Audible.Com

Before Amazon took over AUDIBLE it was easy to use and their customer service was.. . well service. Since AMAZON its format changes frequently making the process of getting the book to your iPod (or other device) very frustrating and time consuming. AMAZON’S idea of customer service is to have it handled by someone half way around the world who may or may not speak reasonable English. When I continued to politely ask for clarification in order to understand what they were saying they (two separate times) hung up on me. AMAZON’S customer service is like that of COMCAST or VERIZON or any other MEGA-​MONOPOLY. THE INDIVIDUAL CONSUMER IS TOO SMALL TO MATTER! Didn’t think I would ever say this but I finally found someone with worse service than COMCAST.

Audile is now inaudible after Amazon bought it and broke it. It used to be wonderful with helpful agents who actually read books. The software worked. Amazon wrecked it, and the new agents don’t know and don’t care. The sign in process doesn’t work with all browsers, the books do not download correctly, the call center reads from playbook, if they read at all. This is what happens when a huge megalith corporation takes over a good company-​they ruin it.

Audiobooks SUCKS. I signed up for the «free 30 day trial» and they charged me within an hour! The only thing they would do is cancel the «free» membership and take back the «free» book … and the refund would take 7 – 10 business days! So much for the «free 30 day trial» — which their website states you keep books after you cancel! SCAM!!!

I have been an
member for a few years now. I love it. I know they have to make money, but I do wish it wasn’t $ 15 a month. If it was less, I’d probably purchase more extra books. But anyway, I DO love the service! I’d unlikely audiobook (my audio book way of calling it «reading») as many books as I do if it weren’t for this service.
I have a couple of criticisms however about their app. I do NOT understand why
can’t make it so a member, such as myself, can see ALL their books from a wish list (or any list) on ONE page? Also, I’d like to view my books by their published date and that’s not an option. I have mentioned it more than once to the suggestion email but, alas, it never ever ever changes. The website does feel kind of archaic. If they don’t have developers who can make the changes that best serves customers, hire ones who can! We are paying enough money. If you can’t update the site to be more «modern» then you really ave no business charging customers $ 15 a month.

Updated review
Had a far better time calling them this time so I upped the stars.
I’m only on my first book and I just signed up the other day. The gentleman on the phone wasn’t very helpful at all when I asked why my voucher for Living Social didn’t work. He said well it’s because you because you are already a member and you have to call them to get a refund. Weird conversation sort of a cross between «I don’t want to be on the phone and I can’t do nothing for you» attitude. Why don’t people that answer phones at customer service centers act like they care about customer service?
There are people here with 3 paragraph reviews? Are they employees? Just asking.

This would be a different kind of review.
I have been looking for Smita Kothuri, who speaks herself as Senior Director of Product Management of your Newark Office. She has been hiding away from her tenants of her rental property in Vienna VA, while she is in illegal possession of almost $ 3000 of our security deposit. For the past two months, she could not be reached by phone or email. The address she left us seemed to be a fake one that the certified mail could not be delivered. All I wanted is her work address so I can start the small claim court process. I contacted your organization several times trying to get some help, but it seems like no one cares.

Audible started charging my credit card even though I never signed up for the service. I never, ever listen to audio books so the only thing I can think of is that I tried to close the annoying pop up on my Kindle Fire and hit the wrong button. I contacted customer service via chat today and threatened to file a complaint with the FTC if they don’t credit me back for the service I have never used. We’ll see what happens.

Really great offices in Newark. Open space, no walls just light and windows. And audio books rock.

I love
. I read a book about every two days. My books have replaced TV, radio and news. It’s fun to read while driving, shopping, waiting, everything. The stories come alive with the great narrators. They add personality and accents that paper books lack. Also, I can get through 1000 page books.
Audible has good prices and excellent service.
Try them. The first book is free.

I am a part of the Platinum Club, 2 Audiobooks per month, I typically get a personal development Audiobook and a mystery legal novel from John Grisham or Lisa Scottoline.
I really like the wide selection provided and they typically have most new novels as well as some oldies. I really like having the Audiobook and Kindle versions and being able to go back and forth between reading and listening.

Woah, I don’t understand any of the negative reviews. I’ve never had an issue with these guys.
They always answer their phone calls within nearly 1 minute (actually talking with a human within one minute)
Their rates and return policy are awesome.
Their app on the iPhone is so damn reliable and easy to use its one of my favorites.
Their selection is huge.
I’ve canceled multiple times due to financial issues and have not had ANY ISSUE DOING SO. (Don’t get others saying that they do)
They are hands down one of my favorite companies to deal with.
–User since 2012

Audible is one of those comfort items in life that is always there when you need it. I built a modest library of biographies, military documentaries, political satire, health and fitness, and outright guilty pleasures. I am sure that Audible has a stat of how many time I have listened to Samuel L. Jackson’s «Go the F*ck to Sleep».
It will work on all of your devices and you can take it anywhere. You can even import the audio books into iTunes, so that you can access them without a WiFi connection. The voice quality is great. The app is great; however, and keeps track of your place across devices.
Well worth the money. I have had to give it up as one of those things we cannot afford while I am unemployed, but I am confident that all of my books are safe in my online library, and will comfort me when I start the first long drive up to Seattle for my future job.

I closed my account with audible back in January. The operator practically begged me not to close it. Here we are in May and I’m still getting charged. I’ve had to refute the charges with my credit card company each month. This subscription is very hard to get rid of. Buyer beware. I called them again today and they assured me again, that the account was closed and that they would credit me back the charges. I think I’m going to file a complaint with the BBB if I do not receive my credit and account is not closed.

AUTHORS, I will write a Verified Audible book review for you! Please see my FB Page and Fiverr gig.

These are not run of the mill issues with user canceling issues. I have called 3 months in a row and they confirmed that i cancelled, each time they were very apologetic saying that «yes, it does say here that you canceled last month» — but i still ended up getting charged monthly. They need to fix this or they’re going to end up with some serious class action law suits some day.

Audible /​Amazon customers
Warning.
Very unusual situation where removal of an unwanted secondary Audible account
(now owned by amazon) cleaned out a year of AMAZON order history, shopping cart, Wish list, even the audible use itself was severed,
amazon prime services, links to kindle reader devices etc.
Beware! ! Amazon can restore this … Eventually but with
Audible claiming, «this is not possible, didn’t happen» etc. You too may have a
Very amusing 2 hour phone conversations, where we all agree it may/​did happen–
But who is responsible? Oh haha. Silly you, you destroyed your own account ?
CHECK YOUR ACCOUNTS ! Audible agents have no clue.
If you attempt to link them –Audible to Amazon, check all the information
Carefully.
Service interruptions are most likely your unexpected benifit through this merger.

Just another person complaining about unexpected charges. First, I got an email for a credit for an audiobook. Ok, no problem. Went to the site, downloaded it (I think), was going to download the app to listen to it later, but this morning, woke to find the charge to my account. I went back to the email, it said I wasn’t charged for the book. No, turns out, I was charged for a membership.
Did the online chat with the sales rep who tried to get me to stay (hate that). Finally, he refunded my money and I demanded they remove all my information to avoid further charges. I went in to cancel myself and had to go through twice because they use little tricks to mess you up so you don’t cancel.
Yeah, this is the new way of having you buy three books for a penny only to sign you into a contract. I seriously hate companies like this. But it’s Amazon, so not all that surprising.
Know that if you get a free book from
they are signing you in for a membership, whether you know it and agree to it or not.

Sheesh. So many review from people who didn’t take responsibility for cancelling services they agreed to pay for. I’ve signed up and cancelled a handful of times. Nothing out of the ordinary with their cancellation policy. I don’t really need an ongoing subscription service for audio content at this point but if I did I have no qualms recommending Audible. I don’t know if it’s really a 5 star service for me, but someone needs to tilt the rating away from the ridiculous one star reviews from the people who don’t know how subscriptions work.
If you don’t want to be charged, make sure you cancel your subscription. It’s pretty simple. Like any other subscription service, they’ll offer various reasons you shouldn’t cancel. If get offended by that and don’t end up cancelling it, they’ll keep charging you, and then apparently you’ll go to Unilocal and write about what a scam it is.

PUTRID SCAM!
Really enjoyed the books that I downloaded. Really enjoyed the WSJ morning read. But I needed to deal with a slightly leaky budget; Audible was on the trim list. So… I will just go on the website and cancel my monthly dues for the time being… right? Not-​so-​much. After a tortuous banging around on the website to discover exactly how to accomplish cancellation, I was finally at the portal to cancel. 10… count em…10 screens later each peppered with «clever» devices to either mis-​lead or cajole me into retaining membership finally ended with an error message saying that the cancellation «FAILED», please contact a customer rep at blah, blah.
When a phone call was finally answered by a service rep I was very angry and sort of felt sorry for the person on the other end of the phone. I made it perfectly clear that the only reason for the phone call was that I wanted a reference number for my complete cancellation immediately. The rep sighed and asked me to check my in-​box for a confirmation letter. It was there.
I feel sorry for whomever receives my call if there is another charge on my card next month.
I will be closing my Amazon account as well. I realized in a flood of «DUH!!» that I traded my soul for a bloated predatory business; kind of like a bloated predatory government. Being a follower of Rand I hit myself on the forehead this morning and re-​evaluated my shopping and purchasing habits… AMAZON; NO MAS!
I will enjoy shopping and searching for businesses that are operating in the true spirit of entrepreneurism and independence. I might spend a little more but will rest assured that I am supporting the next business that I pray will not become Bezos light… Drones, indeed.

My daily routine consists of a lot of running around. My commute has me on a bus for about an hour, then after that I’m walking across town from the East Side to the West Side to get to my office. That means I wind up with a lot of free time on my feet and during those times I enjoy listening to something on the ol’ iPod to keep me going. In the past this would have been music, but I tend to save my playlists for gym motivational music nowadays. For quite some time (and even now) I turned to free podcasts (of which there are hundreds).
My most recent addition to my auditory arsenal are books from
. Back in High School, I would have called these «Books on Tape» and the tradition continued on when CD’s dominated the market. Audible offers you the same experience, but now in the form of a download. The system is simple, you pay a set fee (I’m paying $ 7.95 a month), you get a «credit» and you shop for audio books based on credit. Most of the books I’ve gone after are only one credit but you can buy more credits if need be. They even have some free public domain books (I just picked up a Sherlock Holmes audio book for free).
If $ 8 seems like a lot for a book, consider that’s what you’ll pay on average for paperbacks nowadays. Also, the two books I’ve purchased so far («Ender’s Game» and «Speaker for the Dead») easily came out to over ten hours each (they were unabridged versions) so you’re getting quite a bit of bang for your buck.
What also makes Audible very useful are the user reviews. Many of the books will have reviews that tell you not only if the book is good, but also if the audio quality of the files are worthwhile.
The downloads are easy, you manage all your books in a virtual «library» and synching with iTunes was a tad confusing at first, but after about fifteen minutes of fiddling I got it working.
If you love books, but are always on the go, this is a great way of experiencing them.