Did You Know Audible Will Steal Away Your Credits If You Cancel Your Membership?
This morning’s 2-for-1 sale at Audible finally gave me a chance to use up all my credits and cancel my membership.
I am not a big audiobook fan, but I got an Audible membership back in November 2015 when Audible offered six months of membership for $8 a month. Since I could let the credits pile up while waiting for sales like today’s that was a great deal for me.
But then the six months ran out, and so for the past four months I’ve been paying full price – $15 a month – and letting the credits pile up while waiting for an opportunity to cancel and get away clean.
I had meant to cancel the membership, but then I forgot about it (which is why I don’t like subscriptions). I don’t really like audiobooks, so that was a terrible deal for me, but I let the charges pile up because of a Catch-22 in Audible’s ToS.
You see, Audible will sell you audiobooks with or without a membership, and you can keep them whether you have an active membership or not.
The same does not apply to the credits.
Audible sells credits under a monthly membership plan (also in bulk). The credits roll over from one month to the next, but if you try to cancel your membership Audible will take away the unused credits.
Yes, Audible will sell you credits and then use the threat of stealing them to discourage you from canceling your membership.
As you can tell from the tone of this post I think that is bullshit, and I just wanted to bring this blackmail policy to everyone’s attention.
Some of you are probably thinking that if I complained to Audible I could get an exception. That is true, but I’d rather complain publicly and get them to change the bullshit policy. I didn’t cut Scribd any slack when I criticized its cancellation process last year, and I see no reason to be nicer to Audible.
Just an FYI.
image by mundo resink
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