The Great CoursesReviews of thegreatcoursesplus.com

Good but expensive!

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.