Complaint Review: NSS Magazines

In August 2001, I signed up for a free 6-month trial of the magazine Entertainment Weekly through an offer online (if I remember right, it was at the checkout screen for a major online retailer I was ordering from). A charge for $58.86 showed up on my November 2001 credit card billing statement. I called the number shown on my billing statement for this charge to cancel it. The charge was listed as:

NSS Magazines 800-205-9198 CT MAIL/PHONE $58.86

I called the 1-800 number, which connects you to an automated system that the female automated voice calls the "Billing Inquiry Line for the Magazine Service Center". This is a voice-activated system.

After some simple yes-or-no questions which I had to say out loud to the phone, the computer asked me for a reference code on my billing statement. The computer says that this reference code is the "6 characters after the number sign on the line where your charge appears". My statement didn't have this 6-character reference code. All my statement had was a 4-digit reference number, which I kept saying to the computer, but the computer wouldn't accept it. The computer would then keep asking me for the 6-character reference code, which I couldn't provide, in an infinite loop.

So, what I then did was not say anything when the computer asked me for the 6-character reference code. The computer asked me again for the code, and again I said nothing. I did this a total of 3 times, after which the computer says it will now try a different method to access my account: it asked me for the type of credit card used for the charge (eg, MasterCard) and the credit card number. You can use your touch-tone keypad to enter your number.

So, I entered my credit card number, and the computer then asked me for the dollar amount of the charge shown on my bill. I said the amount as "58 dollars and 86 cents", and the computer was able to pull up my account and details of the charge.

At some point, the computer then asked me if I want to cancel a subscription. I said yes. At this point, BE CAREFUL: the computer asked me a series of tricky questions asking me if I'm sure I want to cancel my subscription and be refunded. I think I had to say "No" twice before saying "Yes" for the computer to cancel my subscription and refund me. So finally, the computer said it would cancel my subscription and fully refund the $58.86 charge on the next 1 or 2 billing cycles.

We shall see if it does.

Thanks,
Oliver Yun
New York, NY