Introduction
Scribd. is a very successful and popular online library platform offering 170M+ documents from a global community, headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Founded back in 2007, I used free versions of Scribd. extensively in the past to download interesting eBooks and also PowerPoint presentations from their sister website SlideShare.
According to Scribd. Instagram promotional account,
The best Stories are the ones you like.
So here it is my story, my recent experience with Scribd.
My experience with SCRIBD.
One afternoon back in November 2023, I was looking for an eBook about the Greek modern history and politics that I heard about on a YouTube channel and I was really surprised that it was available on Scribd. Unfortunately Scribd. is now a paid subscription service and it wasn’t free just like it was in the past. Therefore, just like it happens with many paid subscriptions services online, it required you to complete your PayPal payment details in order to receive a temporary trial access the site.
Just because I really wanted to download the eBook, I decided to complete my PayPal details and download the eBook, yet I decided to cancel my trial subscription immediately to avoid any further charges.
For my bad luck, while browsing the eBooks and documents on the site, I have discovered several similar eBooks that I could have download before cancelling my trial subscription. Instantly I decided to reactivate the subscription believing wrongly that I could have gotten another trial subscription.
And this is when things have started to mess around because I accidentally reactivated the subscription without noticing that I was actually charged 10.99 Euros the 2nd time i tried to signup for the trial subscription and download the eBooks. In fact I even bookmarked on my browser several eBooks that I didn’t manage to download after having the impression that my subscription was cancelled, hoping that some other time I would re-activate the trial subscription to download them.
Time passed quickly that afternoon while browsing eBooks and documents in Scribd. and it was soon time for sleep forgetting completely my active Scribd. subscription and I never went back to check my account there for the rest of the month.
After exactly one month one December afternoon while resting at my bed, suddenly I received a notification on my smartphone that I have just paid 10.99 Euros to Scribd. for a monthly subscription!
I started wondering on my own
“How is that possible!!! I don’t remember having an active subscription there! I only had a trial subscription in Scribd which I cancelled as soon as I downloaded the eBook I was looking for!”
I got up quickly from my bed and turned on my laptop to check my forgotten Scribd. account when I realized that not only I activated a subscription and paid 10.99 Euros a month ago but also today it was actually the 2nd payment that I have made to Scribd. without even noticing it! Immediately, I cancelled my subscription as soon as possible but the damage was already done. It was too late anymore. My valuable hardly earned 21.98 Euros on my PayPal account were gone already. Frustrated about what happened I decided to browse the ebooks and started downloading as many ebooks as possible in order to balance the value of my payments and minimize the damage since my subscription was still active until the following month for another 30 days without any possibility of refunding me after cancelling it immediately.
This is when I realised that my subscription to another Scribd. product called Everand that it was also included on the subscription wasn’t anymore active and I have no idea if it was ever active during the previous month when my Scribd. subscription was active without knowing it.
Few days passed and while browsing tweets on X, I decided to send them a tweet with a complain hoping that they will show understanding in my issue with the unfair double Scribd subscription. I was really surprised that Scribd. Support replied almost immediately, even thought it was a Saturday afternoon and most support services weren’t available during the Christmas Holidays.
My surprise became even greater when they replied that they are happy to help me with a cancellation and refund of my accidental subscription, and they requested me to send them a Direct Message so discuss the situation more thoroughly. Without any hesitation, I rushed and sent them a DM providing my account and PayPal details as well as a screenshot of them.
And this is when situation started becoming ironically negative about my issue with their reply.
That was a great shock for me. I was really expecting from Scribd. Support on X to show understanding about my accidental activation of my subscription providing a refund at least for my second payment but I was completely wrong. After checking the link about the Refund Policies it is stated clearly that first of all they offer a refund only if the end of the world or the end of the internet will take place such as Technical issues, Fraud, Payment error (If it’s determined that Scribd., Inc. charged a user by error, they will issue a refund), Unexpected/Defective Content etc. Interestingly they have also another paragraph stating that a user is welcome to request a refund on the case of unused subscription within 30 days of payment !!
Alas! How should I knew that beforehand? How should I knew about their refund policy beforehand? Before waiting for a month until I was charged twice for a subscription that I didn’t use and more importantly before starting downloading every single bookmarked eBook under the frustration of being charged without having any idea of it ?
Is this how Scribd. is making money by trapping innocent customers into their Subscription and Refund policies ?
Final Thoughts
I am afraid that now it is too late to request a refund. Not only there are more than 30 days passed since my first payment back at November 2023 but also due to my frustration and being unaware of Scribd. Refund policy I have downloaded several other unimportant eBooks just to make some value of my lost money and reduce the damage.
Honestly, I am a person who avoids ANY kind of online subscription service. You name it, Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube, Meta, X, LinkedIn, Spotify, Medium and now Scribd. I have never paid a penny for their services and I never plan to pay my hard earned money to use no one of the paid services of big international and global internet companies.
And the purpose of this article, isn’t to throw mud to Scribd. but strictly informational i.e. to inform the Web global community about the Subscription and Refund policies of such popular platform. The purpose of this article is to inform the Web Global Community to be always mindful when an online service or platform such as Scribd. or LinkedIn is requesting you to complete your payment details to receive a trial subscription. Because they are hoping that some very busy people like me would eventually forget their active subscription and would start charging them only because they wanted to use that service once.
Honestly, I feel robbed, scammed and trapped from Scribd. Subscription and Refund policies and I would never complete my payment details again to gain a trial subscription or pay for one. They will never snatch any more money from me. Not a single penny !
**Disclaimer: All information found on this article is for informational purposes only.***
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Resources:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CywALTbLA_d/
https://support.scribd.com/hc/en-us/articles/210133986
https://twitter.com/feax31/status/1738606091137626146
https://eyescoreshop.com/shop/scri-bd/
