Complaint Review: Reading Associates Of America

First off, the prior positive report written about this company is written by the company itself, you can tell when you look at the address of the person writing the positive comment.

Approached by a young male pleading and begging about helping him out so he can go on a trip in his school. The people who approach you will rapid fire pre-memorized selections to start and are overly charming, they then turn the tables on you with a guilt trip if you don't agree to buy their magazines/books.

When you ask if they will take credit card they will give you an excuse about identity theft and wont take it, if you say check they will say ok but will do so very reluctantly since you can always do a stop check (Will cost you $15), what they will beg you for is cash, and if you don't have any they will ask to go with you to an ATM for withdrawal.

When I asked how much the magazine cost for a year the person said $24, when I brought out my checkbook the price changed to $38 due to a $14 handling fee, (NOTE: by law you can cancel the transaction if its $25 of more not including the handling fee which would come up to $39). SO, to make sure I wasn't able to cancel, the deceptive/manipulative agent of RAA asked for $38 not $39, clever huh.

I then asked for a magazine subscription for one year and the so called student/agent of RAA said I would get it as quickly as possible (Which according to the paper you sign is 120 business days not including weekends which bumps it to like 5-6 months) and will get 2 issues of the same magazine every month. I then asked why I would get 2 issues of the same magazine in a month and he said its just the way it is which is a lie since the magazine I asked for puts out once a month only. I then said no and he said wait, how about 2 different magazine a month for the same price and I said interesting and gave him the check. He also threw in some trash about if I had any issues I could call the number on the paper and someone would help me out, after repeated calls, no one answered, voice mail left, no response.

Come to find out the magazine I ordered was OUT OF PRINT and is now distributed only in digital format, I wont get it since I never gave him an email address. So luckily, I was able to initiate a Stop Check with the bank and both the RAA and its manipulative agent will not get anything.

Also, the guy selling door to door is actually in violation of a municipal order in which all solicitors who commit to such business are required to have a city permit (They know this, theyre banking on you not knowing it.) Obviously these guys don't. As such, its a misdemeanor crime committed in your presence to which you can affect a citizens arrest and call the cops or just call the cops with their description and let them handle.

Peter
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.