Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Want to cancel your Audible.com membership? You'll have to call them

It all started when I got my wife a gift certificate to audible.com for Christmas.

So I'm not really sure how it happened, but at some point in the last few months, I ended up with a premium audible listener membership, billed at a rate of $23 a month. I suppose it's possible that I did an impulse purchase, but that's neither here nor there in this discussion.

I finally got logged in to the point where I could edit my account details (long story, but basically I had to clear my cookies due to the fact that it kept dumping me right back to the step of "confirming a purchase" I had apparently started - months later). In the account details control panel:

There didn't appear to be any way to cancel my membership.

There didn't appear to be any way to remove my credit card information from my account.

After I pretty much resolved and mentally prepared for the fact this was going to involve a phone call (which to me instantly involves long hold times with bad music, explaining, and convincing, not to mention finding the back door on the website that has the cust. srvc. phone #).

To my surprise, the phone # was easily located on the site, and the phone call went directly to a human. Once I was on with someone, he canceled my membership, refunded my last month's charge, and removed my credit card info from my account. It was a relatively painless experience, actually.

The only way it could have been easier is if I didn't have to call them in the first place.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have canceled (temporarily-and renewed) three times in the last few years on their site. The cancel link is in the account section. You do NOT have to call.

Anonymous said...

I have the Audible Listener account. I've scoured the pages for how to make it now renew or cancel. The help pages show clearly where the cancel membership link is (very small link on the page where you change your membership) but it's just not there. Maybe if I had a better membership it'd be there, I don't know. But I know it's not there for my membership. I'm going to have to call.

Anonymous said...

I meant "not renewal" not "now renewal."

nlohr said...

It seems Audible has changed the way they do things. They USED to have the link to cancel but it has been removed. I used to have an account, canceled (online) and now, months later, returned and have noticed the link is now gone but their help page has not been updated.

Foster and Ives said...

I love Audible. I first joined in 2000. Had to cancel a few times. I wish I hadn't the first time- it was 3 free books per month for $19.95.

Oh well. Audible, unlike most other tech companies, maintain their customer service operations in New Jersey. Every call I've made to them in the last 9 years has been answered by that most rare of creatures - nice, helpful and polite representatives!

The most I ever heard was a Jersey accent!

Call them. They don't even try to hard sell you or anything!

1-888-283-5051 (USA & Canada)
1-973-820-0400 (International)

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for your siteI love everything about it.

Anonymous said...

Brim over I to but I dream the post should prepare more info then it has.

Scott McGrath said...

This article is fairly old now. I haven't had any experience with Audible since then, but I would hope they are a little better off by now.