Galaxy Credit Corperation RIPOFF! Apparent Scam Peoria Arizona
My husband received a letter at his parents' address from a company called Galaxy Credit Corp stating that he owed a company called Coastal Marketing Services $36. They didn't say what we owed Coastal for.
Every time I've tried to call the toll free number (1-877-742-5300) I get a message that the office is closed and I will have to try back later. They list the office hours, and I try to call back during those office hours. Then the message has different office hours listed. (They were closed at 3:30 pm CST on a Friday--today. For a company that's trying to collect money, they sure have short office hours!)
After a couple of phone calls to their machine, I became concerned that this might be a scam. My husband only has a few magazines that he takes, all of which I paid renewals to in October--and none of which were for $36. I decided to look and see what I could find online.
This is very scary. It sounds like these people have moved onto us. The thing that is really scary is that all of the reports mention a company operating out of Glendale, AZ. Our letter came from Peoria. I guess they've decided to move cities.
For now I just printed all of the stories I've read on the internet, and I will send the stories to them with a letter. I'll keep everyone posted to see if anything happens.
I've already been through cleaning up the mess left by thieves who stole my identity back in 2002. I'm not looking forward to this battle over my husband.
Best of luck to all of the other victims out there.
Amy
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Amy
Houston,Texas,
U.S.A.
Galaxy Credit Corp Scam update
#2Author of original report
Tue, May 24, 2005
After all of the stories I read on the internet, I decided that I needed to do my own recording when I talked to anyone.
Ralph (as mentioned in so many other stories) was very quick to return my call from Friday afternoon. Even though their offices were closed at 2:30 local time on a Friday, he was available to leave me a voicemail at 5:00 local time yesterday (Monday). Go figure! I recorded the voicemails he left on my cell phone, as well as our conversation this afternoon and all of the conversations with the various magazine companies.
Even though the letter from Galaxy never said what the "debt" was for, I knew when I got through reading everyone's stories that it was going to be for one of the four car magazines my husband takes.
I decided to be proactive (before talking to Ralph so I would know what I was getting myself into) and call all of the magazines just to verify that we're all paid up and have never been behind on payments. I have customer reps from all four magazines on tape saying that we are not behind on payments.
I also asked the magazines if they've ever heard of Coastal Marketing Services. None of them had. Three of the magazines had also never heard of Galaxy Credit Corp, but one of the magazines, as soon as I got the word "Galaxy" out of my mouth, told me that it was a fraudulent letter and that they've been having all kinds of problems with them.
After having spoken with the magazines, I called and spoke with Ralph. I just played dumb, and I tried really hard not to let on that I knew they were scamming me. I was told that the "debt" related to my husband's subscription for Hot Rod magazine (which is one of the four magazine companies I had called earlier to verify that we were paid up).
Ralph told me that my husband had told a telemarketer on June 21, 2002 that he wanted a subscription but didn't want to give a credit card so they could send an invoice. I was told that invoices had been sent in July, August, and September of 2002. First of all, when answering telemarketing calls, my husband politely tells the caller that he's not interested, and then if they keep talking, he hangs up on them. Second of all, my husband reads every piece of mail he gets (at least he did before we got married and I took over that task)--he never got any invoices. I asked why we were just now hearing about this, and Ralph said there was a backlog.
Finally, I asked Ralph for a phone number and address for Coastal Marketing Services because I wanted to get some information from them. He said he didn't have that information. I told him that I would have to check with my husband to see if he remembers ordering the magazine. Ralph said he would put a note in the file that I was conducting my own research and would get back to him.
I called Hot Rod magazine back (I know this is getting long, but thanks for your patience everyone) and spoke with a different gentleman than earlier in the day. When I started asking questions about how their third-party vendors worked, the gentleman wanted to know what was going on. After I explained the situation, he told me I was the third complaint he's heard about Galaxy. He said that he knew that Coastal Marketing Services was NOT one of the third party vendors they use. He said that there were no notes in my husband's file that he had ever been late with a payment (or anything else negative). He said that at this point in time if they hadn't collected on a subscription from 2002, they wouldn't have been worried about it now. He also said that Galaxy's refusal to supply me with the phone number and/or address of Coastal Marketing Services pretty much says to him that it's a scam.
So now the next step is to prepare letters to send to the state attorney general's offices in Arizona and Texas, as well as letters to the BBB organizations in both states, and to the FTC filing complaints on Galaxy and Coastal. My husband and I have also talked about contacting our local news to see if they'll do a story on it--we need to get the word out to everyone, especially those who would be easy targets and don't have internet access, like the elderly.
My sincerest thanks to all of you who have suffered before us and have put useful info in your updates. I wish you all luck in your battles with Galaxy, etc.
I'll write more as things continue to happen.