statpearls.com Avis 5

Sharing a recent experience as a heads-up to colleagues using online CME platforms, particularly StatPearls.

I recently had an unexpected renewal charge that I did not realize was set to recur. In my case, I did not clearly appreciate that I was enrolling in an automatically renewing subscription at the time of sign-up.

A few observations from my experience:

• The “billed annually” language was not prominently displayed and could be easy to miss
• There was no clear, separate acknowledgment step confirming enrollment in a recurring subscription
• I did not see an option for a one-time annual purchase without auto-renewal
• My payment method was retained and later used for renewal
• When I requested a refund, most of the charge was returned, but a 4% fee was retained

Separately, from a learning standpoint, I personally found the content to be more text-heavy and less interactive than I prefer. Others may find it useful, but if you tend to learn better with more dynamic or question-based formats, it may not align with your style.

To be clear, this may not be everyone’s experience. I’m simply sharing what occurred in my case so others can be aware.

Takeaways:

• Double-check whether CME subscriptions are set to auto-renew
• Look closely at billing language during sign-up
• Consider setting reminders for renewal dates
• Review refund policies carefully

Given how many of us rely on CME platforms regularly, it’s worth taking an extra minute to confirm how subscriptions are structured.

If others have had similar or different experiences, would be interested to hear.

I wish you could give negative stars

This company charged my credit card $399 without my consent by using a payment method saved from a previous purchase. I did not authorize a renewal or any new charge and was not provided clear notice beforehand.

The product itself was outdated and not useful, which is why I had stopped using it prior to the charge. When I requested a refund, the company stated they would withhold a “service fee” despite the charge being unauthorized.

Customer service was unhelpful, and there is no effective way to reach a representative by phone. After this experience, I discovered other customers reporting the same billing issue. I would strongly caution others to review billing terms carefully and avoid saving payment information with this company.

Statpearls did not allow us to cancel a subscription renewal same-day, and attempted to charge 4% "finance charge" on the cancellation. [A] The cost to run a charge on a CC merchant account is not 4% in any merchant credit arrangement in standard e-commerce which I am personally aware of [B] almost all of the CC companies refund the credit card fee anyway when charges are voluntarily refunded [C] it will cost them more to deal with the dispute I am opening and this review than it would be to stop trying to stick it to us for this 4%.

This seems like, in my personal/subjective opinion:
[1] a poor business model from a customer experience standpoint
[2] based on the idea that most people will forget to cancel once they pass their exams, thus a way to derive added revenue from people who forgot to cancel
[3] a way to phrase the charge ("finance charge"), to bully people who do not know how this works.

Finally, my wife was unable to cancel her subscription in the week leading up to this renewal, because she gave birth. We told the customer support that this was the rationale, and they are still trying to stick us with this 4% charge to cancel the renewal. Pretty wild customer support experience, given we subscribed for $600 or so for the prior year + it's a digital good!

I will update this review if they decide to stop being predatory and allow _same day cancellations_ for people who _already paid in full for at least a year_ to not pay a made-up fee.

First of all it’s terrible education . Then they processed a renewal for 600 and gave me a day warning . When I called to tell them no way they refunded me and charged me 4 percent to do so . Unethical and also not a good company . Look on BBB there are multiple complaints

TLDR: STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. There are tons of other companies offering medical "prep" material for boards and CME. IN my experience they are much much MUCH better than Statpearls. In both quality of contnent and customer service. The cust service at Statpearls is absolutely abysmal to say the very least.

I purchased a subscription for a Lifetime Access to CME activity on Statpearl.com at 0250hrs on 10/01/24. The sign-up page did not mention any conditions of refund or refusal thereof. The only thing mentioned on the page was "no cash back" which I assumed was for people using debit cards.
At 0352hrs, on 10/01/24, less than 2hrs after signing up, I realized this is not a good purchase and requested a cancellation of the product. As of the writing of this complaint, I have not used any of the material offered by StatPearls. The area I was using for board preparation was paid separately and I am not requesting a refund of that amount in this complaint.
I put in my refund request and someone named "Erin Protheroe" responded at 0713hrs 10/01/24 that no cash back is allowed. When I tried explaining to this person that I am not requesting a cash back and am requesting a refund they were unable to understand and refused to refund my money.
The company will state that they put their refund policy "on every page on our website" however, when you are purchasing they will use confusing terms to hide the fact that they do not give refunds.