Complaint Review: U.S. Magazine Services

Today I recieved a phone call from someone that said I have been entered in a million dollar sweepstakes and just because I have been entered I will recieve a free watch and two free magazine subscriptions for 48 months. All I have to do is agree to pay for two more 48 month magazine subscriptions at a discounted rate. Apparantly I had been entered into the sweepstakes by the collaboration of magazine publishers and Visa, Mastercard and Discover. Whatever that means.

I like magazines, so I thought, why not? The girl I spoke with said it was her 2cd day working there, so I may recieve a phone call in reference to her customer service skills and may I please give her a good review. I said sure because she had been very friendly, although she did talk a bit fast (first clue of a rip-off). Then, she says that her 'supervisor' just tapped her on the shoulder and could I please talk with him about her service.

I agreed but the guy I spoke with only asked me a couple of questions about the girl and then asked me what kind of credit card I used. I told him, and he said he needed to get my credit card info in order to verify that I had the funds to pay for the two magazine subscriptions.

I told him I was uncomfortable giving out that information on the phone so he gave me his name, employee number and the physical address of the company. He said that it was safe to give him my info because if any fraudulant charges appear on my credit card my credit card company would protect me and they would arrest him for credit card fraud.

I told him I still didn't care and wanted something in writing, especially so that I could clear the purchase with my husband. But I really just didn't want to commit to purchasing anything that I didn't know the price for, nor did I know what magazines were on their 'list' that I could purchase.

He then became pretty upset with me and asked, "Why did you order the magazines if you were'nt sure that you wanted them?' I told him I didn't order anything, I just agreed that if I could get two free subscriptions, I would pay for two more. No one had said anything about me having to pay with my credit card over the phone, nor did they say I had to pay today.

I told him I wanted him to cancel whatever 'order' he had because I didn't want to be committed to paying for anything. He was extremely rude and pushy and told me it was impossible to cancel, since it was already in the system. He said if I didn't pay by phone than I will still be sent a bill, and if I don't pay the bill it will be reported to a collection agency.

My husband walked in the room and I told him that I didn't want to give this guy my info, so he took the phone and told the guy to cancel it, he didn't want anything and not to bother us. The guy said, "whatever" and hung up.

I searched for this company on the internet and found over a dozen complaints by unfortunate people who had given out their credit card information and have subsequently been charged hundreds of dollars, and have been threatened with collection agencies and litigation.

I called the customer service department and spoke with another rude associate. She did, however, insure me that because I never gave them my credit card info, the 'order' was cancelled before it could go through their system and that I would not receive anything from their company or from the magazine companies either.

I searched some more on the internet and found another (possibly related?) company based in Montana with similar complaints. One involved someone who did not give their credit card info but was still sent bills for hundreds of dollars. Another was someone who was being 'sued' by another company, but the company had two different names.

I was worried so I called customer service and got the same rude girl again. I told her that I had read about the companies questionable practices on the internet and wanted to make sure that I was not going to recieve any bills from them or any affiliate companies. She rudely assured me that I would not. I reminded her that the 'supervisor' that I originally spoke with told me that my order could not be canceled and that I would be sent a bill if I did not pay by credit card.

She told me that customer service has more authority than the sales team and that I would not recieve anything at all. She seemed like she had to deal with similar problems a lot, but was still extremely impatient with me.

So that is my day's drama. My advice to everyone out there is NEVER give out your bank or credit card information. ALWAYS request that solicitors send you something in the mail so you don't feel like you have to make a rash decision and so that you can read over any details or contingencies.

Don't let these people bully you- they can be nice, rude, pushy, whatever- just don't give into them!

If anyone has any information in regards to this company being related to the American Choice Readers company in Montana, I'd be interested to know.

Cate
West Chester, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.