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r/Scribd
•
1 yr. ago
milestparker

Scribd is a scam
Titles unavailable, a couple of days before account renews titles suddenly
mysteriously available, a couple of days later not available again. A complete bs
explanation for why titles aren’t available, they just somehow mysteriously become
available on exactly the date your account renews?

It really surprises me that a company as well known and seemingly popular as this
one has built their business model around obsfucation and disingenuous manipulation
of its users but I guess that’s the world we live in now. Enraging your own
customers is fine as long as you think you can get them back at the end of the
month. I’ve had it.

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ilovepepsimax24
•
1y ago
As I understand it, it depends on how much you read. If you read/listen a lot some
titles will become unavailable until your next renewal period. I have heard of
similar situations on other streaming services.
I am very happy with Scribd. I am not able to use Kindle Unlimited in my country
and Scribd is the best solution when I want access to both ebooks and audiobooks in
English. Is it flawed? Yes. But I am getting a lot of books for a small amount of
money.

I have heard some people have trouble when unsubscribing so be sure to check your
bank account after ending your subscription.

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eupeuta
•
1y ago
Great explanation. Not dismissing others'experiences. I must say as a 10+ years
Scribd user, I never saw a blocked title. I feel bad for those who have.

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MollyPW
•
1y ago
It's not a scam, the restrictions are in the Subscriber Agreement. Yes I agree the
limitation is annoying but I've yet to come across a service with that's a better
value for money.

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Byrdlynd
•
1y ago
I wonder if this is more of a problem for people who binge series, or authors, or
who are devoted to a specific genre. My audiobook listening is all over the place,
from public domain classics, to contemporary fiction of many genres. I'm relatively
new to Scribe, I guess I'll find out soon enough if the variety makes a difference.

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cyborgsteve65
•
1y ago
I do audiobooks and have had Scribd for several years now. I do 3-4 per month and
most of the time something I want is available. Maybe once every 6 months do I run
into an issue with nothing available that I want.

Then I usually get one from my library to tide me over.

$12 a month for 4 audiobooks is a much better deal than Audible, though I’ll admit
that Audible has more to choose from.

I do wish Scribd would be more upfront about how things get limited. It seems to be
publisher related as well as quantity. Sometimes I may only be able to do 2 books
in a series before the rest become unavailable until the next month. When that
happens I just switch to one from a different publisher.

I’ve listened to a lot of audiobooks from Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Lee Child,
Jack Carr, David Rosenfelt, etc. so these are not crappy self published books only.

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tabithakcrystl
•
1y ago
I skimmed through and didn’t see this so if I’m repeating something, sorry. I was
frustrated with titles not being available too. I found that even if a title isn’t
available I can save it and it will be in my library the next month. If I saved 30
books/audiobooks none would say unavailable when the month revewed. When I was
using Scribd a lot, I tried to stay a month ahead. So I saved a ton and would work
through those while I saved more for the next month.

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Logical_amphibian876
•
1y ago
I wouldn't call it a "scam" because they tell you that you might be throttled, but
I do think its a shady business model. I wish they would just give us a certain
number of credits every month and then have certain titles cost more credits and
some zero credits. I've signed up for and quit Scribd 2 or 3 times because it
frustrates me so much. I've started subscribing to extra library cards.

There are a handful of public libraries in the US that allow non residents to pay
for an e library card(some require you to be in the US others do not). I've been
doing this to increase my access to audiobooks beyond what my local library can
offer.

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Byrdlynd
•
1y ago
•
Edited 1y ago
I'm 3 weeks into my first month. I've listened to 3 audiobooks and read 1 ebook.
I've started my 4th audiobook. I've got 70 books saved, and 7 are unavailable until
my next billing period. I can work with that quite easily.

By the way, I browsed around the site looking for the term "unlimited", and didn't
see it. That certainly doesn't mean it isn't there. But I did find this:
https://support.scribd.com/hc/en-us/articles/210135406-How-many-books-does-Scribd-
have-Are-you-adding-more-

I think the idea is that you CAN read / listen to an unlimited NUMBER of books,
just not any book you want. I'll agree that the subscription model is not
completely transparent (it should be), but I don't agree that it's a scam.

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Cute_Current7753
•
9mo ago
Heh, have some of the next books downloaded of like three different series and once
I finished one of the series, the other two series now show as unavailable until
next renew and in my account it even shows 72 books downloaded and saved but when I
look at the actual list it won't show the downloaded books that are now not
available even though they already been downloaded. It also shows only 61 books
downloaded. Yeah it is shady to say unlimited and say you can download and then
read it offline or later but they will still go into your files and restrict
access. Just be upfront and say hey you read 4 books in a series then you can't
read other books after even if they downloaded. That's what upsets me. Just be
upfront. Change from as many as you want to as many as you want but only like 4 per
month.

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r/Scribd
Join
Interesting articles on Scribd.com
Welcome to the Scribd Community! Note: The mods do not work for Scribd, we just
enjoy the using website/app. Any questions about their payment system need to be
directed to their Contact Us on their website as we cannot assist with questions
like that. https://www.scribd.com/contact

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