storygrid.com Reviews 

They sold an expensive and slick writers mentorship program and delivered a very unprofessional and underwhelming result. When I invoked their moneyback guarantee, they threw all sorts of new conditions in order to refuse me, and after a heated exchange they ghosted my whole account even though I am still only half way through the paid subscription. No mentor, no nothing.

I also asked for a refund on the unused part which they flatly and rudely denied.
My last ditch was to request that they terminate my mentorship (since I had no mentor any more anyway) and transfer my unused credit to a colleague who was already in an Editor program with them….. Crickets. They did not even answer that email.

Damn. I am still paying them USD250.- a week for the mentorship till the end of August 2026 and they are uncontactable.

For them money comes absolutely first! Their refund is bogus, and, as far as the wellbeing and interests of their clients goes, nowhere to be found.

My advice, go to Reddit and read more woeful tales of fraud involving StoryGrid. You may even find some ex-student groups using the SG methodology to do self training. I do believe in the methodology, but they are scammers, or indistinguishable from scammers.

As for me, well I found training an AI to review writing according to SG methodology works surprisingly well. Its what they seem to have turned to doing while trying to sell off a human mentorship experience.

$5000 lost!
Experience gained.

Buyer beware!

Near the very end of my $4,900 course, I received an email from Tim Grahl saying my mentor (teacher) was being fired, not up to par. But I was to be switched to a really good one. There was virtually no time left in the course. I did have one assignment with the new one, and it was a night-day quality difference. I requested a refund for the 3 months of wasted time. No refund. Instead they offered me a "free" extension. (I had already paid a high price for instruction I hadn't received.) I told them I was not able to extend. They held their ground, no refund, though they had not delivered the product I purchased. Condescending attitude ("you actually did learn!"), utter failure to deliver on the stellar experience he advertizes in a barrage of marketing emails. Look this up on Reddit--there are many of us.

I was a mentor in training for Story Grid near the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, and when I joined I was truly excited to work with them. We trainees were promised in-depth mentor training and jobs working with their students once we graduated. However, once we graduated, the program quickly imploded and Shawn Coyne (founder) and Tim Grahl (CEO) treated everyone with such blatant disrespect and contempt that it reminded me of how administration treated teachers way back when I worked as a high school teacher. There were more than a few tears on Zoom calls. They even sent an email threatening mentors' jobs if they failed to complete unpaid training that would take 4-12 hours each week (those numbers came from mentors who had worked there for years, so it wasn't just because some of us were new). And when nearly half of the mentors resigned within a week, new mentors were met with radio silence concerning a refund (though refunds have finally been promised). The full price of the mentor program was $5,000, but instead of refunding the full amount, they are refunding $1,000 per month for five months. I'm not happy about the strange delay, but at least we are (hopefully) getting our money back. More problematic still is the fact that Story Grid is phasing out human mentors entirely and now shifting to AI feedback for students without being transparent about that shift... All while still charging $1,200 per month for students to get said feedback. Anyway, if you’re a writer, please be aware of what’s happening. It was a decent company at one point when it employed humans, but now that time is over and all the lovely and talented mentors are being phased out.