Complaint Review: America's Choice Reader Service

ACRS initially contacted me a few days before Christmas offering me a $1000 gift certificate. They called my home phone but were looking for me specifically even though I do not own the house. Since I'm not so experienced with telemarketing, I actually believed the person when he said that it would only cost $80 so dollars for all of the magazines; I figured I would have $920 left.

Later that day, I called back and found out that the $80 was only the activation fee and that I had actually "agreed" to purchase about $800 or $900 worth of magazines, which was conveniently not mentioned in the phone conversation. I canceled the subscriptions posthaste but they said that since I had "agreed" to it legally, that they would not refund my $80. Instead they said they would send a gift certificate of this amount. It never arrived.

After that, I had been getting calls with numbers withheld on my cell phone (I have no idea how they got the number), and finally one day I answered. I was caught offguard by a fast talking sales jockey who informed me that my magazines were going out very soon. I called back and they informed me that they "conveniently" had no record of my cancellation and that I could not cancel until the next day because no one was present in that department. I ended up having my debit card number changed to prevent them from making unauthorized deductions from my account.

Phil
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.