Scholastic Inc.

Review: I am an elementary Reading and Writing school teacher and order books through Scholastic quite frequently. I pay for orders as I receive the bill rather than when the books are ordered. I believe this is called a mail-in order. Although I use Mail-In ordering choice, I pay "one time approved" debit card payment. I have never had a problem with any unauthorized charges from Scholastic ... until recently. (see attachment for current balance due and payments) Recently, I made several large orders, paid for each; $179.50 and $102.00 as it indicated on my "bill owed" on my account by debit card. A book within one of the orders was on back order. This wasn't a problem since I assumed they would bill me the $4.00 at the time the book was available and shipped. I paid the balance due at the time of request, $120.00. Nevertheless, when I checked my order statement it showed the book on back order and $4.00 was listed under "Paid Items" on the invoice. Yet, the top of the invoice stated balance due, $4.00. Scholastic preauthorized the $4.00 debit from my bank account without my authorization. I attempted to work this out requesting the book order be canceled and my bank account refunded the unauthorized charge. I was told that their procedure was to ship the book upon availability from warehouse. When it was received then, it could be returned for a future "credit". What type of company is allowed to steal from its customers. In Texas, Theft is basically defined as property being taken or denied to its [redacted] without the [redacted]'s consent. Scholastic taking it upon themselves to authorize monies to be removed from a bank account fits that description let alone others. Scholastic did not have authorization to hold funds from my bank account. I requested my complaint be forward to a [redacted]. I still have not heard from anyone. My bank can deny the expense but in addition they would close my account and and reissue my card which, would take a week to process.Desired Settlement: DesiredSettlementID: Other (requires explanation)

I would like the $4.00 charge reversed immediately. If the book has shipped they should bill me like all prior orders. This allows me to return the item without Scholastic taking control of my bank account.

Business

Response:

We are refunding the $4 as requested by [redacted] in her complaint for her inconvenience. It is our practice to charge the customer’s credit card at the time of shipment. Unfortunately, she had a backordered item which caused the additional transaction. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Jane A[redacted] Customer Service Manager Scholastic Inc.

Review: I an a teacher and order books monthly from Scholastic Reading Club (formerly Scholastic Book Club). In October 2013, a parent placed an online order and had trouble with the scholastic website. the site stated that the order was not successful so the parent sent the order form and cash to me at school to be placed manually. The order was for $22.00. I placed and received the order. Though the parent had paid cash, Scholastic also charged her credit card for the $22.00. In December, the parent informed me that she had tried to rectify the situation by calling Scholastic but still hadn't received a credit to her credit card. I called Scholastic and spoke to a representative. The rep told me a check had+

been mailed to the parent. this was odd because Scholastic did not have an address for the parent. A $22.00 charge was posted to my (teacher) account for the refund check so it appeared that I owed Scholastic money. The rep explained that she could not stop payment on the "missing" refund check until another check was issued and cashed. After 3 phone calls between myself and the rep., I thought the problem would be solved. She explained that, in the interim, I'd have a balance of $44.00 on my account but that I shouldn't worry because as soon as the 2nd check was cashed, it would be removed. I was very confused by this. The rep stated that it's a little confusing but has to do with their bookkeeping. I requested that the new check be sent to me at school and I would refund cash to the parent. I received the newly issued $22.00 check, cashed it, refunded cash to the parent. Scholastic did not remove the $44.00 charge from my account. Instead, they've sent it to their collections department. I have tried in good faith to solve this issue and feel that feel that 6 months is an unreasonable amount f time for a solution and am concerned about the collection situation. I have never had an account go to collections and need this Scholastic account remedied quickly.

Account_Number: [redacted]Desired Settlement: DesiredSettlementID: Other (requires explanation)

I'd like the $44.00 charges from the checks removed from my account without any record of a collections action so that my account is in good standing. The company was paid for their books. This error is a result of a website payment error and poor record keeping on their end.

Business

Response:

We have spoken with the customer and resolved this issue to her complete satisfaction.

Review: My daughter recently bought War Horse - ISBN [redacted] at the Maryland State Fair. This is a Scholastic Publishing product. The pages of the book were bound out of order. The book jumps from page 28 to 109, then has whole sections of the book out of order from then on.

I reached out to Scholastic Customer Service on the scholastic.com website. This is their response, which I find unacceptable:

[redacted]Desired Settlement: I would appreciate you replacing the book with a version my daughter can read. I understand the cost is insignificant at $6.99. It is the principle of the matter. I do not know the vendor that set up temporary shop at the State Fair, and it was a cash transaction with no receipt. The onus is on the publisher if a book is bound incorrectly, there is probably a whole run of these book in circulation. Scholastic's response of the typical large corporate conglomerate,"...many different departments" is unacceptable to me. I sent in photos that show the binding issue and if th reading club is not the correct department to field the issue (this is the default customer service on their website) then the issue can be escalated to another department until it is resolved.

Business

Response:

We are very sorry the book you purchased was defective. We can certainly understand the disappointment your daughter experienced when she was not able to read the book. A replacement book is on the way, please allow 7-10 days for it to arrive.

Review: Very disappointed with this company. They have a family values type Credo but it has not been consistent with their business practices in my experience. I signed up for a free trial of Scholastic Printables. You did have to use a credit card and were to be billed $8.99 a month if you chose to continue with the subscription. I tried it but decided to cancel. I began the subscription on Aug. **, 2015 and called to cancel on Sept. *, 2015 by phone to Stephanie. Scholastic then attempted to bill me on Sept. **, 2015 anyway. They were unable to because I had a new credit card number. I called the company to ask why they would bill me for a cancelled subscription and was told it was never cancelled. I spoke with Valerie on Sept. **, 2015 who assured me the subscription would be cancelled and no further charges would occur. Somehow Scholastic got my new credit card number and charged me for the subscription on Sept. **, 2015 for $8.99. I then went back to check my account and saw that the subscription is still active and the next charge will occur on Oct. **, 2015. I even went back to read their terms/agreement and it clearly says that one may cancel by phone. Additionally, I ordered their kids magazine to a total of $48.87. They arrive rubber banned in a sloppy manner, torn, bent, and dirty. I called Scholastic to ask that they be mailed in a plastic wrapper to avoid this issue. The representative at Scholastic named Jesse basically called me a liar and said that Scholastic ships everything wrapped and that I needed to contact my post office because it was not their problem so she did not know what to tell me. I finally just requested to cancel the magazine subscriptions and she told me Scholastic would refund my money. I won't hold my breath. Its too late to oppose the charge so I am out of $48.87 in addition to all these monthly charges for the subscription that I do not use. So much for family values.Desired Settlement: I want the Printable subscription cancelled and the money that they have charged thus far refunded and a promise in writing to not charge my credit card any more. Also, I want to cancel all my children's magazine subscriptions and want a full refund of $48.87 put back on my credit card. Thank You

Business

Response:

We are very sorry your Scholastic Printables subscriptionwas not cancelled promptly and your classroom magazines didn’t arrive inperfect condition. Both subscriptionshave been cancelled and refunds for the Printables ($8.49) and magazines($48.87) have been processed. No othercharges will incur. We strive to provide customer satisfaction and your experience has been shared with our trainingteam.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved. Scholastic did refund my money after numerous calls and a letter to their CEO. Sad that it took so many phone calls and that level of complaint to get them to do the right thing.

Sincerely, .

Review: They are saying I have an overdue balance of 95.00. I have been a loyal and responsible teacher when ordering books for my class and making payments for 17 years to Scholastic Books Club. I sincerely do not know what happened with this book order. I even offered them to take away all my bonus points I've accumulated all these years. They said they could not do that. I hope we can solve this matter, because I have an order for October to send but because of this situation they have freezed my account.Desired Settlement: DesiredSettlementID: Not applicable

It could be the book clubs mistake and the checks got lost or misplaced. If I end up having to pay I can no longer be ordering from your club after all these years.

Business

Response:

This was taken care of on November[redacted] Her account was assigned to collections in July of 2013. We contacted her on November [redacted] & 1[redacted] to let her know that we had cleared her collection balance and that her account was in good standing. She has placed $162 in orders in September of this school year. This should be closed satisfactorily as well.

Thanks

Review: My husband and I tried to place a book order for our children using the Scholastic website and have had nothing but issue after issue. Scholastic was very quick at making sure they took their money from our account, but since they received their money we have had nothing but problems. First off, apparently only teachers can place orders online. Ok, fine. Then, even though only teachers can place orders, they shipped our books to the wrong school. Ok, I'll call the school they were delivered to and see if I can pick them up from there. Well the school already sent them back to Scholastic. At this point it has now been a month of waiting for these books, so I call Scholastic to see if they can go ahead and reship them to the correct school. Oh no they cant do that, I either have to reorder the books or cancel the order and get my money back. I opt for the latter, at this point I would rather just spend my money at a book store. So we start the process of getting my refund. I wait two weeks (after being told that it should only take 24-48 hours) and nothing is deposited to my account from Scholastic, so I call again. This time I was told that they had just got a new system and for some reason the refund didn't go through on their end. So they start the refund process AGAIN, and once again, I am told it will only take 24-48 hours. It is now past the 48 hour mark, and granted this is in the middle of the business week so there should have been no issues (provided it was actually done correctly) and I should have received my money back by now. So now, two months later, I have neither the books I ordered, or my money back. This is absolutely ridiculous. So now I will be going down to my bank and filing a dispute to see if the bank will have any success getting my money back. Our kids loved ordering books from the catalogs they gave out at school. My advice to anyone is to stick with the original method of ordering and save yourself the hassle from ordering online. I am no so frustrated with this company and they way they have handled my business that I will not be giving them any more of my money. From now on I will be taking my children to Barnes and Nobles to pick out their books!Desired Settlement: All I want is for my money (which amounted to $45) to be refunded to me. But apparently that is too much to ask for from this company!

Business

Response:

A letter of apology was sent to the customer and a refund of $45 to her credit card has been processed. In addition, we have sent the book she attempted to order, complimentary.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

Sincerely,