Hi folks
I found this charge on my credit card statement too, and then I found this discussion which was very helpful. I tried to get to the bottom of it and I had a l-o-o-o-o-n-g exchange of emails with Audible, which I have copied in full below, except for a few redacted names and emails. The gist of it is:
This is a scam. The way it appears to work is, you visit a website or click on a link, and without your knowing it, your identification and credit card details are extracted from the Amazon database and inserted into the Audible database and you are robo-signed up for a recurring monthly Audible membership. It is possible that this scam was not authorized by Audible's management but by an employee(s) further down the corporate food chain, but it is a scam nonetheless.
Audible are unwilling or unable to give me details of exactly how I was signed up for this, but as with everyone else, they gave me an instant refund of all the robo-billed subscriptions, no questions asked.
With reference to (2) above, Audible doesn't have much choice, because if this came to a small claims court they wouldn't have a leg to stand on. In order to show that they were legally entitled to your money, they would have to show the existence of a contract, which means they would have to show how, when and under what terms the contract came into existence. If they can't show this, then there is no contract, therefore they are legally bound to give you your money back. Which they do, in every case.
I hope people find this helpful, and here is the correspondence...
Hello Peter,
Thank you for contacting Audible. My name is Josh and I will be glad to assist you.
I understand you have some questions as to how the membership was started in your account. I will provide the information we have available when it comes to this.
As you know the membership started with a 30 days free trial on December 30, 2013, meaning your first charge was processed on January 30, 2014. As to what website you visit, we really don't keep record of it since there are hundreds of different pages that advertise Audible, from Amazon.com to YouTube and quite honestly any website with a small section for ads could be perfectly showing an ad from us or even the publisher and authors, asking you to try Audible.
If you use this email address for your Amazon.com account, then that would explain how we got your credit card information. Since we are an Amazon company, the same account information you have on Amazon will be the one displaying on Audible.
I'm sorry I can't provide you with the specific website or ad that was clicked on to start the trial, but now that the membership is cancelled and no more charges are going through, you should not have to worry since the trial is something you may start only once in your account, meaning you won't be able to use another free trial in the future.
If there is anything else we can do, please don't hesitate to contact us back.
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Josh V
Audible Customer Support
---- Original message: ----
So, did you get anywhere with investigating this? My inquiry was, how did I get signed up to a monthly Audible subscription without my knowledge? What Web page did I visit and what did I click on? Can you show me the actual page so that I can re-visit it? How did you get my credit card number if I didn't knowingly give it to you? I think these are reasonable questions, and when I receive your answer I will post it to the discussion forum referenced below, where a number of other Internet users have shared the same experience.
Thank you!
Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter [mailto:peter@*****.]
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2014 6:33 AM
To: 'customersupport+A1PCKNIKF3U1JM@audible.com'
Subject: RE: Regarding your Audible Email
Thanks Raymond
The only other email I use is peter@***. which is my work email, and I would not have used that to purchase audiobooks. Also, I don't understand why you can't find the Audible account connected to peter@., because Audible sent me an email to that address as recently as 29 September, and it said at the bottom of the email:
"You received this email at peter@*******. because you are a registrant or subscriber of Audible.
We hope you found his message useful. However, if you'd rather not receive future emails, unsubscribe here"
I am forwarding that entire email to you separately.
Regards, Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: Audible Customer Service [mailto:customersupport@audible.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2014 8:59 AM
To: peter@******.
Subject: Regarding your Audible Email
Dear Peter,
Thank you for taking the time contacting Audible. My name is Raymond and I'm glad to help.
I understand that you receive charges from Audible yet you never purchased any audiobook on the website. I am sorry for the inconvenience that you had. I will do my best to help you with this one.
We are open to provide you with the information that we have about the charge, I was unable to find any Audible account connected to the email address you've contacted us from, "peter@******.." In order for us to secure your account and take any actions through email support, we need to get your request from the email address in the account.
If you wish to continue this inquiry over email, please provide answers to the following questions in your reply. This will help us determine a resolution for you.
- Do you have any other email that might be linked to your Audible account?
- Is there any other email address on your household that we can use to search for the account associated with Audible?
Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience this had caused you. I await for your response, as I am eager to assist you in resolving this as quickly as possible. In the meantime, If I can do anything else for you, please don't hesitate to contact us. Please feel free to call our Customer Care at 1-888-283-5051 (USA & Canada), (US Country Code) 1-973-820-0400(International) or simply reply to this email. We are here to help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Thank you for contacting Audible.
Sincerely,
Raymond A.
Audible Customer Support
---- Original message: ----
No, I have never purchased an audio book. I have made several purchases of books and CDs from Amazon over the years, and I wondered if the Audible subscription was somehow piggy-backed on to one of those without my knowledge. However, my Audible subscription was supposedly started on 30 December 2013, but on my credit card statement I cannot identify making any online purchase of anything between 18 December 2013 and 17 January 2014.
I am not sure that "discussing this issue" on the phone is going to be helpful as I do not have any further information which I can give you. I would simply like you to tell me what information you have which would help me understand how and when this Audible account was created. When I have this information I will post it to the discussion group referenced below as it will be of general interest. If Audible's response is "we are not willing to give you any further information about this" then I will post that to the discussion group.
Regards, Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: Audible Customer Service [mailto:customersupport@audible.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2014 7:36 AM
To: peter@******.
Subject: Regarding your Audible Phone Call
Dear Peter,
Thank you for contacting Audible.com Customer Support! My name is Rolin.
Based on your email, I understand you keep seeing an unknown monthly fee charge from Audible and wondering if you purchased an audio book. I am more than happy to assist.
To provide you with the best resolution, I will need to speak to you to discuss possible solutions. Please reply to this email with the time and date that works best for you so we can discuss this issue. Please provide a contact number where you can be reached. You may also call us on our customer care line at 1-888-283-5051 (USA & Canada), [US Country Code] 1-973-820-0400 (International).
If I can do anything else for you, please don't hesitate to contact us. Please feel free to call our Customer Care at 1-888-283-5051 (USA & Canada), (US Country Code) 1-973-820-0400 (International) or simply reply to this email. We are here to help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Sincerely,
Rolin. W
Audible Customer Support
---- Original message: ----
Dear Nayokah
Thank you for cancelling the membership (again). However, I would be grateful for a response to the second part of my question, which was: how did I come to be subscribed in the first place? A lot of other people have had the same problem, see here:
http://www.whatsthatcharge.com/Audible-888-283-5051-NJ
which is a long list of people complaining that they were signed up for an Audible subscription without realizing it. This should not be happening. So I would be interested to know what web page I visited, or what app I downloaded, or what other goods or service I purchased, which caused this Audible account to be created in the first place. If possible, please will you tell me the exact Web page I visited so that I can go and look at it again (this time more cautiously).
Thanks, Peter.
-----Original Message-----
From: Audible Customer Service [mailto:customersupport@audible.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 5:08 PM
To: peter@******.
Subject: Regarding your Audible Email
Dear Peter,
Thank you for taking the time to contact Audible! My name is Nayokah and I hope you are having a good day.
Based on your email I understand you requested cancellation of the Audible membership but received another charge of $14.95. I apologize for any inconvenience caused and would be happy to assist.
After reviewing your account, the $14.95 charged to you was for your Gold Monthly AudibleListener Membership Plan. On December 30, 2013, you enrolled into a Free Trial of our Gold Monthly Plan on Audible.com. Once the trial period ended, your membership was opted into the regular AudibleListener Gold Monthly Plan where you are scheduled to be charged $14.95 each month and receive one credit.
It has been noted however where the previous charges were refunded but the membership was still active. At your request, I have canceled your AudibleListener® membership and issued a refund in the amount of $14.95 back to your credit card for the debit you are now seeing. Please allow up to 2 business days for this transaction to process.
We are sad to see you go, but hope you'll continue enjoying your favorite audiobooks. Your library, username, and password will remain active.
If you decide you want to start listening again, you can still get audiobooks at Audible.com. Also, if you would like to access our half-price sales, Great Listen Guarantee, every day 30% discount, and more, just visit our website or contact us again.
If I can do anything else for you, please don't hesitate to contact us. Please feel free to call our Customer Care at 1-888-283-5051 (USA & Canada), (US Country Code) 1-973-820-0400 (International), or simply reply to this email. We are here to help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Sincerely,
Nayokah D.
Audible Customer Support
---- Original message: ----
Question: Good morning
On 30 December 2013 I was unknowingly signed up for the Audible Gold Member service. I do not know how this happened, I did not apply for this service and I did not knowingly give you my credit card details. I assume you got those details from Amazon, which I have bought products from in the past.
When I found out about this I contacted you on 3 September 2014 and you agreed to cancel the service and give me a refund of the monthly subscriptions from 30 December - 3 September. The refunds were credited to my Visa account but you still appear to be billing for the service because there is another pending debit on my Visa account and I received an email yesterday saying that my "membership has been refreshed".
A lot of other people have complained about this problem: see http://www.whatsthatcharge.com/Audible-888-283-5051-NJ
I have two requests:
Please cancel this subscription and refund any further debits you have taken from my Visa account
Please explain how I came to be signed up for this service in the first place, including the date I supposedly applied for it and the web page I supposedly visited.
Thanks, Peter