Complaint / Review
Scholastic
Cancelled Account and Still Charged Resulting in $1300 in losses. Refunded 10% of total loss. Danbury

We had an account with Scholastic. Paid $18 a month roughly. On February 14th we cancelled the account. Due to a hectic time (school, finals, job changes, buying a house) our bank statements got mixed up and we didn't keep a close eye on them otherwise we would have realized sooner that we were still being charged.

In July we had a returned check, which couldn't be right due to having a bank account balance of $1500 right? We were -$1,000. We'd been having some issues, but we figured it was our mistakes... Anyways... Went to the bank and the bank sat down with us and went over our statement in detail. Scholastic showed up as having been charging us.

Upon calling them, we were promptly refunded the monthly fees they had been charging us - and were told to figure out how much else we were out due directly to them and fax it to them and they would refund that as well. After three nights of poring over bank statements, and without factoring in the money that we borrowed to try to keep our account positive, we arrived at a total of around $1,366. The bank verified this figure and it was sent to Scholastic along with the bank statements.

A month and a half later - having spent the past week calling every day and being told that the person we were dealing with was "at lunch" (I need to work there - 3 hour lunches?) we finally received a call with a phone number. We were told that Scholastic had refunded the $80 in charges, and had already refunded us $150 and that they thought this was 'EXTREMELY FAIR' and anything further would have to go through a lawyer. Really? A month and a half for $150?

Also, while talking to the first person - she admitted that they had phone records of our cancellation. The higher up denied having had any contact with us before July. Even with phone records showing our call on the 14th, they deny having any contact.

I was an avid fan of Scholastic in school, and we spent roughly $500-700 a year on Scholastic books when we could afford it. We have an 8 year old now in 3rd grade, and are most likely going to have one or two more children. That's a lot of money Scholastic is burning by telling us one thing, then turning around and rebutting their own statements.

I will be doing my shopping at Hastings, or Barnes and Noble, or Books a Million, or Amazon from now on. I would urge everybody else to do the same.