Complaints

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:11/12/2022

  Type:Customer Service 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 free month trial of Audiobooks.com in October 2022. I made sure to cancel my trial the day before the month free trial ended, doing so through their website. I then noticed that they had already charged me for the upcoming month. I contacted them immediately explaining I cancelled my account and asked for a refund and they refused. I asked them 3 times and each time they said no! That is not a way to keep customers, forcing them into having an account! I finally ******* their name and saw all of these complaints on BBB. Sketchy company! I still don’t have my money back. 

  Business Response

  Date: 11/15/2022

  I have reviewed the account in question and can confirm it was closed on November 6th.  A refund has been issued and will post for the complainant in the next 2-5 business days. I'm not sure where the correspondence from 'John' has relevance to the issue, as we don't have anyone employed by that name.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/16/2022

  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. Provided I read correctly that I am getting a refund. Did you let them know why it said ****? Would have been nice for them to also apologize for how I was treated.  
  
  Regards, *****  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/01/2022

  Type:Customer Service 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.

  Beware of using this service as audiobooks.com erroneously charged my bank account multiple times after I cancelled my service. I signed up for audiobooks.com through a trial promotion. I ended up not taking advantage of the free downloads provided by the trial promotion because the book series I was hoping to access was not in audiobooks.com library (which was disappointment enough) and subsequently I canceled my account with audiobooks.com during the trial period. Fast forward three months later and I see three monthly charges by audiobooks.com to my bank account. I contacted their customer service explaining the situation, my concern for the erroneous charges to my bank account, and asking for audiobooks.com to correct the mistake. Although the (rude) customer service representative was able to see that I had not signed in or accessed the account since my trial period, no cancellation was ever logged. So audiobooks.com simply told me to go stuff it. Beware of using audiobooks.com website services. They refused to respond to my concerns or correct the error in their system.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/04/2022

  I have reviewed the account in question and can confirm there were no website logins, wherein a customer would cancel their account.  We provided instructions to the customer on Nov 1, but as of this writing they were not followed in order to complete the cancellation.  I have closed the account on the customers behalf and they can expect their 3 refunds to post in the next few days.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/28/2022

  Type:Sales and Advertising 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.

  Before signing up I noticed they had a feature where you coul use your credit on a genre group which gave you a variety of books you could listen to in a specific genre instead of using the credit on one audiobook. The group i looked at while looking for the audiobook i wanted not only had that audiobook but all of the recent best sellers and top books. I was actually impressed. After signing up i used my credit on the group i saw the audiobook i wanted in. So i go to grab it and none of the books i was looking at 60 seconds prior are in that group anymore. It was all a tactic to get you to sign up. I was furious and i knew then i wasn't continuing the service. I wrote to them and received no response about it by the way.
  Few weeks later, i get an email saying to continue service i need to update my payment method. At the bottom it says card companies sometimes autoupdate cards to avoid disruption in service. I had never heard of that so i contacted my card company. They told me that they don't do that but possibly others do. I knew i didn't want the service so i just left it alone.
  Fast forward a month, I get a call saying my daughters going to the hospital that's 2.5 hours away. I hop in my car and go. While going to the gas station i get a notification saying $17 was taken out of my account by audiobooks.com. I was furious. A couple weeks prior my timing chain broke on my car causing me to have to replace the whole engine. So when this happened i was struggling to stay afloat and now i had to put enough gas in for a 5-6 hour drive. I contacted audiobooks.com saying i received emails saying my accounts suspended and i need a full refund asap. The responded saying i have to cancel. I go cancel and send another email explaining i need the money asap. The email i got back said they refuse. I send another email explaining my daughter and everything. They still refused. They are crooks. Not only did i lose that but i was also charged $35 for overdraft. They don't care.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/02/2022

  I am able to confirm that the account in question is closed, and the single charge incurred has been refunded.  It is not correct to imply that we show certain books available within a book club, only for those options to change once someone registers.  There is no indication that this customer requested help with their chosen book club.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/04/2022

  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 ordered a book from Audiobooks.com. At the time it was unclear to me that I had signed up for a podcast service. I noticed that I was signed up the next month when I received my credit card bill. I was unable to contact anyone at Audiobooks.com, but was finally able to turn off the pod cast feature. Well, this month, once again I find a charge on my credit card. In addition, when I try to log in, it tells me that I do not even have an account!! I have not authorized any charges on my account, I can not reach anyone to help me cancel any membership I am not aware of. Their business practices of deceitful, misleading and I do not consider them a trustworthy company!

  Business Response

  Date: 10/05/2022

  We have no account matching the name or e-mail of the complainant. As such, we will email them directly.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/07/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  I am still being charged!!!  It is crazy that the email is the only identifier!!!  If you can charge my credit card then I have an account!!!!!Try the email *******************
  
  Regards,
  ******* *****

  Business Response

  Date: 10/07/2022

  On Oct 5th we sent an email to the complainant's originally provided email address requesting further details in order to resolve this complaint.  We have yet to receive a reply, and given an account cannot be found with the already provided information we cannot do anything further until we receive the requested details.   The email sent on the 5th will now be forwarded to the newly provided address (which also isn't in our system).

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/11/2022

  Type:Customer Service 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 been charged by audiobooks.com for products and services that I did not want and never left the store with. And audiobooks.com has no problem taking my money without my permission and not giving it back.
  
  I recently signed up for a free trial with audiobooks.com. Approximately 1 week before the free trial ended, I received a message from audiobooks asking me to update my payment method because my payment did not go through. By this point I had determined that audio books in general were not for me, so I just ignored the message and deleted the app.
  
  Then I discovered that they had indeed charged me without my permission. I've asked for and was promptly denied a full and complete refund. Despite me having never used - or having any intention to use - any of the paid services.
  
  Being as though I am not compatible with audiobooks, I have no intention on ever using them again. So any result other than a full and complete refund is unacceptable.
  
  Living in a world where corporate fascists are allowed to charge you for products and services not rendered is a most dangerous and ugly world to live in.
  
  What's next? We all have to pay for everything we put in our shopping carts - even when we change our minds and put the items back on the shelf? What about those that go to department stores to try on outfits? Do we have to pay for those outfits even if we put those outfits back on the shelf?
  
  That is the precedent and message being sent by those corporate fascists that refuse to provide a full and complete refund for unwanted and unused products.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/16/2022

  This customer's account has now been closed and the one charge incurred has been refunded.  It should be clarified that the subscription nature of our service, as well as the associated charges are outlined on our signup page before we ask for any personal details. There had been no prior cancellation requests from this customer.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/10/2022

  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 signed up for a free trial of Audiobooks.com in April 2022 as part of a promotion. I was not using it and within a week or so decided to cancel it to make sure I would not be charged. I cancelled well before the trial was supposed to end. I cancelled through their website, and did not think anything of it until I later realized they not only charged to me $14.95 that month but again the following 3 months. When I emailed them to report this they claimed "there was no record of me logging into my account to cancel" although I am 100% sure that I did. They also never sent an email confirmation when I signed up or when I canceled, and then claimed that because there was no confirmation I must be lying. I googled them and sure enough there are a ton of complaints from other people going through the same thing and they have a 2/10 star rating on one website I found, confirming what I thought which was that this is a scam. I tried calling the number they gave me and sure enough, same response. I had to change my card number to prevent future authorization attempts and filed a complaint with my bank; and now with the BBB. BEWARE OF AUDIOBOOKS.COM!

  Business Response

  Date: 08/26/2022

  As was confirmed with the customer previously, there had been no website logins using the account wherein a cancellation would take place.  I can however confirm that the account was closed on Aug 10th when the complainant made contact with our customer service department via phone.  All 4 charges incurred have now been refunded.