We hope youre enjoying Scribd!
  
  We recommend checking your spam/junk folder, as sometimes messages can be sorted by email providers incorrectly. If you have email forwarding set up or if the email address on file for your account is incorrect (ex. contains a typo), the reminder may have been sent to a different address or not received.
  
  Ive refunded your payment, which has canceled the subscription. Your free Scribd account will remain active, so youll still be able to share documents and use Scribds free features. In some cases, full versions of documents available on Scribd may only be visible to Scribd subscribers.
  
  Should you purchase a new membership in the future, you can cancel it at any time from Your Account page.
  
  If theres anything else I can assist with, please let me know. Thanks again, and I wish you a great day!

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/20/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I got charged $129.77 on October 10th for a subscription I did not want. I canceled the subscription immediately and requested a refund. I was so upset I filed a BBB complaint because they took the money before notifying me. Then Scribd said they would refund me and it would take up to a week. That was 9 days ago and they will not give me my money back and theres no way to contact these people. I canceled my subscription on the 10th it changed on their website and says I canceled it the 17th which is not true. And it says the issue has been resolved and I never got my refund !!!

  Business Response

  Date: 10/20/2023

  Hi there! We are truly sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused, but we are happy to provide clarification on that charge! Please note that we have responded to ************** support ticket #******* with the information presented here as well.

  Reviewing the Scribd account under ************** email address, ************************, we have confirmed that their free trial was not canceled before the renewal date of October 11, 2023, resulting in the charge they received. We apologize if ****** did not receive a reminder email as we do send a reminder email before the free trial ends and the subscription is billed for. For future reference, the reminder email is sent with the subject line: We hope youre enjoying Scribd! We recommend checking your spam/junk folder, as sometimes messages can be sorted by email providers incorrectly.

  Our system does show that ****** filed a chargeback for the charge, so we're unable to provide any further refund or assistance for the chargebacks as the payments have already been removed from our processing system. If ****** does have any additional questions, we encourage them to follow up with us in ticket #******* and we'll be happy to assist them. Many thanks! -MW