Thereadingsite.com review: Avoid this website at all costs 13

I paid my money like everyone else. At first apart from staight after I signed in there were no games, T.V or movies as such, I thought no problem I really just wonted the books. After that as I was trying to get a E Reader that sooted as the first to also were no good. Still looking but not anymore. So the other week I went to go over to site & had problems so deceide to put as Favorite as I believed that would solve it. Big joke when I went to try & sign in no go as I was trying to go through all options I came across this & after reading I have deceided I will except it as is & give it a miss. Lesson learnt. I do have to say they go to big efforts imagine the money they pull, still doesn't mean it Whright I would rather be broke & sleep well I wonder if they do.

Purchased unlimited use of reading site for down loading books, magazines, newspapers, on the 22 of july. They were to send an e-mail so I could get my user name and pass word. As of to date 29th of July I have made two calls and was informed that they could only return my money. Why can this company just send me the e-mail to get onto the site.

I was looking for online libraries and saw a link to thereadingsite. I didn't like the way the audio came blasting from my speakers as soon as it loaded. I read what they were "selling" and decided to see if anyone else had anything to say about it. The first few reviews in the yahoo search were obviously from the site, self-promos with the same loud audio. I found my way to this site and was pleased that there was info to stay away. When I tried to close the tabs with that site on it, it had pop-ups asking if I was sure. I used Alt-F4 to close the browser. Stay away from it and it's sister site thereadingsite.net!

The site is definitely misleading. The first clue is that it claims to offer current bestsellers for free and does not directly explain how copyrights are respected. Out of fairness to the authors' intellectual property, we should avoid any site that can't explain that key point. Amazon offers specials and free books that surely comply with legal requirements and I've gotten several from them.

I purchased this product in May and still have not been able to get on the site for e books...i have contacted the "company" numberous times over the last 6 weeks for help or a refund...no contact at all...what good is the "60 day" refund policy if you can't get a hold of them...I am contacting the better business bureau...I paid by credit card...hopefully I can get a refund...DO NOT GO TO THIS SITE THEY ARE A RIP OFF!

I paid and they did not have anything that I wanted for free. Of course everything I wanted was for purchase. I then went back the same day and requested a refund, since the offer a 60 day refund, nothing. I have not heard back at all. Stay away!

I joined also and paid my $50. I have sent them several messages and have not received one response yet. There is no phone number to call. Does anybody know if it is affiliated with "The Droid Library" ? The FAQ's are exactly the same wording.
I did notice on my bank statement that you can go to the billing site and get a refund.

I reported this site to the better business bureau because they are misleading with the 24/7 support, and refund if not completely satisfied. My mother could not accesss the site, I asked for a refund more than 20 times in the 60 day period I had to have my money returned. I was given an email after each request, " your refund will be returned to you within 48 hours"... that is truly a lie, I have yet to receive it, and this is the reason I have reported it to the BBB. Never again! Avoid this website at all cost!

Update: The Reading Site appears to be administered by plimus.com. I received a general communication from them and discovered that their site contains a number of options that I could not seem to access through The Reading Site's customer service link...technical help, refunds, etc. Don't yet know how successful my request for a refund will be, but wanted to get this info out quickly to users whose 60 days may be about to expire. The link to try is http://www.plimus.com/jsp/escalate_issue.jsp?ref=59240166

Perhaps, where the "scam" comes in is in The Reading Site's failure to honor their promise of 24/7 customer service or their assurance that they will refund your money if you are not satisfied. Like others who have posted complaints, I received no response from their customer service to my request for information or my eventual request for a refund. While, strictly speaking, this may not be classifiable as a scam, they certainly cut it pretty close when they post "reviews" from "customers" who claim to have downloaded books not in the public domain and show pictures of those books on their website.

This is not a scam. It is what it is, which is exactly what it explains in its Terms of Use, which might as well be labeled "Hello Suckers" for the good it would do. As with many other similar ventures, it relies on people not bothering to read the terms of use or not understanding what it is they are reading. For good measure this site even puts one of the warning tell-tales on the bottoms of the pages, to ensure nobody can claim that they couldn't find it.

So let's have a quick closer look at this one:

Firstly, do we know what we're being sold here? Not directly, though with a little care we can see immediately what we are NOT being sold. At the end of the pages you will find the following statement:

"TheReadingSite.com does not provide a direct database for downloading. TheReadingSite.comm provides members with the necessary links, tutorials & unlimited technical support for their downloading needs."

So what does this mean? There is no "direct database for downloading" - the site has no downloads, nor a database of titles. It does however provide members with "the necessary links" for "their downloading needs".

But hang on, elsewhere in the site are references to "our database", so what's that?

Put it all together, and you should see what they've just told you: We have a database (a list, in other words) of links to other sites. And that is ALL we have.

This isn't a scam, as long as they're telling you the truth, which in a roundabout way they are.

Let's move on to the terms of service, where again, they have the same statement: "TheReadingSite.com does not provide a direct database for downloading ... " but here, they add another little treat: "We make no guarantees as to the content available in the member's area." So, there doesn't have to be anything in there either.

The software on offer?

"All software recommendations refer to either "Freeware" or software that is otherwise available without charge to individuals at large for specific purposes."

So, something you can download for free, somewhere else.

Well what are you paying for, then? The terms tell you that the fees"

"represent one-time club membership fees which entitle You as a Purchaser to access to the location, evaluation, and or recommendation of [the] software"

You pay for a link to a page on the site which suggests you use some piece of Freeware from some public website. And that's ALL you pay for.

But wait, what about the database of links to books? Ah. You're not paying for that:

"This Site may produce automated search results or otherwise link You to other sites on the Internet. If any link is offered connecting You to a third party web site, it is as an accommodation to You and to the respective third party site owner and is provided without charge."

In other words, if they offer you a link, it's an "accommodation" - a favor, in other words. They don't have to do a thing, because all, ALL you paid for, was for them to tell you where to go to get a freeware downloader that you could get anywhere.

But it's not a scam. You just didn't read it. And what else you didn't read is further down the page, where the agreement indemnifies the site against anything and everything, entitles them to terminate your "membership" whenever they feel like it without explanation, change the terms when they feel like it, and offer no guarantees whatsoever that anything will work or be what you paid for, at all.

But this IS an agreement. You agree to it by using the site. You trigger it by clicking the "Yes please I want to give you money for no good reason" button.

In the USA, it is still legal to obfuscate some term of service in a paper document by making it physically hard to read, or difficult to understand. If your signature appears under it, you're bound by it. The same applies online. Even where the Real World laws are tougher on tricksters like this, there are no tougher laws that I've ever heard of that can be enforced against an online dealer.

Please, beware. It is normal procedure for a site to state that you are agreeing to its terms of service in full simply by using it. And even if that statement is there, you're bound by it even if you haven't read it. Always assume you will be legally bound by every single statement on a site and read everything.

Even a giant company like PayPal has conditions that bind you, whether you saw them or not, and they may well not be prominent. So, many people have some idea that they're protected by PayPal in circumstances where they aren't. Some big corporations have small but legally binding print which is effective the moment you even read the page or click through to another. Something like "your use of this web page constitutes an agreement ... " will be tucked away somewhere.

Normally, with a respectable site this is not an issue and you can feel reasonably safe that you haven't committed to anything more than not hacking that web site or stealing the content. But in some cases, and especially when you're spending money on something about which you have no first-hand knowledge, you need to be especially careful. Remember, it's only a scam if you're being lied to, or the truth is being entirely concealed. Otherwise, you carry the legal responsibility of your own actions.

not sure if I misunderstood the advertisement or not. I was under the impression that after I paid my one-time fee, I wouldn't have to pay for anything else. Now it seems that any book I am interested is has a cost associated to it. I have tried twice now to have the "24/7 support" contact me for a refund and have yet to hear from them.

I got ripped off from them also.

Mark G