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Business Profile

Book Publishers

Penguin Random House

This business is NOT BBB Accredited.

Find BBB Accredited Businesses in Book Publishers.

Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Penguin Random House's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see

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Penguin Random House has 2 locations, listed below.

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    • Penguin Random House

      1745 Broadway New York, NY 10019-4640

    • Penguin Random House

      375 Hudson Street New York, NY 10014-3658

    Customer Complaints Summary

    • 6 total complaints in the last 3 years.
    • 1 complaint closed in the last 12 months.

    If you've experienced an issue

    Submit a Complaint

    The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

    Sort by

    Complaint status

    Complaint type

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:07/01/2024

      Type:Product Issues
      Status:
      Unanswered
      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      I ordered a book on their website. The book I received was not the same book in the product photo. I complained to them and asked for a full refund. I was informed that I can return the book but would not be reimbursed for the cost of shipping. Why should I pay for the cost of shipping to return a book that was not the book I ordered on their website? It's their mistake, not mine. They also don't seem to be at all concerned that they have product photos on their website that don't reflect the products that they are selling people. That's dishonest. They shouldn't be allowed to mislead the consumer like that. I would like to be reimbursed for the cost of the shipping I paid to have the book that I didn't want returned back to them.

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:12/11/2023

      Type:Product Issues
      Status:
      Unanswered
      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      I signed a contract with Penguin Booksellers on 3/3/2023. *******************, ************* Services, signed for Penguin. I was to receive "***************** ******** services to include interior layout, book cover, full edit, formatting & proofreading. Also ********************** setup, E-book creation and distribution in platforms including Amazon, ****** and *****, Goodreads, Kobo, ******** books, Apple Books, ****** Books, and Chapter. Also to be included were paperback distribution, publishing imprint creation, promoted publishing for 3 books, and complete compliance with publishing guidelines and 20 free printed copies. For those services I paid them $2,189 US. dollars. I was assured the project would be completed within three months. To date, nothing has been completed and only one of my books, which were written as a sequence, was "worked on." I would receive a submission from them about every 20 to 25 days and I always responded with my decisions within twenty-four hours. By July it had become evident people from ***** who had taken US names and were quite fluent in English were assigned to my project. They must have been working on other projects at the same time to be so slow and often had lost continuity. Then I began to get calls from new sales people with pitches to sell me very expensive promotion packages. I said I wanted to see if they could perform the services I had already paid for and declined. Then a new person was assigned who seemed to be trying to find out why things were going so badly but after a while even he disappeared and I haven't heard from him in weeks. I rechecked reviews and saw quite a few dismal ones. It seemed that even if a product was produced it was on such cheap paper and clearly low quality that the result would not be marketable. I saw that I had been taken for a substantial amount of money not to mention the time and effort I have expended trying to work with them. I advise writers to avoid this company.

      Customer Answer

      Date: 01/05/2024

      Better Business Bureau:

      At this time, I have not been contacted by Penguin BookWriters regarding complaint ID ********.  Please be sure not to confuse Penguin  Random House with Penguin Book Writers.  They have no affiliation.  My contract and complaint are with Penguin BookWriters and they have not contacted me or acknowledged my complaint.

      Sincerely,

      *******************************

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:08/03/2023

      Type:Service or Repair Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      Purchased "Letters from a Stoic" from **********, after being in contact with the seller before the shipping of my purchase to discuss changing the shipping address, they declined to make the updates to the purchase, leading to me report them here. This is quite unfair as I live nowhere close to my previous address and can no collect the purchase for a return upon delivery. I request a full refund.

      Business Response

      Date: 08/21/2023

      It sounds like the consumer purchased a book from **********, and the ********** Seller misdelivered the book. Penguin Random House is the publisher of the book, but did not sell it directly to consumer. Therefore, the consumer needs to contact ********** to request a refund.

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:04/26/2023

      Type:Billing Issues
      Status:
      Unanswered
      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      I would like to get an option to pay shipping for this order.ORDER NO. ******* 04/22/2023 I emailed them but I didn't get an option to pay for the shipping cost. Please adjust billing to include shipping cost so that I can get the book by paying the company for shipping.

      Customer Answer

      Date: 05/21/2023

      Better Business Bureau:

      At this time, I have not been contacted by Penguin Random House regarding complaint ID ******** after it was filed.

      I contacted them directly before filing the complaint but they didn't resolve it as expected. I sent them a cheque and it has not

      bee encashed. 

      Amount
      $2.80
      Sent
      04/26/23
      Deliver by
      05/03/23
      Memo
      BBB case ******** shipping cost
      Confirmation
      H9LKYS1T
      Status
      Check Mailed


      Sincerely,

      *************************************


    • Initial Complaint

      Date:01/05/2023

      Type:Product Issues
      Status:
      Unanswered
      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      I have been a member of Penguin Reader Rewards since March of 2021. Today I had the extreme displeasure of dealing with the most willfully obtuse and unhelpful person in response to a request for a different proof of purchase/receipt of a book I logged for Reader Rewards points. I have been submitting receipts in the exact same way for the last 2 years. Book of the ********** books are accepted in the Rewards program, and I cannot control that they do not have the same type of formalized receipts that a retail store or online store *** have. This person requested an email from Book of the Month with the titles listed, when they do not send customers emails like that. I have attached an example here. I am also attaching examples of 2 months of submitted receipts that were submitted without any issue and there is zero explanation as to why suddenly there is a problem with them. This sounds like a problem with the support team that they need to address internally. But continuously arguing with a consumer via email, when you have been asked to disengage from the conversation is rude and needs to be addressed. I am also attaching the conversation with the Rewards Support. Please note - that this is not typically the person who responds/notifies me to let me know my credits have been granted and I have never argued, nor had an issue with any rep prior to this. If a book is denied, a reason is always clearly given. There is no reason here except this person making up rules as they go along. As stated before, BOTM does not have receipts, so all that can be submitted is a screenshot of the confirmed box order with the book titles listed. The date of purchase is at the top (which he tried to tell me was missing; and it's a lie), expected delivery date and list/cost of books ordered. I expect SOMEONE OTHER THAN ***** to respond to this complaint in a manner that makes sense and is not non-sensical.

      Customer Answer

      Date: 01/30/2023

      Better Business Bureau:

      At this time, I have not been contacted by Penguin Random House regarding complaint ID ********.

      Sincerely,

      ***********************

    Penguin Random House is NOT a BBB Accredited Business.

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