Musescore.com has a rating of 1.36 stars from 201 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Musescore.com most frequently mention free trial, credit card, and customer service problems. Musescore.com ranks 111th among Instrument sites.
This company responds to reviews on average within 16 days
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I'm putting this at the top so hopefully everyone sees it: When you sign up for the free trial, there will be a little button to apply whatever seasonal offer they have going on. If you apply the offer, it removes the free trial. Again...the offer REMOVES the free trial. You have 2 choices: the "sale" offer, or the 7-day free trial. Not both. One or the other. When you toggle the offer on, the 7-day free trial text very clearly disappears. If you really want to be safe, read the fine print just below it. It's like 6 freaking sentences. You don't need to call your lawyer to interpret it. Now, is this sneaky? Yes it is. Do they know it's sneaky, but do it anyway because they likely get X amount of their income from people who refuse to read? Yes they do. Well here's an easy solution for you: just freaking read. Take your time and read the words. I mean, they even give you the exact dates in the fine print showing when you will be charged and for how much. Along those same lines, it would be nice if they gave a little bit more of a refund to you people. Not full price, but 40% or whatever is kind of lowballing it. I think if you guys gave back 75% or more, you'd have half as many negative reviews on here. But, I have no idea what it costs to run a business, so maybe you need to do it this way. As for the actual Musescore service, it's actually pretty nice. Lots of good sheet music. They have a nice built-in player. You can save favorites etc. To print, use the playback mixer, view some of the "official" scores etc. you will need the membership. Quite honestly, most people can get by just fine the free way. I knocked off one star for the "sneaky" business practices, the reports of lowballing the refunds, and because of the bombardment of advertisements trying to get you to subscribe. Especially on mobile. One last point, well it's the same point from earlier. Please READ. Everyone. We're musicians. We're supposed to be good at it.
Like many others, I was tricked into paying $40 for a yearly subscription. I cancelled not even an hour after subscribing and did not use the service. After a few back and forth emails with customer support, in which I had to quote their TOS to them, I eventually was refunded $30 and my account was changed to a monthly subscription, meaning I now paid $10 for a month of the service, most features of which are useless to me. Awful customer service and predatory business practices.
Like many others, I was tricked into paying $40 for a yearly subscription. I cancelled not even an hour after subscribing and did not use the service. After a few back and forth emails with customer support, in which I had to quote their TOS to them, I eventually was refunded $30 and my account was changed to a monthly subscription, meaning I now paid $10 for a month of the service, most features of which are useless to me. Awful customer service and predatory business practices.
Tip for consumers:
Do not purchase the “free trial.” They purposefully make it confusing so that people unintentionally purchase an expensive subscription that is difficult to cancel. They offer a partial refund, but it is rare for them to actually follow through and they attempt to keep this a secret from buyers.
Make sure you do not enable auto renewal, it is very difficult to get your money back if the renewal goes through. I cancelled after 1 day and they offered a 45% refund, it's a scam. Plus all the sheet music I actually wanted needed an upgraded subscription. Musescore is a waste of money, look elsewhere.
Offers free trial but put on pop up which charges full price when clicked as it waives free trial. No contact details and have set up terms and conditions to get prevent refund.
Avoid if don't want to be cheated out of your money
Tip for consumers:
They are scammers
Products used:
None
MuseScore will offer you a 'free trial', charge you $40 instead, and refuse to refund you even if you email them RIGHT AWAY. This clearly happens all the time, as they have an entire response at the ready for this exact situation. Any respectable company would provide a refund, but since they are purposely scamming people, they put the blame on their customers as a way to justify keeping your money. What a horrible experience and company.
Signed up for the trial period and neglected to cancel in time. Asked for a refund and got the same canned response as other people and had no initial reply to my request for a full refund. After filing a dispute with PayPal I got a reply from them saying they would give a full refund but couldn't when the dispute in Paypal was open.
That last bit is simply not the case. Paypal states on their dispute page that they do not advise cancelling a dispute UNTIL the refund is issued. I've replied with this information to them and am awaiting any sort of refund.
My son found free music from this site that he wanted to play. He thought that he would need a proof of purchase to use the piece in competition, so he thought he was accessing a free tril and used my email account for it. I contacted them immediately to let them know that it was NOT an approved purchase and even with a paid subscription the music did not have what he needed, so the site is useless.
Products used:
None of it!
There too many incomplete partitures. I.e. Chopin sonata op. 65: many third mouvement scores, none of the other mouvements. The same applies to many other scores (i.e. Bahms, Schuman etc.). I wonder why this occurs and why nobody has taken care of completing the scores that are otherwise pretty useless.
Hello Giovanni, Thank you for your feedback. We will forward this feedback to our developers. We will strive to improve the quality of scores in the future.
Baited into a free trial but they switched me to 1 year subscription of USD40 instead.
After raising a dispute with my credit card company, they offered 25% refund.
My credit card company followed up on the dispute, and they raised refund to USD30.
I will not pay the USD10 for something that I want to cancel after just 2 days of free trial. This review will stay until I get my full refund.
Finally got 100% refund after my credit card company disputed MuseScore's charges. MuseScore now wants a 5 star review. Do they deserve a 5 star review?
MuseScore: "If you are satisfied with the solution to your problem, please change your reviews to 5 stars on Trustpilot and Sitejabber"
Tip for consumers:
a scam!
Products used:
Nothing
I signed up for a free trial, and then they automatically charged me $39.99 IMMEDIATELY. I canceled the subscription and contacted support for a refund, and they are absolutely refusing to give me a full refund. The most they are willing to give me is $30 (initially they only offered a 25% discount until I refused and brought up their Terms of Service), which is $9.99 less than what they took from me.
They are intentionally misleading, so do not do a single thing on the website without reading the fine print and taking screenshots of every step in order to dispute it when things go wrong.
The free trial is a scam. They charge you full year subscription before the trial ends and there is no reminding email about the expiry. The next email you will get is a invoice. When trying to dispute it no one answer your request. And the service is cancelled by them and I got charged for 15 dollars and I can;t even use anything service on the website..
I agree with the numerous other reviews. This company uses a vile bait and switch tactic. You sign on a link for a free trial and somewhere along the way it switches to a full PRO membership without making it clear. Immediate refund requests are met with a canned response offering an extended membership or 25% refund. Really wish I'd found these reviews before falling for their scheme.
Hello Pants, Thank you for your feedback. Yes, some of our subscription plans do not include a free trial period. This information is indicated in the descriptions of these plans. However, these plans are offered with a good discount. Yes, our refund policy does not imply a full refund due to licensing agreements, but you can create refund request by ToS to receive the maximum possible refund: https://musescore.com/legal/terms.
Hi there
Musescore is a platform with interesting content, understand content needs to be paid, but the conditions on subscription are very intransparent, irritating the mix of musescore.com and musscore.org in the canceling process, a pity!
I found a real helpful tutorial to navigate to successful cancellation of unwanted subscription after free trial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUZ6__SpZwI
It was not possible to upload a bill, no format
I'm putting this at the top so hopefully everyone sees it:
When you sign up for the free trial, there will be a little button to apply whatever seasonal offer they have going on. If you apply the offer, it removes the free trial. Again...the offer REMOVES the free trial.
You have 2 choices: the "sale" offer, or the 7-day free trial. Not both. One or the other.
When you toggle the offer on, the 7-day free trial text very clearly disappears. If you really want to be safe, read the fine print just below it. It's like 6 freaking sentences. You don't need to call your lawyer to interpret it.
Now, is this sneaky? Yes it is. Do they know it's sneaky, but do it anyway because they likely get X amount of their income from people who refuse to read? Yes they do. Well here's an easy solution for you: just freaking read. Take your time and read the words. I mean, they even give you the exact dates in the fine print showing when you will be charged and for how much.
Along those same lines, it would be nice if they gave a little bit more of a refund to you people. Not full price, but 40% or whatever is kind of lowballing it. I think if you guys gave back 75% or more, you'd have half as many negative reviews on here. But, I have no idea what it costs to run a business, so maybe you need to do it this way.
As for the actual Musescore service, it's actually pretty nice. Lots of good sheet music. They have a nice built-in player. You can save favorites etc.
To print, use the playback mixer, view some of the "official" scores etc. you will need the membership. Quite honestly, most people can get by just fine the free way.
I knocked off one star for the "sneaky" business practices, the reports of lowballing the refunds, and because of the bombardment of advertisements trying to get you to subscribe. Especially on mobile.
One last point, well it's the same point from earlier. Please READ. Everyone. We're musicians. We're supposed to be good at it.
Tip for consumers:
Always remember that the people most likely to leave reviews are the ones with a negative experience. It may not always be a fair sample size.
Products used:
Sheet music. Mostly piano. Some full orchestra. Free version.
Musescore claims you can cancel your free trial and then charges you for a FULL YEAR subscription with no recourse to reverse the payment. They haven't been responsive to my requests showing my attempts to cancel the subscription prior to the free trial ending. Absolutely awful customer service.
Products used:
Musescore subscription
On 11/28/23 I signed up for a "free trial" but canceled within hours on the same day. My credit card was charged $39.99. I emailed the company and got an automated reply that they had received my email and if I wanted to apply for a refund I would need to fill out a refund request, which I did. I then received an email asking me if I was satisfied with support. Of course not. I haven't received any further communication from them after repeated attempts. I only clicked on 1 star because there isn't an option for none. Beware of the "free trial" - no such thing. Not sure what to do at this point other than to file this review and encourage anyone NOT to sign up with them. Update: the company did eventually refund, but not until after many unanswered emails and after this bad review. They claim I didn't sign up for the free trial. But I did. Their free trial offer was very confusing to begin with. So if I didn't, then they used a bait and switch trick. So my advice is still to beware.
Tip for consumers:
Terrible company, no customer support, free trial is a sham.
Products used:
Was supposed to be a free trial but they charged my card and offered no support when I tried to get a refund.
Hello Sandra, Thanks for your report. Based on the provided info you did subscribe to the instant plan without a free trial period. As we didn't advertise free trial for the 39.99 plans. Please contact us at support@musescore.com and mention the word "sitejabber" and your name in the body of the email. We will try to review your case ASAP and explain all the details.
This is a scam.
I signed up for a seven day free trial and authorised the £0 charge in my banking app as you usually get with free trials, only for it then to immediately take the full subscription cost.
When I contacted customer services they quickly replied to tell me there were multiple subscription/trial options and I'd chosen the wrong one, but they were very kindly prepared to either give me a 25% discount or some months free.
For a moment I doubted myself, until I got suspicious enough to check here and see so many other people complaining about being shaken down like this. I'm absolutely not having it. As I replied to customer services, I never sign up for a subscription without a free trial first to make sure it's something that'll actually be useful to me. I KNOW I didn't sign up for the paid version as they're claiming. The speed of their original response and the number of identical complaints here proves it.
I told customer services the two options they offered were no good to me and I wanted a full refund. Unsurprisingly, their response to this hasn't come as quickly as their response trying to gaslight me into believing I'd made a mistake when I know I did not.
This is a dishonest company clearly making money from this bait & switch and hoping people will accept the "explanation" that they didn't properly read what they were signing up for. Avoid at all costs.
If I receive my full refund I will update this review. If not, I'll begin the chargeback process with my bank and report this company as a scam. I just hope people check here in the future before trying to get the free trial.
Attached: the email I was sent very shortly after my refund request. The fact that they have this reply ready to send complete with handy clickable buttons to their "solutions" is proof to me that the whole setup is deliberate. Combine that with the number of identical complaints on here, Trustpilot, and similar sites, it looks extremely bad for them. I will of course be happy to be proven wrong and retract my comments if/when I get my full refund. Until then, I can only assume this company is behaving fraudulently.
How can they sleep at night. Scammers. Lying website with a "free trial", that leads to a $40 subscription. It was NOT clear, despite what support tried to gaslight me into believing. Reporting them to bbb.
Tip for consumers:
scammers
Products used:
none
I recently signed up for the 7-day free trial and was charged $59.99 AUD immediately to the bank account. I have cancelled the subscription on the same day and am awaiting their response to my refund request. All through the free-trial process, it was advertised that "You won't be charged during your trial period." Blatant scam.
Products used:
Musescore Pro+
Clicked a link for a free trial and was charged nearly $100AUD immediately.
There are so many reports of this happening it's clear the site is designed this way to trick people. After several support requests they have refunded nearly 80% of the amount. DON'T ACCEPT THIS! You can still file a chargeback with your bank and get all the money back. The best part is that each chargeback costs them money, particularly if they've split it across two charges. If they get enough chargebacks their merchant account will be closed, so please keep doing this! Do not accept their refunds! You are owned the full amount if they have tricked you with their free trial scam!
Tip for consumers:
Do not ever use the company!
Products used:
Did not use out of principal after charged for free trial.
**UPDATE — Musescore has refunded my payment in full. Overall the process only took 3-4 days to get the issue resolved, which is good. I'm still uncomfortable with the way the registration process went down, but they've said they're reviewing and improving it. It was frustrating and off putting to be initially be offered a partial refund, which is what made it feel scammy. But I'm pleased they've refunded in full at this point.**
Like many others, I was misled in the registration process. I intended to utilize the 7 day free trial and was immediately charged $40 for an annual subscription. I went through the refund request process which is really more of a reverse sales pitch process, triggering a "special offer" where I get the privilege of choosing to receive 6 additional months for free or a 25% discount. This is their business model apparently, swindle and mislead people into a subscription with an elusive free trial and when they complain, offer a modest discount in place of a refund. On lots of reviews like mine, musescore staff are replying to explain that the $40 tier doesn't have a trial because it's such a great deal as a heavily discounted rate. They fail to see, no one cares. They're flooded with negative reviews by people who were only attracted to their service by the words "7 day free trial", who were then immediately gouged for $40 and who are now being told, "because it's such a great deal". It's irrelevant how good a discount $40 is and it's severely out of touch for "customer service" to hop on here and explain the absurdity of their different subscription tiers in the comments instead of just doing integrity and refunding where they've misled.
Products used:
PRO+ subscription
We tried out the free trial to get a song for the piano. After printing it on the "free trial" it charged us for the entire year and would only give back 25%. This website is an awful scam and should be avoided. You WILL lose your money if you use Musescore.
Tip for consumers:
A total scam.
Products used:
Piano music
I am honestly surprised that there are still websites up which try this. I thought this was a thing of the past. They offer a free seven-day trial and charge $39.99 immediately.
When I requested a refund, I got an email that offered me a 25% discount or an additional six months for free. I'm not looking for a discount - I'm looking for a refund.
Obviously, I opened a PayPal case.
Wow, I really really hope these people change their business practice really really really soon.
Products used:
None. I never downloaded a thing. Their trial isn’t really free, so I wanted to use exactly zero of their downloads to qualify for a full refund.
Found this website because I wanted to find a place to leave a review about this awful business. I was trying to find music for my daughter and I to perform and thought this website might be helpful. The preview of what I needed wasn't loading so I clicked to sign up for a free trial and ended up paying 40$ bc of their bait and switch tactics. Then to find out the score didn't have what it said it had. Customers service refuses a refund, but did offer me half price subscription.
Products used:
Zero, they lied about the product
Hello Wendeth, Thank you for your feedback. Yes, we offer a plan with a 7-day free trial period. This plan was pre-selected by clicking on the "Start free trial" button. However, you did not start the free trial. Instead, you selected a 12-month plan at a discounted price by choosing the "Special Offer" option during the subscription process. Consequently, you were shifted to a plan that offers a discount but does not include a free trial. Following this, at the next step, you reviewed the details of the discounted non-trial plan, entered your payment information, and confirmed your direct purchase. Yes, our refund policy does not imply a full refund due to licensing agreements, but you can create refund request by ToS to receive the maximum possible refund: https://musescore.com/legal/terms.
I got the free trial and then checked 6 days later and realized it was about to charge me $80 for a whole year
Products used:
Sheet music
Hello Tanna, Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry, but we didn't advertise a free trial for the $40/year plan. This plan does not include a trial due to the significant discount on it.
To get your refund request reviewed, please fill out the form https://musescore.com/contact-refund.