The Great Courses

"I wasted 5 tickets on Kanopy on the French course (that's a free library service). I can't believe how expensive those courses used to sell for. What a scam. It's awful. The professor from Denver University has a quite distinct American accent. The content is just silly. Also, seems like there's a certain agenda behind the content. Instead of focusing France, she keeps pushing Senegal, Marocco and their culture of eating with the right hand and such. Yuck. In this day and age there are so many free resources"

"Content great. Their app is absolute garbage. Nothing streams and always struggles to load."

"I wanted a course they said they have that just for that course I paid them around 99$. They gave me a different account. When i contacted back to them theres no response. So yeah they are just simple scammers now."

"I have no problem with the courses. Chess hasn't changed in my lifetime and the Bible hasn't in a few thousand years. My issue was customer no service for GC Plus autopay. After my credit card was hacked and I was issued a new card, GC never contacted me the next billing cycle. EDIT: They did contact me but I get so many emails, theirs was buried under a hundred+ in a few days. I found their email, replied, they contacted me and explained what I needed to do and it's all good now."

"Just been introduced to Great Courses Plus. My concern is about how OLD the content is: no recent videos. Is it just my perspective?: Looks like a website with a bunch of OLD videos. So much has moved on since the filming of those videos. They really need to update content. It may be that I do not know how to access the latest additions to the Website... I do hope so... as I was disappointed, to say the least..."

"The Great Courses used to be excellent—high-quality lectures, thoughtful professors, and a genuine commitment to learning. Unfortunately, since being taken over by another company, the experience has deteriorated badly. The content feels watered down, customer service is unresponsive, and the overall integrity that once defined the brand is gone. What was once a trusted source of lifelong learning now feels like a hollow shell of its former self."

"DO NOT sign up for the Great Courses. They rope you in by offering long-term promos such as paying for two years upfront and then require you to be on an auto-renewal subscription. After two years of watching one or two things (and not using it at all in the last year), they automatically charged me a full year subscription and refuse to refund it even when I tried to cancel the moment I saw the charge. I have never dealt with a company so unethical that they will charge you a year's subscription and not refund it when you haven't used it and don't plan to. They are unethical and deceptive."

"I have been with the Great Courses for 20+ years. I purchased several courses from them without any issues. When they started their streaming service around 2015, The Great Courses Plus, I was quite excited to have access to so many courses. I had to contact customer service when I realized I had signed up with two different email addresses, one for the Great Courses and the other for the Great Courses Plus. They helped me combine the two accounts into one. Anytime I have had a question, customer service has been great. I just called today to find out about Wondrium as they changed their name to it but now web searches redirect to the Great Courses Plus. So, in recent years they have gone through some reorganizing the company. The Great Courses has combined with the Great Courses Plus and the name Wondrium is no longer - it was not a good fit from what customer service explained. It is sad that a few people have had difficulties with returns during the company's reorganzaiton and that it hasn't been made clear, it seems, as tp what is going on and why there are delays. I sincerely, hope that those issue are taken care of and that the company addresses them on this forum. I would give the company more stars if I could. Thank you."

"Beware, the signs are that Great Courses as a business is struggling. Your purchases may not continue to be available for much longer. Over many years, I’ve purchased nearly 900 Great Courses - basically their entire catalog. Recently, however, I have been forced by them to move to the Great Courses Plus. This happened because - without forewarning - I had to update to the Great Courses Plus application. This orphaned the nearly 700 GB of courses I have downloaded on my iPad. When Great Courses Plus called me, they had no solution to this problem, but they did try to bribe me with a free course (I refused). Not only that, but when I bought a new course as a test case, I was unable to download the course without using the new app, meaning that I need an internet connection with enough bandwidth for streaming video. There is now no way to download and store the courses for offline viewing - which used to be possible. The developers do not seem to have thought through the implications of their changes (an increasingly frequent problem). One does not always have high bandwidth internet, particularly if one is traveling. So, now I am forced to delete the 696.3 GB of Great Courses I have stored on my iPad because I can no longer access those downloads with the new Great Courses Plus app I am forced to use. One further comment: I detest subscription services. I have too many of them now for movies, TV shows, music, magazines, newspapers, etc. The Great Courses Plus business model is flawed and will alienate customers. I know they have really screwed me over. Their course content and quality has been declining for a number of years and now offers a lot of not truly educational content. There are a lot of options for education available via the internet nowadays: Khan, Udemy, Coursera, even MIT OCW, and many, many others. Great Courses has lost me as a future customer, although now I have to use their app to access my PURCHASED content."

"I have purchased over the years more than three-dozen courses (DVD and guidebook), and the course materials have all been excellent. The problem I have is that since discontinuing DVDs, there is no longer a way "to own" any new courses that you would want to order. There are limited streaming options, but there is no way to download a course video (mp4) file for watching on a large screen device off line--this was possible before, so why not now? They say it's because material could be lifted (stolen) and circulated for free. Seems to me that web sites can be built today to keep that from happening. Apparently you can still download a PDF of the course book, but it's not like having a professionally printed copy. Call me old fashioned, but if you pay for a product, you should be able to own it. Unfortunately, like everything else, you can't watch anything anymore unless you're on line. That's OK until there is an internet failure or the company goes out of business. Then what? You have nothing to show for your purchases."

"While the courses themselves provide reasonable content that is enjoyable and educational---the customer service is atrocious and is bad enough for me to not to return as a customer. In the past week---I spoke to CS several times to correct an order that was not accurate; they confirmed they cancelled the order, but sent it anyway and then charged my card. Another order arrived damaged, but they have refused to resolve per their guarantee. Great Courses CS refused to resolve---though they keep relating that it takes two weeks for management to give me a call back--it has been two weeks and no one has called. The CS I have spoken to, have been rude---talked over me---and argumentative. These are well documented calls...and to be honest, my impression they don't care. I refused to buy again---especially at their higher prices. I can find the same products on EBAY for a fraction of the cost."

"Good product and the worst customer service. I returned a course 3 months ago (I have the tracking #). No response. I called customer service and they acknowledge receiving the discs. Twice I called and Susan Howard of customer service said no credit had been issued and she knew no more??? Bad Company AVOID"

"Back in February of 2023, I purchased a course (DVD and Book). Because of their 365-day money back guarantee, I felt it was practically risk-free. If I didn't like it, I could always return it within a year. In May of 2023 (about only 3 months following the purchase), I returned the item in perfect condition. I filled out the form fully and correctly, and returned it via USPS with tracking. The tracking shows the item was delivered on 22 May, 2023. Here we are, on 25 July, 2023, and I still have not received any refund. I have called them every two weeks. At first, it was "wait 3 weeks." Then it was "4 to 6 weeks." Then, "6 to 8 weeks." Well, it is now 10 weeks. If you buy from this company, make sure that it's something that you really would keep. Do not rely on their so-called, one-year money back guarantee. That's only in theory. In real life, you probably have to keep calling and calling and sending emails only to have them give you excuses. As of today, 10 weeks later, they still are unable to give me even an ESTIMATE of when I can get my refund. So, if you buy from this company, just assume there's no refund allowed and you can't get your money back. By the way, check out their BBB rating (Better Business Bureau). It's a "D-" which is one step away from "F." A "D" MINUS!!! EDIT: As of 10-Aug-2023, still no refund due to software migration issues. Company still unable to give even an estimate on when a refund can be issued."

"Yes, the geology of the NHP is quite interesting, educational and thorough. However, listening to the same teacher for 18 hours (36 1/2 hr presentations), wearing the same clothes & wrinkled cargo pants was a bit tiresome. Worst was the fact that he seemed to be over-coached in public speaking: constantly "talking" with his hands, gesturing, walking, changing camera angles. It was VERY, VERY distracting. Could use more graphics and pictures to accompany the lecture, and less studio shots."

"My uncle died and had 10 new courses still in their wrapping and boxed. The company say that they offer a lifetime guarantee or a one year refund for no reason. I returned them but they refused to accept the returns and would not give a refund. they said the guarantee was personal to my late uncle only. They were worth £500. Disgraceful."

"Best entertainment value anywhere. As an added channel on to Amazon Prime you can learn about many interests. Not exactly PhD level courses, but better than standard television (discovery channel etc). The complete courses are rather comprehensive."

"Do not touch. They fraudulently steal money from your account. I was on 3 monthly plan. I cancelled my membership over a week ago. There was no payment due, as one had been taken in October. I changed my credit card number to ensure they could not take money from me again. I removed the credit card number I had initially given them. They had clearly stored the number. Have then stolen money from my account for a yearly subscription of $178.18. Don't go near them."

"I have been enjoying courses from this company for the last ten years, in the fields of history, linguistics, science, literature, music, economics, theology and photography. With one exception [The World Was Never the Same by Rufus Fears] they have all been excellent. I have listened to some of them more than once. These courses have broadened my outlook on life, educated me, and entertained me [especially anything by Profs Robert Greenberg and John McWhorter]. They give you your money back without question if you don't like a course. What's not to like?"

"Amazing. Top class Professors numerous courses to listen to some have 24 lectures. Like going to University ( I did in the 70's) but at £18 a month! But why almost all American lecturers?"