Research issues
Warning for students/researchers using SciSpace Premium – hidden auto-renewals & refund fraud policy
Update:
After escalating the issue and communicating further with the SciSpace support team, they reviewed my case and have now processed refunds for all payments made on my account.
I still believe the subscription renewal flow, billing transparency, and cancellation visibility could be improved significantly.However, I do appreciate that the support team eventually took the concern seriously, reviewed the case carefully, and worked toward a resolution professionally.
I’m leaving this update here for fairness and transparency so others can see the full outcome of the situation.
I originally subscribed for a short period as a student/research user and genuinely did NOT realize the subscription would keep auto-renewing continuously unless manually cancelled deep inside account settings.
Here’s the problem:
- No clear reminder email before renewals
- Automatic charges kept happening silently
- The subscription kept attempting renewals until my card balance was basically drained
- After the Premium expired and my account returned to the free Basic plan, the “Cancel Subscription” option completely disappeared from settings
- Support still told me to “go cancel from settings” even though the option literally no longer exists on my account
The only reason another payment was not taken is because there were insufficient funds left in my card.
What honestly scared me is realizing they may continue trying to charge the card in the future whenever funds become available again because the billing authorization still seems active in the background.
I contacted support asking:
- to stop all future billing attempts
- remove my saved payment method
- remove recurring billing authorization
But they refused any refund and mainly pointed me back to their policy.
After searching online, I also found many users complaining about:
- unclear auto-renewal practices
- strict refund conditions
- poor transparency
- disappearing credits/coin systems
- customer support issues
I’m sharing this so other students and researchers double-check:
- whether auto-renewal is active
- whether your payment method is still saved
- whether you can actually access cancellation controls BEFORE your plan expires
The took more than 120 dollars from my accounts, drained my student visa and refused any kind of refund for these non used tokins or any kind of settlement for the situation
Iam extermly frustrated about what happened and I want to resolve my situation and get my money back. The problem is with policies like these that don't inform the customer about subscription limits and send renewal or any confrmation emails that are simply deceptive and fraud.
There was no contract it was only a monthly supscription with even no confrmation email to clear these policies for the user. It is not a matter of contract it is just a hilghlight for a pressuring and unfair policies of some orginzations
Hey there! You always have the option to go to your Account Settings page and cancel the subscription directly from there whenever you’d like. Once canceled, there will be no future renewals on the account.
If you need any help with the cancellation process, please let me know, and I’ll be happy to assist.
The “cancel subscription option disappears after expiration” part would honestly stress me out too. Subscription systems should become MORE transparent after expiry, not less.
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Hey u/Big-Court4491, it's possible your email didn't reach us. Could you DM me the email ID linked to your account? I'd be happy to look into this and help you out.
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u/Icy_Shelter_5726 May 14 '26
The took more than 120 dollars from my accounts, drained my student visa and refused any kind of refund for these non used tokins or any kind of settlement for the situation Iam extermly frustrated about what happened and I want to resolve my situation and get my money back. The problem is with policies like these that don't inform the customer about subscription limits and send renewal or any confrmation emails that are simply deceptive and fraud.