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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.

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    • 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

    • 264 total complaints in the last 3 years.
    • 57 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:09/26/2022

      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.
      Today, 9/26/22, $91 was withdrawn from my bank for Scribd. They gave no upfront warning my subscription was being renewed, unauthorized. I planned to discontinue the service, not continue. They have no phone number, *************, so I have no idea if they've received my complaint via their system. They also seem to have a complex refund form, and some of the requirements don't exist, like my account number. Thank you!

      Business Response

      Date: 09/27/2022

      Thank you for bringing this to our attention. 

       

      After further review, one of our specialists has followed up with ******* on his ticket #******* (Screenshot attached). Since the service was not canceled, the subscription auto-renewed. As mentioned in the subscriber agreement (https://bit.ly/3zHpYR8) 

      "if the 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. If You elect to purchase an annual Subscription, we will automatically charge You on the anniversary of the commencement of the paying portion of Your Subscription using the Payment Information You have provided."  

       

      That said, a refund has been provided and the subscription has been canceled. If ******* has any further questions, please have ******* follow up with the representative directly as they will be the best point of contact. 

       

      Thank you again, have a great day! - MR

       

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:09/25/2022

      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 made a trial subscription of Scribd in December 2021 and for that gave my credit card info, but canceled before the trial period was over. I realized today that the subscription has been billed monthly to my credit card. I went to my account on Scribd's website and checked i have no active account nor any credit card officially registered there, but somehow I'm still being charged. I want a full refund plus compensation for the fraudulent behaviour

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:09/23/2022

      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 started a free trial on Scribd in August of 2019. Despite cancelling my subscription after I noticed it expired, Scribd has been charging me monthly as recently as August 2022. Their is no subscription to their service that is listed in the settings of my Apple ID, or even in my account info on their website - and under their payment history tab there is no log of these charges. There is supposedly not even a card on file, yet somehow they have charging me under my nose. I want a complete refund and explanation for why I have been charged despite not having subscription with their service.

      Business Response

      Date: 09/23/2022

      Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

       

      After further review, we were unable to locate any account with the information provided thus far. We have also looked for tickets that ****** may have submitted however, it does not look like he has previously reach out to support regarding this matter. That said, we would be happy to look into this and locate the account that ****** is being billed for. To better assist ******, please have him submit a ticket to our support team here: https://scr.bi/assist. By submitting a ticket through the link provided, it will be automatically escalated and a specialist will follow up with him within ***** hours. 

       

      Thank you again, have a great day! - MR

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:09/21/2022

      Type:Customer Service 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 used Scribd in 2019 under a free trial, then cancelled it. Unbeknownst to me, every month since 12/16/19 I have been charged $9.99, then $11.99 starting 5/27/22. Adding up to more than $300 USD. I was completely unaware of this and the only time I have received email confirmation of any payment or any email entirely was on July 28 & 31st 2022 stating that action was required to process my payment. For 2 years, this company has been charging my card, after Ive cancelled it and has not been emailing or sending any receipt confirmations as many other reputable companies do. What I find most odd is that although I have gotten 2 new cards since 2019, I have still been charged so Im not sure how they are charging an inactive card. In the years this membership has been active, I have not used this service or saved any documents, podcasts, booksI have read many complaints and I can see that this is a common practice for this website and this company seems fraudulent. I can provide credit card statements for every affected month and would like a full refund. This is a very serious matter and I can see that this is not a rare occurrence for this company. In their replies to other people who have been scammed, Scribd states that they are unable to refund anything past six months not only because its outside of our policy but also because our payment system locks the payments after six months. Obviously I will not be fully refunded and further action will be required. I will be filing a fraud report with my bank as well as filing a complaint with the attorney general.

      Business Response

      Date: 09/23/2022

      Thank you for bringing this to our attention. 

       

      After further review, we have located ******'s open ticket #******* with our support team. A representative has reached out to ****** and has provided further details regarding the charges she received. We have attached a screenshot of the representatives findings for reference. Please have ****** follow up with the specialist with any further questions or concerns as they will be the best point of contact. 

       

      Thank you again, have a wonderful day. - MR

       

       

      Customer Answer

      Date: 09/23/2022

       
      Complaint: 18059879


      I am rejecting this response because I have only received a refund for the last months charge when this problem has occurred over many months. Scribds supposed policy is that they cannot ***** you a refund for any charges that are more than 30 days old. But according to their business response on 7/30/22, the business replied to another complaint and issued a customer a refund for the last 6 months. As well as issuing another customer a refund for their last 2 recent charges, on 9/4/22. I can see in the past recent months they have issued up to 6 month refund on several cases, so I would like at least a 6 month refund as given to the others. 

      Business Response

      Date: 09/29/2022

      Thank you for advising us of the rejection. 

       

      We would like to apologize for the difficulty ****** has experienced. After further review of the agents response and can confirm that the refund policy was followed and a refund was provided for the last invoice. 

       

      That said, we have approved a one time refund exception and have refunded an additional 4 months. Unfortunately, our system only allows to go back 6 months however, we were only able to refund 5 invoices because there wasn't a succesful payment deduction in July. I have attached a screenshot of the July invoice attempt.  Please advise her that email has also been sent to her with this information. If she has any further question please have her follow ** in the email. 

       

      Thank you, have a wonderful day. - MR

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:09/21/2022

      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.
      On August 19, 2022 I started a free trial with Scribd. Later that day, I cancelled the trial, and when I log into my account, I see that my subscription was cancelled on August 19, 2022. However, on September 20, 2022, I received a charge of $11.99 plus tax. In 2018, I had a subscription with Scribd which I also continued to receive charges for after cancelling, until I replaced my debit card. Their ******* page is full of people experiencing the same issue, which they have had years to fix.

      Business Response

      Date: 09/21/2022

      Thank you for bringing this to our attention. 

       

      After further review, we were able to locate *******'s open ticket #*******. That said, we have located a duplicate account that was not canceled which is why she was billed. 

       

      That said, the ticket is assigned to a specialist who canceled the duplicate account and also refunded the last invoice. If ******* has any further questions, please have her continue communication with the specialist directly as they will be the best point of contact. 

       

      Thank you again, have a wonderful day. - MR

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:09/19/2022

      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.
      Attempted to get refunded $11.99 for unauthorized charges, dated June 19, 2022. Scribd customer service refused to respond, so I filed PayPal dispute for Invoice ID ****************, Transaction ID **************************************** customer service ******* finally responded, and deflected with something like "since you filed PayPal dispute, Scribd will not assist you", and repeatedly ignored further emails.PayPal dispute apparently sided with Scribd, and never notified **** request a full refund of $11.99 due to unauthorized charges & terrible customer service.

      Business Response

      Date: 09/20/2022

      Thank you for bringing this to our attention. 

       


      Since ***** has already filed a dispute through his bank on the transactions, any refunds due will be handled through the dispute resolution system with PayPal.

      Please note that chargeback disputes are reviewed by the bank themselves. The outcome of the dispute is binding and we will not subsequently offer additional refunds or credit beyond what is offered through this system. If ***** has any questions regarding this chargeback dispute, please have him contact bank directly.

       

      Thank you again, have a great day. - MR

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:09/19/2022

      Type:Sales and Advertising 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.
      Why am I being charged for something I've never had in my entire life. I have never had scribd. I don't know what it is and I have never used it. Then when I go to check my account I see a charge of $12.86 for what? Please I would like my money back. You use people's card and information to get a sale. I would like this exact amount refunded to me.

      Business Response

      Date: 09/20/2022

      Thank you for brining this to our attention. 

       

      After further review, we have located ****'s ticket #*******. Please let her know that the a specialist has followed up with her and a refund has been provided. If she has any further questions or concerns, please have her respond directly to the specialist in her ticket. 

       

      Thanks again, have a wonderful day. - MR

       

       

      Customer Answer

      Date: 09/20/2022

      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:09/13/2022

      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.
      Some time ago I wished to read something that was said to be available online, but only by using Scribd. The Scribd website informed me that I could use it for free for a year, with a monthly payment thereafter, that I would be notified in advance before any payment would be withdrawn from my bank account, and that I could cancel my subscription at any time. I signed up, gave my bank details, read the item I wished to read, and promptly forgot all about the subscription and never used it again.Early this year I discovered that a payment had been made to Scribd from my bank account. I was astounded, as I had not received the promised notice of commencement of payments. I used the online facility on the Scribd website to complain and to request cancellation, and not hearing anything further from them I assumed that they would at least cancel my subscription as I had requested.I heard nothing in response to my complaint, but to my amazement Scribd continued to withdraw monthly payments from my bank account. Not having any method of complaining to a human, I managed to cancel my account, and once more assumed that that was the end of the matter, and that the unauthorised subscription payments withdrawn from my account, although getting nothing in return, were a small price to pay for having (as I thought) got out of the clutches of this Internet scamster.Instead, Scribd continued to withdraw monthly payments from my bank account. Having cancelled my Scribd account I found that I could not log in , and without logging in I could not endeavour to obtain satisfactory self-help. I have since written to Scribd using another online facility I found, repeating the above history and asking for them to acknowledge receipt and to let me know what they intend doing about it. Response? Total silence.To date they have taken 8 monthly payments commencing on February 8, 2022. I don't know the exact USD amount as the payments were charged to me in ZAR.

      Business Response

      Date: 09/14/2022

      Thank you for bringing this to our attention. 

       

      After further review, we were able to locate the subscription ****** is being billed for. After further review, we can confirm that the subscription free trial was for 30 days as we do not offer free annual trials. I also would like note that a renewal email was sent out however, it may have gone to junk mail/spam folder. We went ahead and canceled the subscription to ensure he is not billed any further as well as processed a full refund for the last 6 months as a one-time exception.No further refund will be provided as we are unable to process outside of 6 months. 

       

      If ****** has any further questions, please have him submit a ticket to our support team here: https://scr.bi/assist. Thanks again, have a wonderful day. 

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:09/10/2022

      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 subscription and literally same day I started receiving a barrage of scam/phishing emails.

      Business Response

      Date: 09/11/2022

      We located the users account via their email and can confirm it was canceled during the trial and never charged. I also reviewed our system for any related accounts and can confirm there are no accounts related by payment method. As we cannot charge without an active subscription, this means there must be an account with a different email and different payment method resulting in their payments. So we can help them, please ensure they email us via this link: https://scr.bi/assist and one of our agents will help them out within 24 hours- EC

      Customer Answer

      Date: 09/11/2022

       
      Complaint: 18009394

      I am rejecting this response because: my issue is not that i was charged. It is that the day I cancelled my trial, i began receiving a barrage of spam emails that continues. even now I cannot go 5 minutes without receiving one of these. It has completely ruined my email. The timeline suggests that my personal information was sold once my trial on the site was cancelled. I want it to stop, whether my information. is 'bought back' or deleted. I want it to stop. 

      Sincerely,

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

      Business Response

      Date: 09/15/2022

      Thank you for bringing this to our attention. 

       

      After further review, we have verified that the user is opted out of all marketing emails. We have included a screenshot. ****** should not be receiving any emails from our marketing team regarding Scribd. 

      If the ****** is still receiving emails from us, please have her submit a ticket to our team with screenshot of the emails she is receiving. She can submit a ticket to us via this link: https://scr.bi/assist. 

       

      Thank you again, have a great day! -MR

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:09/05/2022

      Type:Order 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.
      They claim you have access to unlimited books in the library and you don't. After listening to one book several titles I was interested in were no longer currently available. Therefore it's not UNLIMITED. I signed up expecting to have access to all titles and you don't. This is false advertising.

      Business Response

      Date: 09/05/2022

      Thank you for informing us and we apologize to the user for any confusion. ********************** is a rotating library, so while some titles may go temporarily unavailable there will always be thousands of other titles to enjoy while they wait. They can read more on this here: https://bit.ly/3oK7abz and please have them contact us via this link if we can be of any additional assistance: https://scr.bi/assist -EC

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