Audible.com Double-billed credit card, acknowledged liability and promised a refund in writing, subsequenly refused, and even forced arbitration. Newark, NJ Internet

I purchased a $90 gift subscription from Audible on Sept 2, 2015. I had no experience with Audibleat that point.  On the page prior to finalizing the purchase, I was offered the choice of having Audible send the gift for me, or printing out the gift and sending it myself.  I chose the latter.  The page stated that instructions on how print the certificate would be given once my purchase was complete. There were no instructions to be found after I completed the purchase, however.  I aslo couldn't find anything describing the process on Audible's site. Having never been on their site prior to that day, that's probably not such a surprise.

I called Audible support and spoke with 'Kavani W'.  I explained the situation, and asked if he would guide me through the process of printing the certificate so that I could send it myself.  Having no experience with Audible's site, I let Kavani guide me step-by-step through the entire process while I was on the phone.  Unfortunately, instead of guiding me through the process of printing out the certificate, Kavai incorrectly took me through a process that redeemed the certificate - not at all what I had asked for.  By the time he realized his mistake, it was too late.  I asked him to correct the situation, and after waiting on-hold for some time, Kavani told me that he was unable to remedy the situation.

I asked for a refund, since I had no way to send the gift I purchased and Audible had my money. Kavani was unable to issue a refund to my card.  In lieu of that, he asked me to make a duplicate purchase, with the understanding that he would then arrange to refund the original $90 charge.  Needless to say, I was quite wary about taking any such action on a verbal promise, so I wisely asked Kavai that he send an email admitting responsibility for his error, and promising a prompt refund back to my credit card as we discussed.  He did so, without hesitation.

Here is the text of that correspondence, send with Audible's header:

"Thank you for contacting Audible. My name is Kavani, the agent who spoke with you via phone call. This e-mail is for your confirmation that the necessary steps will be taken, in order to provide you a refund for the AudibleListener® 6-Month Gold Gift Membership, claimed code "***********" , in the amount of $90.00 back to your account. Based on the nature of the situation, I do apologize for the misinterpretation on my part. Once the refund has been made it should take up to 7-10 business days to reflect on your account. However, if you not do not see this transaction within said time. Please provide us with a call back in order to further assist you. Thank you for making Audible!"

Good enough. I made a second purchase and sent the gift.  And that should have been that.

Let me first make it clear that Kavani did a great job and put forth his best effort to resolve the situation with dignity and professionalism.  However - when I subsequently inquired further about the refund, an Audible "account specialist" named 'Marco' informed me that Audible would not refund my original purchase.  I submitted the text from the email that Kavani sent, but this made absolutely no difference to Audible.  I was offered compensation in the form of credit for Audible product, of which I had no interest.  Ultimately, Audible offered to mail a check to me, but said that would take "about a month".  Since Audible already failed to keep one promise, that alternative was unacceptable - and - as you will soon see, justifiably so.  Audible had absolutely no intention of issuing a refund voluntarily - regardess of the circumstances. 

After further efforts to persuade Audible to correct the situation as promised proved unfruitful, I told Audible that if they failed to reverse the charge after 5 PM that day, I would be left with no choice but to dispute the transaction with the credit card company.  When my last appeal went unanswered, I filed the dispute exactly as I said I would, expecting the normal dispute process to proceed quicky without further action on the part of myself or Audible.  In fact, the credit card company ruled in my favor, and issued what they thought at the time would be a final dispostion.  They never thought Audible would object.  A while later, however, the dispute was unexpectedly re-opened. Rather that doing what was obviously the right thing by accepting the finding of the credit card organization, Audible had the audacity to object and force arbitration in an effort to further delay resolution by another month.  Ultimately, this served no other purpose than to make it clear that Audible has a total disregard for ethics and will do whatever it takes to hold on to every penny they can grab, however ill-gotten. 

The arbitrator quickly found in my favor, and forced Audible to relinquish every penny they tried to steal.  Case closed.

I am posting this now for two reasons.  First, to encourage Audible to think twice before they misbehave in the future, and second - so that people who may be considering subscribing to Audible will have some idea as to the calibre of people they are dealing with.

Best to all...