My mom is an avid reader and loves authors such as Mary Higgins Clark and Sidney Sheldon. She also loves books on subjects such as the paranormal and criminology. She also loves mystery novels.
She joined Scribd.com, as a paid subscriber in February, last year and thanks to Scribd, not only did she discover new book titles from her favourite authors, but also discovered authors and book titles that she had not heard of, before.
Scribd.com started to go downhill from June, last year, when the payment system started to deliberately find fault with the validity of the debit card, used to make a monthly payment, to renew the membership. A representative from Scribd.com informed us that it will be more’convenient’, if we availed of the yearly membership, since we will be saved from the hassle of updating our debit card details each month. My mom being the book lover she is, gave in and availed of a one year membership!
We then experienced the sad fact that Scribd.com, is partial to its subscriber base in the U.S. You see, if a potential subscriber from India, logs in to Scribd.com and searches for a specific title by a well-known author, there are good chances that the potential subscriber will be lured into joining Scribd.com, under the illusion that the book title in question is accessible for a ’reasonable’ monthly fee, only to be duped after subscribing to Scribd.com, by being greeted with messages such as’This title is not available in your country’. According to my mom, around 25% of the books that she carefully and painstakingly saved in her Scribd.com library, are not available, just because she happens to be a subscriber from India! This unacceptable restriction began around September, last year.
To add insult to injury, we received an email from Scribd.com on the 17th of February, 2016 informing us of’updates’ to my mom’s membership on Scribd.com. These changes turned out to be adverse, as my mom now has access to only three books and one audio book per month, that are listed under what are known as Scribd’s’best sellers’ and’award winners’, thereby severely curtailing my mom’s right as a member of Scribd to choose from and enjoy a variety of book titles by her favourite authors, each month! Yes, most of my mom’s favourite authors have been listed as’best sellers’ and she has unfortunately, lost access to more than 60% of the titles in her library at Scribd.com, this month, with the enforcement of these adverse terms and conditions and to top it all, Scribd.com did not even have the decency to reduce the subscription charges!
All in all, Scribd.com used to be a book lover’s paradise during the good old days, but is now, unfortunately, seeking to take maximum advantage of its subscribers! Such a shame!
My mom has had enough and has decided not to renew her yearly subscription with Scribd (which, thankfully, ends in July!).