Pimsleur Language Programs Reviews

I'd give it 0 stars if I could. The customer service is TERRIBLE. They say you can share your premium account with 3 other household members, but the only way you can do this is by sharing usernames and passwords... not very secure in 2025, especially considering they advertise Single Sign On. The customer service didn't care and/or didn't respond. I wouldn't waste your time, their offering is not that great and the app functions like it was made 10 years ago. Way overpriced for what it is.

Very hard to cancel , they bring people in with free trials but automatically renew on very expensive monthly rates. Took quite a long time to cancel and they eventually agreed to refund just one months charge

I had the free trial and had entered to pay for a year membership which was charged to my account. When I canceled, the membership was also canceled. I was then "assisted" to reactivate which incurred another charge. Communication was via the application. CC company dispute unsuccessful. Reached out to customer service and after I answered 2 questions via chat was sent to a "assistant site" what wanted to charge me again. I am happy with the program but have paid double for 1 year-not happy with responsiveness or lack of verifiable communication.

I took the Swahili (beginner) course. I've reached lesson 13 and there was no mention of how to say basic phrases like "what's your name?" and "where are you from?". Very absurd.

I signed up for a week’s free trial. I cancelled before the week was up but received no confirmation. I then noticed a fee had been taken from my account. I sent 2 emails to the company explaining I had cancelled in time and requesting a refund but received no reply. Finally I went on the online chat and was told I wasn’t due a refund as I couldn’t send proof I had cancelled in time. I asked for their formal complaint’s procedure and was told I couldn’t have that information via the online chat I would have to email. I told them they didn’t reply to their emails at which point the customer service person became bordering on hostile and very rude. At this point I requested a DSAR so I could prove I had cancelled in time and asked that it include the current chat. I was cut off and now can’t access the chat! Awful company! DO NOT USE THEM!!

I signed up for a year on a discount. Used it for 3 months then stopped but had paid for the year so no problem. But when I checked my credit card, they renewed it for another year. I checked the terms of the agreement and they have to give you a reminder email that it renews. I checked and did NOT receive one. Now they will not refund me even though they violated the agreement. Scam company. Do not use them.

Pimsleur’s selling practices are manipulative and deceptive. I received multiple promotional offers that I was genuinely interested in, only to be told they didn’t apply to me because I was a former subscriber. When I asked why I was receiving these misleading emails, I got no response. Later, I signed up for what I believed was a $10 first-month offer, but I was charged for an entire year upfront. I take responsibility for not double-checking the final payment, but I also expected a reputable company like Pimsleur to be transparent. I trusted their process and assumed they wouldn't resort to misleading tactics. It’s disappointing, especially because their product is excellent. It’s unfortunate that such a high-quality service is undermined by shady business practices aimed at confusing customers.

Refused to transfer credit of unused gift card that I purchased to my account. Gift recipient did not want. I have been a long time user. Boils down to theft - took money and zero service/product.

This is an amazing tool assisting learning languages. Aquision of a new language is a very hard journey. I have been a faithful subscriber of Pimsleur for several years now. I nitially purchased CD sets. Now I study two languages in a Roman group. I love driving and talking to my app, listening to conversations and responding to questions. They literally force you to speak from the beginning. It is fascinating! FBI, MArine Corp and other government agencies are using it for a reason. I am now a Lifetime Subscriber.

I bought the audio CD version of the Italian course second hand (used) from eBay, and I'm really glad I never paid the full price for it new. At approximately (on average) 30 minutes each, the lessons become long and tedious. I cut them roughly in half on audio-editing software and had far better results at memorizing in the car and bed. However, the worst thing about Pimsleur's Italian course is the many instances of terrible pronunciation and diction. It's not bad for the first four lessons, but after that many of the phrases are spoken far too quickly by the voice actors, with appalling slurring that makes much of it completely unintelligible. Many a time, while using the product in the car, I have ended up shouting and cursing Pimsleur for their disgracefully low standards. They clearly don't care about making a good product as long as the money rolls in. On top of that, the audio quality is not good. As someone else stated on another comment, it's like listening to speech through a thick blanket or two. I have also had to load the files into an audio editor to improve the quality and replace unintelligible spoken phrases with supplanted new ones created using the MSN Bing translator and the naturalreaaders text-to-speech website, all of which takes plenty of hours of wasted life, because I shouldn't have to be doing it! I emailed Pimsleur about my observations but they didn't even have the courtesy of responding.

Tricked into monthly subscription - I was under the impression the free trial was cancelled as it was not showing on my apple subscription only to find out they had been taking payments for 6 months! Over £100 taken without consent. Their excuse was it was not paid through the App Store - robbed and no chance of refund - avoid at all costs

Customer service ignoring me after stealing money without permission even after a cancellation. Avoid.

Be careful when signing up to Pimsleur. I intended to sign up to Pimsleur on a monthly basis but it subscribed me for 12 months. I asked for a refund so I could pay monthly and they refused. It seems the check box needs to be unticked if you don’t want to pay for 12 months up front and prefer pay monthly.

I signed up for a free trial and neglected to cancel the subscription within the time frame provided. I did not use the service, but I was billed $21.42 monthly from June, 2024 until now. That is an outlay of $147. They send no reminders. When I called today, I was told that the subscription has now been cancelled, but no refund will be issued for the 7 months that I did not use the service. Yes, it is my responsibility to be more vigilant, to check my credit card statements and to observe time lines for trial subscriptions. Still, there is something called 'good will'. Corporate greed prevailed. This is a shady way to do business.

Expensive and really difficult to stop them billing you. Subscription is not visible in the App itself or on the Apple Store. To see your subscription and cancel you have to create a new web based account and proceed from there - bizarre and clearly designed to stop you cancelling. Also they not only auto renewed but at a higher rate and longer period than the first subscription. Read the many other review re charging issues. As a learning tool its interesting although playback when out and about can be glitchy. I’ve reported this but as others have said they just suggest the issue is on your side - despite this being the only App I ever have problems with. For this cost I’d suggest actual lessons with a person are far better value. I’ve covered all three units of Arabic and don’t feel any further forward.

I first used Pimsleur back in 2017 as I was moving to Germany for a few months and needed something to get me conversational within a short period of time (unlike Duolingo). Back then lessons were 1hr each but honestly it worked wonders as many of the friends I made were surprised that I had only been learning for a short time as I had really good pronunciation. I only really done level 1 and utilised my friends to build on it which helped tons. Fast forward to 2024 and I decided to re-subscribe to Pimsleur after 6 years of not using it, this time to learn Spanish, as I have close friends and colleagues who speak the language. Was pleasantly surprised that lessons were only 30 minutes each but the quality remained the same. Again, apart from being able to roll my R’s, my colleagues and friends loved my pronunciation and ability to have small basic conversation after only a few weeks. My advice to anyone looking to become conversational in a short period of time is to use additional free resources alongside Pimsleur. If streaming tv series or movies set the language to what you’re learning and put subtitles on. Use YouTube channels and podcasts. Find people you can actually speak to as it helps massively!

Pimsleur touts a good game but is awful. I signed up to take the Greek course. I contacted customer service three times to tell them that the Vocal Coach which is a cornerstone of their app isn't working. They kept telling me it was my technical issues. I found out today that the Greek course doesn't support Vocal Coach. It would have been nice to know this feature doesn't work before purchasing. Very bad situation. I cancelled and will eat the lost subscription. After having trouble with them for the Italian course, I should have learned my lesson. Babbel is much better. Moving on...My recommendation is not use this service.

Paid for a couple months and never used the product. They would not refund the last month. It doesn't matter if it's in their terms, this is against industry norms (amazon prime, netflix, practically every subscription service).

I accepted a trial offer and canceled it before the end of the period, with the email confirmation to prove it. Then I was charged for an annual subscription a month later, which was an unpleasant surprise. Customer service absolutely swears that this would never happen without someone going through the full checkout process, but that never happened. There was also no confirmation email of the subscription or a receipt for the charge. They refuse to refund the charge. Do not accept a trial, do not use the company, just stay far, far away.

After purchasing years ago they apparently remove your lessons after so long without usage. Now that I want to use the language again they can't find my purchase even though I've provided multiple screenshots to prove my purchase.