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Business Profile

Internet Services

Scribd

This business is NOT BBB Accredited.

Find BBB Accredited Businesses in Internet Services.

Important information

Complaints

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

Find a Location

Scribd has 3 locations, listed below.

*This company may be headquartered in or have additional locations in another country. Please click on the country abbreviation in the search box below to change to a different country location.

    Please enter a valid location.

    • Scribd

      460 Bryant Street, #100 San Francisco, CA 94107

    • Scribd

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

    • Scribd

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

    Customer Complaints Summary

    • 258 total complaints in the last 3 years.
    • 58 complaints closed in the last 12 months.

    If you've experienced an issue

    Submit a Complaint

    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.

    Sort by

    Complaint status

    Complaint type

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:12/17/2023

      Type:Delivery Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      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.
      This company has charged me $9.99 a month on the 14th of every month. I have never ordered this subscription. I dont know what this company is or does ripping people off

      Business Response

      Date: 12/18/2023

      Hello *****,

      Thank you for reaching out!

      I apologize for any confusion. Everand through Scribd, Inc. is a digital reading subscription that brings you monthly access to the best books, audiobooks, sheet music, news, and magazines. Many of our members use our websites and apps to read everything from bestsellers and old classics to legal documentation and instruction manuals. We also carry a wide variety of sheet music and news articles, along with thousands of audiobooks. The charge you are seeing is likely for our monthly subscription fee.

      I was not able to locate any charges with the information you provided. Please submit a ticket through this link and your request will be escalated straight to my inbox: bit.ly/social-support-help

      Thanks!

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:12/17/2023

      Type:Service or Repair Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      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:12/13/2023

      Type:Product Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      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 subscription with Scribd earlier this year. I thought it was in February, they cannot find records of cancellation until June of 2023. I saw I was still being billed to my credit card, and I called them to let them know my account was cancelled. (Indeed, if I went on their page, I would be notified that my account was closed, and asked if I want to subscribe again.) I presumed that took care of it. I saw in my November 2023 statement that I was still being billed. I emailed Customer Support explaining their error and asking for a refund of the multiple monthly bills in error. My communication with Scribd via email ahs been a joke. Today I receives yet another nonsensical, delaying, noninformative email from them. I am **** off enough that I have decided to lodge a formal complaint with you.

      Business Response

      Date: 12/14/2023

      This customer had two accounts with us, and one of these accounts had an active subscription. This is why they were charged. We located the ticket they filed about this issue, Ticket #*******, and followed up with them about this issue. We canceled this subscription for them, issued a total of six refunds, and merged their accounts to prevent any future confusion.

      Customer Answer

      Date: 12/14/2023

       
      Complaint: 21005132

      I am rejecting this response because:  1) No refund has been made; and 2) If I had had two valid accounts I would have been billed twice each month, which never happened. 

      Sincerely,

      ***********************

      Business Response

      Date: 12/15/2023

      We apologize for any miscommunication here, but we're happy to provide clarification! A member of our support team followed up with **** in a response to ticket #******* via email confirming the information listed below, though we're sorry if that response was not received:

      - 6 refunds were provided on December 14, 2023. These refunds are for the monthly charges **** received between June 18 and November 18, 2023.

      - **** confirmed the redacted email address ar******************** on the duplicate account that we found, where we verified there was a second active subscription, resulting in the charges that they received. We confirmed that account is an entirely separate account from the primary account connected to ************************, which means cancelling the subscription for the account under ************************ had no effect on that second account.

      - We have confirmed the refunds issued on December 14, 2023, should be posted to ****' bank account within the next 7 business days (excluding weekends).

      We hope this helps clear up any confusion, but if there's anything else that we can assist them with, they're welcome to follow-up with us directly via email and we'll be happy to help!

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:11/26/2023

      Type:Product Issues
      Status:
      Resolved
      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:11/24/2023

      Type:Billing Issues
      Status:
      Resolved
      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 accepted a 30 day free trial access from Scribd. It was assured on the website that I would be sent an email warning that my trial period was almost over. I received no email. I have tried to unsubscribe but the instructions tell me to go to an item in My Account that doesn't exist. I have been charged twice now on my credit card. After both the first and the second charge, I tried to unsubscribe again and after logging on to the site and going to My Account it still shows account information and, again, there is no option to cancel or unsubscribe. There is a delete account option, but that does not cancel the subscription. The delete account option also does not work. It requires that the account be canceled first and there is no option to do that.

      Business Response

      Date: 11/25/2023

      We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused! Since we are unable to track down an active subscription linked to the user's email address (****************), a member of our Payments and Billing team has followed up directly with ****** in response to their support ticket #******* to request some additional information to locate their subscription.

      Once we receive a response to ticket #******* with the requested information, we can move forward with canceling the subscription to prevent additional charges. We'll be able to process any available refunds at that time as well. Thank you! 

      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,

      ***************************

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:11/22/2023

      Type:Billing Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      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:
      Answered
      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:11/18/2023

      Type:Billing Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      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 had problems in the past with Scribd limiting titles that appear in searches and deleting saved titles from my library, but most recently they have offered me a free trial and then immediately charged me for the free trial. My credit card reimbursed me, but this company is obviously engaged in shady business practices.

      Business Response

      Date: 11/19/2023

      Hello, thank you for your review. I wanted to reach out to see if you an open support ticket or any questions about our subscription or your account. We are happy to help!

      Customer Answer

      Date: 11/21/2023

       
      Complaint: 20889953

      I am rejecting this response because:

      Sincerely,

      *****************************

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:11/16/2023

      Type:Billing Issues
      Status:
      Resolved
      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 updating payment information for my monthly subscription but was billed for the annual subscription instead. I have put in several tickets with the company but have not heard back from them or received a refund.

      Business Response

      Date: 11/16/2023

      Hello ******, 

      Thank you for your message. 

      I can see that this subscription was canceled on November 13, 2023 and a refund was provided on November 17, 2023. Please wait up to 5 business days for the refund to be fully processed. I apologize for the confusion and if you want to subscribe again as a monthly plan, you can do that on your account settings. If you need anything else, please let us know. Thanks!

      Customer Answer

      Date: 11/17/2023

      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:11/15/2023

      Type:Product Issues
      Status:
      Resolved
      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,

      *************************

    Scribd is NOT a BBB Accredited Business.

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