Complaint Review: Area Circulation

A few months ago, I received a call saying how great a customer i had been and they were giving me a free subscription for being so loyal, but i would just need to cover these little costs of only a couple of dollars a week. I then was told that they would make it so that i got the subscriptions for 5 years, and they would condense the payments so i would be paying about $50 a month for only 1 year.

I later called after having been billed this first payment and i had not yet received any magazines. I wanted to cancel the account, not even worried about the first $50, chalking it up to experience. However, they said that i only had 3 days to cancel, but never said 3 days from when i got this mysterious phone call, or when i first received the magazines or when. They did defer my payments for a couple of months and lowered the payments for a longer period of time.

I wish i would have seen the other rip-off reports for this company earlier. I really just wanted to cancel the account, and they had just "asked" that i keep the subscription for the entire 5 years, but then later insisted that i couldn't cancel it because they had already paid the publishers in advance.

They did, however, say that i could switch out the magazines with any other magazine of my choosing, but only from their list of approved magazines. They have a large list of magazines, but many major magazines are not on the list. In looking over some of the other rip-off reports filed, i will be calling them tomorrow to cancel the account, as i REALLY do not want or need that many magazines.

I also tried telling them that i didn't have time to read magazines, and instead of saying thank you very much anywayz, they lowered the number of magazines i was receiving. I thought i was only going to receive one or two magazines, and instead am receiving many magazines most of which i would NEVER want. I do believe i am luckier than some others on this website who have not received any magazines. I am still very upset that i am being charged for something i agreed to under coersion essentially.

Ariel
Champaign, Illinois
U.S.A.