ACX Reviews 112

I woke up this morning to find that I was scammed by an ACX "producer." My book, which had been completed and was in the queue for publication was flagged as being a product of text-to-speech software. I suspected at a point that that might be the case. But I like what was being created. My story is about AI, and the voice worked for me. Anyway, as the whole thing unraveled, I found out I'd been scammed. The funny thing is, there were pages of correspondence between me and this producer. Whoever they were, they were putting in a lot of work to scam me out of a few hundred bucks. Weird. For the benefit of others, here's what I wrote to ACX. Scammers aside, I think the ACX system could use improvement.

Dear ACX,

I am very disappointed and upset to learn that my audiobook, Stones of
Abraham, has been removed.

I began this process at the suggestion of a friend of mine, who is also an
ACX producer. Acting in good faith, I went through the process of claiming
my title, setting up my project and searching for a producer.

After selecting a producer, I went through a nearly month-long process of
reviewing chapters, sending revisions, and reviewing updates. Finally, I
approved the finished book and, in compliance with the ACX system, sent
my final payment. Now, I am learning that all that work and money was for
nothing. So, apparently, I was ripped off!

In my opinion, the ACX system is seriously flawed. It is being used to
perpetuate fraud and does not serve its customers.

1] I should not only be finding out now that my producer was a fraud. ACX
should vet its producers beforehand. Michelle B. (my producer) was
presented as a legitimate producer. She had audio samples. If she was using
text-to-speech software, that should have been detected when she submitted
those samples.

2] Nowhere on the top level Getting Started pages is it stated that
text-to-speech software is prohibited. I can understand this policy, and
apparently, I allowed myself to be deceived. But to bury that information
in the bowels of your website is not good business practice. It should be
stated in BIG BOLD LETTERS on the Find Talent page that text-to-speech
software is prohibited. I was new to this process and I feel that, as an
author, I was not being cared for as a customer.

3] The payment system ACX has set up is fundamentally flawed. Having the
author remit payment directly to the producer via a third-party payment
system is wrong. ACX should have its own escrow-like payment system set up
(like eBay) where funds are not released until the product is approved.

So, that's my vent. Caveat emptor!

ACX SCAMMERS ALERT: Amazon uses AI to produce some titles narration. However, their own ACX company will not allow you to even have your own voice modified to make it perfect on the platform and recommends you to find talent, which they have a platform to do. However, they do not vet their talent in any way, nor have a method to allow you to escrow funds before they are provided to the person leaving authors wide open to deceptive practices, like me. They told me I could not use my own voice because it was modified with AI, then when I hired someone from their system it was a scam and I got nothing from it. Do not utilize ACX, in-fact, I recommend only claiming your book and then utilizing something else to distribute the audio. Only providing a 25/40% split is also a scam and only allowing authors to charge up to $14.99 is the biggest scam of them all! Terrible platform, avoid at all costs.

All I wanted was one simple question answered, their help area just spins you around in circles, you can't email them, you live chat with anyone, nothing, you are just left wondering if your work has been stolen

very upset, was just scammed for 200 bucks by a producer that was using Ai voice on my project. (I could do that with eleven labs myself, but its not allowed with audible)They. are not vetting their producers. There is no secured payment system in ACX which is ridiculous. I made a down payment outside of the platform via paypal because there is no clear guidelines. Its crazy that this could happen with such a big company. waiting to hear back from the help center which can take up to 2 days! if they rectify this which i doubt, i will come back and update this review

I used Amazon's program called ACX to hold auditions for my audiobook. Someone by the name of Kim Handysides, unsure if it was an imposter or the actual person, auditioned for my book and I hired her. After the book was completed, I submitted payment via paypal business. I contacted this Kim three times after that and no response. I decided to complete a check in today on the audiobook processing status but only to find out it was cancelled. I never received any correspondence from ACX about the cancellation. Amazon is allowing their platform to be used a scamming platform. It's stupid for ACX to NOT include a secured payment system. Will not be posting my book on ACX. I'll be doomed if I give them one penny

I entered the idea of having my print book on Audible a month ago. The first producer used Text-to-Speech, and I discovered that earlier. The second sounded fine... made the necessary corrections promptly and finished the project on time. In the ACX world, this is not the point. You submit the audible files to ACX, first, you must pay the producer, which I did...396 USD and at this point the producer informs ACX that you have paid the agreed contract. Nine days later, ACX informs me that they believe this producer may have used a text-to-speech program, which I certainly did not see any indications of, and this was cancelled. Two attempts paid for the contract, and have nothing. They sent you a long list of things one cannot do, and I understood no text-to-speech, opened the auditions, auditioned their producers, on their system, and you hope and pray that everything on all ends are good; if not, you are stuck I am appealing but so far the experience is appalling.

For some reason I have an email newsletter subscription for this site that I did not sign up for. I clicked to unsubscribe, it takes me to the audible homepage. I went to the ACX site and every single help or contact link I click just takes me to the audible homepage. I contacted audible who had to get me an override link to be able to contact these people. I have no had any confirmation that anyone has received my message.

Don't do an audible book for the money. You'll get nothing in return. I'm not sure how the system works but you can sell a decent number of books and not get a cent. I think it's because all of these giveaways they have and no money changes hands. So they're just giving away my book. It's not sell x amount, get x amount back. They have all these categories, which I don't quite understand so I've just written it off. I wish there were a decent (meaning upstanding) competitor out there. But for now, it's all we got.

I have tried 6 times without success to create an Audible book from my Amazon Kindle book using ACS, but without success. Extremely frustrating! There is no way to upload the manuscript for auditions by prospective producers. It keeps saying "In Production," but there is no way to proceed. This has eaten up many hours of time dealing with their broken website interface. In the past I was able to do this with no problems. Tech support is no help. They say to phone them but don't post a phone number. What amateurs!

These people are lazy, racist and incompetent. I provided a US bank account and a valid US ITIN and they still kept rejecting my application to sell while making discriminatory assumptions about the validity of the information provided. It is a shame that such companies exist in the world. These people are mentally ill. The xenophobic behavior of the members of ACX makes anyone with a sense of intelligence feel sick to the bones. Low IQ people should never be in charge of anything related to knowledge.

I have been an audiobook producer with ACX, publishing over 100 titles through their platform. My account was associated with an email address that is no longer active, preventing me from accessing my account and the royalties accrued. Despite providing ACX with extensive documentation to verify my identity, including government-issued identification and bank account details linked to the original account, my requests to transfer my titles and royalties to a new account have been denied.

This situation has caused significant financial hardship for my family and me, as we have been unable to access the income generated from my work. I hope that by sharing my experience, ACX will take the necessary steps to resolve this issue and improve their processes for account recovery and customer support.

Very good delivery driver and helper two bring all the boxes in and put them on the floor in a nice order ten out of ten for a good service and gave us a ring 15 minutes before turning up 👍👍👍👍 heather

I trusted ACX because of their immediate connection to Amazon and Audible, thinking it would be a safe platform for authors like me. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I never imagined it would be so easy for scammers to operate on their platform.

I recently encountered a scammer who openly admitted to using AI for voice narration, which is a clear violation of ACX's policies. When I reported this to ACX, I expected them to take swift action to remove this person from their platform. Instead, they did nothing. The scammer is still active on ACX, which is incredibly concerning.

To make matters worse, I paid this scammer over $1,000 as a deposit, money that I am now seeking to recover through legal action. While I understand that ACX is not directly responsible for this loss, they should be doing a much better job of vetting the people they allow on their platform.

Dissolving the contract with this scammer was also a ridiculously time-consuming process. ACX promised it would take up to three days, but it ended up taking five days and a phone call before any action was taken. This added unnecessary stress and delay to the process of hiring a new producer.

As a result of these delays, all my paid advertising for my book's release is now inaccurate. My new producer couldn’t complete the audiobook in time, reflecting poorly on me as an author. The integrity of my book was compromised because my former producer violated ACX policies by using AI and had access to my manuscript—my intellectual property—before the book was even released.

This experience has been incredibly frustrating and upsetting. ACX needs to take more responsibility and enforce stricter policies to protect authors and narrators from scams and ensure the integrity of their work. I trusted ACX, and they let me down.

I gave two stars because I started with zero stars, but the encounters with their employees and support have been prompt, helpful and kind. At least their customer service is on par.

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Total trash nonexistent 'tech' totally manned now by foreign or Canadian operators who have no clue how to assist since ACX 'upgraded' their platform removing timestamps etc. Half my chapters have audible "hiss" that is NOT in my file recordings. And NO ANSWERS. Apparently they were all abducted by aliens

Good thing very nice

The company, in particular its risk management team, considers themselves as God who could manipulate people's lives and ruin their rights at will just because they hold such a large share of the audible market. I spent more than 30 hours setting up the account, filling in forms, creating audio files complying with their stringent requirements etc., then I went on a business trip for a few days. On my return, I found my account deleted and everything is gone. Then I noticed an email to my personal addressing commanding me to respond within 24 hours regarding some proof of title thing, or else they'll terminate my account (as obviously they did). Even the Federal Government doesn't send an email demanding a 24-hour turnaround or else without a reminder of a phone call or something. And their emails were extremely arrogant in tone, giving a whiff of "We are a dominating platform so we control your life and do whatever we want" feel. I felt upset at first then I went through reviews of their team and now feel extremely lucky - apparently there are authors earning royalty just have their accounts closed like that, without explanation, and told the outstanding royalty will no longer go to them - that's like theft - glad I got out of this lousy platform at the early stage (kicked out, to be exact)