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I was billed $75 for a 'free' audible.com audio book!
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- čas přidán 29. 05. 2019
- My audible.com experience. A free trial resulted in nearly $75 in billing. I suspect this sort of "error" in their favour is totally part of the business plan
if they need payment details upfront and are claiming its a free trial - they get no attention from here.
The business plan relies of people forgetting to cancel - and it works
Well, what's so hard about cancelling immediately after entering the trial?
@SCWfan06 who said there was anything hard about it?
It's about forgetting to cancel and not checking the credit card bill closely enough.
Some that use this model rely on difficult processes to cancel to deter people. I have a major cell phone provider and get free trial offers. How come I can sign up with the single click of a link on a web page, but to remove service or cancel the account it can only be done live via phone. Eady buy, hard to quit
You can get the one use CC numbers for trials, so your main account does not get affected by issues like this.
It's like there are a squad of Jedi having a battle in your glasses.
Free cheese, you only find in mousetraps
👍 I never thought of it that way, but now that you’ve mentioned it, I agree! it nails the point 👍
Free trial lure to a subscription is just banking on that % of users who forget and essentially pay for a service they don't want.
That happened to me with yelp. Cost me $800 and I was doing it to help out my dad's business
Not my experience at all. Always been happy, they have offered refunds any time I have called. Audible customer for life.
Exactly, I am waiting for a free trial where they do not have access to any account information.
Exactly the same thing happened to me, I'm from NZ.
Squilliam , thanks for the warning.
Oh crap, time to cancel. NZ here too
yeah, go to audible.com/kiwi and cancel.... just a joke :)
I'm in Sweden. Wanted to test Audible a few years back and downloaded a "free" book. I didn't enjoy and stopped using the page without cancelling. Several months later I saw I was being billed. It's probably some text you "agree" upon when you click their page that get you billed. But who reads that text ? And who
thinks about cancelling something you think is free you don't use? I think this practice is bordering to predatory because you get all this FREE info signing up and advertised but you get slammed with bills as soon you do something without being really careful. I don't recommend Audible. A few other experiences with apps give me the impression this whole app industry is based upon billing people for stuff you advertise as free. Caveat emptor industry >:-(
Same here but they're billing me from AU while I signed in from us.
A younger more naive me would say: It's probably an error
The older, 40 years as a software developer, cynical me says: Yup, deliberate - code to create a 'shadow' account doesn't write itself...
Wonder how many people don't notice that on their statements... especially in these days of paying for everything on a card micro-transactions that spam your transaction log with hundreds of transactions.
But it could be a nice thing as it is about distribution... US only deals etc, number of people use fake/not there real addresses for that purpose and not use their home country.
Fortunately, as a part of our family budgeting software we go through every transaction. So no charge ever gets missed.
They should be legally held accountable for scamming the unsuspecting public
Wow, if that's true it's totally unacceptable!
If they say it's free and then they ask you for a credit card number, stop.
This is not true, in general
Or just use a spare credit card that you can lock.
Thanks, Matthias!
I need a warning like this every once in a while to remind me to keep my guard up.
Just finished that book and really enjoyed it. Preparing for a series on my channel about the power grid. Audible sponsored one video on my channel and decided not to renew. I used Audible for a while before that and have continued to use it since then. Never had a problem with billing or any other part of their service.
It seems some had issues, others not. But I imagine audible is quite happy having "accidental" billing occur when it does, and certainly isn't proactive about lettin you know that you are still being billed.
Unfortunately my brother had a similar problem, he lost about $45...
Made in Poland love ur videos m8
Made in Poland never seen ur videos m8
That's why you use a credit card. Dispute the charge.
Cześć też jestem z Polski, założyłem konto zapisałem się na darmową wersję próbną i zrezygnowałem. Mimo to obawiam się czy nie ściągną mi pieniędzy z konta. Mógłbyś napisać jak to wyglądało z twoim bratem? Z góry dzięki
There was a collective action against Audible here in Canada a few years ago ...
Same experience with audible here as well unfortunately.
Very good use of CZcams. Thank you.
A quick read of comments, it's the same in Aust, UK, NZ, Italy, etc......A patten of behaviour..
No responsibility because it crosses borders. Much like many large companies avoiding tax.
They apologized and refunded him. What do you mean 'no responsibility?'
@@dvste753 Are you that naive? It's the ability to run what is obviously a scam, counting on probably 10s of thousands of people not to notice. Those that do have no recourse to the law because the company is in another country. Even if they return the money they have had the use of it....Notice especially there is no problem in the company's home country.
Thos Oz the free trial rolling into subscription business model is definitely not exclusive to audible/amazon. I completely agree the whole double account thing is strange, unfortunate, and seems off, but it still doesn’t seem deceptive or a scam. They made it right. I’m then concerned about the 10s of thousands of people who you say don’t check their credit card statements... Why should a business be accountable for managing your money? Why is the moral of this story that ‘audible is terrible and a scam,’ rather than ‘check your statements and watch out for this kind of thing?’ Matthias admitted he ignored a bunch of their emails and didn’t check his statements... who then is the naive one here?
Hi @@dvste753, I can sort of see your point, personal responsibility is important, but , to initiate a second account on your behalf,
that you don't know about, and then bill you even after you have cancelled the account you do know about, IS a scam.
I think with your version of accountability the guy who picks your pocket is not the problem.....
There is much said on these forums about personal responsibility but rarely anything about corporate responsibility.
It seems to me there are very few that act as if they have any.
Sony is a good example here in Oz, they made $1,114 million here in 2016/2017 and paid NO corporate tax here, something they manage almost every year.
Now I admit what they do is legal ( we have crap tax laws here) but wow, think about it, over a $ billion and NO tax. And that's just one year.
Also they have told their customers here that if their playstation downloads don't work it's too bad and there's nothing they (the customer) can do.
Why, because they operate that service from another country..
@@thosoz3431 Good point. I was looking at this from the users perspective and thinking about how the title "I was charged $75 for a free audio book" is a bit misleading since it reflects Matthias' inactions rather than Audible's actions (Even could have been "I was charged $15...") I feel like some of the personal responsibility was being shucked onto Audible. That said, I do agree there needs to be more corporate responsibility and from that perspective you're totally right.
Thanks for sharing this. Seems quite unethical for this company to be doing this
companies to not have any ethics
How do you think amazon got #1.
Was that your vertical LED light reflecting in your eye glasses? For some reason, that's all I could look at.
Yes, quite distracting.
Huh!!! That’s why I never signed up those audio book stuff!!
First, I'm in the US, so no shadow account shenanigans. I've been an Audible users since before Amazon bought them. I have cancelled for years at a time when money was tight, and I do like their account hold policy which let's you stop accumulating credits (and monthly fees) when I am through my backlog of books. Overall positive experiences with them. No issues cancelling when I want and I still have every book available to me even after I have cancelled. Other similar services I can't say such good things about, Amazon digital music regularly "forgets" I bought albums and I can no longer access them and I don't even want to think about how iTunes destroyed my MP3 collection.
It's a deceitful business practice. Commonly called stealing.
it's actually creative asset acquisition. Totally not stealing. :-P
I had something similar but it concerned my Amazon account. I agree that i think it's part of their business plan... bill you and then apologize when they get caught.
I had problems with my Amazon Kindle account. I was signed in and about to buy a book, because it was only about AU$3, instead of the usual AU$25. I tried to pay for it, but the book then showed up as AU$12 something. I contacted Amazon and they told me the price was for another region and I had to do some sort of secondary sign-in process, to get it to remember my region when browsing eBooks. That seems like a total scam to me. Needless to say, I only ever bought one Kindle book (a different one) from them. I only "buy" free Kindle books. With that, they have occasional books out for free, as a promotion. I've scored a couple of hundred dollars worth of free books, that way! haha
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. My subscription with Audible has been quite the opposite and I would highly recommend their service to anyone interested in audio books.
I haven't been through this situation with audible but I go through it every month with Rogers. I feel this is just standard business practice for a lot of larger companies that use subscription model billing. I imagine doing this a few million times a month really pays off at the end of the year.
It is called free money. As stated above when he did notice the $15 and checked back found 5 other months worth totaling almost $75 ..sounds like nothing now multiply it by maybe 10,000 people that is $750,000 they have had for 5-6 months free of charge with just a sorry for the people that notice. How many don't notice? how many don't cancel in time?
I'm surprised Matthias, not just for the audible behaviour, but for you being as smart as you are, that you actually used your main credit card to sign up for a trial period. Everone knows that you should use a rechargable/virtual credit card for those things just to avoid giving out a credit card number that companies can decide to charge at their will, and there will always be credit.
And there is an Audible-ad just underneath your video😂
Me too I got that ad as well
everybody who watched this vid,will be getting 'retalliatory'ads from ailing Audible,..brace yourselves for bullshit ads!
trouble starts immediately when you need to give your card details upfront. even if they don't secretly bill you, it's a problematic sales strategy.
if your product is good, you give a free sample, and people will want more, and then give you their card details
Exactly. Their business model is to hope people forget about it and get billed, and then hope they dont notice the charges.
Matthias, I'm very surprised to hear of your problems with Audible and to read all the comments that have piled on. I've been an Audible customer for many years and have over 160 audio books in my library and have never had any problem. Audible has even allowed me to return books that I started and didn't like...with no questions asked. I admit that I'm based in the US so I can't speak to their policies in Canada. Since they were acquired by Amazon, if anything their service is better. I hope you get this straightened out. Thanks for terrific videos.
Every subscription service business plan I’ve ever seen includes a line item called something like “wastage”. It’s the amount of revenue anticipated from services that are billed for but never used by the consumer. It covers things like the money left unused on gift cards, minutes left unused on phone cards, and yes, subscriptions left un-cancelled after a trial period has expired. If it weren’t such a lucrative piece of the model, the free offer would come without any credit card information being exchanged, and the delighted consumer would simply rush to sign up after sampling the magnificent wares. Yeah, that doesn’t happen. What happened to you is what happens, and it happens enough to make it a significant part of a service’s projected revenues.
I tried my free trial then i endet it no problems when doing that from denmark.
i signedup agen 1.5 year later and now i quite like the service.
Used audible for quite a while and never had a problem. At one point I intentionally setup a second account so that I could get more books per month than their plans currently allowed. When canceled each of those accounts, there was no problem and, the last time I checked, I am still able to listen to every book I ever received. I loved Audible but I stopped listening to audio books.
I've had similar problems with Amazon. I cancelled (within the free period), they kept sending me bills and even automated phone calls, and one actual real person once. This is about 2 years later and still getting the calls. I just hang up; they didn't get my money. I'm not sure now if it's some scammer calling or them. I just assumed scammer (I guess it doesn't matter). I'm in Aus though. I have to sort out so much scamming directed at the old girl (mother), she's mid-seventies and thinks everything might be serious. Makes me wonder how many oldies fall for this though.
I tried to cancel my account and the button back then said "Click to Unsubscribe", after clicking on it, you get to a diff. page titled "Sorry to see you go". BUT! You have to scroll down that page also and click "I confirm I want to cancel my subscription". Not sure if that changed since, but I was convinced tons of people got caught.
Sounds a bit sketchy to me! Thanks for the heads up!
I live in the US, and have only had a good experience with Audible for about 2 years, starting with 2 free books for the trial. There has only been one book which I did not enjoy and did not finish. They allowed me to select a different free book that month. They now offer two free additional short story selections every month. They do bug me constantly about purchasing additional book credits, but that is OK. However, if I hear of any of my overseas friends thinking about joining Audible, I will relate your experience. Thanks!
The Amazon .com & .ca are completely separate sites. I have books on the .com that i purchased prior to it being available in Canada.
That sounds like a "their problem" and not a "you problem". That they turn a "their problem" into a "you problem" is a red flag and means that it's time to gtfo.
I didn't have this issue as a UK user but I would completely agree that their business model relies on users being unaware of continued subscription payments whether through forgetfulness or otherwise. Frequently when cancelling there will be an offer for reduced fee for 3 months, they no doubt bank on you later forgetting.
My wife worked for the local hospital for some time and part of her employment gave her access to the hospital gym facility for a nominal fee and she could add us family members for a reasonable pay deduction. So we were members for about a year or so and then she resigned. During her resignation she met with HR and signed all sorts of paperwork and whatnot, typical large employer type stuff, and we thought everything was good. Then about 3 or 4 years later we decided to sign up for the same gym again and upon signing up we were told we owed back membership fees of almost $2700. The interesting part is that they never sent out a single piece of paper or email telling that my account was still active but they could verify that I had not used the account during that time and after some back and forth they agreed to remove the charges. The whole time I thought how many people have they done this type of stuff to and have others simply paid it.
There have been some narrators that haven't thrilled me but, overall, I'm a happy audible.com user. Not in Canada so haven't had that issue and I've never attempted to cancel because, all in all, I enjoy the service.
No, but apparently I signed up to the Amazon book subscription service without realising it. Took me 6 months to notice. My kids also have bought episodes of Seasme St off CZcams, apparently it is very easy to make a purchase if Google have your payment details!
Thanks for telling it like it is
I dont use audible but i really enjoy when youtubers i like promote it as they will usually recommend a book that i will then get from the bookstore. I have enjoyed many of them and found a few new authors this way. What are the top 3 non fiction books you have read in the last 12 months? I would definitely follow a book blog by you.
I’m a regular audible user and have never had an issue with extra billing. I do believe that part of the model is to sign people up for a “free” trial hoping that they’ll get some billing when people forget to cancel. It’s like gift cards that never get redeemed. I would say as far as the .ca accounts not getting cancelled automatically that’s probably more of a technology glitch. I see things like this at my work where the business side of the business doesn’t really understand what is needed on the technical side and things get missed.
The only reason I've even used Audible is the 30 or so free audiobooks Amazon has given away to get people to try it.
You can play Audible books from Audible.com->Library->Play button under book cover art.
I also hate auto-renew/subscription services. They always seem to find a way to charge more and make cancelling very difficult.
I also don't like how magazines and other services send out mail and reminders to renew your service months or even years before it's due.
Think of how many people just go ahead and pay thinking their subscription is about to run out.
Subscriber since: 02-17-04 I have never had a problem, love the service have over 500 books! as to the narrators you can preview (listen to a sample) of every book. I easily listen to my books on my Mac, iPhone, pc and fire tablet. They are always synced between devices. Great for long distance driving, I own homes I California and Montana so I do a lot of driving every year. Sorry to hear of your ordeal....
Never ever, ever sign up for those kinds of free trial schemes.
There is always, and I mean always a catch or hidden clause.
What’s more, just don’t buy anything from companies that use that method.
They will always try to find some way to screw you over.
This is not habitual cynicism talking. This is hard earned experience talking.
A good adage: No-one's business plan makes a profit from giving away free things. Someone (not them) has to pay for those free things...
Just don't buy anything and you'll never spend any money!
I've never had a single issue with a free trial and used many. Prime, Deezer, Spotify, audible etc not a single issue.
LunnyBear you must be lucky, not have done it that much or have dedicated an inordinate amount of time and attention to cancelling the subscription at just the right moment.
Of course you’ll not fall in every time, but it obviously pays off for the companies to continue doing it.
@@Frisenette Lucky perhaps, the other two, certainly not. Takes no time or effort for me personally to cancel the subscriptions. I don't have any friends or family that seem to have had any issues either, other than forgetting to cancel in time.
Guess who's ad I'm seing right under the video? Haha!
Same
Yup same. I marked it as "inappropriate"
I was paying them for a year and didn't even realise it. Yes, I know I should check my accounts more often, but that's not the point. There was not enough warning that they were taking the money
I'm from the UK and I signed up to them many years age. I had so many problems of being billed for book I could not use or had not ordered I canceled my account. Some five years later I was persuaded to give them another go. I never got to hear any book at any point and with their messing me around cost me over £100, Close to £200 with both incidents. I now go out of my way to try and stop people from signing up but it seems some people just have no problems. I'm glad to hear I'm not alone but sorry you have had problems with them to.
I'm in UK and I've been an Audible listener for quite few years. I have an account with Amazon.co.uk (parent/owner of Audible). I never had any issues or glitches with the service. I even returned a title or two and I was always credited with the money but I'm on a yearly plan so it might be different.
I have to agree that if I'd be looking on this from the business side of things, the picture you're painting makes sense. How many people have tine or even bother to jump through the hoops. I guess that's the sign of time we live in :(
Creating accounts you never actually signed-up for?! Audible must have been reading the Wells Fargo playbook...
Or even when they do it without putting a random hyphen in "signed up." :-P
Amazon country accounts are weirdly separate, but still not. If you have an account in any country, you can sign into another Amazon country site, but each of those sites have at least separate order histories. Addresses are shared as are payment options. They used to even have separate Prime accounts. I managed to use 30 day prime trial period from four or five countries before they plugged the hole. I bet that this problem is related to this account duality as Audible is Amazon's service.
You are absolutely right. First off the app is so hard To use. So not intuitive. As someone who was born and raised with a smart phone in my hand I’ve never really had trouble with phone apps, until I downloaded audible. The process for buying and listening to a book is so frustrating, I find myself never listening to them. Also the subscription is confusing as well. I feel like I’ve canceled two or three times but on their defense, I intentionally signed up again because I want to get back into it. But none the less the sign up is easy but cancellation is difficult. I think audible relies on people signing up and then essentially forgetting about it. They rely on the people that don’t check their bank statements very often. When it comes down to it I think $15 a month is way too high, it should be more along the lines of five dollars a month. Because you still have to buy the books.
My wife uses it (and loves it) but she signed up pretty quickly so didn't run into any "accidental" payments. Reminds me of Columbia Records, but then I guess it sounds like pretty much all subscription based business models.
I have been an audible member since 2007 and they have always dealt straight with me. I am not paid by them to say anything so this is just a customer’s experience. I have really enjoyed the service over the years. The selection and the price ($14.99 for a credit per month) have been what has kept me as a customer over the years. Audio books are expensive! But credits are not...
As far as the .ca account, that is unfortunately and somewhat troubling. That seems out of character from the interactions I have had with the company in the past. I have called customer service a few times and they helped me out with what I needed (returns, pausing billing, etc)
I have never had issues with with listening on my pc or smart phone (or my MP3 player waaaaayyy back in the day). Stuff is all documented on their website as to how to listen. You do have to dig for it but google is your friend. I think your issues probably came from trying to use an old tablet that was on the fritz. For me my experience had been pc, sansa MP3 players, iPhone 4s and 6+. And I have been really pleased with the convenience of the app on my smartphone.
I am sorry you had that issue with the second account and with the app. I can see how that would put you off. I recommend audible to people all the time and have had nothing but a positive experience with the service.
Their app is pretty clunky, which is surprising since they've been around for many years and are now owned by Amazon.
I have a single UK account from near the very beginning of audible. I have to say they've been brilliant for me. I first joined before Amazon bought them but I run the subscription on and off, and my off periods are never less than a year. I still have my full library available for download. I have used the support once, it was round about 2009, they used to make their own audio book software in parallel to the iTunes integration, that software was ok but not amazing hence the support ticket but they handled it well.
Absolutely unacceptable business practise. How can they sign you up for two things when you only sign up for one?
Thankfully I have never had any problems with audible and have been using them off and on for a few years, mostly whenever they offer me another free trail. Maybe it's just because I'm from the US?
It’s probably just a rights issue not a sneaky biz plan. Rather than explain to the end user that these rights are region specific they just create the appropriate account. Although, if you have a auto creation it can’t be that hard to have auto deletion when a customer opts out.
When it comes to subscriptions, I generally use a designated credit card that I don't need for other purchases, and then lock it after I cancel a subscription, so they can't bill me even if they want to. They're forced to suspend the account then if they don't cancel it due to a glitch.
Your Canadian? That's so cool! I was curious from your accent
Thanks for the heads up to this shady practice. Personally, I think there ought to be laws requiring explicit opt-in to any service that bills you... requiring opt-outs of service or you get billed is just so abusive...
I use a free app through my public library. I can check out audio books for free and they simply expire, so no late fees ever. Also selection is great, but limited to the library collection. Ever tried using a gift card (visa, etc) to sign up for "free" trials? I heard that works.
Been with Audible for almost 20 years, and have never had any problems personally. My mother didn't use her monthly credits fast enough, and found out that they expire and disappear after 6 months or so a few years back, but I think they may have changed that policy since then.
I had a different account-related issue years ago when I was a teenager. I'm in the US, Arizona. I signed up for the free trial to get the free audiobook, then I forgot to cancel the subscription. Six months go by and I check my statement to find they had charged me for a total of ninety dollars. Being a teenager I was not sure how to deal with this, and I was afraid of getting in trouble. I quickly cancelled the account and, like an idiot, proceeded to forget about it. Something like six months or a year later, I got an email stating that my six audiobook credits had "expired". I didn't realize that you received a free credit every month, and that my money initially was not lost but sunk into Audible. I would have been able to get books if I had realized, but the notice meant that it really was lost.
There is an ongoing class-action lawsuit against Amazon in regards to the expiration of audiobook credits.
I've never paid for an audio book. I use two library apps, Hoopla and Libby.
I have been an Audible user for 8 years now with over 2700 hours of listening time. And I'm thrilled by the whole service. And I know youtubes who promote and use it. But it's certainly not for everyone. If you don't have a smartphone then the service is horrible. Also the twin account thing seems odd. Might have something to do with the phone registration? I've never understood the reason for those. I'm not comfortable with the idea that they purposely did this to scam people. It seems more like an bizzarre outcome from ever increasing licensing issues. Since books you buy on .com marketplace are not available on any other accounts using different marketplaces and the catalogue is different. The trail scheme is so rampent now that businesses practically have to use them or be left behind. And sure on some level the idea is for people to forget to cancel in time. It might seem predatory but in my experience, canceling is usually extremely easy. Except with Adobe. Sorry to hear you had a hard time off it.
Thank you for your integrity.
Like almost all free trials for anything you first have to sign up to subscribe and give payment details. They do this so that you actively have to opt out of the contract after the trial.
I've used audible for over a year now and really like it so haven't tried to cancel. I hope it's not a massive pain if I ever do decide to cancel.
Here in the US I’ve used Audible for years with no problems. The few issues I’ve had, unrelated to billing , was quickly resolved through their customer service department. I’m now retired and no longer subscribe to Audible. Can’t justify the cost. I have found other ways to listed to audible books for free. I can listen to books through my public library using several apps. “Libby” is one of those. Amazon Prime members get to listen to a selection of 50 books per month that are rotated frequently. I signed up for Google’s Awards for taking surveys and in the coarse of a year I earn enough points to purchase 6 to 8 books.
They wouldn't let me cancel my subscription because I couldn't remember the phone number I used when creating the account. They wouldn't accept any other information as proof of ID. I asked my bank to cancel the direct debit and my bank told me to call audible. I told the bank I tried that and I had to demand that my bank stop sending Audible money from my account. Only then did the payments stop. I was never able to formally cancel my subscription. Audibles prices are crazy high anyway. Why is there a monthly fee if you are paying $20 for a book every time?
Audible is very good imo. I pay £7.99 a month and get 1 credit every month to use to purchase 1 audiobook which is actually very cheap since audiobooks usually cost way more than £7.99, usually over £20. The only thing I have to keep an eye out for is how much credit I have as they only allow the maximum of 7 credit to be stored so I have to use it before my 8th month and I don't listen to my audiobooks very much, I really need to start doing so lol. Another issue I have is that some audiobooks aren't available in the UK but are in other countries which I'm fine with as I've dealt with those kinda issues my whole life however what gets me is when book 1-3 aren't available but 4-7 are. It's the same darn writer and publisher so why aren't all the books in the series available. The last issue is if you cancel your subscription you lose the credit however you can still listen to all the books as those are yours to keep forever which is really cool. They also allow users to take a holiday from audible which means your account is still there but you don't pay for upto 3 months and you don't get credit and after those 3 months you start paying again and start earning monthly credit. The only drawback with that holiday is you can only do it once a year.
My public library offers downloadable audio books and they don't require a CC. No fear of accidental billing. I was an audible subscriber for several years. I had no issues cancelling.
As a note, anyone can create an affiliate account with amazon and look under the bounties, you will find them , for audible, prime, and other services.
I have gone back and forth with them. Every time I have cancelled there was an error and they still charged me. They always refunde what I tell them to.
I’ve had audible for a couple of years and it’s been pretty great. I signed up as a US user w/free trial and haven’t had any major issues. They’ve been pretty great about issuing free book credits when there was an issue w/the app. Hopefully this gets resolved and they make the flow for international users a lot more user-friendly.
I've had Audible in the past and have had none of these problems but I'm in the US.
No problems for me, also [also in the USA], but I've only bought single/specific books from Audible--always very leery of any "subscription"/auto-bill-pay scheme. Most things "subscription" rely--at least partly--on a person's inertia for continuing subscription services, despite diminished utility [like many gym memberships in the USA].
I'm US and I did not experience any problems when I tried them out. But I haven't been back to see if things have changed.
I just put in a CZcams search for "Audiobook The Grid" - and there it was! Maybe it's a different one - this one is by Gretchen Bakke. It lasts 11:08:08, and I went to the end (I always do) to see if it was complete - and yes, it appears to be. It appears to be competently read by a woman, whose name I did not hear.
I have listened to quite a few audiobooks on CZcams - many of them from Audio. These are the best - read by professional readers/actors, who do different voices for the characters in the book. There are also a lot of books presented by LibraVox, which are also good - though not as well delivered as Audio's books. At the beginning of every chapter, they read out "This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please etc, etc." followed by the name of the book, the author, name of the reader and a bit more information. I get sick of hearing it repeated, so I delete it while processing the file for listening on my MP3 player. These books are downloaded as a single file, and if you simply transfer them as-is to an MP3 player, you run the risk of accidentally pushing the fast-forward button momentarily, and losing your place - and to find your place again in an 11-hour file can involve holding the fast-forward button for a _long_ time, so I go through them first with Audacity and break them into shorter sections - up to 100 of them for some books, and in the same process, I have got pretty good at recognising the Libravox advert and stripping it off. I know they wouldn't approve of that, but it's just for me - I don't share them with anybody else.
Thanks for the info. Not buying into their hype. What were they going to do charge you twice because you're in Canada?
That is definitely a part of the model for any subscription service that offer free trial periods. A lot of these services are relying on people signing up then not using the service but still paying, that is an ideal customer after all, one who pays you but you deliver no product.
I did a free trial, but I did it through amazon.ca. (I do also have an amazon.com account). No billing after I cancelled. I enjoyed the trial book, but when I looked at the prices of the books I was interested in, plus the monthly fee, it was just too expensive.
I've been using Audible for six years and I have about 240 titles in my library. I've never had any issues with their service.
thanx,..thats reassuring.
Also Canadian, have signed up twice for the trial a year or two ago and didn't have any issues. It must be a new "feature".
Huh, 🤔 I skipped a Free trial Audible ad to watch the video… hmm… I don’t think I’ll be trying Audible. Thank Matthias!
I've had an Audible account for years and never had any issues that would make me suspicious of their business practices. It's a great service in my opinion.
Trust your recommendations, wish you did more. Thanks.
In the US.. and this was probably 2-3 years ago.. signed up for a free trial.. listened to part of a book, canceled within the allotted time-frame and that was that... no charges, no issues...
Same here in BC. I got it sorted out though.
In my experience when I did my free trial of audible it worked out just fine for me to cancel on the 14 days after I listened to my book. At one point when I commuted a lot for work I signed up for the product again and had it for three or four months and there after cancelled again because I wasn’t able to justify $15/book. But my sister later let me use her account so I listened to all her books. After I reinstalled the app on my phone my books were still in my account as to be expected. In short all my dealings with audible have been on the up and up and as expected. But I’ve since just used my public library and I use the app Libby which I find to be a very good resource. Now I use earbuds while I work and just go through books like crazy now that they’re free.
Definitely deliberate in the hope that people don't notice and/or forget to cancel
I haven't had any problems with audible, only ever used their free trial credits if i want to get a rare audiobook, it's an amazon company which have the best customer service, they will be the first to refund you no questions asked, so i don't see how this can be part of their business plan. i do use a drm removal tool to convert the files to mp3 so i can listen to them on any device that plays an mp3 file so don't have any problems playing them back. and their website has a "play sample" button so you can hear what the narrator sounds like before purchasing. also i use a debit card without any money on them to sign up for free trials, that way their automated billing wont be able to take any money from them and you don't even have to remember to cancel them on the website. either that or cards with phone apps that allow you to freeze the card and view all transactions on them in real time.
I'm not 100% sure (this was a while ago) but I think the same happened to a friend of mine here in the UK; they cancelled their account, but retained a dot-co-dot-uk account.
Would you have been charged twice if you hadn't cancelled either account? Seems very shady.
It's a very confusing strategy, which I suppose is the point, unfortunately.
Reminds my of phone stores where they sell you phone plans happily, but can't cancel them.
Amazon has some very weird problems with their accounts. I have two separate amazon accounts with the same address and a different password, and I have no idea how that happened. And they can't delete one of them, if I log in by mistake it gets restored.
The only audio books I've ever listened to were from LibreVox, and those are free.
Nathan Salapat is it in the googlestore?
Theres one librivox made by technovert, but has bad reviews
@@rronaldreagan no idea if they have an app. librivox.org/
I've used Audible for about a decade, long before Amazon bought them. They have lost a few steps since. As far as the copyright region issue, they do have to manage a weird dance with international copyright law. They aggressively redirect me to the US home page (which is annoying) when I follow a link to a different region's site. Anyway, I suspect the site is designed to redirect you to Audible.ca from Audible.com. Do you know how you wound up on the wrong region's web site? Was there a redirect that didn't not work, or did you force it to the .com site somehow? It's strange that you wound up with two accounts, but the software has to be a huge, complex, nightmare to manage. There are always known issues that companies wish they could fix, but will require X man months to change and other things take precedence. I fully expect that your call was easy, quick, and that the refund will happen as promised. For the service in general, I do encounter annoying software issues fairly regularly. I wish their was competitive pressure to improve the quality of the apps. I have called/written service because I couldn't access something, to resolve billing issues, or to report problems with a title. My experience with support has been top tier with short to no wait times and knowledgable, helpful staff. They've always fixed problems promptly, without any hassle.
I've been an audible subscriber for a while and have never run into hidden fees or excessive fees. Great service with many fantastic recordings. Not certain why you had so much trouble playing a book on your PC. I was able to figure it out within a few minutes when I first signed up. Fortunately, I'm in the US which is likely why I didn't have the experience you had.
Most YouTuibers I've seen advertising Audible were Audible users before they got the gig with them, so they haven't had the issue. I've been using audible for over 15 years and have never had a major issue. I've suspended my account for 6 months during a time when I knew I wouldn't be able to utilize their service. Never had an issue.
This guy's on the payroll.
Ha! I wish. Nope, I’ve been paying hundreds of dollars a year for over a decade because I like the product.
Completely agree that it's deliberate and counting on people not noticing. You should be able to only purchase one book without the subscription that forces you to always be consuming books regardless.
Not the same issue but I paused the subscription and no notice of when it started again so I was being charged and hadn't been listened to any books. I just cancelled and now they keep harassing me and offering free books etc. I had to filter them into spam just to get some peace from the constant emails. You'd think they'd take the hint.