Babbel - www.babbel.com

Bought as a one as purchase. Hardly used as its not great so deleted the app. I got an invoice through today as they sign you up to a auto-renewal and don't send out reminders.

Customer service is just a bot. Disgusting customer service. Avoid!

I subscribed to a 12-month contract with Babbel in 2015. I only used their online language tools for a week or two. I found it very basic and boring frankly. Recently I discovered Babbel had been charging my credit card annually since 2015. Their default 'small print' is a devious. The only correspondence I've had from Babbel since 2015 was a notification that my credit card - stored on their system - had expired. I didn't knowing allow my credit card details to be stored in Babbel's system. I wonder how much they're profiteering out of this devious strategy

I signed up on my tablet. I paid my money. Now I cannot sign in to the program at all. No response from Babbel. Cannot use program. Login protocols apparently deficient for some devices. DO NOT PAY OR USE. There is a chance you will pay and will not be able to USE at all.

I took a free trial, not realising their small print must have enroled me to pay ongoing monthly fees. It took me 3 months to realise they were taking a monhtly charge from my Paypal (stupid of me I know but this is the first time I've been aware of companies being able to effectively set up a monthly direct debit via Paypal without your explicit permission). I asked Paypal to block (they were useless) so deleted card. Having added another card recently I see that Babbel has again taken a payment from my account today. I'm surprised this is legal but then I guess they're based abroad so can get around any legalities. They're like a virus I can't get rid of - monthly payments will continue indefinitely unless I can get this blocked. I'm about to delete my Paypal account.

Overall the content is nothing to write home about in any case - I've found free content elsewhere which is just as good.

I caution anyone leaving details for 'free trial' that it links to your Paypal and they will automatically take money from your account and there doesn't seem to be a way of opting out.

Duo lingo is an excellent product which is free. Why pay for something which appears to be a pale imitation?

Babbel has a very tricky auto renewal policy to ensure that they keep charging you long after you have asked them not to -- particularly if you make the purchase using iTunes. Even though I contacted them and told them I would like to cancel using the built in support of their product they did not cancel my subscription. They waited until it auto-renewed and then told me I would have to cancel through iTunes. Even though I wrote to them a total of 5 times they would not assist me or back up my claim with iTunes. So I had to pay for charges I never authorized. In addition, when I wrote to them, they just kept sending the same response back to me which made me think they don't actually have real people working in customer service. This was, by far, the worst experience I have ever had. BUYER BE AWARE!

has a sneaky rolling contract which charges you every 3 months until you cancel it!!! i had not used there service for over 6 months but have been charged twice!! i cancelled my contract but they still charged me anyway! and have still not received notice of cancellation from them??? only way i could find to stop it was by stopping it through paypal but was too late they charged me for another 3 months!!

i would not recommend this service to anyone!!!

The Babbel site is average at best for the cost. However, my biggest problem with Babbel is with the cancellation process. Do not expect the process to be straight forward. They don't really give a darn about making your customer experience smooth.

Many other online subscription services make it simple for you to cancel and stop being charged for the service right on the website but Babbel do not. There is no button to cancel the subscription - only to delete your account on the site! Cancelling your account does NOT equal also stopping your subscription.

Here is a tip: if your subscription is through PayPal, cancel directly through PayPal. Unfortunately, Babbel only reveals how to cancel your subscription when you try to delete your account. When you try to delete your account, they tell you in the confirmation email that you must email their sales them first AND wait for a response beforehand otherwise they'll happily keep charging you.

As my subscription was done through PayPal, I had already cancelled through there but I emailed anyway to make sure they were fully aware that no longer wanted to use the service since they had attempted to charge me even after cancelling payments via Paypal. With most internet services, I expect an email back within 24-48 hours but I heard nothing back whatsoever - not even an auto-email telling me it had been received and the average wait time. This is a very basic part of customer service that they totally failed in.

My advice to anyone looking to learn a language online is to really do your research as there certainly exist free, better designed and taught sites.

I noticed that Babbel billed my account, they automatically renewed my subscription, two days after they withdrew their payment. I didn't want this to happen and I got in touch with Babbel.

I explained that I was happy to pay for the two days but I didn't want to pay for the remaining three months. I think their response could be summarized as "tough luck."

I had actually gone through the same situation with ZipCar a few days earlier and the difference was night and night. ZipCar refunded my money, all of it, no problems. I'd recommend ZipCar to anyone after something like that because they do show some empathy for their customers.

Not Babbel. It's surprising they aren't Americans given that their attitude is "I got mine - screw you."

I signed up for a course to learn Portuguese with Babbel a few weeks ago and have been enjoying it. I am learning sentences that I will be able to use when I visit my friends in Brazil. It isn't just learning words but complete phrases and is done in an orderly manner that makes sense. The accent for their Portuguese sounds more like what would be spoken in the southern part of the country, but I believe my friends in the north will be able to understand what I am saying. I highly recommend Babbel because I feel it will help anyone wanting to learn a new language and be useable immediately.